Tinder Wants Users to Pay Up Before It Shows You Better Matches
During the Forbes 30 Under 30 Summit—a gathering of "the world's brightest young game changers" and the middle-aged men who are obsessed with them—Tinder CEO Sean Rad announced that his dating app will start offering a paid premium option in early November.
Forbes didn't say how much it will cost, but did report that the new service will offer users "more match-making powers."
Currently location based, Tinder lets you swipe though an endless stream of photos of people looking to meet up–but only the city you're currently in. The new premium service will likely let users break away from location limits and expand their Tinder reach. "We are adding features users have been begging us for," said Rad. "They will offer so much value we think users are willing to pay for them."
Rad says there will be no changes to the current, free Tinder app. Tinder has been growing like crazy. Rad won't comment on user numbers but did say that people now swipe through 1.2 billion Tinder profiles a day–that's billion with a B. He also says that each day Tinder makes more than 15 million matches.
The move to freemium was expected. Tinder's majority stakeholder is Barry Diller's IAC, which also owns OkCupid, Match, HowAboutWe, and has practically cornered the online dating market. Match is currently no. 10 among top-grossing apps in the Apple App Store, OkCupid is no. 33. Most of the other top-grossers are games. Zoosk, a dating competitor that filed for an IPO in April is no. 8 on that same list.
In the past Rad and Justin Mateen, the Tinder cofounder who resigned after allegations about sexually harassing a Tinder employee, have said that the app wants to expand into other "matchmaking verticals," such as business networking. Rad was short on details today, but he did insinuate that Tinder will be about more than about hooking up with the people around you:
Rad wouldn't give me specifics but hinted that one of the new features will focus on travel and could help Tinder move into markets beyond dating.
So, like, hooking up with the people around you while on a business trip?
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[Image via Getty]