Tinder

If you’ve tried out Tinder (or any dating service, for that matter) you’ve probably run across your fair share of bizarre conversations. It's a strange world out there. Sometimes the weirdness borders on amusing, but all too often it's annoying or downright creepy.

Thankfully, the Internet makes it easy to disengage from the creeps. It takes no effort whatsoever to ignore a message and hardly anything extra to block or report a user. But where's the fun in that? Why take the high road when you could take the low road, where all the fun is?

Anna Gensler, a 23-year-old artist, has a much more interesting way of dealing with the deadbeats of online dating. She began drawing nude portraits of the creeps who contacted her via Tinder, and posting the results to Instagram (NSFW, of course) alongside their offensive messages. And then, for the cherry on top, she sends the finished product back to the culprit for a final review.

Slate spoke with Gensler about her unique approach to turning harassment into art. “I feel like this gets me in trouble a lot,” she said of her inspiration for the project, “but when someone does something I think is rude, I always want to give them a taste of their own medicine. I’m an artist, and I try to use art as my weapon, even though that sounds so lame. So I thought, ‘What is something I can do to make me feel the way that they’re making me feel?’”

She settled on drawing them “sad-naked,” the most immature thing she could think of, because “their pickup lines are the most juvenile, basic things, but also still oddly offensive.” Each of her portraits is based on the guys' profile pictures, but modified to be as unflattering as possible. The subjects are all made chubbier, scrawnier, or just not particularly well-endowed.

Not satisfied with taking on the creeps of Tinder, Gensler joined OkCupid in hopes of finding new subjects worthy of her artistic intentions. She even put a blatant warning on her profile – “I’m going to draw you naked if you send me rude messages” – and a link back to the Instagram. Whether or not it deterred potential creeps is unknown, but it did intrigue a surprising number of nice guys who found the project funny and requested a portrait of their own.

And what about the guys who receive Gensler’s works of art? “There are a few approaches,” she explained. “Some of them get really angry and say a bunch of mean stuff. Some of them get a little bit offended ‘and say, “Why am I so fat? My facial hair doesn’t really look like that. My nipples are smaller than that!’ They think I didn’t do them justice. Some people just block me. But a couple of guys have actually said smart things after I sent it to them.”

No dating service gets more attention than Tinder these days. We hear from a lot of uptight journalists who worry that the app encourages hook-ups, and from finance experts wondering how the app will eventually monetize, and from discouraged daters telling their Tinder horror stories.

But today let’s take a look at the lighter side of Tinder. There’s a lot going on in the mobile app’s world, and plenty of it is downright hysterical.

First, a man posed as a cupcake on Tinder and wrote about his experience for Thrillist. “If there's one thing I've learned about heterosexual women,” he writes, “it's that they like men. They enjoy their company. They even marry them, sometimes. But they love cupcakes. And if there's another thing I know, it's that single women are on Tinder. So armed with those two pieces of knowledge, I set out to create a Tinder persona that no woman could resist: a man's face drawn on a cupcake.” The results of his experiment are hilarious.

Perhaps inspired by the cupcake, another man decided to join Tinder as a golden retriever named Hero. Hero, like the cupcake before him, proved to be a very popular match. The faux canine received 206 matches – 154 from men and 52 from women – after just four fun-filled days on the app.

If hilarious and heart-warming stories of baked goods and puppies aren’t your thing, try Humanitarians of Tinder. The sarcastic Tumblr ruthlessly rolls its eyes at the single do-gooders annoyingly capitalizing on their charity work (and maybe just regular travels) around the world. Warning: with all the facepalming you’re about to do, forehead bruising is a serious possibility.

Then there’s Tinderfessions, a Twitter account that's exactly what it sounds like. This is a prime destination for awkward, funny, and sorta depressing tales of Tinder gone wrong, mixed in with happy stories of Tinder love gone oh-so-right. “Only met one guy in person. haven’t left his place since our first date. this was over a month ago. #thankstinder #keeper.” writes a user named Kels. “All my pics are with my really good-looking friend and in my bio I say I’m him. #catfish,” admits Trent. Expect to feel a lot of ups and downs as you read this feed.

If you want to skip the ups and cut straight to the downs (the comical kind, that is) head on over to Tinderlines.com, where you’ll be treated to a collection of “the best, the worst, and the funniest Tinder pick-up lines.” Prepare yourself for bad jokes, snappy comebacks, sexual innuendo, mathematical equations, song lyrics, one-sided conversations, and a whole lotta laughter.

To find out more about this dating app you can read our review of Tinder.

Despite still facing the occasional naysayer, the Internet and dating have proved to be a match made in heaven. With consumers using the Internet more and more each year, demand for online dating services continues its meteoric rise. In particular, the ever-increasing popularity of smartphones has made mobile applications a booming business for dating services.

IBISWorld, a global business intelligence leader specializing in Industry Market Research and Procurement and Purchasing research reports, recently put together a comprehensive guide to the online dating industry's market size and growth prospects. By all accounts, the future looks bright for the industry's biggest forces.

InterActiveCorp is the one to beat. The largest company in the industry, IAC counts Match, OkCupid, and Tinder amongst its brands. The New York City-based company is expected to grab 27% of the estimated $2.2 billion market for US dating services in 2014, according to the new IBISWorld report. Analyst Jeremy Edwards predicts IAC's US Match revenue will rise 11.5% to $605.1 million this year, with operating income up 14% to $192.8 million.

Coming solidly in second place is eHarmony, a privately held company based out of Santa Monica, CA. eHarmony proudly dominates 13.8% of the US dating service market, IBISWorld says. The company’s projected US revenue for 2014 is $310 million, up 6.9%, with operating income up 9.6% to $35.3 million.

Spot #3 goes to San Francisco-based Zoosk, with 5.1% market share. 2014 has been a big year for Zoosk so far. The company filed for an initial public offering in April and IBISWorld predicts it will generate $114.2 million in US sales, up 24.5%, and operating income of $3.5 million. That's a nice change from a loss of $100,000 in 2013.

Finally, occupying fourth place, is dating service Spark Networks, with 3.2% US market share.

Altogether, the four largest companies account for 49.1% of US dating service revenue. The industry’s other winners are mobile dating (26%), matchmakers (14%), and singles events (7%).  IBISWorld expects the US dating service industry to grow at an annual rate of 4.2% from 2014 through 2019 - at which point it predicts sales will reach a whopping $2.7 billion.

"It is estimated that niche dating networks and services catering to the baby boomer generation will see the most growth," Edwards said. "In addition, revenue for the mobile dating market is expected to nearly double in the next five years, with rising smartphone adoption and new location-based features leading the market." 

Most of us know about dating apps like Tinder that can help you meet people. But what if you need help picking out a good restaurant to meet a date, or what line should you use to approach a woman at a bar? Don’t worry, there are apps for those things, too.

Apps can give you a wealth of creative ideas for everything from where to go on a first date to how to pick out a good wine. An app can be a lifesaver if you get lost on your way to someplace new, or if you need last-minute tickets to a concert. It can also be a good source for discounts, since dating can get expensive.

Following are some apps you must download today to help your dating life – just be sure to put your phone away once you’re on the date:

IAC has released its first quarter 2014 financial results. All in all, the company reports $740.2 million in revenue for Q1 2014, more or less on par with the $742.2 million in revenue of Q1 2013.

Websites revenue increased thanks to the acquisition of the “Owned & Operated” website businesses of ValueClick (which the company acquired in January of this year), the contribution of CityGrid Media, and growth at About.com. On the other hand, applications revenue decreased, primarily due to lower queries in B2B. Adjusted EBITDA decreased as well, as a result of lower revenue in B2B and higher marketing expense in B2C.

The Match Group – which includes Match.com, Chemistry, People Media, OkCupid, and other dating businesses – saw 9% growth in dating revenue (broken down into 7% growth in North America and 12% growth in International). Non-dating revenue grew 53%. Despite the higher revenue, driven mostly by increased subscribers, IAC’s profits declined due to a significant increase in marketing expenses for certain businesses.

Dating revenue for North America totaled $134.5 million in Q1 2014, up 7% from $125.6 million in Q1 2013. International dating revenue jumped 12% to $70.5 million in Q1 2014 from $63.2 million in Q1 2013. Combining both, IAC’s total dating revenue for Q1 2014 is $205 million, an increase of 9% from $188.9 million in Q1 2013.

The question now, of course, is what does the rest of 2014 have in store for IAC?

One major change that stands to make a huge impact on IAC's bottom line is the monetization of Tinder. Though IAC has declined to specify its exact ownership stake in the company, it has said that Tinder is now completely owned by IAC and Tinder executives, with CEO Sean Rad at the helm. The hugely popular mobile dating app is the hottest company in IAC's portfolio, but it doesn't yet generate any revenue. IAC has announced that 2014 will be the year that changes, though they've been vague so far about the exact way that monetization will take place.

The most obvious strategy would be to run ads on the service. In fact, it wouldn't be the first time it's happened. Fox used fake profiles to promote The Mindy Project, as did the USA Network program Suits, though they did not bring Tinder or IAC any revenue and a company spokesperson maintains that the campaigns were "strategic partnerships" rather than advertising.

Happily ad-free Tinder users should enjoy the experience while it lasts – with all the money-making potential the app packs, it’s probably only a matter of time before ads become the new norm.

What makes Tinder so damn special?

There’s certainly something that’s catapulted the dating app straight into the mobile stratosphere, but users, investors, fans, and detractors alike are still trying to put their finger on exactly what makes the app so popular. Carrie Yurie, a writer for the Huffington Post, had a chance to interview Tinder CEO Sean Rad after his talk at GigaOm Roadmap to hear more about what's going on behind the scenes.

Though Tinder seems simple on the surface, the app leverages a fundamental understanding of human behavior in order to optimize user experience. Rad says “We built…a flow that emulates interactions in the real world. What we’re striving to do with Tinder is understand what are the sort of social dynamics, physical dynamics, the flows of where you start with a request or desire to make a new relationship and how that progresses to you actually meeting that person, talking to that person and getting to know them.” Armed with an understanding of how human relationships are built in the real world, Tinder attempts to emulate that natural flow with its app.

One question that continually comes up where online dating is concerned is whether users are looking for serious relationships or just searching for short-term hook-ups. Rad thinks Tinder is effective either way – it all depends on a user’s original intentions.

“I think it emulates whatever you want in the real world,” he told Yurie. “So if you are young and you don’t want to be in a serious relationship, you are going to look for that on Tinder, or if you are older and desire something more serious you will look for that.” Ultimately, the younger generation that makes up the largest portion of Tinder's user base is all about going with the flow and dating without a specific outcome in mind.

Tinder has worked hard to appeal to its target millennial market. We all know how it works on the front end, but what’s happening backstage? According to Rad, Tinder observes a user's behavior in the app to determine compatibility. That's nothing new, but Tinder is able to take it to an extreme degree. “When you match with somebody,” Rad explains, “we look at the depth of the conversations you are having with your various matches. You might have a deeper conversation with one person of a certain characteristic or another person of another different characteristic.”

At the end of the day, Tinder prefers to keep things simple. The app is consistently grounded in real life, putting the focus on the human experience outside the digital realm. “It all comes down to what do people want to do, how do they want to do it, and how do we create a frictionless experience to allow them to do that?” Rad says. “Whether we are coming up with a feature or improving something, we always look at, first and foremost, how does that relate to some desire or some thought process that the user has.”

For more on this dating app you can read review of Tinder.