Mashable dating apps

There is no doubt that it has been a strange, sad, and difficult year but where dating is concerned, the world never slows down.

Online dating apps such as Tinder not only survived, but thrived in 2020.

It makes sense with so many restrictions in place that people would turn to their screens for human contact and validation.

Tinder has recently released their year-end report which details their findings for 2020. They pulled findings from Southeast Asian countries such as Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.

It's also pretty cool that they got to witness pandemic romance trends first-hand.

What did they find?

Southeast Asians remained to be foodies.

Southeast Asians remained steadfast with their love for food. In Thailand, there was an increased mention of crispy pork and beer while in Singapore, their Gen-Z population preferred bubble tea or 'BBT'.

Things also got political.

In June 2020, Tinder filled up with bios to do with the Black Lives Matter movement. Many showed their support by putting 'BLM' in their bio. Mentions of BLM grew 5x in Vietnam and Singapore.

TikTok was huge, obviously.

TikTok became a new way for singles to find their perfect match on Tinder. Mentions of TikTok increased across the SEA region. In Indonesia by 21x more, 14x more in Singapore, and 8x in Singapore.

Users were mainly looking for matches that were willing to make TikToks with them.

Animal Crossing dates!

We all know that virtual meetups were big in 2020. From Zoom meetings to Animal Crossing hangouts, leaving your house was so 2019.

Mentions of Animal Crossing andZoom dates went up by 9x in Vietnam, 6x in Thailand, 5x in Singapore, and 4x in Indonesia in April 2020.

Gen-Z singles traded in IRL dates for Animal Crossing dates and went looking for prospective partners on Tinder.

Masking up before a date.

If there's anywhere talk of protection should thrive, it should be on Tinder. Not that kinda protection though.

Mentions of masks and masking up increased from March onwards in 2020 across the Southeast Asian region. Mentions spiked by 14x in Indonesia, 6x in Singapore, 114x in Thailand, and 207x in Vietnam.

Safety first!

But that's not all.

Among other trends that took precedence were fitness and mentions of the word 'pandemic'.

'Netflix and chill' was dethroned as the go to pickup line when 'quarantine and chill' came into play.

Read more about online dating:

Get to know the steps Tinder has taken to make sure your online dating experience is safe

Southeast Asians looking for love spent more than US$18 million on dating apps in 2019

Tinder finally rolls out video dating to global users

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Cover image sourced from FreePik