How Many People Use Facebook Dating?

TechCrunch has reported that Facebook Dating has 21.5 million daily active users across 52 countries. That is a large number, and it is the best public figure available, but it is a total for the whole service. It does not tell you how many single women are on it in your town, which is the number that decides whether it is worth your time.

The same TechCrunch report gives two more numbers. It says 1.77 million users aged 18 to 29 use Facebook Dating in the U.S. It also says daily conversations among 18 to 29 year olds grew 24 percent year over year.

Read those as what they are, which is one outlet's report. Facebook Dating is a feature inside Facebook, not a standalone app, so there is no separate download count to look up. And the figures are worth treating as a sense of scale rather than a promise. They show a service with real activity, not a ghost town.

Twenty-one million people spread over dozens of countries is a small slice per town. What counts is the pool of women who live near you, fit your age range, and are active on the service this week.

That pool can be big or thin depending on where you live. A man in a large city and a man in a small town can read the same headline number and have completely different experiences. The only count that matters is the one you can see yourself.

You can do this in an evening, and it is more reliable than any statistic.

Open Dating and look at the people it shows you. Note how many are in your age range, how many look like they have filled in a profile properly, and how many you would actually want to meet. Do this on a few different days, because one slow Tuesday tells you little.

Then set your preferences honestly. If your distance setting is very narrow, you shrink the pool and then blame the app for being empty. Widen it to a distance you would really travel and look again.

If the pool is still thin after that, you have learned something real. It might be a good place to start and a poor place to stay.

Many men assume a bigger crowd is better. That is not always true.

On a crowded service, you are one man among a lot of men, and a woman has a long list to choose from. On a smaller one, the same effort can stand out more. A clear first photo and a specific opening line count for more when she is not buried in attention.

So a modest number of women near you is not a reason to quit. It is a reason to put in a better profile and a better first message, and to see what happens over two weeks.

Do not judge by how many profiles you see. Judge by what happens when you act.

Send a few careful messages to women whose profiles actually interest you, and count how many answer. If you are getting conversations, the pool is big enough for you. If you send ten thoughtful messages and hear nothing from any of them, the issue might be your profile, your photos or your openers before it is the size of the service.

The sound way to judge any dating app is to test it with real effort and then decide, instead of deciding in advance. The reported user numbers say the service has people on it. Only your own results say whether they are the people for you.

Because Dating lives inside the Facebook app and costs you nothing extra to open, it is easy to run beside the other apps you use. There is no reason to treat it as an either-or.

Give it a fixed, small amount of time each day, make your move quickly when someone interests you, and move her to a real plan within a few messages. Then compare where your dates actually come from, and spend your time where it pays.

TechCrunch has reported 21.5 million daily active users across 52 countries, plus 1.77 million users aged 18 to 29 in the U.S. Those are totals, and they cannot tell you how many women are near you. Check your own pool over a few days with a sensible distance setting, send a handful of careful messages, and let your own results decide how much time it gets.