Match Group

Tinder announced its new exclusive VIP service Tinder Select, which will cost members almost $500 per month (which works out to $6,000 per year!).

The new service will give top-tier members access to new features like a “VIP search, matching and conversation,” according to Bloomberg, none of which are currently available in Tinder’s existing paid subscription plans. Tinder did not reveal any details about the features.

The new service might have some similarities to exclusive dating app The League, which Tinder’s parent company Match Group acquired last year. There’s a market for exclusivity on dating apps, and the company is betting that offering a premium service will work for Tinder, too.

Tinder has been testing the VIP service, but now it’s an official subscription tier, at least for those invited to join. The new service was only offered to less than 1 percent of the most active Tinder users, according to Bloomberg News.

The Australian government told the dating app industry that they must improve safety standards on their apps or risk being forced to make changes through legislation. Dating app companies were given until June 30th, 2024 to develop a “voluntary code of conduct” to address user concerns about safety.

According to the Associated Press, the government was basing its decision on new research that found three-quarters of dating app users in Australia between 2016 and 2021 had suffered some form of sexual violence. The research was conducted by the Australian Institute of Criminology and published last year.

Communications Minister Michelle Rowland noted that dating apps have become the most popular way to meet people, and therefore must improve when it comes to protecting the people using them. “The government is concerned about rates of sexual harassment, abusive and threatening language, unsolicited sexual images and violence facilitated by these platforms,” she said, according to Associated Press.

Image: hinge

Dating app Hinge recently removed the audio and video calling feature from its app, posting that people were no longer using the feature as much as they had during the pandemic.

Hinge introduced the features early on during lockdowns so that Hinge users could virtually engage rather than risk exposure through in-person meet-ups. However, things have changed since then. According to Fast Company, Hinge noted that people would rather meet in person to see if there’s a connection than do a video date.

While this move might not be a surprise to Hinge users, the company did not announce it to the press. Instead, Hinge only mentioned it in an undated blog post in its Help Center, according to Fast Company.

Young jobseekers in China are increasingly turning to Tinder to network and look for a job, rather than to find a date.

According to Sixth Tone, young Chinese college graduates are gravitating to the platform in the midst of a record-setting 20 percent unemployment rate across the country. Tinder is not one of the more popular dating apps in China, but it is known, mostly for the type of people who are on it. Namely, employees of large companies that hold some of the most coveted jobs in the country.

Tinder is also not officially accessible in China, though residents have found a way to join. In fact, the difficulty associated with accessing the platform is one of the reasons people are turning to it – because they have access to people they wouldn’t normally encounter in everyday life. In this region, Tinder skews toward people who have studied overseas and now work for international companies.

Image: Tinder

Tinder is reaching out to the coveted Gen Z market by partnering with Saweetie to welcome eighteen-year-olds to college, and to encourage them to meet people using the app.

Swipe Off is the nationwide challenge the dating app has launched, where it will award the college or university with the most swipe activity with a free concert headlined by the popular rapper, along with a surprise special guest.

The Swipe Off challenge is only open to select campuses participating in Tinder U, which is a feature college students can select that lets them connect with others at their school. According to the company’s announcement on the blog, the school that accumulates the most likes (or nopes) on Tinder by October 6th will win the free concert with Saweetie.

Image: Hinge

Dating app Hinge wants people to connect with their dates instead of scrolling their phones, and so it has launched a new guide to help curb dating distraction.

According to Mashable, a whopping 78 percent of Hinge users say that they believe their date isn’t interested in them if they look at their phones during the date (even though a lot of dating app users admit to doing this themselves). Seventy-five percent say they are more hesitant to open up to a date when they are on their phone.

Hinge’s new Distraction Free Dating Guide was created by Logan Ury, Hinge’s director of relationship science, and Moe Ari Brown, the company’s love and connection expert, in collaboration with the Foundation for Social Connection.