Tinder CEO Shares Focus on Content Creation and Immersive Experiences
Contributed by: kellyseal on Monday, September 13 2021 @ 07:32 am
Last modified on Monday, September 13 2021 @ 07:42 am
Tinder CEO Jim Lanzone said the company is focused on more “immersive” experiences to appeal to a growing, younger Gen Z user base, including creating more original content for its platform. (note: a September 11, 2021 announcement[*1] stated as of September 27, Jim Lanzone will be the new CEO at Yahoo!)
Lanzone sat down with entertainment industry magazine Variety[*2] to explain why the company invested in its original interactive series Swipe Night, and how the response to it is helping shape the company’s focus moving forward.
Gen Z users are looking for more “immersive” experiences, as Lanzone told Variety, and not just scrolling and swiping through profiles. He hinted at the company’s shift towards more of an entertainment platform to engage these young daters.
“Part of what attracted me to [Tinder] is that you can do so much with a brand like that online. We’re just getting started in many ways,” Lanzone told Variety in their podcast interview. “There’s a lot more to come, especially with what we are internally calling ‘Tinder 3D’ — a much more multimedia, multidimensional version of Tinder.”
Swipe Night was a limited original series that ran every Sunday for a month on the app, where users had to make decisions and were led to different story endings. Their answers populated their profiles, so that they could strike up conversations about their choices with other users. Engagement spiked when the series aired over the app, with 20 million users tuning in to watch and play, and Tinder noting a 26% increase in matches compared with a typical Sunday night. The company has greenlit a second season to debut soon.
About half of Tinder’s user base is Gen Z, showing a shift in what users are looking for on a dating app. Millennials are looking for serious relationships, but Gen Z users are looking for more casual relationships and an entertainment-centered experience.
The technology behind Hyperconnect, a popular social discovery platform in South Korea which was bought by Tinder’s parent company Match Group, will be key to growing Tinder’s offerings, as more young people gravitate toward social apps to meet people.
Lanzone notes that the pandemic shifted peoples’ behaviors and attitudes towards dating apps as they were forced into isolation and lockdowns. In order to connect they had to rely on virtual dating, and now it’s become a popular feature on many dating apps. Lanzone foresees that this will only continue, as Gen Z users are more comfortable going online to meet new people.
Currently, Tinder is testing group video and audio chats, and has announced the features will be rolling out worldwide over the next several months. For more on this dating service you can check our our review of Tinder.