Tinder and Bumble: Matches Made in Virtual Heaven
Published on March 4, 2021, at 11:11 a.m.
by Lawson Colgate.
In the midst of a pandemic, where in-person meets virtual, our classes and jobs have not been the only things to go completely online. Dating apps have been around for years, but their use has increased in the past few months.
Picture this. It’s 2012, and you’re tired of the same old swiping up and down through Instagram, so what do you do? You download Tinder. Instead of up and down, you’re swiping right and left.
Now it’s 2014. You have enjoyed the online dating world of Tinder but are looking to make the first move, if you are a woman, or allow someone else to make the first move, if you are a man. Now you have Bumble on your home screen.
Well, it’s six years later in 2020, and you’re trying to meet people in the middle of a global pandemic. Maybe you just recently started dating, or maybe you’ve been on the apps since the beginning. Either way, dating apps such as Tinder and Bumble were way ahead of the rest of us when deciding to take dating virtual.
Swipe right
All that swiping right, and left, in Tinder really stood out in March 2020, making the app the highest grossing non-game app for the month. In a time when many companies were losing money, Tinder increased its user spending to more than $76.8 million and grew its subscribers by 28%.
The app allows consumers to show off their personal brands and has made it easy for them to build relationships. As the pandemic left people quarantining, Tinder took that as an opportunity to add to its app. In March of 2020, the company announced it would allow users to interact with each other outside of their current city until the end of April, by waiving the “Passport” feature fee, due to the stay-at-home order.
From the ability to swipe around the world to unlimited rewinds with a subscription to Tinder Plus, the app has multiple features. Tinder even released a one-to-one live video in late June for users to go on virtual dates in order to connect with others when forced to stay at home.
Make the first move
With Bumble, women make the first move, and are doing a lot of that with a 16% increase, from the beginning of the pandemic, in the amount of global messages at the end of April.
Bumble partnered with Airbnb in May of 2020 to make first dates more fun in the digital age. The two companies held a contest for 100 Bumble users to attend engaging, virtual dates using Airbnb Online Experiences, consisting of a how-to on Mexican street tacos and a coffee 101 with a producer from Colombia. Whether consumers are building friendships, partnerships or romantic relationships, the app makes maintaining these connections exciting and easy.
Similar to Tinder, Bumble has a video chat feature, or “Virtual Dating” badge as the app calls it, and allows users to match with anyone in their country for a period of time. Bumble has taken work from home to date from home by encouraging users to make connections virtually.
Tinder and Bumble have created spaces where online dating during a pandemic can turn into matches made in heaven.
