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A tale of two Tinders: How a decade of apps changed dating
Words: Joseph LamProducer: Bianca Farmakis
From:
catfishing and crimes
To:
marriages and millions
Tinder’s 10 years in the market has been anything but dull. But what now for the original dating app?
It’s been a decade since Australians first began swiping. Tinder wasn’t the first online dating service, but it was the catalyst for the normalisation of mobile app-based dating.
Tinder claimed to have 15 per cent of the Australian population on the app in 2017.
Today it reports 530 million downloads worldwide and 75 billion matches.
Statista reported 3.2 million Australians used the app in 2020.
Who's online?
Globally, 57 million users are on the platform — 5.9 million of which are paid subscribers.
About 50 per cent of the company’s users are aged between 18 and 25.
Australian revenue was its fourth most lucrative market, attributing $5.31m over the Q4 2019 to nearly 5900 users who paid for their profiles.
While dating apps have long billed themselves as a way to socialise and democratise the world of relationships, researchers suggest otherwise, referencing their role in mental health decline, and in some cases even assault.
For better or worse?
“
If you give people many, many options, on face value it should be that the world is your oyster. The problem is that when you provide people with so much information, it is very difficult to make good decisions. You become so taxed mentally that you either make bad decisions or you don’t make decisions at all.
Gery Karantzas,
Associate professor of relationship science,Deakin University
In 2014, former Tinder marketer Whitney Wolfe Herd launched Bumble, which sought to empower women by exclusively letting them make the first move.
A year later another competitor, Hinge, which claims to be the fastest growing dating app, arrived.
A Hinge spokesperson said the company grew 56 per cent locally in January compared to the same time in 2020.
Competitive industry
Kath Albury of Swinburne University of Technology likened Tinder to being the Facebook of online dating; everyone knows what it is and that it holds market share, but many, especially younger Australians, have chosen to go elsewhere.
Modern dating
“
I think dating apps have created among some people a generalised sense that dating should be easier and more transparent than it is because somehow the machine is going to do the work for you. Obviously it can’t, you’re still dealing with humans.
Kath Albury,
Researcher,Swinburne University of Technology
																															

Original URL: https://www.theaustralian.com.au/web-stories/free/the-australian/10-years-of-tinder-how-a-decade-of-apps-changed-dating