Relationships

Image: Hinge

Hinge is launching a million-dollar social impact fund called One More Hour to help encourage people to meet in real life in response to the loneliness epidemic. The fund will offer $10,000 to $25,000 grants to 501(c)3 groups in Atlanta, Los Angeles, and New York to develop “fresh, free/low-cost and recurring in-person connection opportunities” for young adults, according to Fast Company.

The idea is to get people engaging more with each other in real life and not just online. The program is intended to fund events that will be organized and ongoing, so that people will feel more encouraged to show up and see what happens.

Hinge’s social impact director Josh Penny told Fast Company that social clubs stand out as a way to combat the loneliness epidemic because of “their welcoming, low-pressure nature.” He adds that telling people to hang out in person doesn’t necessarily work, that you need to offer the structure and support to encourage people to do it.

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.

Image: Bumble

Bumble For Friends, the signature dating app’s standalone app that focuses on helping people find friends, has debuted new AI-based features.

The app announced one new feature dubbed “Plans” which helps users organize a meet-up in real life, and lets them invite up to 15 people. They can create public or private plans from the app, according to Tech Crunch, but the private plans require the planner to send invitations to specific members in their network.

The feature resembles the MeetUp app, where you can organize an event and invite members of your group to attend. Bumble offers options to grab coffee, eat out, do a workout together, “something outdoors” or a night out. Then you can make it public or private, and the last step is choosing the friends from your Bumble network to invite.

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.