Online Dating Industry Market & Revenue
By Alexandre (admin), last updated on October 20, 2023
You are doing a report or an article on dating sites and you want to know all the figures: market share, turnover, trends.
You can use our data freely shared below provided you quote us as source in exchange for the time spent collecting information.
The majority of dating services communicate on an approximate number of users. This is often the number of accounts created since the creation of the online dating service, but it is not necessarily the number of active users.
Latest news about the online dating market
Groups and sales
The American Match Group is by far the world leader in dating. The Tinder app is its flagship product. Tinder represents $1.65 billion in revenue, it’s more than half of the Match Group revenue.
According to our estimates, in the Americas and Europe, the dating industry is worth $5 billion per year. Many of the figures are not reported and are difficult to obtain.
Figures for 2021 will come in the first quarter of 2022. Match Group, Bumble Inc and Sparks Network sales figures have been added.
| Group | Sites & apps | Users | 2015 revenues | 2016 revenues | 2017 revenues | 2018 revenues | 2019 revenues | 2020 revenues | 2021 revenues | 2022 revenues |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Match Group (USA) | Meetic Disons Demain Match OurTime Plenty of Fish (POF) Tinder Hinge OkCupid Hyperconnect | 10,9 millions | NC | NC | $1.4 billion | $1.7 billion | $2.1 billion | $2.4 billion | $2.9 billion | $3.2 billion |
| Bumble Inc. – Blackstone (USA) | Badoo Bumble Chappy Lumen Fruitz | 40,7 millions | NC | NC | NC | NC | NC | $542 millions | $765 millions | $903 millions |
| Spark networks (Germany) | Elite Rencontre Elite Singles Nos Belles Années Zoosk Christian Mingle Jdate eDarling Swipe Silver Singles Attractive World | 14,8 millions | NC | $81 millions | $97 millions | $114 millions | $171 millons | $233 millions | $216 millions | $187 millions |
| San Vicente Acquisition (USA) | GrindR | 13 millions | $38 millions | NC | NC | NC | NC | NC | NC | NC |
| ParshipMeet Group (Germany) | Parship MeetMe eharmony Skout Tagged GROWLr LOVOO ElitePartner | NC | NC | NC | NC | NC | NC | €246 millions | NC | NC |
| Happn (France) | Happn | 100 millions | €4.9 millions | NC | NC | NC | NC | NC | NC | NC |
| Crescere Technologies Private Limited (India) | Trulymadly | 8,5 millions | NC | NC | NC | $0.5 million | $0.5 million | $0.5 million | NC | NC |
| Adopt a Guy (France) | Adopte un Mec | NC | €23.4 millions | NC | NC | NC | NC | NC | NC | NC |
| Factor Lead SA / Prelinker (Switzerland) | Jaquie Michel Contact Rencontre Ronde Easyflirt | NC | NC | NC | NC | NC | NC | NC | NC | NC |
| Pickup Agency AG (Liechtenstein) | HugAvenue | NC | NC | NC | NC | NC | NC | NC | NC | NC |
| MatchMedia (Netherlands) | Match4Me 50plusmatch | NC | NC | NC | NC | NC | NC | NC | NC | NC |
| Cruzeiro SA (Switzerland) | Edenflirt Xflirt wekiss Meetcesoir Cougars Avenue | NC | NC | NC | NC | NC | NC | NC | NC | NC |
| be2 SARL (Luxembourg) | be2 Singles50 | NC | NC | NC | NC | NC | NC | NC | NC | NC |
| Solarian (France) | Quintonic | NC | NC | NC | NC | NC | €169,600 | NC | NC | NC |
| 1tense (France) | 1tense | NC | NC | NC | NC | NC | NC | NC | NC | NC |
The economic models of online dating businesses
For the vast majority of online dating services, whether sites or apps, the goal is to get the user to take a subscription.
Depending on the type of service, the price of a subscription can vary from $5 to over $60 per month.
To get the user to take out a subscription, dating services offer free trials. It is possible to create an account, browse users’ profiles but it is not possible to send messages. Therefore, you will have to take out a subscription to read and send private messages.
Other dating services work partially or completely with advertising.
Finally, other dating services work with paid options such as extra features (boosts to highlight the profile) or virtual currencies to buy virtual products.
For a dating service to be successful, the key is its popularity and user growth. That’s why a lot of money is spent on communication campaigns.
Online dating segment
To distinguish themselves from each other, dating services target a certain segment of the population. Online dating services are composed as follows:
- casual
- mainstream looking for serious relationship
- high-end, elitist
- for seniors (over 50 years old)
- gay
- lesbian
- naughty, adult
- libertine
- black, asian, …
- religion (Christian, Jewish, Muslim)
Dating sites vs Dating Apps
Since the democratization of smartphones, dating applications have tended to replace dating sites. This trend is even more true in the last 5 years.
Below, in red, the trend of using dating websites, in blue, the trend of using dating applications.
Announcements
| Feb 2022 | Bumble Inc has acquired the French dating application Fruitz. |
| Jun 2021 | Match Group acquires Hyperconnect, a virtual reality company. |
| Jan 2021 | Lumen fait maintenant partie de Bumble. |
| Feb 2021 | Match Group buys South Korean Hyperconnect. The latter owns Azar and Kakuna Live. With this acquisition, Match Group takes another step into Asia. |
| Sept 2020 | Parship Group acquires The Meet Group and its brands to form ParshipMeet Group. |
| Mars 2020 | US investor group San Vicente Acquisition buys Grindr from China’s Kunlun Tech Co for $608.5 million |
| Nov 2019 | Blackstone sells MagicLab (owner of Badoo, Bumble and Lumen) for $3 billion. Blackstone integrates the Badoo and Bumble sites into Bumble Inc. |
| March 2019 | Purchase of Zoosk (USA) by Spark Networks (Germany) |
| Jan 2018 | Chinese company Kunlun buys all of GrindR for $152 million |
| May 2017 | Launch of Disons Demain in France by Match Group (USA) |
| 2011 | Acquisition of Meetic (France) by Match Group (USA) |
| March 2009 | Founding of GrindR (USA) |
| Dec 2007 | Creation of Zoosk (USA) |
| Nov 2001 | Founding of Meetic (France) |
| 2001 | Launch of Christian Mingle by Spark Networks |
| 1997 | Founding of Spark Networks (germany) and its Jdate service. |
| April 1995 | Founding of Match.com |
About the author
Expert of the platforms of meetings (sites and applications) for more than 10 years. I share with you my objective opinion on these platforms following my tests. I can also advise you on the best dating service to choose in comments.