OkCupid India users can now flaunt COVID vaccine badge on profile

Dating app OkCupid on Tuesday launched the 'I'm Vaccinated' badge on its platform, which would allow online daters in India to announce their vaccination status on their profile and also join the vaccinated stack which helps them match with like-minded love interests who have taken the jab.

OkCupid said that it has seen a huge 763 per cent increase in conversations between March and June 2021 around Covid-19 vaccines and its relevance to daters while selecting a match for themselves.

When a user activates the vaccination status on the app, the 'I'm vaccinated' badge appears in-profile and is expected to result in a 35 per cent increase in match rate with others who are either vaccinated or getting vaccinated soon, the company said.

For the ones who have not had a chance to get vaccinated yet but are open to it, OkCupid will also help with medically verified information to encourage them to get the jab, it added.

"With vaccination being the most important point of conversation today, we felt a responsibility to help daters who have gotten vaccinated or want to get the vaccine match with others who believe the same as it is a matter of health and safety.

Hence, to make it easier for our users to find a potential match who believes in the benefit of getting vaccinated, we introduced the aI'm vaccinated' badge and stack as an endeavour to help people make informed decisions, especially in their search for love," said Anukool Kumar, Marketing Director at OkCupid, in a statement.

To understand further on how much the vaccine impacts the dating lives of millennials, OkCupid conducted a survey among its users. People who answered ayes' (69 per cent men and 71 per cent women) to the question "will you get the Covid-19 vaccine" received 25 per cent more likes and resulted in far higher number of conversations than those who answered no (15 per cent men and 13 per cent women).

Women were found to be more cautious, with over 41 per cent of the female users stating that anti-vaxxers are not even a consideration for them as a potential partner. About 45 per cent women said they would cancel their date in case their potential partner is opposed to the idea of taking a vaccine shot.

However, interestingly about 69 per cent of the men were very much willing to go on a date with someone who won't take the vaccine as well.

Tinder has also launched its vaccine advocacy initiative in India to encourage young Gen Z users to get vaccinated. As a part of the initiative, Tinder will be sharing educational guides and enabling member access to an all-new vaccine centre to display stickers and express their vaccination status and sentiment on their profile.

The company said that mentions of avaccine' in member's bios went up by 42 times in India in May 2021, compared to when the pandemic first began. Last month, the UK and the US governments also partnered with leading dating websites such as Tinder, Match, Hinge, Bumble, Badoo, Plenty of Fish, OurTime, Muzmatch, OkCupid, BLK and Chispa, to encourage more young people to come forward for vaccination.