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The Most Popular Dating Sites In Africa

The Most Popular Dating Sites In Africa

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Many African countries have local dating websites to help people find love and hookups, but it’s the global sites that top the lists of Africa’s most popular dating sites. With the majority of Africans accessing the Internet via their mobile phones, the creators of dating apps are expanding their presence in target areas like South Africa, Kenya, and Nigeria. Here, in no particular order, are some popular dating apps in Africa.

Source: Bbc.co.uk

Frim Chat for Friends APK. Photo: Techdiscussin.in
Frim Chat for Friends APK. Photo: Techdiscussion.in

Frim in Egypt

With headquarters in Spain, Frim claims to have 90 million monthly users. In Egypt, Frim is the most popular dating app, promoting itself as being for friendship or dating, but Egyptians rank it as No. 1 for romance. Egypt makes up 11 percent of Frim’s global users, and it regularly hovers around the top 100 most-downloaded app in the country on iPhones.

Source: Sensortower.com

Tinder. Photo: Techcrunch.com
Tinder. Photo: Techcrunch.com

South Africa, Tinder

Los Angeles-based Tinder claims to have made more than 10 billion matches. It costs around $20 a month to be a member of Tinder in South Africa. One happily married South African journalist who joined the app just for the story interviewed several members. He found that members in the area could see between 10 and 40 matches a month. In the U.S., active members say they see 20 to 100 matches a month. The U.S. is the top user of the app. South Africa isn’t that far behind in match ratios.

Source: Mg.co.za

Badoo. Photo: Seekurity.com
Badoo. Photo: Seekurity.com

The most-downloaded app in the world

London-based dating app Badoo is doing slightly better than Tinder worldwide, and has a high concentration of users in South Africa, Nigeria, and Kenya. Having a presence in South Africa is key for dating apps. South Africa is considered one of the world’s top 50 app markets. Kenya, in particular, loves Badoo. While the exact number of registered Badoo users in Kenya isn’t public information, if you go to the site and set your search filters to Kenya (all regions) and all ages, you’ll come across several thousand instant matches. Badoo competes with over 20 popular dating sites in Kenya but comes out on top. The app has a reputation for being mainly for sexual liaisons in the region. Badoo says that Tunis and Algiers are the two most flirtatious cities in Africa.

Source: Agent.mediaBadoo.com, Badoo.com, Sde.co.ke

Grindr dating app. Photo: Scmp.com
Grindr dating app. Photo: Scmp.com

Grindr comes out on top

West Hollywood, California-based Grindr shows up in more countries’ top 100 best dating apps than any other. The app is mainly for gay men, and in Africa, it’s available in Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritius, South Africa, Swaziland, and Tunisia. The site is a way for gay men in traditionally conservative societies to date privately. A Huffington Post article that explored Grindr in Cape Town said there is a noticeably a large number of white users on the app, and a noticeable absence of black users. The HuffPo journalist interviewed a Grindr user who said he’d received messages from other men stating they weren’t willing to date outside of their race. Kenya has 150,000 Grindr users. Kenya still maintains strict policies against homosexual activities. In 2014, 60 people were arrested at a gay club in the country for suspected homosexuality.

Source: Mgafrica.comHuffingtonpost.comEile.ie, Sensortower.com, Politicskenya.net

Zoosk dating app. Bestcompany.com
Zoosk dating app. Bestcompany.com

Zoosk

San Francisco-based Zoosk has a presence in most African countries, but it ranks particularly high in cities that are some of the bigger targets for online dating apps. The app ranks No. 7 in Egypt as the highest-grossing app on iPad, No. 4 in Algeria, No. 3 in Kenya, and No. 2 in South Africa. Zoosk co-founders Shayan Zadeh and Alex Mehr met as undergrads at the Sharif University of Technology in Iran and traveled to the U.S. together to attend graduate school at the University of Maryland.

Source: Sensortower.com

Lovoo dating app. Photo: Lovoo.com
Lovoo dating app. Photo: Lovoo.com

Lovoo

Lovoo is one of the top social networking iOS apps downloaded in Swaziland and Mali. The site has over 50 million users worldwide, receives 8 million photo uploads per month as well as 420 chat messages per month and the site boasts over 4.2 billion matches per month. Lovoo is a German site, but it’s made waves in Africa. It’s the third top grossing social networking site in Egypt.

Sources: Sensortower.com, Chupacode.com

Datingsitesxo.com
Datingsitesxo.com

SpeedDate

SpeedDate has over 13 million users worldwide but has grown especially popular in Ghana and Sierra Leone. However, it has a presence in over a dozen other African countries including Kenya, Cameroon, and Ethiopia. The app allows for five-minute video dates, like virtual speed dates. It’s one of the top 20 most downloaded apps in Sierra Leone on iTunes.

Sources: Speeddate.com, Cokecola.co

BeNaughty dating app. Photo: Furthermobi.blogspot.com
BeNaughty dating app. Photo: Furthermobi.blogspot.com

BeNaughty

BeNaughty, as the name implies, is mainly a site for adults looking for something casual (and frisky). U.K. group Cupid Plc owns and operates the site, along with other high volume dating sites like Cupid.com and Flirt.com. Unfortunately, the site has a reputation for having a lot of scam or fake profiles in Nigeria. It has a high number of users there.

Source: Datingsitesreviews.com

SayHi! app. Photo: Androidpit.com
SayHi! app. Photo: Androidpit.com

SayHi!

SayHi! has its headquarters in Hong Kong. It’s the 29th highest grossing social networking app in Egypt and is in the top 100 in Ghana. The app received a 4.5 out of 5 star rating on AppAnnie, with over 300,000 reviews.

Source: AppAnnie.com, Sensortower.com

OkCupid app. Photo: Imanerd4apple.wordpress.com
OkCupid app. Photo: Imanerd4apple.wordpress.com

OkCupid

OkCupid has nearly 3 million unique monthly visitors and is the 10th most popular social networking app in South Africa—one of the most active online dating countries in the continent. The app fares well in one of the other major dating app market in Africa—Nigeria—where it ranks the 45th most popular iPhone downloaded app. One Australian user found that, according to her match stats on the site, she would have better luck finding someone in South Africa than her own country. The internationally used site has its headquarters in New York.

Sources: Findthedata.com, Sensortower.com, Stuzz.com

Tagged app. Photo: Mediapost.com
Tagged app. Photo: Mediapost.com

Tagged

Tagged has over 300 million users, and as its name implies, it’s a playful atmosphere where users meet over social games. The San Francisco-based app is quite popular in Sierra Leone, where it’s the 35th most popular paid-for app in the country.

Source: Appannie.com

Match dating app. Photo: Phandroid.com
Match dating app. Photo: Phandroid.com

Match

Match has its headquarters in Dallas, Texas. The app is the most downloaded grossing app in Sierra Leone, and one of the top 40 downloaded iPad apps in South Africa. Match has an international site specifically for South Africa, and heavy traffic in its Eastern Cape section. Over 4 million people visit the site every month.

Sources: Findthedata.com, Match.com, Appannie.com, Sensortower.com

Instadate app. Photo: Okcupid.com
Instadate app. Photo: Okcupid.com

Instadate

OkCupid owns Instadate, which ranks in the top 10 apps downloaded through iOS in Libera. However, one traffic tracker has found a spike in activity on the app in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The app is straightforward, allowing you to search for singles nearby and send instant messages.

Sources: Domainiac.tech, Hitafterhitentertainment.com

Firstmet. Photo: Snapinteractive.com
Firstmet. Photo: Snapinteractive.com

AYI (Are You Interested?)

AYI recently turned into FirstMet and is owned by New York-based social media company Snap Interactive. The site has over 30 million users, and is popular in Ghana, but has users in almost every African country.

Source: Firstmet.com