TECH CRUNCH – Voice Prompts will allow users to answer a prompt through a 30-second voice recording. The new feature is rolling out globally. The company says 65% of its users say they believe hearing someone's voice would help them determine interest in a match, and 75% of users said it's difficult to feel connected with a match when their conversation is limited to just text and photos. Hinge also plans to launch a new "Voice Notes" feature later this fall. Bumble and Happn both have voice note features. Additionally, a new app called String lets users only communicate through voice notes.
Category: Hinge
To Make Real Money With an iOS App, Offer Entertainment, Gaming, or Dating
ABC MONEY – By the end of 2021, Statista estimates that mobile apps will generate ~$693B in revenue through paid downloads and in-app advertising, up 17.6% YOY. This amount is expected to continue increasing to $935B by 2023. The Apple App Store generated $21.5B in consumer spending in the Q3 of 2021, compared to just $12.1B on the Google Play Store, a 55% difference. In August 2021, the Apple store launched ~32,500 unique apps, with a total of 2.22M estimated to be available for download on the store. The vast majority of apps on the top 50 list fall into the entertainment, gaming, or dating genres. Two of the top ten spots on the Apple Store's top-grossing list belong to Tinder (2nd) and Bumble (8th), with an honorable mention of Hinge occupying number 28 on the top chart.
by Claire James
See full article at ABC Money
How Do the Best Dating Algorithms Work?
MASHABLE – Tinder: The Tinder algorithm used to be based on the Elo rating system, which was originally designed to rank chess players. The "Elo score" gauges how other profiles interacted with yours. It logged your swipes. Elo is no longer used. Now, the most important thing a user can do is…use the app. The more data Tinder has on you, the more Tinder knows your preferences and the algorithm is based on how your profile is Liked or Noped.
Hinge: The dating app "designed to be deleted" doesn't have swiping. Hinge uses the Gale-Shapley algorithm. This Nobel-prize winning algorithm was created to find optimal pairs in "trades" that money can't buy – like organ donations. Say there are 10 women and 10 men. How do they get paired up? Well, tell one group (either the men or women) to pick their first choice, and if they get rejected they move on to their second choice. Continue until none of the people left want to get matched anymore. Tell the app when you've met a match in person and Hinge understands who you're interested in.
OkCupid: OkCupid has 4k questions. There's 60 sexual orientation and gender options. OkCupid calculates a match percentage. If another user has similar search preferences and responses to questions as you, and is looking for the same things relationship-wise, you'll have a high match percentage.
Bumble: Bumble is similar to Tinder in that it uses a swipe model. Bumble declined to comment about its search algorithm.
Grindr: Grindr only uses algorithms for security purposes, like detecting spam accounts. There's no recommendation algorithm to speak of on Grindr today.
by Anna Iovine
See full article at Mashable
Mark Brooks: Frankly, I'm surprised at the lack of substance here. Our job is to bring clarity to a complex problem. Who to date? Who to marry? Who to raise a family with? (…and perhaps guide people further on how not to screw it up). This is not an unsolvable problem, but it is highly nuanced. Culture, religion, values, and lifestyle preferences compound the problem. Also, what people say they want and what they are willing to accept can be quite different. i.e. stated preferences vs revealed preferences. Observing people's behaviors and getting feedback after each date is key. Also, we really need to know when we have been successful. When we have clear visibility on this, at scale, then AI becomes useful for helping us solve for long-term compatibility.
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Investors See Big Potential in Smaller Online Dating Companies
The Future of Dating Is Hybrid
AXIOS – Aug 30 – Dating is expensive, and many people are deciding they'd rather meet virtually first in case it doesn't work out. The average American spends ~$700 annually on dates, according to a 2019 LendingTree study. "But the pandemic was a jolt to our systems," says Logan Ury, a behavioral scientist and the director of relationship science at Hinge. "Video chat was normalized, and it's only natural that it would extend to dating, because dates can be really costly and time-consuming." At the beginning of the pandemic, almost no Hinge users had been on a virtual date, per a survey conducted by the dating app. Now, close to half of them (44%) have been on a video date, and 65% of those people say they'll incorporate virtual dating into their routines even when it is safe to meet in person.
Dating App Hinge Donating $50K to Save Lesbian Bars
How Advances in Technology and Science Could Impact the Dating and Matchmaking Industry
Blockchain Technology
Companies such as Hicky and Viola have both implemented blockchain to increase transparency by requiring users to validate their identity via face and voice recognition, which is then fully encrypted and stored into the blockchain.
Artificial Intelligence
AI can help gather in-app user behavior data for machine learning algorithms to curate more relevant matches based on its users' core values, beliefs and personality traits. Coffee Meets Bagel, Hinge, Tinder and Badoo all now use AI .
Augmented Reality
AR can be described as a visual or audio overlay of digital life on real life, distinct from the purely digital landscape of virtual reality (VR).
DNA Matchmaking
DNA Romance is a dating app that matches partners based on the information hidden in their DNA to forecast romantic chemistry. Dr. Tim Sexton built the app on the basis that partners with opposite immune system genes (MHC genes) have much higher romantic chemistry.
Google Searches for ‘Dating’ Have Reached a 5-Year High
NPR – July 20 – Google tweeted last week that search interest in dating had reached a 5-year high in the U.S. "How to date" was the most searched in Washington, D.C., last week, Google says. According to Dana Balch, a spokesperson for Tinder, the app has seen some of its highest swiping days this year. Searches for "top dating apps 2021" boomed over the past month, jumping 3,400%. According to App Annie, Tinder, Bumble, and Hinge are all currently in the top 50 grossing apps on iPhones.
by Josie Fischels
See full article at NPR
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Hinge Promotes Michelle Parsons to Chief Product Officer
PR NEWSWIRE – July 8 – Hinge has promoted Michelle Parsons to Chief Product Officer. Michelle will focus on both enhancing the user experience through product innovations and developing internal systems that will help scale product development. Tim MacGougan, Hinge's current CPO, is stepping into the newly-created Chief Design Officer role as the company doubles down on its goal to have the most effective app design.
A Date With Hinge’s Justin McLeod to Talk Tinder, VC Letdowns and Selling Out
SIFTED.EU – July 7 – Hinge is now dubbed the 'relationship app'. It currently ranks among the top three most downloaded dating apps across the US, Australia and the UK, and has rolled out a freemium model. The app launched in Feb 2013, quickly pivoting from desktop to mobile. Users didn't get it. Investors didn't get it. Funding proved a constant struggle for McLeod, and it would be three years until he could lure institutional money. "We really struggled for a long time to get investment… until Tinder started to take off. Hinge raked in $20M in those early years. Yet by 2016, when McLeod began raising his Series B, VCs had gone cold again. Part of the problem was Hinge had stalled. The app had gone dormant a year earlier as part of a reboot to move it away from swiping into serious matchmaking. "I was begging [VCs]… I was offering valuations that were embarrassingly low. I went everywhere trying to make this deal happen." It was a buyout that would eventually come to his rescue. In 2018, McLeod accepted Match.com's offer for a complete takeover. "I didn't really have a choice," McLeod admits. "In order for us to compete, we needed to raise a lot more money… There was kinda no other option than to find a strategic buyer like Match."