Online Dating

Bumble is expanding its suite of apps with the acquisition of Official, an app that helps people improve their relationships through check-ins and date planning, according to Fast Company.

Networking and friendship building are already part of Bumble’s platform, and Official adds to the mix to encourage couples to better communicate and set intentions in their relationships.

Official will remain a standalone app for now instead of being folded into Bumble’s app, though CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd told Fast Company that there were opportunities for the two platforms to “collaborate.” Couples who met on another app will also be able to sign up for Official, which means joining Bumble’s userbase. With the addition of Official, Bumble is seizing on an opportunity to keep people on its platforms even after they’ve met and formed a relationship.

A study from The International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health shows that there is a link between dating apps and a negative impact on mental health.

The research showed that there was a link between dating app usage and increased experiences of loneliness, dissatisfaction with life, and feeling excluded from the world, according to Scripps News.

This disconnect has been something that dating app users have experienced and lamented about over the years – specifically, that these platforms are meant to connect people but many of these types of connections can feel temporary or pointless because of behavior like ghosting. Part of the challenge with finding romantic partners on dating apps is that there is an overwhelming amount of choice, and many users feel tempted to keep looking, even when they meet someone they are interested in, which contributes to more behavior like ghosting.

Dating app Tinder announced it will be removing social media handles from user profiles and has revised community guidelines to prevent users from advertising and self-promoting. It will also request that users not share private chats in public settings.

The dating app company said in a press release: “Tinder is not a place to promote businesses to try making money. Members shouldn’t advertise, promote, or share social handles or links to gain followers, sell things, fundraise, or campaign.”

Self-promotion has become an issue on its platform according to Engadget. To curb this kind of behavior, the company said it will be removing social handles from public profiles and prohibit the sharing of other promotional information such as links to online stores or websites.

New research shows that the global dating market is still growing, and is expected to surpass US $12.8 billion by the year 2032. Currently, the market is at US $7.3 billion.

Most of the CAGR (compound annual growth rate) will come from the Asia-Pacific market, where there is the largest young population. In fact, this region has 2 billion active internet users, accounting for 49 percent of the total population. India, Japan and China are seeing the most growth, especially with technology advancements and AI-driven matchmaking and dating services attracting younger users.

However in 2022, North America still brought in the most revenue share at 39 percent, followed by Europe at 25 percent, according to Yahoo! Finance.

Image: Bumble

Bumble has launched a suite of new self-care badges and prompts in time for Mental Health Awareness Month.

The new Profile Prompts and Interest Badges help people highlight and talk about their mental health and self-care practices, according to the company’s press release. The Profile Prompts are available in Date Mode, and users can select from two: “My mental health game changer was…” and “I’m prioritizing my mental health by…”

The new Interest Badges are intended to highlight what self-care is important to a user, and potentially spark further conversation. These include badges for Therapy, Mindfulness, Deep Chats, Nutrition, Sleeping Well, and Time Offline. These badges can be removed or switched out at any time for other interests, and users can add up to three at a time to their profile, according to Bumble's release.

Grindr has launched a web version of its popular LGBTQ+ dating app, allowing people the choice to see more profiles at once and larger photos of potential matches.

According to an exclusive report from Fast Company, the new desktop version will be available to paying users, and will show six profiles on one screen as well as a chat box to message. The web version also offers larger photos of each potential match.

Some Grindr users aren’t comfortable with having the Grindr app on their phones, so this new web version provides a way to use the service more discreetly. Users will still have to download the app on their phones to set up their accounts and subscribe to the service, according to Fast Company, but would be allowed to delete it after it’s established and use the web version going forward.