Without a doubt, people’s fears of the coronavirus have fallen tremendously since the end of last year.  As media coverage of the virus has declined tremendously (Covid-19 death totals no longer blanket the airwaves and Dr. Anthony Fauci isn’t still appearing on three or four TV shows per day), Americans have become less worried about the pandemic. In fact, even in New Jersey and suburban Maryland, which I visited last month, life seemed almost back to normal. The country’s changing attitudes towards Covid-19, which has been mirrored in Europe and most of Asia, bode very well for Match Group and MTCH stock.

And Match Group has much more going for it, including very strong brands, a CEO who had a great mentor, and a big boost from Alphabet’s (NASDAQ:GOOG, NASDAQ:GOOGL) Google and Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL).

In light of all of these points, I recommend that investors who are looking for good reopening plays buy MTCH stock at this point.

Going Out Again and Other Good News for MTCH Stock

One statistic which quantifies Americans’ changing attitudes towards the coronavirus is the number of people getting on flights in the U.S. And on many days, the number of people going through Transportation Security Administration (TSA) checkpoints at the nation’s airports are at least 90% as high as they were in 2019.

Based on common sense, many, if not most, of those who are not afraid to walk around in jammed airports and sit in tightly packed planes won’t be scared of going on dates with one person at a time.

And that’s very good news for Match, which reported that fears about the omicron variant of the virus significantly, negatively impacted its fourth-quarter results.

Also positive for Match is that fears of the coronavirus are also easing in most of Asia and Europe.

Another piece of good news for Match was the  decision by Google and Apple to enable app owners to, in some cases, avoid paying high fees to the two tech giants. Since Match owns multiple dating apps, it should benefit a great deal from the change from a financial standpoint.

Match’s brands, which include Tinder, PlentyofFish, and the titular Match are among the most well-known in the world of dating apps. Meanwhile, the company’s CEO, Sharmistha Dubey, worked with IAC (NASDAQ:IAC) Chairman Barry Diller during her tenure as CEO of the latter company. As Forbes columnist Jim Osman pointed out in 2019, Diller has had a tremendous career, rapidly growing many highly profitable media and internet businesses. Since Dubey had a chance to learn from Diller and he likely thinks highly of her, given the fact that she was CEO of IAC, I’m very confident in her leadership.

On the date of publication, Larry Ramer did not have (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines.