Singles Are Turning to Specialty Dating Apps and Investors are Following

Singles are gravitating towards more targeted dating apps and moving away from the one-size-fits-all platforms like Tinder and Bumble.

According to an article in The Financial Times, specialty apps like Grindr (which serves gay and bisexual men) and Feeld (which serves those looking for non-traditional relationships), are seeing downloads and new users increase. Investors are noticing and are looking to these apps rather than the one-size-fits-all dating apps dominating the market.

Tinder and Bumble have seen a decline in downloads and paying users, which has rattled investors. According to the FT, Match Group which owns Tinder has shed about a fifth of its market value since the beginning of 2023, compared to Grindr whose shares have more than doubled in the same time period.

Grindr CEO George Arison told the Financial Times that the team’s “intimate understanding of gay culture” has helped them “to make a really great product, and then, from that, monetize more and more.”

Match Group launched its own LGBTQ app called Archer, which has had 1.5 million downloads in the first year of its launch. The company plans to focus on its growth going forward, along with its relationship-focused app Hinge, which has seen continued growth alongside Tinder’s decline.

Match Group is also focused on its apps geared toward Black, Latino, and Christian singles, which are also seeing some growth as direct revenues jumped a quarter for these apps from a year earlier, according to The Financial Times.

But don’t discount Tinder and Bumble just yet.

The article also points out that while users have overwhelm and dating app fatigue from popular apps where there are so many options, most singles also use more than one app. And while it’s likely they are turning to specialty apps like Feeld to find more catered experiences, they are also on an app like Tinder which offers more choice.

This is good news for the industry as a whole, according to analysts.

“The growth across these niche products serves as a potential proof point that the online dating category remains healthy,” Deutsche Bank research analyst Benjamin Black told the Financial Times.

He goes on to say that these specialty apps may never see the downloads and paying user numbers that mainstream apps see, partly because they are so specialized. This means only the users the app is targeted to might be willing to pay for it, which means the growth at these companies will always be limited.

As Black told FT: “If you have a vibrant community it is often smaller and, if you try to branch out beyond that, you can alienate the users already on there.”