Tinder (app)

Tinder

Example of swiping within Tinder
Developer(s) IAC
Initial release September 12, 2012 (2012-09-12)
Development status Active
Operating system iOS, Android
Website www.gotinder.com

Tinder is a location-based dating and social discovery service application (using Facebook) that facilitates communication between mutually interested users, allowing matched users to chat.

Originally incubated inside Hatch Labs, the app was launched in 2012, and by 2014 it was registering about one billion “swipes” per day.[1] Tinder is among the first “swiping apps”, where the user uses a swiping motion to choose between the photos of other users: swiping right for potentially good matches and swiping left on a photo to move to the next one.

In 2015 Tinder acquired the messaging company Chill.

History

Founding

Tinder was founded by Sean Rad, Jonathan Badeen, Justin Mateen, Joe Munoz, Whitney Wolfe, Dinesh Moorjani, and Chris Gylczynski.[2][3] Other sources state that list of founders is restricted to Mateen, Rad, and Badeen,[4] though this has been disputed.[5] Rad and Mateen had known each other since they were fourteen. They later attended USC together and entered the Internet entrepreneurship field. Rad has stated that the impetus for the app was his observation that “no matter who you are, you feel more comfortable approaching somebody if you know they want you to approach them.” He believed that a “double opt-in” system could be created to potentially alleviate that stress. Rad has also stated that Tinder filled a gap for social sites for meeting strangers, rather than connecting with people a user already knows.[4][6]

Tinder was then seeded at numerous college campuses, and expanded to other college campuses. The app won TechCrunch's Crunchie Award for "Best New Startup of 2013".[2] In March 2013, when the app was still used only in certain localities, social media director Alexa Mateen stated that the app was intended to be a “chance to meet people you wouldn’t normally meet”.[7] By May 2013, Tinder was one of the top 25 social networking apps available on the web based on frequency of use and number of users. Initially, instead of a swiping motion, users would click on either a green "heart" or red "oXo" to select or move on from the photos shown.[8] Tinder became the first new online dating service to become one of the top five utilized services on the web in about ten years.[9]

2014–15

As of October 2014, the app was processing over one billion swipes per day, producing about twelve million matches per day. The average user would generally spend about an hour and a half on the app each day.[1] After transitioning from the clicking function Tinder initially used, Tinder became the first “swipe app”, now a term to describe various apps that use swiping left or right to control what content the user sees in a browsing fashion.[10] The functionality of the swipe is now in use by multiple other companies and software.[6][11][12] In 2015, Tinder introduced the ability to go back to rejected profiles, “rewinding” if the user feels they made a mistake—something previously not possible on the app.[13]

Companion apps were being developed by different companies allowing users to, for example, use the user’s heart rate to determine which direction to swipe instead of the user swiping with their hands.[14][15] The main companion site for Tinder has been Facebook, as Tinder users connect their Facebook profile to their Tinder accounts for verification and profile details. Chatting on Tinder is only available between two users that have swiped right on one another’s photos.[16] The selections a user makes are not known to other users, unless two individuals swipe right on each other’s profiles. However, once you have matches on the app, you were able to send “Tinder Moments” to each of a user’s matches at once, allowing each match to like or not like the photos. The site also has verified profiles for public figures, so that celebrities and other public figures can verify they are who they are when using the app.[17][18]

Tinder Moments[19]

On October 1, 2015, Tinder released a new feature called Super Like globally.[20] Instead of indicating anonymously you are interested in someone by swiping right, you can now Super Like them which notifies them that you are interested in them. Tinder says that with the use of Super Like, users are three times as likely to find a match.

As of November 11, 2015, Tinder's "Moments" feature retired.[21]

Operation

Using Facebook, Tinder is able to build a user profile with photos that have already been uploaded. Basic information is gathered and the users' social graph is analyzed. Candidates who are most likely to be compatible based on geographical location, number of mutual friends, and common interests are then streamed into a list of matches. Based on the results of potential candidates, the app allows the user to anonymously like another user by swiping right or pass by swiping left on them. If two users like each other it then results in a "match” and they are able to chat within the app.[22] The app is used in about 196 countries.[23]

Features

Paid subscriptions

In March 2015, Tinder announced the public release of its paid service, Tinder Plus, which has been met with controversy over limiting the number of "likes" a free user can give to other users in a certain amount of time and also charging prices for different age groups. The price of a Tinder Plus subscription was announced to be £14.99/$19.99 USD per month for users over 28, while the same service for a user 28 and under will be £3.99/$9.99 USD per month.[27][28] A month after implementing these changes, TechCrunch reported that, no matter the consumer impression, Tinder's 'Swipe Right Limit Is Working.'[29]

Percentage of Tinder Users by Age[30]

Users

Tinder is used widely throughout the world and is available in about 30 languages. As of late 2014, an estimated 50 million people use the app every month with an average of 12 million matches per day. However, to get to those 12 million matches, users collectively make around 1 billion swipes per day. The minimum age to sign up and use Tinder is 13. Users who are in between the age of 13–17 can get matched up only with people from their age range, meaning that an 18 year old cannot get matched up with a 17 year old.[31] As of April 2015, Tinder users swipe through 1.6 billion Tinder profiles and make more than 26 million matches per day. More than 8 billion matches have been made since Tinder launched in 2012.[32][33]

Information required

Since April 2015, Tinder has required users to supply personal information about their political and religious standing as well as their current and former employers through Facebook. Without access to this information, users cannot use Tinder beyond Version 4.4.3.[34]

TeenSafe App

TeenSafe which has been around since 2011 as a phone-auditing program that worked with iPhones, and has been used by over 1 million parents since it launched, now is offering the ability to supervise Tinder activity.[35] Parents using TeenSafe can see if their kid installed Tinder, who they've matched with and skipped, and the conversations it has with other users.[35]

Company overview

Financials

In March 2014, Media & Internet conglomerate IAC increased its majority stake in Tinder, a move that caused speculation that the valuation of Tinder was at several billion dollars.[9] In July 2015, Bank of America Merrill Lynch valued Tinder at $1.35 billion, based upon an estimate of $27 per user on an estimated user base of 50 million, with an additional bullish-estimate of $3 billion by taking the average of the IPOs of similar companies. Analysts also estimated that Tinder had about half a million paid users within its userbase that consisted mostly of free users.[36] The monetization of the site has come through leaving the basic app free, and then adding different in-app purchase options for additional functions.[6] In January 2015 Tinder acquired Chill, the developers of Tappy—a mobile messenger that uses “images and ephemerality”.[37]

Advertising

An ad campaign launched by "The Barn" internship program of Bartle Bogle Hegarty (BBH) used Tinder profiles to promote their NYC Puppy Rescue Project.[38] Using Facebook pet profiles, BBH was able to add them to the Tinder network. The campaign received media cover from Slate (magazine), Inc. (magazine), Huffington Post and more.[39] In April 2015, Tinder revealed their first sponsored ad promoting Budweiser's next #Whatever, USA campaign.[40]

Reception

Reviews

The New York Times wrote that the wide use of Tinder could be attributed not to what Tinder was doing right but to flaws in the models of earlier dating software, which relied on mathematical algorithms to select potential partners. Relationship experts interviewed by the newspaper stated that users used the photographs that come in succession on the app to derive cues as to social status, confidence levels, and personal interests.[1] Marie Claire wrote that the app was “easy to use on the run” and “addictive” but that “...it’s hard to focus. The game-style of Tinder means it’s really easy to keep playing and forget about that hottie you were messaging yesterday.”[17]

Concerns

In February 2014, security researchers in New York found a flaw which made it possible to find users' precise locations for between 40 and 165 days, without any public notice from the company. Tinder's spokesperson, Rosette Pambakian, said the issue was resolved within 48 hours. Chief Executive Officer Rad said in a statement that shortly after being contacted, Tinder implemented specific measures to enhance location security and further obscure location data.[41]

On June 30, 2014, Tinder's co-founder and former vice president of marketing, Whitney Wolfe, filed a sexual harassment and sex discrimination suit in Los Angeles County Superior Court against IAC-controlled Match group, parent company of the app. The lawsuit alleged that her fellow executives and co-founders Rad and Mateen had engaged in discrimination, sexual harassment, and retaliation against her, while Tinder's corporate supervisor, IAC's Sam Yagan, did nothing.[42] IAC suspended CMO Mateen from his position pending an ongoing investigation, and stated that it "acknowledges that Mateen sent private messages containing 'inappropriate content,' but it believes Mateen, Rad and the company are innocent of the allegations".[43]

There have been Anti-Tinder online marketing campaigns and websites developed.[44] As of June 2015, 68% of Tinder users were male and 32% were female.[45] According to University of Texas-Austin Professor David Buss, "One dimension of [dating apps like Tinder] is the impact it has on men’s psychology. When there is … a perceived surplus of women, the whole mating system tends to shift towards short-term dating."[46] where there is a feeling of disconnect when choosing future partners.[47] CEO Sean Rad has said that Tinder removes the “friction” associated with walking up to someone and introducing themselves.[48] Nancy Jo Sales wrote in Vanity Fair that Tinder operates within a culture of users seeking sex without relationships.[10]

Health officials from Rhode Island and Utah claimed, that Tinder and simillar apps are responsible for uptick of some STDs.[49]

In February 5, 2016, members of the Facebook group "Bernie Sanders Dank Tinder Convos" (BSDTC) (a spin-off of Bernie Sanders' Dank Meme Stash) were reportedly being banned from Tinder for promoting American politician Bernie Sanders' 2016 presidential campaign. BSDTC members would send messages to other Tinder users promoting Sanders and imploring them to vote for him. In response, many BSDTC members' profiles would either become locked or deleted due to flagging their messages as spam or their profiles as bots.[50][51][52][53][54][55] Tinder spokeswoman Rosette Pambakian stated in an email, "We whole-heartedly support people sharing their political views on Tinder, but we don't allow spamming. So feel free to spread the Bern, just don't spam."[51][55][56]

In March 2016, a website called Swipebuster was launched, which allows anyone to see how recently someone else logged on to Tinder, at a cost of $4.99 for every three searches.[57] Vanity Fair was the first to report on the service, in an article titled "Here's How You Can Check if Your Partner Is Cheating on Tinder," and Swipebuster subsequently received extensive media coverage for being the first searchable database of Tinder users.[58][59] The Guardian explained how Swipebuster works: "[I]t doesn’t [identify users] by hacking into Tinder, or even by 'scraping' the app manually. Instead, it searches the database using Tinder's official API, which is intended for use by third-party developers who want to write software that plugs in with the site. All the information that it can reveal is considered public by the company, and revealed through the API with few safeguards."[60]

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Tinder, The Fastest Growing Dating App, Taps an Age Old Truth". New York Times.
  2. 1 2 Felicia Williams. "Tinder Wins Best New Startup of 2013 – Crunchies Awards 2013". TechCrunch. AOL. Retrieved June 13, 2015.
  3. ↑ "Tinder co-founder Dinesh Moorjani joins Aman Sidhu, Indian mobile dating firm Vee as advisor – Techcircle.in – India startups, internet, mobile, e-commerce, software, online businesses, technology, venture capital, angel, seed funding".
  4. 1 2 "Love me Tinder". GQ Magazine.
  5. ↑ Los Angeles Times (March 22, 2015). "Co-founder feuds at L.A. tech start-ups show how handshake deals can blow up". latimes.com.
  6. 1 2 3 "How Tinder Is Winning the Mobile Dating Wars". Inc.com.
  7. ↑ "Online Dating on the Go: Apps Shake Up Traditional Dating Websites". The Christian Science Monitor.
  8. ↑ "Lust at First Photo". Star Tribune.
  9. 1 2 "IAC embraces dating sites despite online crush". International New York Times.
  10. 1 2 Nancy Jo Sales (August 2015). "Tinder Hook Up Culture End of Dating". Vanity Fair.
  11. ↑ Aziz Ansari, Eric Klinenberg. "Modern Romance". Penguin. p. 106.
  12. ↑ "Tinder's swipe interface gets swiped by other apps". thestar.com. August 6, 2014.
  13. ↑ "Tinder Dating App More Expensive After Age 28". Refinery29.
  14. ↑ Mic Wright (July 7, 2015). "Hands-free Tinder uses your heart rate to decide 'hot or not'". The Next Web.
  15. ↑ "Tinder Apple Watch App Finds Your Match With a Heartbeat – Fortune". Fortune.
  16. ↑ "Everything you need to know about dating on Tinder (and how Canadians are using it)". The Globe and Mail.
  17. 1 2 "Tinder: The Online Dating App Everyone's Talking About – Marie Claire". Marie Claire.
  18. ↑ Natalie Jarvey. "Dating App Tinder to Launch Verification Program for Stars (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter.
  19. ↑ English: Screenshot of Tinder Moments, 2015-05-05, retrieved 2015-11-18
  20. ↑ Crook, Jordan. "Tinder’s Super Like Rolls Out Globally". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2015-10-01.
  21. ↑ "Tinder ditches moments". November 11, 2015.
  22. ↑ "From Hookup App to Legitimate Social Network: Can Tinder Make the Jump". Hootsuite Social Media Management. Retrieved June 13, 2015.
  23. ↑ Stuart Dredge (May 7, 2015). "Research says 30% of Tinder users are married". The Guardian.
  24. ↑ "How Does Tinder Work? What is Tinder?". Retrieved November 16, 2015.
  25. 1 2 Crook, Jordan. "Tinder Cuddles Up To Instagram In Latest Update". Retrieved 2015-05-07.
  26. ↑ UTC, Karissa Bell2015-04-15 13:01:03. "You can now connect Instagram to your Tinder profile". Mashable. Retrieved 2015-05-07.
  27. ↑ "Tinder launched its paid subscription service today". Business Insider. March 2, 2015. Retrieved June 13, 2015.
  28. ↑ "Here's why Tinder's new paid service will cost more if you're old". Fortune. March 2, 2015.
  29. ↑ Crook, Jordan. "Hate It Or Love It, Tinder’s Right Swipe Limit Is Working". TechCrunch. AOL. Retrieved June 13, 2015.
  30. ↑ "Research says 30% of Tinder users are married". Business Insider. Retrieved 2015-11-18.
  31. ↑ "NOPE: People Are Getting Rejected Hundreds Of Millions Of Times On Tinder Every Day". Retrieved 2015-05-07.
  32. ↑ "Tinder hookups skyrocketed 300% at Coachella's first weekend". Mashable. April 15, 2015. Retrieved June 13, 2015.
  33. ↑ "Tinder chief boasts app’s 8 billion matches – Page Six". Page Six.
  34. ↑ "The Tinder update totally broke Tinder". The Daily Dot. April 16, 2015.
  35. 1 2 Beck, Keller (April 29, 2016). "Teen Safe Monitoring App". Yahoo. Retrieved May 1, 2016.
  36. ↑ "All eyes are on Tinder – Business Insider". Business Insider. July 30, 2015.
  37. ↑ "United States : TINDER Completes First Acquisition". Mena Report.
  38. ↑ Buhr, Sarah. "Tinder Is Going To The Dogs With NYC Puppy Rescue Project". Retrieved 2015-05-07.
  39. ↑ "Rescue Campaign Puts 10 Abandoned Dogs on Tinder, Gets 2,700 Matches in a Week". Retrieved 2015-05-07.
  40. ↑ Crook, Jordan. "Tinder’s First Advertisement Is One Big Experiment". Retrieved 2015-05-07.
  41. ↑ Nick Summers. "New Tinder Security Flaw Exposed Users' Exact Locations for Months". Businessweek.com.
  42. ↑ "The Truth About Tinder and Women Is Even Worse Than You Think". Bloomberg BusinessWeek. July 2, 2014. Retrieved July 10, 2014.
  43. ↑ Jeff Bercovici (July 1, 2014). "IAC Suspends Tinder Co-Founder After Sex Harassment Lawsuit". Forbes.
  44. ↑ "Bustle". Bustle. Retrieved 2015-10-07.
  45. ↑ "Distribution of Tinder Users Worldwide as of 2nd Quarter 2015, by Gender". Statista. Retrieved 2015-11-18.
  46. ↑ Nancy Jo Sales. "Tinder and Hookup-Culture Promotion – Vanity Fair". Vanity Fair.
  47. ↑ "Tinder and the controversy it creates". madison.com. Retrieved 2015-11-18.
  48. ↑ "Tinder: 10 billion matches and counting". USA TODAY. Retrieved 2015-11-18.
  49. ↑ http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/may/28/hookup-apps-stds-tinder-grindr
  50. ↑ Brown, Elizabeth Nolan (February 5, 2016). "Bernie Babes Banned From Tinder for Too Much Campaigning". Reason. Reason Foundation. Retrieved March 26, 2016.
  51. 1 2 Chokkattu, Julian (February 5, 2016). "Swipe right for Sanders, swipe left for spammers". Digital Trends. Designtechnica Corp. Retrieved March 26, 2016.
  52. ↑ Cauterucci, Christina (February 5, 2016). "Enjoy These Fresh Ted Cruz Memes From the Ted Cruz Meme Page". Slate. The Slate Group. Retrieved March 26, 2016.
  53. ↑ Fares, Melissa (February 5, 2016). "Sanders supporters banned from Tinder after campaigning on dating app". Reuters. Reuters Group. Retrieved March 26, 2016.
  54. ↑ Landsbaum, Claire (February 5, 2016). "Swipe Right to Feel the Bern: Sanders Supporters Bounced From Tinder for Aggressive Campaigning". New York. New York Media, LLC. Retrieved March 26, 2016.
  55. 1 2 Whitford, Emma (February 5, 2016). "NJ Woman Banned From Tinder For Urging Matches To #FeelTheBern". Gothamist. Gothamist LLC. Retrieved March 26, 2016.
  56. ↑ Victor, Daniel (February 5, 2016). "‘Feel the Bern’? Maybe Not on Tinder". The New York Times. The New York Times Company. Retrieved March 26, 2016.
  57. ↑ Sebastian, Michael (April 4, 2016). "New Website Tells You If Your Significant Other Is Cheating on Tinder". Cosmopolitan (New York, NY). Retrieved April 6, 2016.
  58. ↑ Fox, Emily Jane (April 4, 2016). "Here's How You Can Check if Your Partner Is Cheating on Tinder". Vanity Fair (New York, NY). Retrieved April 6, 2016.
  59. ↑ Hartogs, Jessica (April 6, 2016). "New app designed to 'bust' Tinder users". CNBC (New York, NY). Retrieved April 6, 2016.
  60. ↑ Hern, Alex (April 5, 2016). "New website lets anyone spy on Tinder users". The Guardian (London, UK). Retrieved April 6, 2016.

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