Tinder

Online dating company Match Group’s stock rose after details of its first quarter earnings report were announced. Shares were up 5.3 percent to $146.30 according to recent trading reports.

Barron’s reported that Match Group posted revenue of $668 million for the quarter, up significantly from original Wall Street forecasts of $650.7 million. And profits were also up 57 cents a share, higher than the expected 40 cents per share. Match Group owns a range of popular dating apps, including Tinder, OkCupid, Plenty of Fish, and Hinge as well as niche apps like BLK and OurTime.

Tinder is still the star of Match Group’s offerings and its main revenue stream, with 18 percent growth in revenue for the dating app. However, Match Group noted that it has seen 30 percent growth in the rest of its business. Notably, some of its lesser-known apps like Hinge are seeing a surge of growth as the company invests more in its other offerings, too.

Tinder announced the launch of Vibes, an all-new event feature that presents pop-up questions on the app for limited periods of time to drive user engagement.

According to The Verge, Vibes events will occur once a week for about 48 hours. During the event, users are asked a series of questions on a range of topics, from pop culture to personal habits. If they decide to participate by responding, their answers will populate their profiles for other participants to see and only for a limited time (about 72 hours) before they disappear. 

The questions are intended to be conversation starters as well as fun and a bit insightful, like: “are you always 20 minutes early or ten minutes late?” Or this one revealed in an article by Tech Crunch: “How do you feel about cooking?” Participants can choose answers like “a nicer Gordon Ramsay”, “Low-key would rather starve”, or “For survival only”.  

NSW, Australia’s police force, was in talks with Match Group about new safety proposals to address sexual assault among daters that meet over the company’s apps, but Match Group has so far rejected implementing them.

The proposals from NSW could pose challenges regarding user privacy. The policing agency suggested using AI to scan conversations between users for potential red flags according to Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). NSW also proposed a portal for police to access any reports of sexual assault sent to Match Group’s dating apps. 

"We recognize we have an important role to play in helping prevent sexual assault and harassment in communities around the world,” Match Group said in a statement. "We are committed to ongoing discussions and collaboration with global partners in law enforcement and with leading sexual assault organizations like RAINN to help make our platforms and communities safer.”

Tinder has announced a partnership with language learning platform Duolingo to offer lessons to its users and bridge the language barrier gap for long-distance dates.

The Match Group dating app has offered to give 100,000 users a free month of Duolingo Plus, an online service which offers lessons in multiple languages. According to Tinder, 76 percent of its users who wanted to match with people from other countries found that they were matching with dates who spoke languages other than their own, a barrier to connection. Tinder saw an opportunity to help them with Duolingo.

Image: Tinder

Tinder has formed a new partnership with ride sharing app Lyft to offer its users the ability to gift rides from within the app.

The popular dating app announced in a press release that it will be rolling out the new feature where users can gift their dates a Lyft ride directly without having to leave the app. (Lyft already allows its users to book rides for others, so it extends this ability to Tinder.) The partnership comes on the heels of a new surge of interest from its users to meet each other in person again after a year of lockdowns from coronavirus. Tinder wanted to make it easier for users to stay on the app while planning and meeting their dates.

Match Group’s star dating app noted that additional features of its partnership with Lyft will be rolled out in the future, including exclusive perks for members, though it didn't specify what these features or perks would be. Tinder also noted that its users can take advantage of Lyft’s safety features now, including “the ability to share their location with family and friends and silently request assistance through Emergency Help, supported by ADT.” 

Tinder has announced it will bring back its popular paid premium feature Passport for free, but only for a limited time. The promotion advocates for users to take advantage and enjoy “fantasy flings” while they can. 

Passport lets users to set their current location to any zip code or city in the world, allowing them to match with users in the same areas. The feature is usually a paid premium service, but Passport will be free for all users during the month of April according to CNet. 

The company said of the promotion: "it could be a way of testing the international waters while [users] wait for a vaccine passport.”