39% plan to keep dating apps while meeting people in real life: YF Poll

Yahoo Finance's Zack Guzman and Akiko Fujita reveal the results of Yahoo Finance's latest Twitter poll.

Video transcript

ZACK GUZMAN: But to wrap up the show in today's hot takes, I want to dig in to a question that some of you out there said that I co-opted for my own personal benefit-- not true. Very business here, Akiko. But we dug into the question of how people are going to be returning to the dating scene, whether or not they're going to be leaning into apps-- or not-- meeting people in real life. We asked, and y'all answered out there.

And it does seem like there's a healthy mix here, Akiko, when we look into it. Only about 20-- what, call it 30% there saying that they're going to stay on dating apps. And we've talked about the growth of Bumble, Tinder, and some of these other ones have seen in the pandemic. But that's the question-- whether or not people are going to stay on them as we get back to normal.

AKIKO FUJITA: Zack, you can count me in the camp that I think we just did this poll so you can strategize your dating life. But we're going to put that aside. The reason we're talking about it, obviously, because it has been such a big business during the pandemic. We got some numbers out from App Annie talking about consumers spending more than $3 billion in dating apps in 2020, up about 15% year on year.

And App Annie talking specifically about how the amount of time people spend on these apps have really stayed steady. So I'd be curious to see how that pans out. I think people are kind of eager to meet in person. But I say, like everything, it's probably going to be a hybrid approach-- a little time on the app and then more time meeting in person.

ZACK GUZMAN: Yeah, I was in the middle camp. I voted in this poll-- disclosure right there-- in the middle of camp of shifting off of them. But I mean, it seems like investors have also somewhat shifted off when we saw Bumble down by about 16% year to date. It's come back a bit in terms of those losses as it kind of got looped in with all those other tech names that took a big hit.

But you're right. I mean, the question is, this is not just a US story, right? We've been talking about globally, what it's going to look like. Because we talk about the reopening here in the US, but maybe not the case in a lot of these emerging markets out there that are still catching up to our vaccination status. So as US centric as maybe my dating life might be, Akiko, there is still the international story to handle here, which could still maybe see continued use in those markets.

AKIKO FUJITA: You think that people are going to stick to the FaceTime feature, though? I mean, that's what I'm curious about. That seemed to be something that I think a lot of users kind of appreciated during the pandemic, obviously, because they couldn't go out and meet right away. I wonder if that's kind of-- I don't know-- are you using it? You think that--

ZACK GUZMAN: No.

AKIKO FUJITA: --you're going to stick to that?

ZACK GUZMAN: No, I'm off. I'm off, completely off the queue, completely breaking away. None of this ever again. Never again. And, you know, the--

AKIKO FUJITA: Never say never.

ZACK GUZMAN: It was interesting-- never say never. It was interesting to see that kind of optimization brought into the app. But they've been pushing that hard. It does save you time. We have heard a lot of compliments from users as we've interviewed these CEOs and the CEO of Hinge coming on and saying that people do love it. Because it does save them time and avoiding those awkward meet-ups when you get there and you realize nothing good is going to come from this. And it saves you that hassle.