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Dating has been a lot harder since the start of the COVID-19 crisis. Singles have been forced to use dating apps as a (temporary) replacement for the real thing. But, as we all know, it’s not the same. The proof of that is in the stories of matches that looked nothing like the photos.
As more people turn to online dating due to lockdown restrictions, security firm Avast conducted research to understand how dating app users are preparing for that first offline meeting.
Over 15,000 Avast users participated in the study, which found that one in two (50%) dating app users searched for their match online – on Google or social media. Of this group, 30% decided not to meet their match based on what they found or because they couldn’t find anything.
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Why did they investigate their match?
The majority said they wanted to know more about their match, with 60% of respondents citing that as a reason. Half of respondents had a better reason, as they wanted to verify that the person was real. Additionally, 34% of respondents researched the facts their match told them, and 26% wanted to see what their potential date was like on social media.
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How they research their match
Most users conducted their research on a social network such as Facebook, Instagram or Tik Tok, with 72% of respondents searching for their match on these social media. Others mainly used search engines such as Google and Bing (40%). These two ways of researching a match proved to be the most popular. But there are more ways to do research.
A smaller percentage went a step further and searched for their match on a professional social network like LinkedIn (17%). Others tried a reverse image search by searching their match’s profile photo (23%). This method is generally recommended to verify that the photo is a person.
While almost a third decided not to meet their match based on what they had found online (or not), others became more confident. 44% decided to continue chatting and 37% went on to meet offline.
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