Marketing

Online dating companies are thinking outside the box, thanks to the flooded app market and growing consumer base. Popular dating apps Tinder and Hinge are now offering wedding competitions to users who meet through each of their respective dating apps.

Tinder announced that it would offer to pay $100K towards the cost of an LGBTQ wedding for a couple who met through the app. The move was a nod in honor of Pride Month in June.

Tinder launched a new feature last year to include “transgender” as a gender choice, along with almost 40 other options with which users can choose to identify. The company saw an additional 250,000 new matches made as a result of the inclusion, and now, they want to encourage one lucky LGBTQ couple to tie the knot. Tinder also discovered via a recent study that these users are more likely to want a serious relationship, rather than a hook-up. According to an article in Elite Daily, the large majority of gay users (66.4 percent) and lesbian users (62.1 percent) agree that using Tinder will lead to a long-term relationship.

See how Bucket List works

We’re headed into summer, and online dating company Match conducted a survey to assess how many singles feel more adventurous this time of year. The results are in – 85% said that a potential date’s sense of adventure was an attractive quality, and 76% said they’d like to try something new in the coming months.

In fact, the results were overwhelmingly clear – singles crave a sense of adventure. Seventy-three percent said they would actually be more attracted to someone if they had a bucket list item in common, and 66% of singles said they would likely check off one of their bucket list items on a date.

Because of this, Match decided to create a new feature on their dating app called ‘Bucket List’ to highlight potential dates’ sense of adventure.

It seems many dating apps now want to distance themselves from Tinder, even though the tremendous growth of online dating was thanks to Tinder’s swiping technology. Now, instead of endless swiping that goes nowhere, a common complaint among Tinder users, a new app is offering something more intimate: requiring a phone call to connect with a match.

Dating app Hotline launched in New York last month, and is already getting some buzz thanks to its old-school premise: talking on the phone. The app doesn’t let you text until you’ve made at least one phone call and talked to your match first.

How to use BumbleVID

Do you think a few photos provide enough information to determine whether or not someone is a good match? The makers of dating app Bumble think they aren't, and that video can help.

The popular female-centric dating app will soon release BumbleVID, which will allow users to create a video "story" with unlimited 10-second videos, which will each delete after 24 hours. According to Bumble founder Whitney Wolfe, the video feature was inspired by Snapchat.

To make sure the videos are current, Bumble asks users to record their 10-second features within the app, which then posts to their profiles. If someone wants to use a pre-recorded video from their phone or another source, it has to have been recorded within the last 24 hours. These videos will also be marked with a tag saying they weren’t posted “live.” The new BumbleVID feature also lets users send their videos to specific matches.

The last place many love weary daters would go for advice on how to date is consulting a dating app. Especially Tinder, which has often been accused of being a “hook-up” app, and recently taken to task by competitor Hinge for that reputation.

But last month, Tinder launched a brand new podcast offering online daters some much-needed advice.

Branded podcasts are popping up everywhere, since the platform has really caught on with the way the public consumes information. According to Edison Research, about 21% of Americans over the age of 12, or 57 million people, listen to a podcast monthly, up from 17% last year. It seems Tinder is trying to capitalize on its success and pave a more helpful and hopeful path while expanding its user base.

It seems every online business is tapping into the lucrative and popular online dating industry. The latest newbie?  Goldstar, the company that offers online discounts for tickets to your favorite shows, events and concerts.

It makes sense for Goldstar to get involved in the dating scene, since they already provide tickets to fun events, a perfect setting for a blind date. How About We and other online dating services are already focused on matching people through events and by planning first dates, hoping to attract users who are tired of endlessly messaging matches, which can happen with apps like Tinder.

But how exactly does it work?