Coronavirus And Online Dating Platforms: A Match Made In Hell?

Another week in quarantine is upon us, but don’t fret, your favourite week-roundup is right here! Today, we’re looking at online dating platforms to see how they’ve been doing throughout the pandemic. As people are unable to meet, are they seeing a spike in subscriptions? Will coronavirus change online dating forever? We’ll find out, then give you a quick overview of all the events you won’t want to miss this week.

Match-Maker

It may come as a surprise to a number of investors to learn that the most popular online dating platforms, such as Tinder, Match.com, Plenty of Fish, Hinge, are all owned by a single company — Match Group (MTCH). That makes it a seriously heavy-hitter in the industry. But the whole point of all of these platforms is to allow two people to strike up a conversation, and find out if they share any interests ahead of the a face-to-face meet up.

So, in this particular period of human history in which we’re not supposed to leave our homes without exceptional reasons, and should keep at least 2m between us and the nearest person, how is online dating even a thing? And how has Match Group’s year been so far?

Cue the stats:

Year start: $84.19 (02.01)

High: $92.45 (16.01)

Low: $47.35 (20.03)

Current: $80.00 (17.04)

MTCH, YTD

Source: Google

So, MTCH seems to have ridden the wave, somewhat. That end of March low is a distant memory and the company has almost recovered every inch of lost ground since the start of the year.

Improvise, adapt, survive

As the great Bear Grylls always proclaims, the only real way to survive is to adapt.

There are likely a number of factors behind Match Group’s end of March bump but one notable one is that on the day that the rise began (20.03), Tinder, the world’s most popular online dating app, declared that it would launch the Tinder Passport, allowing people around the world to use the app to communicate with potential overseas matches for free. That got a lot of people excited, it seems.

Another important initiative was announced on Tinder rival platform (but still Match-owned) Plenty of Fish, who launched their live streaming feature. Through this feature users are able to search for streams nearby and leave comments as they watch. If all goes well, these comments can be switched to private messages.

Bumble, the closest thing there is to a Tinder competitor in the US, even released an epidemiologist-led guide to dating. While such warnings might have led to daters cancelling in-person dates, they haven’t yet deterred online matchmaking.

Human interaction

Sure, with everything going on right now, dating seems like the last thing that should be on anyone’s mind. But, no. Human beings are social animals, even the most introverted of us requires some form of human interaction. There’s only so much Netflix one can watch, after all!

If Match Group’s 2020 stock price story is anything to go by, online dating is far from a thing of the past. Even at a time when participants have to rely on courting one another through a monitor or phone screen.

The online dating industry, like many other industries, is proving that it can adapt to its new environment and if there’s one thing all investors like, it’s a survivor.

What’s up this week?

Here’s our usual roundup of important trading events that are coming up this week. We recommend keeping all of these guys on your radar:

● We start the week on Monday in China with the PBoC’s Interest Rate Decision (CNY).

● On Tuesday, the UK announces it’s ILO unemployment figures (GBP); and Canada unveils its Retail Sales (MoM/Feb) (CAD).

● Wednesday is Consumer Price Index day, first from the UK (GBP) and later Canada (CAD).

● Thursday is PMI day! We’ll hear the EU’s Markit PMI composite (Apr) (EUR) and later the UK’s Markit Services PMI (Apr) (GBP). This will be followed-up by the US’ Initial Jobless Claims report (USD).

● Finally, the week closes in the US with the Non-defense Capital Goods Orders ex Aircraft Figures for March (USD).

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Speak soon!

The Contentworks team