Industry

Image: Vox Media

Vox Media’s award-winning podcast series Land of the Giants, which is about the biggest tech companies and their impact on our culture, will focus on dating apps for its second season.

Hosted by Lakshmi Rengarajan, who spent several years at Match Group, and The Cut’s Sangeeta Singh-Kurtz, the two explore the industry as a whole and the experience of dating app users. The series delves into how dating apps have changed how we approach dating, and how the dating app industry designs apps to keep people coming back.

The series was inspired by New York Magazine’s special issue evaluating the last ten years of dating apps, according to The Cut. After surveying thousands of daters about their experiences with popular dating apps like Tinder, Hinge and Bumble, New York Magazine found that people felt caught in a cycle where they enjoyed the swiping experience for a few weeks, but then when nothing much changed, they deleted their dating apps - only to return to them again.

Executives from dating app companies operating in Australia have been called by the country’s officials to meet and discuss how to address safety concerns and the high rates of assault on their platforms.

According to Epoch Times, the talks will take place in early 2023, and focus on both legislative and security measures to address the problem. This comes in the wake of the Australian government’s move to allow its eSafety Commission to “regulate illegal and restricted content no matter where it’s hosted including on online app distribution services and search engines.”

The push for action come about because of a report released in October by the Australian Institute of Criminology, according to the Epoch Times, in which a jaw-dropping 75 percent of respondents said they had been subjected to some type of sexual violence via dating apps over the past five years. Researchers also found that a third experienced abuse from someone they met online dating, which included “sexual assault or coercion, reproductive and sexual-health-related abuse and in-person image-based sexual abuse.”

After a rough patch at the end of November where the newly launched stock for dating app Grindr hit an all-time low, it is now looking more promising for potential investors.

Seeking Alpha reported that shares on November 29th opened at $8, reaching a high of $9 before falling to $6.52 in the late afternoon. The stock had only debuted on November 18, following its merger with SPAC Tiga Acquisition Corp which valued the combined company at $2.1 billion. Shares of the combined company rose over 500 percent before closing its first day at $36.50, but then plunged the next day and did not recover through the end of November and into December.

Grindr however released its third quarter earnings report in early December, noting that revenue for the quarter was up 32 percent year-over-year to $50.4 million, and year-to-date revenue was up to $140.5 million. 

Image: OkCupid

Dating app OkCupid recently surveyed its users to assess the state of dating around the world in 2022. The company found that users are increasingly interested in discussing mental health and inflation concerns with potential dates.

Nearly all 1.6 million respondents from around the world said that mental health was as important as physical health, a noticeable shift in what daters are willing to talk about as they are getting to know each other. In fact, there was an 18 percent increase in people mentioning “mental health” and “therapy” on OkCupid profiles compared to last year. Part of the reason according to OkCupid is that Gen Z is driving these conversations and are a growing demographic. Discussions about mental health have also increased in the wake of the pandemic.

One of the most-asked questions on the platform is “are you sensitive?” and more than 90 percent of singles surveyed said they are (51 percent said sometimes, and 42 percent said all of the time). The company noted that admitting this seems to garner more attention and better response, especially for men.

An Illinois Court will hear a case against Match Group’s Tinder app over how it collects and stores the biometric data of its users.

According to Global Dating Insights, the way Tinder stores sensitive data such as physical characteristics and body measurements violate the state’s Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA). Tinder (and parent company Match Group) failed to gather signed consent from Illinois users before retaining facial scans. This data is collected as part of Tinder’s photo verification feature, a new safety measure launched by the company to help reduce fake profiles and potential scammers on the app.

Illinois has specific regulations regarding not only the storage of the biometric data, but also disclosing information to the user about how that data will be handled and managed. Specifically, the plaintiffs allege that Tinder’s process poses a security risk because of what might happen if the data were to be obtained by hackers. As Global Dating Insights points out, biometric data is extremely sensitive data as it is a permanent identifier of the user, as opposed to passwords which can be changed.

Match’s annual Singles in America study found that one in five singles are hesitant to have sex in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe vs. Wade, which protected abortion rights for women across the country. Singles are also changing their habits due to the rising costs associated with dating.

Match found that four out of every five respondents have adjusted their behavior as a result of the Supreme Court’s ruling, including increasing their use of condoms and having a greater fear of getting pregnant.

The survey found that seven in ten singles still maintain that sex is a good thing and improves their mental health, and 71 percent feel better after having sex. Still, they are more hesitant to have sex because of the Supreme Court decision. Many states are enacting legislation to either restrict or ban abortions altogether, placing more of a burden on single women who are of child-bearing age to seek medical care.