Coronavirus outbreak not hurting OkCupid daters

With over 1,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus in the U.S., Americans are not letting it affect their love life. Or at least that’s what seems to be what’s happening with OkCupid users, according to the dating app’s internal questionnaire.

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Dating is so important to this group that 92 percent of American OkCupid users said they are willing to go out on dates during the coronavirus outbreak. That number is 18 percent higher than Indian users (74 percent), 12 percent higher than Turkish users (80 percent) and 3 percent higher than Israeli users (89 percent).

Italian users were least likely to be willing to date during the outbreak with only 45 percent saying they do so, which isn’t surprising since the European country has the second-highest number of confirmed coronavirus cases – 10,149 at the time of publication – which surpasses China’s closer neighbors South Korea and Japan.

Canadian and Australian OkCupid users are both on par with Americans at 92 percent. However, the U.K. (93 percent), France (94 percent) and Germany (95 percent) have more determined daters by a slight margin.

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Overall, OkCupid found that 88 percent of its respondents across the globe are willing to take a risk to find love. And that says a lot considering the World Health Organization and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have advised people to avoid activities that would put them in close contact with others.

On the flip side, the coronavirus has brought up a lot of conversation on the dating app. Coronavirus was mentioned so frequently on OkCupid profiles between January and February, the app was able to record a whopping 188 percent increase in references to the pandemic. Two of the most common coronavirus-related prompts on the app have been "I spend a lot of my time thinking about" and "My favorite conspiracy theory," according to OkCupid.

In the U.S. the cities that have 90 percent or more OkCupid respondents willing to date during the coronavirus outbreak include Denver, Chicago, Oklahoma City, New Orleans, Phoenix, Austin, Boston, Los Angeles, Washington D.C., Atlanta, Houston, Louisville and Nashville.

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Trailing close behind with highly motivated daters are New York, San Francisco and Indianapolis (87 percent); Seattle (86 percent) and Miami (84 percent).

It is not clear whether the responses from OkCupid’s users mean active daters will be doing so remotely, however, the company says the app has observed a 7 percent increase in new conversations in the last week.

So far, OkCupid’s competitor Tinder is the only app that has issued a warning to users to take precautions against the coronavirus.

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"Tinder is a great place to meet new people. While we want you to continue to have fun, protecting yourself from the coronavirus is more important," says a new Tinder ad that appears randomly to users.

OkCupid is owned by Match Group.