MASHABLE – Coffee Meets Bagel’s 2025 Dating Realness Report, based on a survey of 1K U.S. daters aged 21–35, finds that most people are serious about relationships. 61% want a spouse and 31% want a long-term partner, but 93% say dating is difficult. The biggest pain points are endless swiping (54%), ghosting or unmatching (47%), and not knowing how to start conversations (43%). 80% are comfortable with AI helping with dating tasks, but 65% would be less likely to engage with someone if they knew that person used AI to write their profile or messages. Emotional connection is a must for 73%, ahead of physical attraction (63%), shared values (59%), and ambition (57%).
THE ECONOMIST – The speed with which the norm of marriage – indeed, of relationships of any sort – is being abandoned is startling. The failure of the young to settle down and procreate threatens to end Western civilization. For others, it is evidence of admirable self-reliance. Vogue recently suggested that for cool, ambitious young women, having a boyfriend is not merely unnecessary but “embarrassing“. As barriers to women in the workplace have fallen, their choices have expanded. Lots of people want to couple up but don’t, so something is amiss in the relationship “market”. Some think social media and dating apps have fostered unrealistic expectations. 7% of young singles say they would consider a robo-romance with an AI companion.
Mark Brooks: Oy vey! The end is nigh. The rate of change will accelerate markedly in the next few years. I have 3 daughters. I am actively telling them they do not ‘need’ to marry, they do not ‘need’ to have children. They do need to be tigers in this new world. The trick in the future is to have hard assets, close friends, and live in a country that is very safe, with great hospitals.
THE ECONOMIST – Across America, 41% of women and 50% of men age 25-34 were single in 2023, double over the past 5 decades. From 2010-2022 people living alone rose in 26 of 30 OECD countries. In Europe, each new generation is less likely to be married. The relationship recession is also hitting those looking for a date or casual sex. Younger people are socializing less, dating less, and starting to have sex later in life and having less sex in general (as are most of us). More people feel able to choose to be single now than in the past, when there was far greater social and economic pressure to marry, a great emancipation of the past half-century. In a Pew survey, 62% of single women did not want to date, whereas only 37% of single men felt the same way. A high proportion of unmarried young men is strongly associated with elevated levels of violence and crime. There is some sort of dating-market failure, and society is changing in ways that are making large numbers of singles incompatible.
In Asia, singlehood is growing fastest, especially poor men and highly educated women. New technology fosters pickiness and absorbs time, leaving less for socializing. Time spent streaming, surfing, or gaming even seems to be displacing sex. Brits aged 18-44, have gone from copulating 5x per month in 1990 to 2x a month in 2021.
Mark Brooks: The Economist tells it like it is. Where do we go from here? The mind always drifts to what is more interesting, and nothing is more interesting than your mobile phone, social media, Netflix, etc. Next up: by 2030, your best friend will be an AI. Then, what need will we really have for each other? (rhetorical / sarcastic / worried ! ). Unless we solve ‘the continuity problem’ in online dating in the more distant future (i.e. 2050), governments will step in and make dating/matchmaking an essential public utility. Sounds crazy, but it is a logical solution if private dating/matchmaking companies don’t evolve. People need us, but our incentive base is broken. Justin at Hinge is doing the right thing by developing Overtone. Also, Sync appears to be doing similar to solve the continuity problem, which will then allow is to move into the BIG phase of growth for online dating.
HINGE – Hinge has launched in Brazil, expanding into its second Latin American market after Mexico. The app enters a country where demand for more intentional dating is growing and brings features built around prompts, voice notes, and tools that encourage clearer communication and in-person dates. Hinge highlights safety and inclusion as core elements of its rollout, offering wide gender and orientation options alongside verification and behavior-filtering tools. The company says its research team, Hinge Labs, will continue studying dating trends to refine the product as it scales in Brazil.
BUSINESS INSIDER – Keeper is an AI matchmaking startup that claims it can identify a person’s ideal long-term partner with high precision, and charges men up to $50K if a match leads to marriage. Launched in 2022, it raised $4M in pre-seed funding in 2024 as investors bet on AI reshaping the dating landscape. The platform has recorded 1.5M sign-ups. Its pitch deck reports that 10% of beta dates resulted in marriage. Keeper builds profiles from extensive personal data, including test scores, finances, photos, and personality assessments, and uses a mix of traditional algorithms, custom LLMs trained with Stanford researchers, and human matchmakers to narrow candidates.
LTR – Mark Brooks provides an overview of industry trends and growth opportunities, the story of Courtland Brooks and its consulting services, key financial results, and a deep dive into the influence of AI on the dating industry. The discussion covers AI’s potential to enhance user experience, security concerns, legislative constraints, and revealing statistics from various studies. Mark also emphasizes the importance of strategic marketing and influencer engagement to build trust within the dating community.
BAR AND BENCH – Dating apps often continue tracking users even after accounts are deleted through cookies, SDKs, shadow profiles, cross-app identifiers, and third-party data sharing. India’s new Digital Personal Data Protection Act (DPDP Act) and the 2025 Rules directly challenge these practices by enforcing rights such as mandatory data erasure, purpose-limited processing, stronger security standards, restricted cross-border transfers, and heavy penalties for violations. Under the new law, dating platforms must justify and minimise any retained data, improve transparency, and overhaul vague retention policies.
OPW – Ofcom’s new Online Nation report shows UK adults now spend an average of 4 hours 30 minutes online daily, rising to 6 hours 20 minutes for 18–24-year-olds. Women use slightly more apps than men, and nearly half of adult internet users want stronger online safety measures. In dating, 11% of adults, about 5M people, visited a dating site in 2025, with male users increasing by 400K while female usage dipped slightly; time spent per visit also declined. Age-assurance rules had a major impact: VPN use spiked from 650K to 1.4M in August before stabilising, and the top five age-assurance providers saw 7.5M visits in the first four weeks after the Children’s Codes were introduced.
TECH CRUNCH – Hinge CEO Justin McLeod is stepping down to launch Overtone, a new AI-driven dating product backed by Match Group, which will take a major ownership stake. Incubated inside Hinge, Overtone aims to use AI and voice tools to create more personal, thoughtful connections. McLeod joins other founders like Bumble’s Whitney Wolfe Herd in pursuing standalone AI matchmaking concepts as Gen Z grows increasingly disillusioned with traditional dating apps. Meanwhile, Hinge continues to lean into AI under incoming CEO Jackie Jantos, whose new features have already lifted user engagement. McLeod will remain an advisor through March as Hinge stays on track for $1B revenue by 2027.
