Online communities and dating apps: The effects of social presence, trust, and Covid-19

ABSTRACT

The Covid-19 pandemic changed the dynamics of socialization by restricting one of its main avenues in-person gatherings. This pushed people towards digital technology to fulfill their socialization needs. In this paper, we take steps to explore whether features of online communities can contribute to innovative dating app designs, given how dating app business models currently focus on independent one-on-one interactions. We conducted an exploratory survey of 200 participants concerning dating app use habits, perceptions of dating apps, as well as degrees of trust, social presence, and perceived ease of finding dates using three dating methods. We found that social presence and trust consistently predicted the perceived ease of finding dates for each method, and that the perceived ease of finding dates influenced whether participants reported increased use of the method during Covid-19. Together with the growth in online community participation, these results suggest that dating app platforms might benefit from incorporating social features in their designs. © AMCIS 2021.