Making friends: Many Americans find it difficult

7/27/23 7:00PM

Friend finder‍

‍Bumble, the popular female-led dating app, this week announced the release of a separate app geared towards users making friends rather than romantic connections.

The pivot towards platonic matchmaking may come as no surprise to power users of the app: the ‘BFF mode’ feature, which Bumble launched in the main app in 2016, currently accounts for 15% of Bumble’s users. Bumble founder and CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd expressed that young people are now more open to striking up friendships via an app, with a company survey finding 67% of Gen Z respondents agreeing that making new friends online “lessened their loneliness”.

‍Alone again, factually

‍Bumble's timing may be prescient. In the wake of pandemic-borne social distancing, surveys have observed a ‘loneliness epidemic’ across the US: in 2021, almost 1 in 6 Americans reported feeling lonely or isolated, with young adults nearly twice as likely to feel this way than those over 65. Last month, a YouGov survey found that, while 55% of Americans have between 2–5 close friends, 13% have just one, and a further 8% have no close friends at all.

The same survey reported that 59% of Americans consider themselves to be introverted, of which 21% self identified as very introverted. Today, the most common way for romantic couples to meet is online (per Stanford research) — could that one day be true for friendships too?

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Starbucks sells control of China business for $4 billion

Starbucks disclosed on Monday evening in a regulatory filing that it will sell control of its ailing China business to Boyu Capital for about $4 billion.

Under the agreement, Boyu will own a 60% stake in the China segment, which will become a joint venture between Boyu and Starbucks. The coffee chain will retain a 40% interest in the entity and will continue to own and license the brand and intellectual property.

Bloomberg reported earlier this year that the company was looking to sell its China segment. The American coffee giant has struggled to succeed in China, its second-largest market after the US.

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OPEC and others are boosting oil production as the race to catch up with the US goes on

This month’s 137,000-barrel-a-day boost is a little more modest than some expected.

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China, the world’s largest carbon polluter, has pledged to cut emissions for the first time

President Xi Jinping has announced that China is aiming to slash carbon emissions by up to 10% in the next decade.

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John Wayne Airport in Orange County tops the list of North America’s favorite airports

Despite a record year of passenger numbers, flight cancellations, and delays, a new survey has revealed that flyers have been increasingly satisfied about their experiences in North American airports.

According to this year’s North America Airport Satisfaction Study from data analysts at J.D. Power, overall passenger satisfaction scores were up 10 points (on a 1,000-point scale), largely from “improvements in food, beverage and retail and ease of travel through the airport.” The annual survey measures overall traveler satisfaction across the region’s airports in seven categories (in order of importance): ease of travel, level of trust, terminal facilities, airport staff, airport departure experience, food and retail, and airport arrival experience.

Here are the region’s favorites:

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More than 40% of American adults now report being online “almost constantly”

While a new survey showed Japan has the greatest share of perpetually online people, there was a significant number reporting not using the internet at all.

Making friends: Many Americans find it difficult

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Starbucks sells control of China business for $4 billion

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