Egyptian Matchmaking App Hawaya Sees Major Spikes in Usage Due to Quarantine

As many have found their solace in puzzles, others in devouring every streamable piece of content out there, some, nay, a lot, have turned their quarantined attentions to finding their one true love. And if you’ve been aching to live a sort of Love Is Blind fantasy, well now’s the chance.

Egyptian matchmaking app Hawaya, a Tinder for single Muslims looking to, well, mingle, has reported a 40% surge in the amount of messages being shared between fellow minglers, and a 25% increase in overall time spent on the app. Hawaya has also launched a campaign encouraging users to keep on finding love, but safely through DMs - or in Hawaya’s ‘Exclusive Chat’ option that has also seen a spike of 50% increase.

“Given the amount of extra time people have now due to work-from-home, curfew and lockdown regulations, people can increasingly feel lonely as face-to-face time with their friends and even strangers has decreased,” said Hawaya CEO Sameh Saleh. “That is why we believe that our app is now more important than ever, giving people a sense of companionship and the possibility of finding lifelong, true love.”

The app launched in 2017 and was one of the few catering to Muslims in Egypt looking to find a partner within a safe, tech-enabled platform that was also mindful of societal and cultural conventions. And you can count on the fact that, with a nationwide curfew across Egypt, twiddling thumbs have found their way onto the app not only to kill the time but find theie boo. Hawaya is also now planning to expand into other countries such as Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Indonesia, and Turkey.