124 million singles in the United States, according to MarketResearch.com.
The dating services industry is forecast to grow to $3.2 billion by 2020 from $2.5 billion in 2015.
IAC’s publicly traded Match Group is the market leader in online dating with $1.73 billion in yearly revenue, followed by eHarmony and Spark Networks.
Match Group’s revenue grew 21 percent in 4Q 2018 to $457.3 million from a year earlier. The company’s brands include Tinder, Match, Meetic, OKCupid and Pairs. It acquired rival Plenty of Fish for $575 million, and also bought Meetic, OK Cupid, Yahoo Personals, Our Time and Tinder.
Match Group increased subscribership 17 percent to 8.2 million in 4Q 2018 from a year earlier. Tinder boosted subscribers 39% to 4.3 million in 4Q 2018 from a year earlier.
The first Sunday after New Year’s – dubbed “Dating Sunday” or “Singles Sunday” – is key because of the combination of potentially lonely holidays, recovering from a break-up, peer and family pressure, personal goals and the upcoming Valentine’s Day. Online dating search can go up 75 percent that day, USA Today reported.
On Singles Sunday, online daters are 17 percent more likely to get a match and 16 percent more likely to actually chat with that match, according to CNET.
Match Group predicted there will be a 69 percent jump in new singles coming to the app on Dating Sunday, according to Market Watch.
Tinder told Bustle that one Dating Sunday led to 44 million Tinder matches being made. Dating Sunday is one of Bumble’s busiest days of the year, according to a statement from dating app Bumble to Global News.
Coffee Meets Bagel said the first week of January is the most popular time of year to sign up for an online dating service, and 11:30 p.m. is the peak hour for new member sign-ups.
More than 40 percent of online singles globally have used online dating apps or sites within the past month; around two-thirds of them are men, according to consumer research company GlobalWebIndex.
3 in 4 online daters are under the age of 30.
Online daters describe themselves as risk-takers and they want to be seen as adventurous by others. These traits are more visible in younger online daters. The majority of online daters also agree that the internet makes them feel closer to people.
Online daters ages 18 to 30 are more likely to keep up with the latest fashion trends and visit movie theaters at least twice a month.