FAST COMPANY – A new Tawkify survey of ~1K U.S. adults shows daters in 2025 are far more flexible about unemployment: only 29% see joblessness as a red flag, and just 42% consider living with parents a deal-breaker. Most employed singles (75%) are open to dating someone unemployed if they have a side hustle or personal project. But unemployment still reshapes dating behavior: only one in three jobless singles actively look for a partner, many stop dating or switch to cheaper dates, and 65% cite financial strain as the biggest barrier. Confidence also drops, with 62% feeling less desirable and 52% anxious about disclosing unemployment.
THE OBSERVER – Bumble has weakened its long-standing “women message first” rule after facing more than 20K legal threats and a lawsuit from men’s-rights activists who argue the feature discriminates against men. The change comes during a difficult period for the company: its share price has fallen ~90% since 2021, user numbers are dropping, and Bumble has carried out two rounds of layoffs of ~30% each. Founder Whitney Wolfe Herd has returned as CEO and ordered a full rebuild of the app, but former staff say the company is drifting away from the women-first identity it was built on. The key lawsuit, led by activist lawyer Alfred Rava, remains ongoing, adding further pressure as Bumble struggles to compete with faster-growing rivals like Hinge.
ALTCOINBUZZ – Worldcoin has integrated its privacy-preserving identity tools into Tinder, introducing a “verified human” badge and age assurance that confirm users are real and of age without revealing personal data.
THE GUARDIAN – Six U.S. women have filed a lawsuit against Match Group, accusing Hinge and Tinder of enabling a Denver cardiologist, Stephen Matthews, to continue drugging and assaulting women despite multiple reports about him. Matthews, convicted in 2024 and sentenced to up to 158 years, was reportedly able to stay on Hinge, be labeled a “standout match,” unmatch victims before they could report him, and even rejoin Match apps after bans. The suit, supported by findings from the Dating App Reporting Project, argues Match Group’s design and moderation failures “accommodated rapists” by allowing banned or reported users to remain active. Match Group has previously said it invests in safety tools, though product testing shows banned users can still return on several of its apps. Legal experts say the case may struggle due to Section 230, which shields platforms from liability, but survivors maintain Match had the resources to prevent further harm.
REUTERS – Austrian privacy group NOYB has filed complaints against TikTok, Grindr, and AppsFlyer, alleging they violated EU GDPR rules by tracking users across apps and sharing sensitive data without consent. NOYB says a user discovered, through a data-access request, that TikTok had accessed information about their Grindr activity, along with data from other apps, via AppsFlyer. The group claims TikTok used this information for personalized ads, analytics, and security, and that neither Grindr nor AppsFlyer had legal grounds to transfer such data. NOYB is urging regulators to issue fines and halt the practices.
MASHABLE – Coffee Meets Bagel’s 2025 Dating Realness Report, based on a survey of 1K U.S. daters aged 21–35, finds that most people are serious about relationships. 61% want a spouse and 31% want a long-term partner, but 93% say dating is difficult. The biggest pain points are endless swiping (54%), ghosting or unmatching (47%), and not knowing how to start conversations (43%). 80% are comfortable with AI helping with dating tasks, but 65% would be less likely to engage with someone if they knew that person used AI to write their profile or messages. Emotional connection is a must for 73%, ahead of physical attraction (63%), shared values (59%), and ambition (57%).
THE ECONOMIST – The speed with which the norm of marriage – indeed, of relationships of any sort – is being abandoned is startling. The failure of the young to settle down and procreate threatens to end Western civilization. For others, it is evidence of admirable self-reliance. Vogue recently suggested that for cool, ambitious young women, having a boyfriend is not merely unnecessary but “embarrassing“. As barriers to women in the workplace have fallen, their choices have expanded. Lots of people want to couple up but don’t, so something is amiss in the relationship “market”. Some think social media and dating apps have fostered unrealistic expectations. 7% of young singles say they would consider a robo-romance with an AI companion.
Mark Brooks: Oy vey! The end is nigh. The rate of change will accelerate markedly in the next few years. I have 3 daughters. I am actively telling them they do not ‘need’ to marry, they do not ‘need’ to have children. They do need to be tigers in this new world. The trick in the future is to have hard assets, close friends, and live in a country that is very safe, with great hospitals.
THE ECONOMIST – Across America, 41% of women and 50% of men age 25-34 were single in 2023, double over the past 5 decades. From 2010-2022 people living alone rose in 26 of 30 OECD countries. In Europe, each new generation is less likely to be married. The relationship recession is also hitting those looking for a date or casual sex. Younger people are socializing less, dating less, and starting to have sex later in life and having less sex in general (as are most of us). More people feel able to choose to be single now than in the past, when there was far greater social and economic pressure to marry, a great emancipation of the past half-century. In a Pew survey, 62% of single women did not want to date, whereas only 37% of single men felt the same way. A high proportion of unmarried young men is strongly associated with elevated levels of violence and crime. There is some sort of dating-market failure, and society is changing in ways that are making large numbers of singles incompatible.
In Asia, singlehood is growing fastest, especially poor men and highly educated women. New technology fosters pickiness and absorbs time, leaving less for socializing. Time spent streaming, surfing, or gaming even seems to be displacing sex. Brits aged 18-44, have gone from copulating 5x per month in 1990 to 2x a month in 2021.
Mark Brooks: The Economist tells it like it is. Where do we go from here? The mind always drifts to what is more interesting, and nothing is more interesting than your mobile phone, social media, Netflix, etc. Next up: by 2030, your best friend will be an AI. Then, what need will we really have for each other? (rhetorical / sarcastic / worried ! ). Unless we solve ‘the continuity problem’ in online dating in the more distant future (i.e. 2050), governments will step in and make dating/matchmaking an essential public utility. Sounds crazy, but it is a logical solution if private dating/matchmaking companies don’t evolve. People need us, but our incentive base is broken. Justin at Hinge is doing the right thing by developing Overtone. Also, Sync appears to be doing similar to solve the continuity problem, which will then allow is to move into the BIG phase of growth for online dating.
HINGE – Hinge has launched in Brazil, expanding into its second Latin American market after Mexico. The app enters a country where demand for more intentional dating is growing and brings features built around prompts, voice notes, and tools that encourage clearer communication and in-person dates. Hinge highlights safety and inclusion as core elements of its rollout, offering wide gender and orientation options alongside verification and behavior-filtering tools. The company says its research team, Hinge Labs, will continue studying dating trends to refine the product as it scales in Brazil.
BUSINESS INSIDER – Keeper is an AI matchmaking startup that claims it can identify a person’s ideal long-term partner with high precision, and charges men up to $50K if a match leads to marriage. Launched in 2022, it raised $4M in pre-seed funding in 2024 as investors bet on AI reshaping the dating landscape. The platform has recorded 1.5M sign-ups. Its pitch deck reports that 10% of beta dates resulted in marriage. Keeper builds profiles from extensive personal data, including test scores, finances, photos, and personality assessments, and uses a mix of traditional algorithms, custom LLMs trained with Stanford researchers, and human matchmakers to narrow candidates.
