eharmony sees 85% increase in app registrations during Covid-19 lockdown

Online dating platform eharmony has seen its app registration figures increase by 85% year-on-year in the UK during lockdown – in the period between January and June 2020.

Despite the pandemic having presented challenges for the online dating industry, as its main role of guiding members towards face-to-face meetings became impossible, new audiences opted to join the site due to its focus on product developments and revamped marketing efforts.

Illustrating this shift as daters adapted to the new restrictions, April and May figures were respectively up 50% and 48% against 2019. This represents a remarkable bounce back from a 11% drop in registration figures at the very start of lockdown – for March against February 2020.

And as lockdown begins to ease, eharmony has continued to see a sharp increase in registrations across its platforms in recent months, most recently a 77% year-on-year increase in June.

Driving this increase has been the success of Video Date, which enabled singles to keep connecting romantically during lockdown and beyond. The integrated feature, launched in April, allows users to safely recreate a date without having to use third-party platforms or give personal details like their phone number. This feature also helped to increase communication onsite by a third, with an average call length of over one hour.

Alongside this technical change, eharmony also developed an entirely new media strategy and TV ad creative during the pandemic, focused on the isolating situation faced by singles and promoting the Video Date feature as a response to this.

Romain Bertrand, VP Marketing – International at eharmony, comments: “Connecting to new audiences has been crucial in responding to the immense challenges affecting the online dating market during the Covid-19 crisis. By continuing to invest in product and brand even in the context of such uncertainty, eharmony was able to reach singles and bring them on board to use our Video Date feature. We hope to see these new members stick around, having experienced the quality service our platform offers.

“With a rise in both registrations and messages onsite it’s clear that people have been craving a deeper connection during social distancing. This consumer insight drives our decision making and we think this trend will continue as singles use video dates as a bridge to meeting face-to-face – particularly as we cautiously lift restrictions on normal life.”