Valentine's Day 2019 might not have been quite as romantic as last year's. Fewer people are signing up for apps like Tinder, Match, PlentyOfFish, and OkCupid.
At least in the U.S. and Canada.
According to a study of 15 million dating app installs over the last year, dating app registration rates have dropped 485%, while subscription or purchase rates dropped 40%. That means that while people are still installing at least some dating apps, they're not consummating the full experience, if you catch my drift.
Either everyone who wants to find that special someone already has, or the rest of us are just too cheap.
"North America has perhaps reached peak Tinder," says a report from Liftoff, which compiled the data. "As arguably one of the most mature mobile landscapes globally, market saturation may be taking its toll."
There is a region, however, that might be virgin ground for mobile-enabled dating.
Latin America's smartphone owners are charging full-speed into mobile dating, according to the report. While the number seems absurd, "subscription and purchase rates have skyrocketed over 12,088 percent," Liftoff says. A number that high is unlikely to be entirely due to a sea change in consumer behavior. It's likely also a lack of data from previous years.
But even so, clearly there's something pretty momentous happening in Latin America.
By the way, if you're looking for a mate with money, you might want to ask what kind of phone he or she uses. According to the data, Android users are cheaper than iPhone users, at least in terms of dating apps. While iPhone owners subscribe or purchase services in a dating app 2.81% of the time, only 1.69% of Android owners pay.
(Android owners might retort: iPhone users are simple more desperate.)
One other insight from the report:
Men are now getting more engaged in dating apps. They register at a slightly higher percentage, and subscribe for services slightly more than women after trailing last year.
"Both genders are getting comfortable footing the bill for a positive dating experience," says the report.
Equality may be here at last, at least in this one small part of the modern dating experience.
