Share of French singles ready to engage in virtual meetings on a dating app 2020

With the coronavirus outbreak (COVID-19), since the beginning of 2020, French people have still found a way around the restrictions to meet new people. With the use of dating apps, making friends or even deeper connections has been possible. While some people postponed their first rendezvous to after the lifting of the lockdown, the source asked French singles if they were ready to use the virtual tools of their preferred dating apps to meet people through video conference instead of in-person. Thus, more than 40 percent of respondents were ready to do so, even though the majority were quite reluctant to it.

A (love) life before the crisis

Even though most of couples meet at private parties amongst their friends, family events or even universities or workplaces, about nine percent of people meet through the Internet. Some say it's easier to get to know potential partners for the first time through a screen, some even consider it to be easier to flirt. Badoo, acting as the most popular dating app among paying customers, the romanticism of the French is not virtually lost, as 72 percent of the dating population was certain of the possibility to find a soulmate through an app in 2019. And, with the first lockdown announced by the French President on March 16th, 2020, the adoption of online dating has gone up to 31 percent in October 2020, compared to two percent less in January.

Love in the time of coronavirus

So, even though 36 percent of people could probably use virtual tools to meet for the first time, some have acted upon their urges to engage in physical meetings of different nature. For singles and couples living separately 14 to 15 percent had newly signed up for dating sites, and the exchange of sexual content through messaging apps had gone up by five percent during the first lockdown. During the containment period, and disregarding the restrictions, 30 percent of youngsters aged 18 to 24 even united with their internet acquaintances to meet their sexual needs.