Tinder working on video dating features amid COVID-19 lockdown

If you find yourself working from home amidst the COVID-19 outbreak, you surely will miss the interaction with your colleagues and friends! In this case, a video conferencing app can be of great help. Fortunately, there are numerous stable apps available, many of which are free, that can keep you in touch with other people.

While Zoom witnessed a surge in popularity, its security issues, and other loopholes made users looking for other options. Meanwhile, other tech giants including Facebook, Google had come up with a video conferencing app as well with an array of features.

Virtual dating soon!

Tinder, an online dating app has joined the video-conferencing list, but, unlike other apps, it’s just an in-app one-on-one video chat feature. As per the company claims, the video feature will be rolled out later this year. 

In a letter to shareholders, Match Group, the brand’s parent company mentioned:

“As daters demonstrated a strong willingness to video-date, our product and engineering teams around the world mobilized quickly to deploy one-to-one video chat capabilities on many of our platforms.”

Facilitated more than 30 billion matches!

Introduced on a college campus in 2012, Tinder is the most famous app right now for meeting new people. It has been downloaded more than 340 million times and is available in 190 countries and 40+ languages. This online dating platform has facilitated more than 30 billion matches since its inception. 

“Social distancing has required adaptations and pivots and has impacted our business because how singles engage with our products and start relationships has quickly evolved. We know that singles are adjusting their behaviours, and many are shifting to having dates virtually via phone or video.”

Increased activity!

However, MatchGroup didn’t share any details about tackling harassment or abuse within the video feature. 

MatchGroup, which also owns Match.com, Hinge, OkCupid, and Plenty of Fish said that there is a noticeable increase in activity among users, especially those under the age of 30, across all of our brands and all geographies. 

According to the company, people are matching more frequently, sending more messages, and engaging in longer conversations. The average number of daily messages sent across all of our products in April was 27% higher than during the last week of February, and for users under the age of 30, it was 35% higher.

17% YoY growth!

On the other hand, Match Group didn’t meet the Wall Street estimates, as the quarterly revenue fell short, due to slow growth in Tinder. Despite the challenge, the Q1 revenue rose %17 YoY which would have been 19% without the impact of F/X, claims the company. Notably, Tinder grew direct revenue by 31% year-over-year, with 28% year-over-year growth in Average Subscribers and 2% ARPU growth.

The net earnings attributable to Match Group shareholders rose to $160 million from $123 million last year (from 42 cents to 55 cents per share) for the three months ended March 31. 

“We don’t know how long it will take or how bumpy it will be to get to the other side of this pandemic. But we’re very much looking forward to our singles being able to meet that person they’ve been messaging with and video chatting with for the past 2 months, in real life, once they can.”

Main image credits: Varavin88/Shutterstock

Stay tuned to Silicon Canals for more European technology news