Daily messages sent on our dating apps saw a 27% rise in April: Match Group

In the earnings release shared by the Match Group, the dating app heavyweight revealed that they have witnessed an uptick in usage with a rise in average Tinder swipes each day and touching all-time highs.

The Match Group owns dating apps like Tinder, OkCupid, Hinge, Plenty of Fish, Match, Affinity and Pairs.

"Since the outbreak, we've seen a noticeable increase in activity among users, especially those under the age of 30, across all of our brands and all geographies. People are matching more frequently, sending more messages and engaging in longer conversations," the group said.

"The average number of daily messages sent across all of our products in the month of April was 27% higher than during the last week of February, and for users under the age of 30 it was 35% higher. At Tinder, daily active users (DAU) and daily Swipes reached all-time highs in the depths of the crisis. Most notably, the biggest increase in usage and activity on Tinder is coming from female users under the age of 30, with daily average Swipes increasing by 37% for this demographic in the month of April compared to the last week of February," they added.

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The group also pointed out that female usage and engagement is a "key driver for a dating product's success and we are constantly trying to improve these metrics". Adding that this shift in female behavior is an "extremely positive development for our ecosystem".

However, the Match Group did note that it saw a decline in first-time paying users from February to March, though the numbers were still higher than they were last year at this time. "As the lockdowns have dragged on, we have seen some impact on younger male users, while there has been some recovery in the over 30 demographic," the company said.

"As daters demonstrated strong willingness to video-date, our product and engineering teams around the world mobilised quickly to deploy one-to-one video chat capabilities on many of our platforms," the group added.

They have rolled out the one-to-many live streaming video on Plenty of Fish, allowing users to connect with, and form, virtual communities around live video. They have also launched features and services to help users on the other dating platforms "navigate these unusual times" - like free Passport on Tinder, Match launching a coaching hotline, Hinge's "Dating from Home" prompts, VOD coaching and podcast on Meetic, user community forums on Pairs etc. Tinder's in-app one-on-one video calling feature is scheduled to launch later this year.