Dating

The founder of Hinge, the fastest-growing app in parent company Match Group’s portfolio, says AI will change the game for dating apps.

McLeod spoke to the Financial Times about a range of topics, including Hinge’s success and where he sees it going, and the advances with generative AI. He noted that the key with AI and dating apps is continually “dialing up the sophistication of our matching algorithms” so that it continues learning about the nuances of preferences and delivering better results, according to The Financial Times.

“Every single time someone goes on a great date, we can look at all the information that led up to it, “ McLeod told the Times. “Everything from their profile information to their behavior on the app, to how many matches they had at the time that they met.”

Image: TInder

Dating app Tinder has released its new dating trends report for 2023, and one of the main findings of the Year in Swipe point to singles wanting a range of dating experiences, rather than being so focused on finding “the one.”

In other words, more singles were interested in their own dating journeys rather than the destination, with Tinder noting that there was a 5.5 times increase in users adding statements in their bios like: “Everything I do is for the plot.” NATO dating was also a big phrase – “not being attached to an outcome.”

Singles also said they embraced “main character energy” in 2023, alluding to stories they can share about their dating lives with their friends (and followers on social media). They said they looked at the dating process as a way of building a roster of new experiences and memories (to add to their personal stories), which took the pressure off outcomes. It also left room for “self-exploration through dating,” according to Match Group’s release.

Image: Stir

Actress Busy Phillips is starring in her latest project – a new holiday promotion for dating app Stir, which caters to single parents.

The campaign MILF on the SHILF campaign satirizes the popular Christmas tradition in many households with kids of “Elf on a Shelf,” but now with an adult twist. The goal is to help single parents have a little fun this holiday season and embrace their inner MILF or DILF (Mother or Father I’d like Fireside, according to the campaign).

The campaign features a video of Phillips in elf attire posing on a mantel, luxuriating in costume in a bath, and advocating for parents to take care of themselves this holiday season – instead of focusing all their attention on making sure the kids have a great holiday.

Tinder and Hinge have recently released new ultra-premium subscriptions for what they called “motivated daters,” but a significant population of singles would rather not pay the steep price for a dating app experience. In fact, the more companies try to monetize dating app features, the more it seems to turn off daters altogether.

A recent report from Bloomberg found that people are gravitating back to in-person events like speed dating, which saw a 63 percent increase in participation this past year according to Eventbrite. And they are reluctant to pay the $500 subscription for Tinder or $60 subscription for Hinge, though Match Group has noticed an uptick in revenue since releasing the premium services.

According to Bloomberg, third-quarter downloads for Hinge were the app’s best ever and that 1.3 million of its users pay for a subscription. Bumble will be offering short term subscriptions as well as its own high-priced premium service in the coming months.

Grindr has become the most popular dating app in the U.K. among singles aged 54 and older, according to a recent study from Ofcom, the country’s communications regulator.

According to The Pink News, Tinder was still the most-downloaded dating app in the UK, with 2.5 million users, followed by Bumble at 1.7 million U.K. users. Grindr has grown in 2023, but it still captures only about 1.9 percent of the U.K. adult population, or 924,000 users. But as far as time spent on the apps per user, Grindr wins hands-down.

In fact, the average user of the gay dating app spent seven hours on it in May of 2023, according to Ofcom, compared to only one hour on Tinder, and a bit more than two hours for each Bumble and Hinge.

Dating app giants Bumble and Match Group have pulled their ads from Instagram after The Wall Street Journal reported that they were appearing next to inappropriate and explicit content.

According to The Times of India, the Wall Street Journal found that the ads of several major brands were being served next to explicit and sexualized content on the social media app, including those of Disney and Walmart.

The Journal set up Instagram test accounts alongside The Canadian Centre for Child Protection which followed young gymnasts, cheerleaders and influencers. When its investigative team looked through Reels on these test accounts, they discovered that Instagram “served jarring doses of salacious content.”