What social networks and communication or dating services are worth your attention in 2022?

Have you ever tried to calculate how much time you spend on the Internet and what online services you use most actively? You can give this up — everything has already been calculated for you.

According to the latest world statistics, a modern person spends 6 hours 58 minutes on the Internet every day. This is almost a third of the total time in the day. And if we take 8 hours of sleep, it turns out that we spend half of our waking lives on the Internet. Amazing!

What are we doing online all this time?

• 3 hours 20 minutes — watching video.
• 2 hours 27 minutes — using social media.
• 2 hours — reading news.
• 1 hour 33 minutes — listening to music.
• 1 hour 12 minutes — playing video games.

Another couple of hours are devoted to online radio and podcasts. It would seem that these are completely ordinary and even routine things, but how much time do we spend on them!? For many, all their work takes place on the Internet — they are online for 10-12 hours or more.

The biggest Internet breakthroughs of recent years

The answers to the question “What are your main reasons for using social media” look interesting:

• To communicate with friends and family — 47.6%.
• To pass the time — 36.3%.
• To learn something new — 35.1%.
• To find specific content — 31.6%.
• To find out what people are talking about now — 29.5%.
• To make new acquaintances — 23.9%.

These numbers allow us to easily predict and understand which online platforms are most in demand right now — those that help keep in touch with loved ones, as well as various entertainment platforms. In January 2022, the top online resources were Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp, Instagram. TikTok, WeChat, Douyin, QQ and others close on their heels. But Twitter, Pinterest, Reddit and Quota have a many times less active audience.

Even more interesting are the results of the survey “The main reasons why you use the Internet.” This is not only about the social media mentioned above, but about the World Wide Web in general.

The results are as follows:

• To find information — 61%.
• To keep in touch with friends and family — 55.2%.
• To read the news — 53.1%;
• To watch videos, TV shows and movies — 51.5%.
• To find new ideas and inspiration — 47.5%.
• To meet new people — 30.5%.

We see that more than 30% of modern Internet users are interested in new acquaintances on the Web. But rest assured, this number is actually higher. Firstly, not everyone is ready to admit that they are looking for a soulmate or new friends on the Internet. And secondly, this is not the main goal for everyone. Some choose a different answer, although new acquaintances are relevant for them.

The years 2020-2022 show ultra-fast growth in the video format — why is this?

This is not to say that video content was unpopular a couple of years ago. YouTube has been the most popular video hosting site in the world for many years now, after all. But it is in recent years that we have seen a truly colossal growth in the video format in all forms.

For clarity, here are some examples:

1. Netflix capitalization grew by 34% from January to April 2020. And the revenue amounted to 7.55 billion dollars against 4.52 billion for the same period in 2019.
2. TikTok, which almost no one knew about a couple of years ago, today has become one of the most popular applications on the planet.
3. More and more social media are focusing on video content — Reels on Instagram, Stories on Facebook and other social networks similar to Stories on Instagram, and so on.

Indeed, today’s younger generation often uses YouTube instead of Google. Because here you can find answers to almost any questions, discover the necessary information and learn something new. Video is taking over the world!

It is not surprising that the video format has begun to be implemented even by sites where it was not originally available and the developers did not prioritize adding it before. Very good examples are dating sites and apps.

How dating services began implementing video chat and its popularity skyrocketed

To begin with, it’s worth saying that during the pandemic and quarantine, the popularity of dating sites has grown rapidly. Some platforms, such as Tinder or Badoo, showed an increase in active audience of double, triple or even more. According to Statista portal forecasts, by 2024 the number of active users on dating services will exceed 276.9 million people. This is more than the population of Indonesia.

The coronavirus pandemic has also contributed to the rapid growth of online dating services. It changed the basic format of dating and brought video communication to the fore. Having lost the opportunity to fully communicate in real life, users migrated to the Internet. But ordinary messaging is not able to satisfy a person’s need for communication. As a result, everyone started using video chat. The developers of dating sites and apps quickly reacted to this and added video chat functions to their sites. Tinder, Badoo, Bumble — all now fully support video calling and video dating.

While dating services were working on new functionality, for many, video chat services came to the fore in popularity. That is, sites and applications where you can communicate with random users from all over the world via video link.

The sudden boom of video chat and why it became so significant

In psychology, there is the term ‘attention span’ — this is the time during which a person is able to concentrate attention before being distracted. The modern rhythm of life shortens the attention span — we absorb information as quickly as possible and just as quickly switch to something else. Accordingly, many simply do not have the time or desire to sit for hours on a dating site, fill out a profile, upload photos, chat, and so on. Everyone wants to get to know each other quickly and effectively. And this is where video chat becomes a real salvation.

Online video chat is a platform that does not require any extra actions from you. No registration, no profile filling, no answers to questions in the questionnaire — nothing! You just start a video chat and in a second you’re talking to a stranger. Convenient, fast, and often free or inexpensive compared to dating apps where you have to pay for almost every action.

Some online video chats showed tremendous growth rates in the period 2020-2022. This was primarily Chatroulette, OmeTV, Bazoocam, video chat online CooMeet, Camsurf, ChatAlternative and some others. Here the audience grew by an average of 200-300%. And for some video chats even more!

In the 2010s, when video chat sites were just starting to appear, they were rather primitive, with virtually no search settings and frankly poor moderation. Today, in many respects, video chats have managed to overtake the usual dating applications. For example, in CooMeet video chat, moderation is a cut above that in most dating applications. And on OmeTV, you can set up a search for another user by gender and location in a couple of clicks. Try it, you will definitely like this format of communication.

Video chat is now usable and rewarding

The Internet is changing, you must have noticed it. But sometimes these changes are so fast and global that many simply do not have time to adapt to them. And often it’s better for an ordinary person to use a proven classic. For example, don’t look for the latest dating apps that only work for a couple of months, but use video chat, which is already well established and will definitely not give you unpleasant surprises.

Value your time, choose the best dating sites, compare, analyze, evaluate the real advantages and disadvantages especially for yourself. And then you will definitely find the perfect dating service for you. Whether it will be a classic dating app or an online video chat is another question.