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Looking for love? Last weekend of Jan & Valentine week best time to go on a date
Dating Sunday – the first Sunday of a new year – is the biggest day for singles hoping to meet a match online.
Shannon Tellis
ET Panache spoke to a few dating apps in India to see how they fared on 'Singles Sunday' this year and if the trend had crossed over from the West.
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Sunday January 5, was the biggest day of the year for those hoping to find an online date. Traditionally known as 'Dating Sunday' or 'Singles Sunday', dating apps often see a significant spike in users and engagement on the first Sunday of every year. Some sites like Match.com had even predicted a 300 per cent increase in signups.
"Dating Sunday tends to be particularly busy due to a mix of New Year's resolutions, post-holiday breakups and Valentine's Day around the corner. Sundays also tend to be one of the busiest days of the week for activity in general," explained Priti Joshi, Vice-President Strategy at Bumble, who said the app saw record growth for this time of the year.
"While 'Dating Sunday' has been an important day for dating apps in the West, we have been witnessing a similar trend with our users in India especially since our soft-launch in September 2018," said Melissa Hobley, CMO, OkCupid. "There was a 36 percent increase in conversations worldwide and a comparable trend in India. Globally, we had more than 11 million new conversations among its users during the first week of January 2019."
Naina Hiranandani, co-founder, Sirf Coffee observed a similar trend on the first Sunday of the year. "Dating Sunday is now a thing, I guess! We had 50 per cent more applications on that Sunday, in January," she told ET Panache. "However, we see that most people do tend to proactively sign up / take an interest in their personal lives on a weekend or during the holidays / festive periods, such as the start of the New Year, wedding season and Indian festivals (Diwali etc), as they tend to feel more single then."
Best Days to Date (or Match) in 2020
Asked what he thought the biggest dating day of the year was, co-founder of TrulyMadly said, "13th of Feb is the biggest hands down!"
But not all apps bought into the 'Dating Sunday' magic.
"Engagement on weekends is always higher, but we did not observe any abnormal spike in engagement on the first Sunday of 2020," said Snehil Khanor, CEO and Co-Founder, TrulyMadly, who believes that 'Dating Sunday' is not as big in India as it is in the West. "There was a good jump in usage and registration from 25th December till the 2nd of January – we observed a 30 percent higher user engagement than normal - but on the following Sunday, there was no such significant shift."
Asked what he thought the biggest dating day of the year was, Khanor said, "13th of Feb is the biggest hands down!"
Not just 'Dating Sunday'
For Bumble, the holiday period preceding 'Singles Sunday' is more active.
OkCupid's Hobley believes that aside from 'Singles Sunday', the last weekend of January and the weekends leading up to Valentine's Day' are also important when it comes to spikes in user engagement.
"We're seeing that "Dating Sunday" is becoming less about the individual day and is now becoming a season between mid-November and mid-January," "Based on our community's behaviour, we've observed the time period between Thanksgiving (i.e. mid-November) and just after the New Year as the busiest time of the year for activity on Bumble globally."
Joshi said that this year the app anticipated over 3 million new users would sign up between Thanksgiving 2019 and Dating Sunday 2020 (January 5th) and that there would be an increase of over 30% in new users, an increase of over 15% in user activity and more than 20 million messages sent globally on "Dating Sunday" alone.
How Can You Still Find Love Online?
Missed the boat on 'Dating Sunday' but still hoping you can find love online? OkCupid recommends giving your profile a mini-makeover.
"It is rather obvious that not all dating app users update their dating app profile once they put it up - but if you add a new photo or a new story, most dating apps treat you like a new person and the algorithm kicks into gear, showing you to more people, but be careful about super personal details. Stay safe and only share what you want everyone to know," they advised.
New Look, Facebook Dating: Big Announcements From F8
The Future Is Private
After a tumultuous 2018, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg stressed on a privacy-focused social network at the Facebook F8 developer conference this year. In the keynote, Zuckerberg said that they are pushing hard on helping people to connect with close family and friends. He unveiled a revamped and redesigned version of Facebook, called the FB5 which aims at making navigation easier, improve the loading time and giving the user a cleaner appearance. The updated mobile app is rolling out now. The desktop version will be released in the next few months. Along with changes to the core app, Facebook also announced updates to Instagram, Facebook Messenger, Oculus Quest and Rift S virtual reality headsets — and introduced a new feature, Facebook Dating. Here's a look at all things new.
​Not Feeling Blue
The app's redesign has been the most prominent ever-since the social network's launch. The new look rolls-out in the US today, and for the rest of the world in the coming weeks. The redesign on mobile has been happening in stages, it has already begun on both iOS and Android. The desktop redesign will begin testing in the next few months, which will update the web design to look and feel more modern and fresh, similar to the mobile app.
​Facebook Messenger Desktop App for Windows and Mac
With private messaging as one of the fastest growing areas of online communication, the company debuted a desktop version of the app. Previously, you could use Messenger from a web browser, but couldn't use certain features on the platform like group calling. Facebook is also testing a 'group watch' feature, where people can invite others to watch a video together in real time while messaging or on a video chat.For businesses, it has created an automated system that allows customers to book an appointment through Messenger.The company is also working on features that will allow Messenger users to message and call people on Instagram and WhatsApp.
Keeping in mind the theme for this year, 'the future is private', members within groups will be able to anonymously post questions and share information. For those seeking jobs, you will be able to message the employer and apply through the app. Gaming groups will get a chat feature so members can create threads about specific topics within a group. Facebook is working to downplay recommendations from groups known for spreading misinformation, and deleting groups that break the company's community standards.
​Romance 101
Facebook Dating which was introduced at last year's F8, is now expanding to 14 more countries. It introduced a feature called 'Secret Crush', which does exactly what you'd expect. You can create a secret list of Facebook friends you're attracted to, whether or not they have a dating profile. You will be lucky, if they are also using Secret Crush, and add you to their list, Facebook will notify the two of you that there's a match.
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