The rise and fall of Tinder
Do you remember Millennial's favorite dating app? Yeah, one that gamified the dating experience and got the founders, Sean Rad and Justin Mateen, placed in the Forbes 30 under 30 list in 2013. Tinder!
Back in the day, the founders of Tinder saw the problems with approaching people for dating online. They saw people relying on Facebook but it wasn’t that easy to break the ice on Fb. They realised that people may be more comfortable approaching someone if they knew they were interested in them too. Hence, Tinder was born with a core team of 7 members, including Whitney Wolfe, and the tagline - "Like real-life, but better".
The app was launched at HatchLabs. It was connected to people’s Facebook profiles and allowed them to make split-second decisions by swiping left or right on a person based on their appearance and profile. Sean launched it to bridge the gaps in dating and simply allow people to meet new people.
The app started in September 2012 with 300 people at the University of Southern California (alma mater of founders) and went on to gain thousands of users in the first week itself. With a swipe rate of 13 billion in the first year with 2 million matches happening every day, the app took off.
While companies invest thousands in marketing, Tinder became a huge winner without spending a penny on it. The word of mouth worked for the company along with the idea that there was no fear of rejection as matches happened mutually.
Jamie Anderson, Sochi Olympics 2014, Gold medallist.
In the early stages, the app had a 90% user base of 18-24 years old. When the news of Jamie Anderson (Gold medalist at Sochi Olympics, 2014) and other athletes using Tinder spread, the app could be found on almost every Millennial’s phone. The company witnessed a 400% rise in popularity. With celebs joining the app, the company decided to add verification ticks on celeb profiles. 2014-15 was termed the "Gold Age" for Tinder.
But the dating app had some romantic drama in their board rooms too. Justin Mateen and Whitney Wolfe (the two co-founders) had strong feelings for each other. But, they faced an ugly breakup at the end of 2014, following which Justin kept harassing Whitney. She went and reported it to Sean who responded by flirting with her and finally she was stripped of her co-founder title. Things got ugly when she filed a case of sexual harassment and the matter was settled in court for just over a million dollars. After the lawsuit, Justin left the company and Sean stepped down from the CEO position but continued to be the President.
Tinder founders: Sean Rad (L) and Justin Mateen (R)
Whitney faced a lot of backlashes but wasn't defeated. As an attempt to make dating safer for women, she applied the concept of Sadie Hawkins dance in her new dating app, Bumble. In Bumble, women text men first. The company was a resounding success and is presently one of Tinder's biggest competitors. She received the 30 under 30 honors in 2017. Wolfe also introduced the women-only BFF section and a list of other safety features including laws on digital sexual harassment, making Bumble a safe place to be.
Looking at some statistics, there were issues in the Tinder model. As of 2020, 76.9% of Tinder users were male. Millennials (now 30-44 years of age) are still the highest users of the app, which means that the app has failed to impress GenZ.
However, Tinder is still the ninth most popular lifestyle app in the world. It is the fourth grossing non-gaming app with a user base of over 75 million (active monthly users) out of which 6.6 million are paid subscribers.
But, numbers are not everything. Perception matters the most. Many people seem to be tired of the concept of dating apps. These apps are downloaded in a moment of loneliness and deleted in a moment of self-disgust. Some people believe it deprives them of in-person and real conversations. Some people call online dating a vanity because people judge solely on looks, while, others are tired of the fake edited photos. Some are still looking for true love on an app notorious for hookups while some others are finding their inbox full of creepy messages. The app-based dating experience includes a lack of matches to an excess of matches, misleading profiles, safety concerns, racist comments, and inappropriate explicit content. All these have discouraged people from using the app.
Tinder still has a long way to go in perfecting its model but it seems like some people are still enjoying the ride and are eager to see what new changes they bring.