More than a decade ago, Tinder became the most popular dating app, changing modern romance by giving singles the ability to swipe through people's profiles, meet people, and date.
Now Tinder is fighting to keep the flame alive. Sometimes in unexpected ways.
Last month, he convinced UCLA students to meet as a large group in the real world. They danced together as DJ Disco Lines, 26, played a set at the Fowler Museum on campus.
Instead of wasting time swiping, students swayed on the dance floor under disco balls, holding their smartphones while listening to Disco Lines' hot remix of Tinashe's “No Broke Boys,” a track about setting high standards in romantic relationships.
The West Hollywood-based company partnered with college DJs and influencers, who posted videos of the song on TikTok and Instagram to promote the event and app. Ahead of the show, Tinder also encouraged people on social media to download the app to find out the location and time of the event.
“Swipe right. Swipe right. Swipe right,” Disco Lines says in the videos, imitating the motion.
Young people today want more from dating apps than just the ability to swipe, says Mark Kantor, head of product at Tinder.
“Gen Z wants to connect in real ways. They believe in romance. They're open to serendipity,” he said. “They are hopeful, but want to go beyond just a photo.”
Tinder is trying to attract Gen Z users with in-person events and new features after the number of people who pay and regularly use the service fell.
Tinder had 9.2 million paying users in the third quarter of this year, down 7% from the same period last year. Tinder's revenue fell 3% to $491 million. The app has a free version, but people pay for additional features, including the ability to see who likes their profile or temporarily increase the visibility of their profile so they can get more matches.
While it is still the most popular dating app in the world, it has recently lost users in major markets. Monthly active users in the U.S. are about 11 million this quarter, up from 18 million at the start of 2022, according to analytics firm Sensor Tower.
The company has a new leadership team, including new CEO Spencer Rascoff, who started in July. They are betting that the app can find a second wind through the development of new features. Rascoff is also chief executive of Tinder's parent company, Match Group.
Some of Tinder's new releases include a double date mode and a college mode where students can date other people at their university or nearby colleges. The company is testing a new AI-powered feature called “Chemistry,” in which people let Tinder analyze their camera shots to learn more about their interests and personality. Some countries have begun requiring users to take video selfies to ensure they are real and match their profile photos.
Tinder's goal: to reinvent dating.
“Dating has become something that has become a job for a lot of people, and meeting people should actually be fun,” Kantor said.
Launched in 2012 at the University of Southern California, Tinder changed the way people date by making it easier to browse dating profiles filled with photos on their smartphones and find people nearby. Co-founder Sean Rad, a University of Southern California dropout, pitched the idea for a dating app, originally called Matchbox, at a startup incubator hackathon.
Online dating used to involve filling out a long questionnaire and answering matches on the computer. On Tinder, people simply swipe right if they're interested and left if they're not.
Many people have turned to the app as a convenient way to find casual sex. Since it has taken over the dating world, many users now have a love-hate relationship with Tinder. Some people only turn it on when they're lonely, while others struggle with constant rejection that occurs due to a lack of matches in the app. Some even blame Tinder for the “dating apocalypse,” the decline of romantic relationships and an environment where people are reluctant to commit, clinging to the hope that the perfect match can be one hit away.
“It needs to target the female audience a little bit or make it more friendly,” said Sam Nejad, a 27-year-old California actor and contestant on the reality show “The Bachelorette.” “For guys in particular, in my experience it’s just an amazing app.”
Tired of scrolling through hundreds of profiles filled with gym selfies, thirst traps, scammers and men holding fish, some daters have turned elsewhere to find love, to places like running clubs, events, train rides, Home Depot and even Costco.
This fatigue has also given rise to Tinder competitors.
Cassidy Davis, tired of coffee dates with people she met on dating apps, asked her friends in 2022 to invite one person from the app to a Valentine's Day party at her Los Angeles apartment. A TikTok video of the event went viral. Since then, she has hosted monthly “chaotic singles parties” at various locations in Los Angeles, San Francisco and elsewhere.
“Apps are still very useful, but these days a lot of people are looking for that sweet romantic comedy in real life,” Davis said.
The 31-year-old is now engaged to the man she invited to her first chaotic singles party. The couple met earlier in real life, and not through a dating app.
She said she might not have found it if she had seen it online.
“I don’t think his profile would have appealed to the wonderful person he is today,” she said.
The dating landscape is crowded. Startups are creating AI companions and other apps that claim to be better at matching people. There are other popular dating apps such as Bumble, Hinge and Grindr. Social media giant Facebook also has a dating service.
Match Group CEO Spencer Rascoff, who also heads Tinder, speaks on stage at the Wall Street Journal's “Future of Everything” event at The Glasshouse on May 28 in New York City.
(He Dipasupil/Getty Images)
Giant industry leaders often find it difficult to change the perception of their brand.
“In the past, we haven't really seen a lot of names, at least in the online dating space, try to make this kind of turnaround,” said Morgan Stanley analyst Nathan Feser.
However, Tinder's new chief executive says his company is developing new products to stay on top.
A Harvard graduate who grew up in Los Angeles and New York, Rascoff teaches and talks to students on college campuses to learn what Gen Z wants from online dating. His father was a business manager and tour producer for famous musicians including The Rolling Stones and U2. His mother was a real estate agent.
Before founding renowned companies, he worked as an investment banker and private investor. At some point, Raskov wanted to become a journalist. He was a newspaper editor-in-chief at Harvard-Westlake, a college preparatory school in Los Angeles County, and interned at major news outlets, but according to a 2020 interview with the magazine Quarterly.
Match Group, which once reached more than $169 a share in 2021, saw its stock fall to below $30 in 2023 as investors saw a decline in the number of paying Tinder users. Over the past six months, Match Group shares have risen 12% to more than $32 per share, a sign of rising investor confidence.
Tinder has a competitive advantage. It's widely used and is often the first app people turn to when they want to start dating again. Despite its reputation as a dating app, Tinder says it is designed to allow people to find the relationships they want, whether it's an open relationship, love or new friends on their terms.
Match Group estimates there are about 250 million singles worldwide who are actively dating but not using dating apps, Rascoff said on a call with analysts in November.
“We've made it clear what Tinder is and who we're building it for,” he said.
UCLA student Charlize Trujillo, 21, was paid to promote a Tinder event using Disco Lines to her nearly 3 million TikTok followers. She attended and enjoyed interacting with the crowd, but said online dating isn't going away anytime soon.
“My friends and I would rather meet someone in person,” she said. “But we meet a lot more of our type of people online these days.”
