This evolution is having an economic impact 'because it's driving consumer spending, it's driving household formation'.
Online
dating is not only transforming the way people hook up, it is
changing the way single people spend their money and shaping the
nature of household spending, according to one investor taking an
interest in the emerging sector.
"It's
driving pretty much everything, if you think about all the things
people spend money on around finding a romantic partner, courting
them, getting married, having kids," said Daniel McMurtrie, the
young co-founder and CEO of Tyro Capital Management, a New York hedge
fund.
McMurtrie,
28, has tracked the rising tide in people going online to find a
partner "from a kind of niche category, which was a little bit
of a joke to some people, to being the dominant form of dating."
According
to a Pew Research Center study published Thursday, 30 per cent of
American adults have used a dating app or website. For people under
30, that increases to 50 per cent.
The
proliferation of smartphones
and the ease of using apps have been game changers. All a user has to
do is enter a small amount of personal information to start seeing
photos of potential matches. A simple swipe of the finger can show
interest, and if it is reciprocated, start a conversation.
The
financial cost of arranging a date has been drastically reduced, as
has the cost in time from wasted encounters or rejections.
"Historically
people have dated within their social circles, their friends, their
family, their church, their social groups," said McMurtrie.
"That's really maybe 100, 200 people max."
The
social penalties have also been reduced. "If you date someone
who's a friend of a friend and it doesn't work out, that can be very
awkward." "Because everyone can get a number of dates
instantly through an app, it doesn't really make sense to take that
risk anymore," noted McMurtrie, who published a research paper
on the phenomenon in November.
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