FRISKY FRIDAY FLOP: Are Dating Apps Done? An Era May Be OVER

Holding a smartphone in one hand, swiping or using gesture control with the other hand. On the screen is a mock up of a dating app with a female profile.

Are Dating Apps Flopping?

Is the age of the dating app over? A 2023 survey of college graduates reveals that 79% of respondents (4 out of 5!) don’t use dating apps, even once a month.

Match Group, which owns Tinder, Hinge, Match.com, and OkCupid, has seen its stock dip 40% – in just one year. At Bumble, where women message first, the CEO has stepped down, after ten years.

Some speculate that the golden age of dating apps is over. “If you met your partner on a dating app, two years ago, you caught the last chopper out of ‘Nam,” TikToker Keara Sullivan said. Others have explained the phenomenon of “Rose Jail” on Hinge, which makes you pay extra to meet better candidates, by buying “roses” to send to them. It’s a gatekeeping maneuver, to monetize your interest… make you pay more to see better potential dates.

Common complaints mention the quality of dates, quality of matches, and speculation that apps gatekeep better people with paid features.

“It feels like they’re hiding all of the good guys who are actually looking for relationships behind a paywall,” user Deja said, about Hinge.

In response, some apps are moving toward event-planning, which would get clients to assemble for a “summer event series” (or some such convention), so they can meet “IRL,” or “in real life.”

(Check out more, here: Bustle)