Tinder

Image: Tinder

Tinder announced the launch of its new feature Festival Mode, designed to bring singles together through their mutual love of live music.

The dating app company partnered with Live Nation, as well as event producers AEG Presents and Superstruct Entertainment to offer users who plan to attend festivals this year the opportunity to connect with other attendees over the app, so they can meet up. Participants can match with others as early as a month before the event, and the app will feature over 20 of the biggest festivals across the globe, including The Governors Ball, Bonnaroo, Stagecoach and EDC Las Vegas, as well as Lollapalooza Paris, Falls Festival in Australia, Sonar in Spain and All Points East in the UK. 

The feature will also include a “Festival Goers” space for those who don’t see their event listed or simply want to be part of “festival culture,” according to Tinder’s press release. Festival Mode will be part of the Explore section of the app.

Tinder CEO Renate Nyborg

Image: Match Group

Gen Z makes up more than half of all Tinder users, and they are using the app differently than their older counterparts.

According to a recent interview with Tinder CEO Renate Nyborg published in Fortune, she said that over 50 percent of users are between the ages of 18 and 25, and they are more comfortable keeping things virtual compared to millennials, who typically message each other and schedule a time to meet in person. In 2021 Tinder was 56% of Match Group's revenue which was nearly $3 billion USD.

Gen Z daters have a different approach, which Nyborg referred to as “slow dating.” She noted that Gen Z daters are much more intentional and looking for a connection: “You match with someone, you chat, you go on an Animal Crossing date, you chat some more, you exchange Spotify playlists, and then two months later, you might go on a date.”

As Russia bans more social media platforms, Ukrainians are turning to dating app Tinder to break through the country’s propaganda network.

The U.K.’s Express said that Ukrainians are using Tinder’s Passport feature to match with Russians, and then sharing images from the war over the app to counteract Putin’s propaganda campaign. Russians have been told via state TV that there is no war, and that Russia is “liberating” people in the Ukraine. Putin has banned the use of Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram in an effort to control the narrative.

A Slovakian media agency noted the trend in Tinder and is making it easier for Ukrainians to participate by launching its “Special Love Operation” movement that encourages people to match with Russian singles and flood them with images from the war in Ukraine, so they know what is actually happening. 

New dating apps like Thursday and POM are focusing their efforts on pandemic-weary singles ready to connect via in-person events.

According to a profile of the apps in Business Insider, the apps’ founders saw opportunity as singles grew tired of virtual dating during pandemic lockdowns. As restrictions are starting to lift across the globe, singles are eager to mingle in person again, which is providing new opportunities.

London and New York have both become test cities for Thursday’s events, according to Business Insider. The app has been hosting events in these locations, up to 15 per week that are surpassing venue capacity. This might change in the coming weeks with the latest Omicron surge, but so far it hasn’t slowed the company down.

Tinder announced this week that it has added background checks to its features, thanks to its ongoing partnership with security company Garbo.

Starting now in the U.S., Garbo’s new online background check platform will be available to the general public and launched to Tinder members via the app’s Safety Center. The new service allows easy access to public information about a potential match’s history of violent or harmful behavior, including arrests, convictions, and sex offender registry records.  

According to the company's press release,  Tinder users can tap on a blue safety shield from anywhere in the app to be taken to the Safety Center. From there, they can tap on the Garbo article to be redirected to Garbo’s website where they can provide information about their match – typically only a first name and phone number. If Garbo needs more information, they’ll ask, which may include age.

Dating app Tinder said that it would be ending the controversial aged-based pricing structure for its premium service Tinder Plus by the end of the second quarter.

The news follows a recent UK study that found users were paying wildly different prices to access Tinder’s premium service, typically based on age, which raised questions about discriminatory pricing.

According to Buzzfeed, the Mozilla Foundation and Consumers International took up where the UK consumer watchdog Which? and Australian consumer advocacy organization Choice left off when they first pointed out the issue of price discrepancies on the app. The researchers at Mozilla and CI didn’t find statistically different prices based on race, gender or sexual orientation, but did find it among different age groups.