Ember

Ember / The Love Map

Where the world reached across borders.

Ember matches people on a world map, not by distance. Once a month we publish what that looks like: the routes people reach across, which languages meet, and when the world is awake.

The Love Map, last 30 days.

A man walking along the seafront at golden hour with a travel bag
A woman leaning on a rooftop railing above the city at night

This month's most-liked route: Nigeria and Thailand

…of matches this month crossed a border
8 pmGlobal Hour, in every member's own time zone
3+people behind every route or language pair shown
30 daysthe window each map covers

Most-liked routes.

The pairs of countries where people most often reached across a border to like someone, ranked.

    Languages that met.

    When two people matched without sharing a first language, these were the languages that met, ranked. Every message between them was translated live.

      When the world is awake.

      Likes by the sender's own local hour, shown as a shape. Every member's own 8 pm is Global Hour, when the world is online together.

      Why we think this lasts.

      The Love Map is Ember's own evidence, updated every month. The direction it points is backed by data that is much bigger than Ember.

      39%

      of US heterosexual couples met their partner online in 2017, up from 22% in 2009, making it the most common way couples meet (Stanford, PNAS)

      304M

      people lived outside the country they were born in by 2024, 3.7% of the world and nearly double the 1990 figure (UN DESA)

      1 in 5

      partnered adults under 30 in the US met their current partner on a dating site or app (Pew Research Center)

      $13–17B

      the size industry forecasts give the online dating market by 2030, up from $9 to 12 billion in 2024

      The demand is already here

      Meeting online has become the main way couples meet. Stanford sociologist Michael Rosenfeld's nationally representative study found that about 39% of heterosexual couples in the US met online in 2017, compared with 22% in 2009, and that meeting through friends and family has been in decline since 1940. Pew Research Center finds that one in ten partnered US adults met their partner on a dating site or app, rising to one in five of those under 30, and that 44% of recent users say a major reason they use these apps is to find a long-term partner, the single most common reason given.

      At the same time, more people than ever live between countries. The UN counted 304 million people living outside the country they were born in by 2024, 3.7% of the world's population and nearly twice the 1990 figure. Every one of them has family, friends and a life that spans more than one place. For them, "someone nearby" was never the whole question.

      Distance is not the barrier it used to be

      The assumption that distance dooms a relationship is older than the tools people now use. A study published in the Journal of Communication by Crystal Jiang (City University of Hong Kong) and Jeffrey Hancock (Cornell) compared long-distance and geographically close dating couples over a week of daily interactions. The long-distance couples reported more intimacy, not less: they disclosed more about themselves and adapted their messages to the medium. As Jiang put it, long-distance couples try harder at communicating affection and intimacy, and their efforts pay back. Ember's Letters, live translation and voice and video calls are built for exactly that kind of effort.

      Where the market is heading

      Industry forecasts put the online dating market at roughly $13 to 17 billion by 2030. ResearchAndMarkets expects dating services to grow from $9.27 billion in 2024 to $13.4 billion by 2030, and Global Industry Analysts expects online dating to grow from $12.0 billion in 2024 to $17.3 billion by 2030. Growth is strongest outside the US, in the same regions Ember's members already come from.

      What Ember's own numbers say

      Ember launched from one person's laptop, and the ledger at the top of this page is what members did on their own: the share of matches that cross a border, the languages that met, and the routes people reach across. From the first month, most matches on Ember have connected two countries rather than two neighborhoods. The people who want this are finding it, and the Love Map is how we show it, month by month, without anyone having to take our word for it.

      Sources

      1. Stanford News, on Rosenfeld's study in PNAS (2019): 39% of heterosexual couples met online in 2017, up from 22% in 2009.
      2. Pew Research Center, Key findings about online dating in the U.S. (2023): one in ten partnered adults, one in five under 30, and reasons for using dating apps.
      3. Migration Policy Institute, on UN DESA International Migrant Stock 2024: 304 million people living outside their country of birth, 3.7% of the world's population.
      4. Cornell Chronicle, on Jiang and Hancock, Journal of Communication (2013): intimacy in long-distance relationships.
      5. ResearchAndMarkets, Dating Services Market, Global Forecast 2025 to 2030: $9.27 billion in 2024 to $13.4 billion by 2030.
      6. Global Industry Analysts, Online Dating, Global Strategic Business Report: $12.0 billion in 2024 to $17.3 billion by 2030.

      How we keep it private.

      Only aggregates are shown, as shares and rankings rather than counts. A route or a language pair appears only when at least three people are behind it, and nothing here can identify anyone.