While COVID-19 public health guidelines present a serious challenge for people looking to go out on a first date—or, fingers crossed, a second—online dating remains a savior for singles who don’t want to stay that way. Pandemic dating? Yes, it can be done.
In March 2020, Tinder recorded its highest number of swipes on a single day: 3 billion. From March to May 2020, OkCupid saw a 700% increase in dates. And over on Bumble, video calls increased by 70%. Seems that even a pandemic can’t stop the search for love. But how are those dates happening? Is it still all just swiping left and right?
Catherine Connelly, SVP of marketing at The Meet Group, says there’s a lot more to online dating these days than photos and descriptions alone, which can leave those looking for love feeling isolated.
“Live video transforms those moments of loneliness into moments of connection,” Connelly says. She joined hosts Michal Lev-Ram and Brian O’Keefe on Fortune Brainstorm, a podcast about how technology is changing our lives, to discuss the rise of online dating during the pandemic.
Also on the episode are comedian Alison Stevenson and Jon Birger, author of Make Your Move. Birger’s book pushes back on conventional dating advice, he says. He also says that online dating is not really the great solution that people seem to think it is. Instead, he believes, the best place to meet your match is in the workplace—though, yes, that does present some complications.