MeetMe survey reveals Valentine's day changed by mobile apps

NEW HOPE, USA: MeetMe, Inc., the public market leader for social discovery, today announced results from its 12,000-person survey of Valentine's Day habits. The survey reveals Valentine's Day 2014 is about social media and mobile technology more than ever before, but that some things never change.

"94 per cent of women and 84 per cent of men prefer to start out as friends," says Catherine Cook co-founder and VP of brand strategy at MeetMe.

"People prefer to begin relationships casually as friends and let them evolve naturally into something more. The survey shows that "making new friends" is the number one reason people use MeetMe today. We believe this illustrates the fundamental problem with traditional dating sites - that the best way to start a quality relationship is as a friend," added Catherine.

Some insights MeetMe found about Valentine's Day habits include:

* Online/mobile apps are by far the most common way to meet someone new.

* Mobile apps make it easier both to meet new people and to expand the set of people to meet.

* More people met their Valentine's Day date online than offline this year.

* 77 per cent prefer a home-cooked meal to going to a restaurant this Valentine's Day.

* Only 15 per cent of women spend more than $50 on Valentine's Day, but 35 per cent of guys do.

* Flowers and candy still matter, with 72 per cent of women hoping to receive flowers or candy this Valentine's Day.

This national survey was completed by MeetMe members online and on iPhone and Android devices in February 2014, with 6,437 male and 5,910 female respondents.