The coronavirus epidemic and blocking conditions have brought mixed fortunes to online dating platforms like Tinder, according to its CEO Elie Seidman.
On the one hand, user engagement has increased, a trend has also signaled other dating apps.
Tinder users made 3 billion passes worldwide on Sunday, March 29, the maximum the app has ever recorded in a single day. In the UK, daily conversations rose 12% between mid-February and late March.
There has been a "dramatic change" in behavioral metrics that are normally stable, says Seidman.
However, the economic impact of the blockade implies that people have less money to spend.
This is not good news for Tinder, which is free but is based on premium subscriptions for its revenue.
"The [US] unemployment figures are difficult to see, "says Seidman." I am very concerned about what is happening economically for our society and the impact it will have on so many of our members. "
Tinder has been downloaded over 340 million times since its launch in 2012. But the vast majority of its revenues come from just 6 million subscribers who pay for the "gold" service. The speed with which he collected those valuable paying users decreased with the block.
Company data show that new registrations for the premium membership increase when the blocks start to decrease, says Siedman.
"You can literally see the return on a state basis [in the US], as things come out and begin to melt, while the peak crisis begins to pass. "
Other platforms that offer free membership have noticed something similar during the block.
"We have seen a surge of activity," says dating Charlie Lester, the dating expert for The Inner Circle platform. "The games increased by 15% and the number of messages sent increased by 10%, but we also noticed less willingness to pay."
Siedman says it may take two or three financial quarters to see the full economic impact on Tinder as the size of the global crisis becomes clear.
The other problem that will become clear over time is whether the popularity of virtual dating, via video call, will remain here, when physical encounters with strangers become more possible.
Platforms such as eHarmony, OKCupid and Match have reported a sharp increase in video dates.
Tinder is planning to launch its video dating feature in June, says Seidman.
The video call service will operate with a dual opt-in policy, so both sides of the game should accept it. It will be free and supported by a team of moderators.
The changes to the appointments introduced by the coronavirus blocks simply accelerated a generational change that the company was already monitoring in the focus groups, says Seidman.
The eighteen year olds who join the app now, unlike their predecessors who joined in 2012, grew up immersed in social media apps and see that virtual world as something quite natural, he explains.
For generations of online games of this generation, it's not just about organizing a meeting in real life, it's also about having satisfying online experiences.
For this reason, the company has worked to make Tinder less a place to organize offline hookups and more a place to spend time online, to meet people. It is the experimentation of virtual spaces and live events where people can meet and match on the platform, such as Swipe Nights and quizzes.
Seidman summarizes the belief of the new young crop of Tinder users: "Your digital life is as important as your social life in the physical world."
In a world of constant social estrangement, this belief could also be embraced to some extent even by older daters.
You can follow the reporter Dougal on Twitter: @dougalshawbbc
