Tinder

Online dating algorithms have gotten a lot of attention (and criticism) because they’re the basis of how matchmaking works. Many dating apps are secretive about their matching process, but traditionally, algorithms match people on the basis of profile information, questionnaires, and user preferences.

But according to a recent article by Gizmodo, online dating companies can collect more information about their customers through analyzing user behavior, which includes what users do on social media as well as on the dating app. Companies are now starting to use this behavioral data for matchmaking purposes rather than relying on profiles and user preferences.

eHarmony, Match and OkCupid are known for their long surveys and profile questions, which they maintain helps them more accurately assess potential matches. But dating apps like Tinder, Bumble and LoveFlutter prefer mining users’ social media streams, bypassing questions and looking to online behavior.

Most everyone in America has heard of Tinder, even if they haven’t used it. Many more swipe-friendly dating apps have followed in its popular wake, but still, singles are finding the dating app scene to be a little daunting, more than a little tiring, and would just like to meet someone more organically.

A new study by YouGov Omnibus found that almost half of American singles would prefer to meet a romantic partner in real life rather than through an app like Tinder. According to the study, even Millennials – the generation that brought online dating into the mainstream – prefer to meet potential dates at a bar, coffee shop, or even being set up by friends and family members over swiping right on a dating app.

Researchers surveyed over 1000 single Americans across the U.S. to find out how many have been set up on a date by friends or family, how many would like to be set up again, and how many would rather meet online.

For information on the science of attraction, few names carry more weight than Eli Finkel.

Finkel is a professor at Northwestern University who studies interpersonal attraction, marriage, conflict resolution, and how social relationships influence goal achievement. In his role as director of Northwestern’s Relationships and Motivation Lab (RAMLAB), he has published 130+ scientific papers and is a regular contributor to the Op-Ed page of The New York Times. He’s also the author of a best-selling book, The All-Or-Nothing Marriage, and was called "one of the leading lights in the realm of relationship psychology” by The Economist.

So when Finkel makes a pronouncement about dating, we listen. His most recent research has looked into dating services and matching algorithms, in hopes of answering the most important question of all: do they actually work?

Match Group LLC stock got a boost in early October, thanks to the success of Tinder Gold. The new premium app was among the top apps in the Apple Store, not just among dating apps, but alongside Netflix and Pandora. Match shares were up 3.6% Wednesday October 11, and the stock has jumped more than 50% since the start of the year.

But one question on investors’ minds is: what should we expect from Match Group’s other dating apps?

Match Group owns four of the five most popular dating sites, including Match, OkCupid, Plenty of Fish and Tinder, along with several niche dating sites. The problem for investors despite the good news is that these older sites have gotten less attention in Match Group’s overall valuation, because they aren’t generating the users or attention that Tinder does on an ongoing basis, despite their longevity in the online dating market.

Following in the footsteps of Facebook and iMessage, Tinder has introduced a collection of custom animated responses called Reactions. The emoji-like animations include hearts, an eye roll, a round of applause, and what’s surely doomed to become omnipresent and overused: a martini being tossed (presumably in someone’s face).

Tinder introduced Giphy support and bigger emojis in January of last year. Reactions further cement Tinder’s reputation as a more casual place to date, and though they may seem to be yet another excuse for singles to put minimal effort into conversations, they were actually designed to serve a higher purpose.

“In a perfect world, everyone would always treat each other with respect—whether it's from behind a phone screen or IRL. Unfortunately, it’s not a perfect world and most women have encountered douchey behavior at some point,” says Tinder’s Reactions announcement. “So the women of Tinder are on a mission to make calling it out, when it happens on Tinder, easy and fun while letting the nice guys know they aren’t finishing last.”

Tinder Online now Available!

Some would argue that Tinder is the app that started it all. Though it wasn’t the first dating or social networking application to launch, it’s the one that rocketed mobile matchmaking into the public consciousness and made the swipe an iconic part of pop culture. News outlets called it “the next Facebook.”

In the years following its 2012 launch, Tinder has spread to 190 countries, grown to 1.6 billion swipes per day, inspired 1.5 billion dates per week, and racked up more than 20 billion total matches. Yet in all that time, despite all those impressive decimal places, there was one thing it never did: go online.

Tinder remained a mobile-only service until March 2017, when it made an announcement many had been waiting for. Tinder Online had arrived, allowing users to swipe from any browser, on any device, anywhere in the world - whether or not they had 4G or enough memory free on their smartphones.

Well, not quite anywhere.