Features

Tinder’s new CTO Maria Zhang has her work cut out for her: she’s tasked with making the popular dating app Tinder more engaging for users around the world, and moving away from the mindless swipe the app introduced. She also wants to create a better user experience specifically for female Tinder users.

According to a feature in PC Magazine, Zhang hired a team of female developers to help her craft new premium features and make Tinder more inclusive for users in other countries, who don’t meet or date people in the same way Americans do. She also opened a satellite tech office in Silicon Valley in addition to hiring staff for the L.A. headquarters.

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.

Online dating has always held some risk, and in recent years, the challenge of protecting consumers from trolls and unwanted messages has increased. Many dating apps like Tinder are finding themselves at risk to hackers who are creating fake accounts and hacking other users - this in addition to increasing problems with lewd messages. A new dating app called Hily aims to change that trend.

Many dating apps are trying to put more safety measures in place to verify their users. According to an article in TechCrunch, cyber security researchers found that hackers could create a Chrome plugin so that a Tinder user could find the locations of Facebook friends who were also on Tinder (even though they didn’t disclose this information on their social media feeds), a scary thought for online daters who are trying to keep their personal information private.

The lack of security has been especially difficult for young women who use dating apps. More and more are reporting getting trolled or harassed by other users on online dating sites, or sent unwanted messages and photos. This is one of the reasons female-friendly apps like Bumble have become so popular – women have more control of their experience on the app. But verifying profiles has remained a challenge, as hackers have found ways around protections.

Remember when people wondered if Tinder would ever successfully monetize? Those days seem like a lifetime ago.

The company has released a string of money-making features since its 2012 launch, ranging from Super Like to the premium Tinder Plus membership. The latest to join the line-up is Tinder Gold - an optional, upgradeable tier that allows users to see who swiped right on their profile without swiping right back.

Tinder Gold was released in the United States in late August following testing in select markets around the world. The members-only service offers the app’s most popular exclusive features, including Passport, Rewind, Unlimited Likes, five Super Likes per day, one Boost per month, and more profile controls. It also includes the new Likes You feature, which reveals who’s into you before you swipe.

The dating app that started a cultural revolution, at least as far as online dating goes, is changing its focus from swiping - a fundamental part of its technology. Tinder, which made its reputation as a hot-or-not dating app thanks to its innovative swiping function, is now offering more functionality to profile viewing through tapping.

Instead of just swiping through different user profiles, Tinder is offering a deeper look and more functionality and ease to check out a person’s profile before you say yes or no. This includes toggling between a user’s photos and also between photos and written profiles.

Part of the rollout includes a new visual approach. Each profile photo extends to the edges of the phone, giving users a better, cleaner look at a potential match (as well as an even more visual experience). The look is also similar to other visual apps, like Snapchat.

Popular dating app Bumble is a rising star among competitors to Tinder, mainly because of its female-friendly focus, giving women the power to initiate contact with matches. Now, Bumble is expanding beyond the dating scene with its new platform BumbleBizz, aiming to connect professionals looking for a new job, a business partner, or to hire new talent.

According to a feature in Fast Company, Bumble aims to give LinkedIn a run for their money, focusing once again on women in the workplace. Bumble itself is a female-only operation, with CEO Whitney Wolfe (a former co-founder of Tinder), at the helm. She has hired a team of women to help grow the company and launch BumbleBizz.

Notably, Wolfe is aiming to attract women. BumbleBizz works as its dating app counterpart does, where anyone can create profiles and swipe, but women initiate contact. While LinkedIn might be king of networking opportunities, Bumble aims to give it a run for its money by targeting a female demographic and giving them a leg-up.