Tinder

Match Group announced in its quarterly earnings call that its star app Tinder will be launching a “high-end” subscription tier this fall. In addition, Tinder will debut a product refresh to cater to the Gen Z dating market.

The company has been testing price points in different markets, including a $500 subscription that was called Tinder Vault, according to CPO Mark Van Ryswyk. In an interview with Fast Company earlier this year, he noted that there’s a market for daters who are willing to pay for good matches, as evidenced by the success of its exclusive dating app The League.

However, the price point was arguably high for an app that will not include human matchmakers, but instead will continue to rely on technology to serve up better matches.

Dating app Tinder is testing an AI feature that will select the best profile photos for users, according to reports from parent company Match Group’s latest earnings call.

Tech Crunch noted that the AI feature will examine a Tinder member’s photo album and select five that “best represents them for their dating profile.” According to Match Group CEO Bernard Kim, choosing pictures is a stressful process for daters, and typically they have doubts about which ones they pick, what he labeled as a “pain point” on the earnings call.

“Sometimes, people are really excited to jump into the Tinder experience,” Kim said. He continued: “then in that exact moment where you upload five pictures, people get generally nervous or uncomfortable, like, ‘What is the right picture that I’ve taken over the last year to make my dating profile more me?’”

Tinder is heading in a bold new direction that includes regenerative AI and a “fresh and new feel” according to its chief product officer Mark van Ryswyk.

At the Reuters Momentum Festival, the CPO shared that he and his team have been studying common user problems and have identified three key elements to focus on: realness, respect and relevancy. Van Ryswyk said on stage: “There’s an opportunity for us to deliver something by end of year that’s going to start to tackle these things,” he added.

According to Fast Company, Match Group refused to expand on these comments, but the company has been focused on rolling out premium features and appealing to its fastest-growing market Gen Z.

Match Group’s stock rose 21.3 percent during the month of June thanks to analysts’ more positive expectations of a turnaround at Tinder, and CEO Bernard Kim’s large insider buy of the company’s shares.

According to Motley Fool, there is new confidence among analysts in the dating company’s stock, which had been falling in part due to struggles with its flagship dating app Tinder, which led to the company falling short of revenue expectations in the first quarter of 2023.

To respond to concerns of falling subscriptions, the company has been promoting new premium in-app features. It has also invested in a huge marketing campaign for Tinder aimed at Gen Z, its fastest-growing audience. The effort seems to be working, since Gen Z is its fastest-growing audience.

The way dating apps are being used is changing, with more people looking for validation, friendship, and online connection rather than dates.

According to a new study by Stanford Medicine, dating apps are now showing similarities to social media platforms: using them for distraction and entertainment as well as searching for love. Among the 1,387 Tinder users (aged 17 to 84) surveyed for the study, half said they weren’t interested in meeting someone from a dating app offline, and nearly two-thirds were already married or described themselves as “in a relationship.”  

Because of the changing motivations, people’s experiences on dating apps vary widely, according to the researchers, and have “a strong influence on their satisfaction with the app,” according to Scope, published by Stanford Medicine.

NBCUniversal’s Peacock has struck a deal with dating app company Match Group to offer a three-month free subscription of its streaming service to users of the company’s popular dating apps.

The theme of the new campaign is “find someone to get streamy with,” according to the joint announcement.

The companies kicked off the campaign on June 22nd according to The Hollywood Reporter, and the offer will be extended to users of all of Match Group’s apps, including Tinder, Hinge, OkCupid, BLK and Plenty of Fish.

According to the announcement, the campaign will include “editorial content” and “experiential events” that are tied to Peacock programming, such as the upcoming Women’s World Cup and Big Ten football games. Match Group app members who participate will be eligible for additional offers and promotions from Peacock for the duration of the campaign, but the 3-month subscription is available now.