Monetising Love and Relationships - Business Model of Tinder
🔍Insights
Socialising and building relationships are innate characteristics of human beings and during the pandemic things have not been that easy in this regard. Dating apps have been a very important part of developing relationships and during the pandemic, they proved to be more helpful than ever.
According to various studies dating apps are one of the fastest-growing social start-ups in the world. It is forecasted that they will grow globally to reach $10,378 by 2025 from $6951 in 2019. This means that the growth is at a CAGR of 4.98%. The extensive use of dating apps especially in the US can be perceived from the stunning statistics which reveals that more than 54% of Americans have their relationship started through online dating apps or sites.
Among a plethora of dating app Tinder is the one that is leading the way for building new relationships. Â
About Tinder
The Uniqueness of the Idea
Revenue Streams of Tinder
Sponsored Profiles
Boost - To Improve Your Chances
FAQ
About Tinder
Tinder is an app that lets you connect with people you haven't met before. It shows you the profiles of people near you or people that share the same interest as you in Tinder. It is mainly a location-based dating app.
Tinder was also the first one in the industry to introduce the feature of swiping left and right to indicate dislike or like respectively. If both the people end up swiping right, it becomes a match that will let you chat and later meet the person if they feel so.
Tinder has been successful in stepping up its business since its launch in 2012. Today it has multiple revenue streams which not only keep the business afloat but also let it thrive.
The Uniqueness of the Idea
The very idea that Tinder proposed during its launch in 2012 was a novel one. Unlike the commonly heard ideas where two people who knew each other are connected through an app or a site, in Tinder strangers whom they have never met are connected through this platform.
They were able to address the issues of social and physical barriers that come in the way of forming new relationships or friendships. They carefully brought together people based on their commonalities. This unique selling proposition of Tinder enabled them to be a very known platform to such an extent that today the idea of a dating app is equated with the name Tinder.
Manav Makhija
Revenue Streams of Tinder
Tinder launched its fully free application in 2013 and later changed its mode of operation in 2015 by shifting to a premium business model. From there Tinder started to branch out its features under different plans that suit the requirements of the users. All these plans added to Tinder’s revenue.
Freemium Model
Although this model was largely free it charged the users for using certain features like location change, unlimited swipes etc. Later they added these features into their new plan named Tinder Plus wherein they divided the whole thing into two different things. The first one was Tinder Plus which was revenue-generating and followed by Tinder Basic which primarily focused on network development.
Tinder plus
Tinder plus was a very attractive plan for its users which gave them everything that they wanted in a dating app. Some of the special features that were added to tinder plus were
- Unlimited swipes
- Multiple Superlikes per day
- Facility to undo the last swipe
- Single boost per month
In order to give further advantage to the tinder plus users, they limited the number of right swipes to the free and basic app users for a period of 12 hours. Tinder Plus is priced at around Rs.650 per month. It also depends on the age of the user.
Tinder Gold
As mentioned earlier Tinder took a huge step to put this dating app at a whole new level by further giving an extension to Tinder Plus and naming it as Tinder Gold.
Apart from all the features that Tinder Plus users get, Tinder Gold also has an additional 'Likes You' feature which helps you know the number of likes you have got and know the people who have liked you. This feature also lets you check the profile of people who already liked you which is in fact time-saving.
They have also added small features like the golden heart logo which indicates that the person you are viewing has liked your profile. Tinder Gold also comes at a price.
In India, it is valued at Rs.3000 per year. You may even get discounts of up to 50% at different locations. In the US depending on the age of the user Tinder Gold is priced between $14.99 to $82.99.
Purbalee Dutta
Sponsored Profiles
As the popularity of the dating app grew, many corporate found it as a very innovative and engaging way to market their products in the form of profiles through Tinder. Soon they started partnering with Tinder so as to have their profiles featured. Here, if the user swipes right on the profiles that are sponsored it lets them chat with them. This chatting feature is usually facilitated through the use of chatbots. This has become a very profitable revenue stream as far as Tinder was concerned because of the twin benefits it has both to the startup as well as for the company. The users find such forms of advertisement is less intriguing too.
Boost - To Improve Your Chances
It is a recent addition to Tinder which has significantly attracted new users. With a Boost the probability of a profile reaching more people increases by more than ten times. It makes the boosted profile one of the topmost in the area for 30 minutes. It not only increases the chances of more views but also assures thrice more matches. The standalone price of one boost is around $1.99 to 3.99 $
Conclusion
Through its unique engagement with the users and the authenticity of the activities happening within the platform, Tinder has become the favourite choice among people between the age of 18 and 29 with more than 14% of this age group using the same in the USA. It is indeed a dreamy number for its competitors. Its free and paid models have become popular amongst its users due to their ease of use and credibility.
The human mind’s tendency to always search for love and forge new relationships and friendships have a large incentive to the growth of as a whole. Considering the changing attitude towards dating, building relationships and live-in relationships; it can be expected that Tinder will continue to grow in an upward trajectory in the future as well.
The importance of finding opportunities and monetising the common things in a different way is the most important thing that we need to learn from the way Tinder functions.
FAQ
What is the annual revenue of Tinder?
The annual revenue of Tinder was 1.4 billion U.S. dollars in 2020.
Who is the CEO of tinder?
Jim Lanzone is the current CEO of Tinder.
When was Tinder founded?
Tinder was founded in 2012.
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