Types (Niche)

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Dating app Tinder has released its new dating trends report for 2023, and one of the main findings of the Year in Swipe point to singles wanting a range of dating experiences, rather than being so focused on finding “the one.”

In other words, more singles were interested in their own dating journeys rather than the destination, with Tinder noting that there was a 5.5 times increase in users adding statements in their bios like: “Everything I do is for the plot.” NATO dating was also a big phrase – “not being attached to an outcome.”

Singles also said they embraced “main character energy” in 2023, alluding to stories they can share about their dating lives with their friends (and followers on social media). They said they looked at the dating process as a way of building a roster of new experiences and memories (to add to their personal stories), which took the pressure off outcomes. It also left room for “self-exploration through dating,” according to Match Group’s release.

Grindr has become the most popular dating app in the U.K. among singles aged 54 and older, according to a recent study from Ofcom, the country’s communications regulator.

According to The Pink News, Tinder was still the most-downloaded dating app in the UK, with 2.5 million users, followed by Bumble at 1.7 million U.K. users. Grindr has grown in 2023, but it still captures only about 1.9 percent of the U.K. adult population, or 924,000 users. But as far as time spent on the apps per user, Grindr wins hands-down.

In fact, the average user of the gay dating app spent seven hours on it in May of 2023, according to Ofcom, compared to only one hour on Tinder, and a bit more than two hours for each Bumble and Hinge.

Dating app giants Bumble and Match Group have pulled their ads from Instagram after The Wall Street Journal reported that they were appearing next to inappropriate and explicit content.

According to The Times of India, the Wall Street Journal found that the ads of several major brands were being served next to explicit and sexualized content on the social media app, including those of Disney and Walmart.

The Journal set up Instagram test accounts alongside The Canadian Centre for Child Protection which followed young gymnasts, cheerleaders and influencers. When its investigative team looked through Reels on these test accounts, they discovered that Instagram “served jarring doses of salacious content.”

Grindr employees got approval from the National Labor Relations Board for holding an election to form a union. The ballots will become available November 22nd, and voting will end on December 13th.

According to Bloomberg Law, the government agency ruled in November that a group of about 100 employees can vote on whether they want to be represented by the Communications Workers of America, which guided the employees through its first round of voting earlier this year.

NLRB Regional Director Mori Rubi made the decision to allow Grindr employees to move forward with unionizing. According to Bloomberg, she countered arguments by the company’s management team that product managers should be considered supervisors and therefore be unable to unionize under the current labor laws. Instead, she argued that product managers don’t hold enough power in directing other employees, according to the report.

X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, will be expanded to include a dating app feature.

According to Fox Business, Musk recently held a company-wide meeting on the anniversary of his acquisition of Twitter to announce where he sees the platform headed. At the meeting, employees report that he said that X will become a “fully fledged” dating app in 2024, according to Business Insider.

At the meeting, he also mentioned that banking and transaction features will be added to the app in the near future, referring to these two major moves as being part of the new “everything app” he envisions for X.

College students are turning away from dating apps and prefer to meet others in person, according to a new study by Axios and Generation Lab.

The study polled almost 1,000 college students across the U.S. and found that an overwhelming majority of 79 percent do not go on dating apps or use them less than once per month. According to Axios, Tinder is still the favorite among young daters. Twelve percent of college students use Tinder at least once a month, with Bumble and Hinge close behind at 8 percent of students logging on at least monthly.

A caveat for the study: 55 percent of respondents said they were in a relationship already, so they didn’t need to use a dating app. But at least 64 percent of those met their partners outside of a dating app – either through classes, a party, or an introduction from a friend to name a few. Only 15 percent said they’d met through a dating app, according to PC Magazine UK.