Former Tinder CEO Launches New App to Combat Loneliness
Contributed by: kellyseal on Monday, December 04 2023 @ 11:57 am
Last modified on Monday, December 04 2023 @ 01:21 pm
Renate Nyborg, former CEO of Tinder, is launching new AI-based app Meeno to help people combat loneliness and guide them in their relationships.
According to Euro News, Meeno isn’t a dating app – instead, it acts as a “personal mentor” for navigating relationships. It operates differently from a virtual girlfriend (or boyfriend), therapist, or coach, according to Nyborg. Instead of finding you a date, it will help guide you in understanding relationships, so you can feel more comfortable interacting and connecting in real life.
Nyborg told Euro News that the young people who originally built swipe-based dating apps like Tinder are now moving to build apps that help you return to “real-life connection,” because they find the dating app experience lacking. Recent studies have also pointed to a rise in loneliness since the pandemic, where people were mostly socializing over screens.
As she told Euro News[*1] : "For me, loneliness is really the greatest battle we'll fight in our lifetime, in addition to the climate crisis," she says. "If we stop having close friends, being in relationships, having children, etc., that is an existential threat to who we are and what will be."
A recent study commissioned by the EU found that ten percent of residents felt lonely most of the time. And in the U.S., a Pew research study found that 42 percent of adults surveyed said they had felt lonely during the pandemic.
In fact, the U.S. surgeon general Vivek Murthy released an advisory earlier this year calling attention to the public health crisis of loneliness, isolation, and lack of connection.
Murthy noted that even before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, approximately half of U.S. adults reported experiencing measurable levels of loneliness. The study’s press release warned that “disconnection fundamentally affects our mental, physical, and societal health. In fact, loneliness and isolation increase the risk for individuals to develop mental health challenges in their lives, and lacking connection can increase the risk for premature death to levels comparable to smoking daily.”
Nyborg was CEO of Tinder during the pandemic and saw the increase in activity and subscriptions as people became more isolated. Over 300 million people use dating apps around the world, and Tinder accounts for 75 million of those users.
But recent trends show a decrease in subscriptions, especially among younger daters. "A huge trend that we've seen in the last few years is Gen Z in particular, so 18 to 25-year-olds, really willing to meet people organically", Nyborg told Euro News. "And in fact, that's happening increasingly."
For more on this relationship app, check out Meeno[*2] .