A pandemic lockdown with millions confined to their homes and physical distancing enforced should have been a disaster for the dating app business.
But according to Sharmistha Dubey, the new chief executive of Match Group, owner of dating groups including Tinder, OKCupid and its namesake Match.com, the reality has been quite the reverse.
While users initially shied away from using the apps at the start of lockdown, said Ms Dubey in an interview with the Financial Times, online dating has since exploded, with the average number of daily messages sent across all of Match’s platforms increasing by nearly 30 per cent in April, compared with the end of February.