Nearly two thirds of mobile dating app users are men

More than 91 million people are using location-based dating apps like Tinder, Momo and Hinge, but nearly two thirds of those users are men, according to research firm GlobalWebIndex.

The company’s latest report claims that 6% of internet users currently use a location-based dating app, although that puts the category behind niches like augmented reality (108 million monthly users), let alone games and social networking with 655 million and 582 million respectively.

GWI claims that 62% of dating app users are men, while 38% are women. It will come as no surprise that 16-34 year-olds are the largest group of users, accounting for 70% of the audience for these apps.

“Significantly, just a fifth of dating app users are paying for an online dating service. This might make them three times more likely than the average internet user to be doing this, but it does underline the importance of ad-supported models,” explain co-authors Jason Mander and Felim McGrath in the report.

The research comes as Tinder, the most high-profile dating app in the west, prepares to launch Tinder Plus, a new premium tier that will see people paying for extra features. GWI’s report notes that Chinese dating app Momo has signed up more than two million people for its paid tier.

These two companies appear to account for the lion’s share of the dating app market, judging by Momo’s claim to have 60 million active users, and predictions that Tinder could reach 40 million by April this year.

However, there are plenty of startups angling for a slice of this market: GWI’s report cites Bumble and Hinge as just two companies touting features that they hope will make them more appealing than Tinder.

It’s Momo that’s the biggest dating app, though, aided by the fact that 25 million people are currently using dating apps in its home country of China.

The report also notes the popularity of these apps in places like the Philippines, Thailand, Brazil, Mexico, India, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey and Vietnam – all countries where more than 10% of internet users are using location-based dating apps.