Category: Hinge

Dating App Hinge Wants Users to Shut Their Phone Off

Posted on February 27, 2019

Hinge logo new 2016FORTUNE – Feb 27 – In recognition of National Day of Unplugging on March 1, the app is encouraging users to put away their phone and meet potential partners the old-fashioned way: at a bar. Beginning on Thursday, users will have the choice to opt into Friday's "holiday" and turn off the app's Discover section (where users can find and "like" potential matches) for 24 hours. Those in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Miami will then receive an invite for two free drinks and phone-free mingling at local Freehand Hotels' Broken Shaker bars.

by Renae Reints
See full article at Fortune

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Match Group Fully Acquires Hinge

Posted on February 7, 2019

Match Group Hinge LogosTECH CRUNCH – Feb 7 – Last year, Match Group acquired a 51% stake in Hinge. The company has now confirmed that it fully bought out Hinge in the past quarter, and today owns 100%. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. Match believes Hinge can offer an alternative to those who aren't interested in using casual apps, like Tinder. As Match explained in November, it plans to double-down on marketing that focuses on Tinder's more casual nature and use by young singles, while positioning Hinge as the alternative for those looking for serious relationships. The company said it would also increase its investment in Hinge going forward, in order to grow its user base. "Hinge downloads are now 2.5 times more than the next largest app, and 40% of Bumble downloads," said Match Group CEO Mandy Ginsberg.

by Sarah Perez
See full article at Tech Crunch

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This post also appears on InternetDatingInvestments.com

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Why Millennials Are Burnt Out on Swipe-Based Dating Apps

Posted on February 7, 2019

Wingman logo 2018MENSHEALTH – Feb 6 – Hinge's user base grew by 400% in 2017 after it eliminated its swiping feature. Once, a dating app that sends users one suggested match per day, reached 7M downloads last May. Still, swiping or not, some are giving up dating apps altogether, opting for offline dating and matchmaking services like Three Day Rule, which doubled its revenue in 2017, and now serves 10 cities in the U.S. "The online dating thing never came naturally to me. I found the experience quite overwhelming," says Tina Wilson, CEO and founder of the matchmaking app Wingman. "Trying to describe myself for a profile gave me anxiety." Eventually, Wilson's friends got involved. "They had way better insight into who I should be dating and loved to tell me so," she says. She realized her friends could play a vital role in helping her meet a compatible partner, so she created Wingman, an app that allows users' friends play matchmaker. Text-based apps are also on the rise. A spin-off of the popular Instagram account @_personals_, the Personals app will allow its lesbian, queer, transgender, and nonbinary users to post old-school personal ads.

by Sofia Barrett-Ibarria
See full article at Men'sHealth

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Who Got the Most News Coverage in 2018?

Posted on January 13, 2019

Press coverage 2018OPW – Jan 13 – Every day we review the news and bubble up what we think are summaries of the most important intell in the most important news items. All year, every day. Then in January we like to do an annual review of the news and let you know who got the most coverage on OPW.news for the prior year. Subscribe here for daily updates.

Here's the rankings for who got the most press coverage on OPW.news in 2018.

  1. Tinder, 182 posts on OPW.news
  2. Bumble, 116 posts
  3. Match Group, 105 posts
  4. Facebook Dating, 58 posts
  5. Grindr, 40 posts
  6. Badoo, 33 posts
  7. eharmony, 33 posts
  8. Match, 29 posts
  9. OKCupid, 28 posts
  10. Hinge, 24 posts

Here's our analysis for 2018

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Tinder and Bumble’s Recent Advertising Efforts

Posted on December 18, 2018

Hinge billboardNEW YORK TIMES – Dec 18 – Tinder has a new publication, Swipe Life, specializing in personal essays that reinforce the idea that dating misadventures are cool, invigorating and youthful. Other dating apps are also getting into the content business. Grindr has its own news site, Into; Hinge, as part of an ad campaign last year, published short-form fiction on walls and billboards. Tinder is the top dating app in the US and worldwide, according to App Annie. ~50% of Tinder's users are ages 18 to 25. Elie Seidman, Tinder's CEO, said that the company wants to brand itself as the leader of early-life dating. When Swipe Life began this fall, its articles sang of the exciting spontaneity of singledom. For example: "I Moved to L.A. for a Tinder Relationship That Lasted Two Weeks, But I Don't Regret It – Here's Why." Bumble's strategy seems inspired by the Forbes's annual 30 Under 30 lists. Its "Find Them on Bumble" campaign collects the 112 "most inspiring New Yorkers," and subtly links their success to Bumble.

by Jonah Engel Bromwich
See full article at New York Times

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The Subtle Way Dating Apps Reinforce Our Racial Biases

Posted on November 23, 2018

Dating apps iconsHUFFINGTON POST – Nov 22 – A new study out of Cornell University suggests that dating app algorithms don't do us any favors as far as sexual racism goes. To conduct the study, the researchers downloaded the 25 top-grossing apps in the iOS app store as of fall 2017, including Tinder, OKCupid, Hinge, Grindr, Meetville and Coffee Meets Bagel. Then they looked for features that could affect users' discriminatory behavior toward other users. This included terms of service, their sorting, filtering and matching algorithms and how users are presented to each other. They found that most apps employ algorithms that cater to users' past personal preferences and the matching history. So if a user had matched with white users repeatedly in the past, the algorithm was more likely to suggest more white people as "good matches" moving forward.

by Brittany Wong
See full article at Huffington Post

Summarized by the IDEA team

The Most Popular Love Language on Hinge Is Quality Time

Posted on November 20, 2018

5lovelanguagesBUSTLE – Nov 16 – Dr. Gary Chapman outlined love language in his book The 5 Love Languages. The idea being that there are five different ways people feel love and show love in their relationships. The five love languages are: Words of Affirmation, Acts of Service, Receiving Gifts, Quality Time, and Physical Touch. But what's the most popular way to express yourself in a romantic relationship? According to new data from dating app Hinge, the most common love language is Quality Time, which was over twice as popular for its users as the next option, Words of Affirmation. There was some discrepancy between men and women in how they looked at the other love languages. For men, Physical Touch and Words of Affirmation were both neck-in-neck for second place, but for women it was just Words of Affirmation comfortably in ahead.

by Lea Rose Emery
See full article at Bustle

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Tinder Doubles Down On Its Casual Nature

Posted on November 8, 2018

Tinder on mobileTECH CRUNCH – Nov 8 – Tinder has never really shaken its reputation as a "hook up" app, instead of one designed for more serious dating. Now, it seems Tinder is planning to embrace its hook up status. According to Match Group CEO Mandy Ginsberg, Tinder is launching its first-ever brand marketing campaign that will promote the "single lifestyle" with billboards and other digital initiatives. "The market defined the brand, versus the business defining the brand," said Ginsberg, referring to its "hook up app" reputation. The company will also invest more in Hinge going forward. Ginsberg said Hinge will help the company to address the "previously underserved" audience of 20-somethings looking for a serious relationship. The plan is to make Hinge the anti-Tinder, then pull in users as they exit Tinder in search of something real.

by Sarah Perez
See full article at Tech Crunch

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Tinder Now Has 4.1M Paying Users, Expects $800M In Revenue This Year

Posted on November 7, 2018

Tinder logo classicTECH CRUNCH – Nov 7 – Match Group surpassed analyst's forecasted revenue of $437M, reporting Q3 revenue of $444M, a 29% increase YOY. Match says it expects to bring in a total of $1.72B in annual revenue. Despite positive earnings, the company's 4Q outlook failed to satisfy Wall Street. Match said it expects $440 – $450M in revenue in Q4, falling short of the $454.5M analyst estimate. Shares of Match sank 10% in after-hours trading as a result. Year-to-date, Match's stock is up ~60%. Tinder continues to be Match's growth engine, responsible for half its paid users and half its projected annual revenue. Tinder is expected to bring in $800M in revenue in 2018. Hinge, another app-based dating service acquired by Match in June, is on its way up. Match says it's seen a 5x increase in downloads since it first invested. Match also announced that it would, for the first time, issue a special cash dividend of $2 per share on Match Group common stock and Class B common stock, to be paid out on Dec. 19.

by Kate Clark
See full article at Tech Crunch

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Summarized by the IDEA team

Slow Dating Is The French-Invented Hack

Posted on November 6, 2018

Once logo new 2018COSMOPOLITAN – Nov 5 – Dating app Once launched in France and recently made its way stateside. Instead of passively swiping through profiles, Once introduce each user to only one person, per day. If the users both like each other, they start a conversation and see where it leads. If not, they have to wait until the next day to meet someone new. But what if all potential matches are bad? Jean Meyer, CEO of Once, says making good matches is a concern, obviously, but he's more focused on cutting down absentminded app time. "Even if your match of the day is crap, it's okay," Meyer says. "Maybe you're not going to talk to that person, but at least you're going to put the app away, and you may even put your phone away and do something else with your day. You can put 100% into another task that's not swiping on ten-thousand profiles." The League, which only serves users a few matches per day, operates on a similar premise as Once. And when Hinge redesigned to eliminate swiping and force people to slow down a bit, users grew by more than 400%.

by Hannah Smothers
See full article at Cosmopolitan

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Summarized by the IDEA team