Milestones

Match Group’s new queer dating app Archer launched nationwide on October 11th, which was also National Coming Out Day. And to celebrate, the app hosted parties at popular gay bars across the country.

The app’s headquarters is based in Dallas and Austin (also Match Group’s headquarters), which have some of the country’s most active LGBTQIA+ scenes. Prior to launch, the app was tested in the New York and Los Angeles markets and saw early success, especially among younger users. The company points out that 62 percent of people on Archer were 35 years or younger, according to Culture Map Austin.

The launch parties and events taking place in major cities (though not Austin), are in line with Archer’s mission: an app designed to foster a social environment. The app is marketed as a “social first” app, allowing users to express themselves through photos, messaging (including group messaging), and connecting without any kind of preset label. In fact, the profiles are arranged in feed and grid view options typically found in social media, rather than on dating apps.

Tinder announced its new exclusive VIP service Tinder Select, which will cost members almost $500 per month (which works out to $6,000 per year!).

The new service will give top-tier members access to new features like a “VIP search, matching and conversation,” according to Bloomberg, none of which are currently available in Tinder’s existing paid subscription plans. Tinder did not reveal any details about the features.

The new service might have some similarities to exclusive dating app The League, which Tinder’s parent company Match Group acquired last year. There’s a market for exclusivity on dating apps, and the company is betting that offering a premium service will work for Tinder, too.

Tinder has been testing the VIP service, but now it’s an official subscription tier, at least for those invited to join. The new service was only offered to less than 1 percent of the most active Tinder users, according to Bloomberg News.

Nearly half of Grindr employees quit the company after they were given an ultimatum to return to work in the office.

Company executives announced the new workplace policy on an all-employee call in early August, and gave employees two weeks to decide whether they would agree to work in the office or hand in their resignation. Executives demanded employees relocate to one of the Grindr offices in Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, Chicago, or Washington D.C.

According to CNN, 80 of Grindr’s 178 workers who had turned down the in-office mandate were forced to quit by the end of August. Most of these employees were remote workers, and many said that this would put an undue burden on them, including finding housing and schools for their children to attend in a new city.

Employees have also been vocal about Grindr executives using the new policy as a retaliatory tactic against employees, who only weeks before voted to organize a union, demanding fair wages and equal treatment for all employees. Grindr employees worked in partnership with the CWA (Communication Workers of America) to initiate.

Match Group has hired a new Vice President of Innovation, a role that will direct the use of AI over its suite of apps.

Mark Kantor comes from his previous role as head of growth at Zynga, and co-founded startups like Yellowbrick and Grafitti, according to Tech Crunch. He will lead a team of engineers and product designers in harnessing AI technology for new features. According to an internal memo received by Tech Crunch, the new team is called ASL, which stands for Art x Science Lab, but is also a reference to an online pickup line (“age, sex, location”).

AI has been a tool that dating apps have incorporated in various ways, including in algorithms to better understand user preferences when delivering potential matches. Now with tools like ChatGPT, daters are using AI for profile-writing and messages, so dating app companies like Match Group are seeing opportunity.

Match Group announced in its quarterly earnings call that its star app Tinder will be launching a “high-end” subscription tier this fall. In addition, Tinder will debut a product refresh to cater to the Gen Z dating market.

The company has been testing price points in different markets, including a $500 subscription that was called Tinder Vault, according to CPO Mark Van Ryswyk. In an interview with Fast Company earlier this year, he noted that there’s a market for daters who are willing to pay for good matches, as evidenced by the success of its exclusive dating app The League.

However, the price point was arguably high for an app that will not include human matchmakers, but instead will continue to rely on technology to serve up better matches.

A supermajority of Grindr employees have launched a campaign to form a union, announcing the plan via the Communication Workers of America (CWA) to collectively fight for layoff protections, preserve current benefits, add cost of living pay raises, and strengthen LGBTQ+ rights in the workplace, among other demands.

According to Grindr United’s press release announcing its formation, about 100 eligible members from departments across the company including cloud engineering, customer experience, design, engineering, IT, marketing, privacy, product and quality assurance signed representation cards at Grindr.

Employees are asking Grindr management to recognize their union, but if they refuse, employees will petition the National Labor Relations Board to hold an election, according to The Los Angeles Times. (U.S. Labor law allows companies to negotiate and recognize a union once they have signed up a majority of employees (which Grindr United has), or to hold out for a government-run election.)