LINKEDIN – Spencer Rascoff sat down with Tinder’s Gen Z employee resource group, about 45 staffers, for a listening session on product strategy. They discussed how to make Tinder simpler, safer, and more relevant, with three clear objectives: addressing creepy behavior and incomplete profiles, focusing product efforts on 22–25-year-olds, and reducing pop-ups to streamline the app. Rascoff says these inputs are shaping upcoming changes, including features that show more of the whole person and social experiences like Double Date.
MUMBRELLA – Facebook Australia has revealed it doesn’t have any plans to launch Facebook Dating in Australia, despite ramping up the tools and offering in North America. Facebook Dating is a free platform within the existing Facebook app, which claims to make it easier to find love by meeting and starting conversations with people who share your interests. In Australia, Meta is tied up preparing for the social media minimum age requirements. From Dec 10, social media platforms, including Facebook, will be required by the Australian Government to remove users who are under 16.
BUSINESS INSIDER – Clara Gold shut down her dating app and relaunched Gigi as an AI-powered professional network that uses calendar data to map real relationships and prompt warm introductions. An invite-only beta went live in Sep 2025 across the US and Europe, with broader expansion planned for 2026. Gigi raised $3M led by Khosla Ventures, bringing total funding to $8M, with other investors including Sequoia, OpenAI, and Monashees. The pivot reflects dating apps’ retention problem and Gold’s view that LinkedIn connections often lack real strength; Gigi targets relevance by recommending who to meet and when, in exchange for deeper data access.
STREET INSIDER – Facebook Dating is launching two features in the US and Canada: a chat assistant that recommends matches and gives profile tips, and “Meet Cute,” a weekly algorithm-picked surprise match. Meet Cute currently delivers one match per week, with higher frequency under consideration. Both features are opt-out and rolling out gradually. Facebook says hundreds of thousands of 18–29-year-olds create profiles monthly and matches in that group are up 10% YOY. The service remains free inside the Facebook app.
ECONOMIC TIMES – Anupam Mittal, founder of Shaadi.com and People Group and an investor on Shark Tank India, reached his breakthrough after several failed ventures. He became a millionaire at 25, lost it soon after, and was laid off in the 2001 dot-com crash, a period he called a “free fall.” A conversation with a priest about the limits of traditional matchmaking led him to build an online alternative; his first site, Sagai.com, did not take off, but a rebrand to Shaadi.com did. By 2005, subscription revenue had surpassed the company’s total investment. He has since disclosed a best year of Rs 50 crore ($5.6M) in income. His career shows the value of taking action, bouncing back from setbacks, and moving decisively when an opportunity appears.
LINKEDIN – Feels app has reached an important milestone this summer, crossing $10M in annual recurring revenue and doubling growth in just six months. The app takes a different approach to dating, putting personality and shared experiences at the center through stories and videos, rather than relying on swipes. What makes the progress noteworthy is that it has been achieved with modest funding, a small team, and before entering the largest markets such as the US and UK. Feels was founded by Daniel Cheaib, who shifted from a career in MMA and consulting to build a more authentic and immersive platform for Gen Z.
FINANCIAL TIMES – happn has been acquired by China’s Hello Group, owner of Momo and Tantan, to accelerate expansion into Asia, particularly China and Japan. The app, which uses geolocation to connect people who cross paths in daily life, has 170M registered users and has been profitable since 2019, with strong traction in India, Turkey, Brazil, and parts of Europe. Growth in the US has slowed, reflecting broader pressures on the industry. Karima Ben Abdelmalek, CEO of happn, stresses that the real challenge is not competition, but changing user behavior: people want to spend less time online. She argues the industry must “reinvent itself” by moving away from forcing endless swiping and chatting, and instead create “more reasonable” experiences where people meet faster and offline. For happn, this means leaning on its location-based strength, showing users others who go to the same venues, using AI to suggest places to meet, and expanding into features for socialising that go beyond dating. The Hello Group deal gives happn the scale and resources to adapt its model and push into new growth markets.
LINKEDIN – Tinder has appointed Vinay Kuruvila as its new CTO. Kuruvila brings nearly two decades of product and engineering leadership across Amazon, Venmo, and brightwheel, where he most recently served as CTO. At Tinder, he will lead technology, AI, and product innovation at a time when the company is seeking to reimagine the online dating experience for Gen Z and beyond. His mandate includes strengthening Tinder’s core platform while exploring new ways to foster authentic connections and reduce “dating fatigue” through product design and AI-enabled features.
BUSINESS INSIDER – Hinge CEO Justin McLeod predicts AI will replace swiping within the next three to five years by helping users express values and preferences directly, leading to more accurate matches. He says this shift will combat swiping fatigue and help users move faster toward real-life connections. Hinge continues to outperform rivals: paying users rose 18% YOY to 1.7M, revenue per user grew 6% to $32, and Q2 revenue reached $168M, up 25%. McLeod insists AI should never replace genuine human interaction. While AI can improve matchmaking, he rejects the idea of chatbots mimicking intimacy, calling that approach “extraordinarily reductive.”
LINKEDIN – Violet Lim, CEO & Chief Cupid of Lunch Actually Group, recently reflected on one of her toughest lessons. After early wins in Singapore, Malaysia, and Hong Kong, the 2011 launch in Taipei stumbled. Campaigns that worked elsewhere failed to connect, trust was low, and the board eventually advised closing the office, a painful decision for Violet. A decade later, Lunch Actually returned with a new approach: partnering with local experts and respecting cultural nuances. This time, the difference was dramatic. Taipei is now one of Violet’s proudest turnarounds. Her key lessons: never assume product–market fit, stay confident but avoid complacency, and remember that failure isn’t final.
