Alex and Nolan just started dating.
–It's like a surprise to be going on dates with someone in a pandemic in the first place.
–Yeah. Can't say I've done it before.
They met online and all their dates have happened here. Virtually.
–I've got like a little firepit in the backyard.
And then she lit a candle, pretty funny.
With most of the world on lockdown, people aren't just matching online.
They're dating online.
–It's hours and hours and hours of talking.
–I'll go shopping and I'll FaceTime and be like,
"Hey, help me pick something out."
–I poured myself a glass of wine. He had a glass of wine.
–We could say that in this moment, for the first time, everybody's dating virtually.
Virtual dating isn't new, but widespread social distancing has made it more popular than ever.
And the industry is quickly shifting to accommodate the flood of interest.
–The adoption is increasing. With the pandemic, it increased further.
Some of the biggest companies in the business are betting virtual dating will remain.
Even after the world opens back up.
–It's been a long time coming, but I think in a couple of years,
it will be unusual not to be able to do a first date on a dating app.
It's not surprising that in the middle of a pandemic, dating apps are seeing a surge in traffic.
The world's most popular app, Tinder, reported a 20% increase in daily conversations worldwide from the beginning to the end of March.
OkCupid and Bumble noted similar jumps.
It's also not surprising that more people are video chatting.
Mentions of FaceTime, Skype, and Zoom on OkCupid dating profiles are up 180% from February to March.
But then there are entirely new things emerging as well. Like this.
–What's up, Love is Quarantine? My name is Nolan Anderson.
This is Love is Quarantine. It's an Instagram account based on the Netflix series Love is Blind, where contestants go on blind dates through a partition.
In this version, it's sort of anonymous.
People are grouped into pods on Google spreadsheets, then sent on five back-to-back phone calls.
Each person sends pre and post-date confessional interviews, which are then posted to Instagram.
–Just got off my date with Mark.
And sometimes people do find a match.
–I actually think Alex is kind of rad.
–Alex actually DM'd Nolan while he was on a different season than hers.
They've been chatting up every single day.
Thi Lam and Rance Nix are roommates in Brooklyn.
They came up with the idea for Love is Quarantine just a few days before the city shut down.
It now has over 18,000 followers and has inspired spin-offs in Canada, the Netherlands and Columbia.
–Why do you think it blew up so quickly?
–People are at home in their pods, they're bored.
We all have an innate desire for connection and relationship and companionship. So there's that.
–People might be more open to virtual dating cause it's their only option right now.
But experts like Esther Perel say it's more than just boredom.
–We are digitalised out and we are craving just real connection.
Esther is a Belgian relationship therapist and expert in modern love.
She says even though virtual dates can't replicate being together physically, they can push us to be more personal, creative, and romantic on dating apps.
–How do you stay connected with someone who is not right there next to you?
You write to them, you sing to them, you share stories with them.
You fill it with human content.
And there are upsides to virtual dates.
They're cheaper and inherently less effort.
–So I guess I gotta get ready. Cool.
Yeah, don't think I need pants, cause she's not going to see my legs.
And they give us more options.
–Now, it doesn't make a difference whether the person is down the street from you or all the way in Tokyo.
Skyler Wang researches the sociology of online dating at UC Berkeley.
He says widening the dating pool online has always been appealing to the queer community, people with disabilities, and middle-aged daters,
who are less likely to meet potential partners through friends or at a bar.
–Well, I just had my third date with Joe. Joe's very interesting, he's from Brooklyn.
And of course, a wider pool of daters is good news for the apps, too.
It means more users on their platforms and more potential matches.
Both Tinder and Bumble unlocked premium features during the pandemic that let you choose your location so you can match with users anywhere in the world.
–And there's another reason virtual dating is so attractive to online dating companies.
It means more time spent on their platform.
–They spend an extra 20 minutes if they go into video. And those video minutes monetize.
Geoff Cook is CEO of The Meet Group, where he's invested heavily in video.
Since 2016, they've acquired four apps and added new features to them.
Their flagship app MeetMe offers one-to-one video dating, or video chat.
But its main moneymaker is this.
–I like this. It complements my eyes.
A feature called one-to-many.
–It's almost like speed dating, but with an audience.
The app lets host broadcast themselves and interact with viewers.
–You see people from the Philippines, from China, Jamaica, Hawaii.
The members of the audience can send messages or virtual tips as they watch.
–Thank you, thank you.
65% of each in-app purchase goes to MeetMe. The rest goes to the streamer.
And it adds up. Some of the platform's top hosts bring in over $600,000 a year.
This kind of live stream dating is already popular in China.
Momo, China's top location-based social app, added this feature in 2015.
And it made up over 70% of its revenue in 2019.
The investment seems to be paying off for The Meet Group too.
The number of people hosting and watching live streams went up nearly 50% from March to April.
They've also just partnered with the Match Group, one of the biggest players in the online dating industry, to bring live streaming to two of their apps.
–Every dating app is going to have increasing bets on video.
These companies are staking millions on virtual dating sticking around.
But the truth is, we can't know for sure.
People might just be looking for companionship during the pandemic.
–For the few hours you're chatting with someone, you're able to suspend all of these Covid-related issues that you're worrying about.
Still, once we've gotten past the awkwardness, maybe one virtual date could lead to more down the road.
–Now that we are talking and kind of in it, it seems a lot more viable as like a way to get to know someone.
But I am looking forward to meeting in real life. I think that'll be a nice change.
–Yeah. That'd be cool.