Have Dating Apps Become Event Companies?
Tinder's Events tab is in about 20 cities, and Bumble is taking over bars for mixers. Paying users are down. The apps are betting people would rather show up than keep swiping.
The flyer used to come from a friend. Lately it comes from the app that taught everyone to swipe.
Tinder has an Events tab. Bumble has been taking over bars. Both are trying to get people off the couch, because the swipe is wearing them out.
Fortune reported on Sept. 20 that Tinder's tab is in about 20 cities, mostly in the U.S., plus a few in Europe. In Los Angeles, 71% of the app's Gen Z users had opened it.
Tinder is mostly listing other people's nights. Bumble is hosting some of its own. If the apps feel endless, use them to get into a room, then look up.
Tinder built a listings desk
Tinder opened the Events tab in Los Angeles in March. The menu is ceramics, pickleball, trivia, hikes.
Mark Kantor, who runs product there, told Fortune they want to stop calling these dating events. You go do something you already like. Other singles happen to be in the room.
Tinder is not throwing most of those nights. Spencer Rascoff, the chief executive, told investors in August that local organizers still make the event and sell the ticket. The app puts it in front of you.
They hope to be in 75 cities by the end of the year. In mid-September the public count was about 20. In Los Angeles, 63% of users 25 and older had opened the tab, a little behind the younger crowd.
The app is turning into a flyer. The pickleball court still belongs to someone else.
Bumble is hosting some of the nights
Bumble has been throwing some of the parties itself. Bars across New York this year, a rooftop in Nashville, a night in Boston.
The company told Fortune the frustrating part of dating is the space between a match and a meeting. These nights are supposed to close it.
Whitney Wolfe Herd, Bumble's chief executive, has also been talking about a slower product. Plans, a separate app, is for small group hangs. Romance can show up later, if it shows up.
She has said the swipe is on the way out. She has not shown what replaces it.
The numbers say why they are in a hurry. Bumble had 3.2 million paying users in the second quarter, down from 4.1 million two years earlier.
Tinder had 8.5 million, down about 12% over that stretch. Daily users there were off 4% from last year.
People want the room
People are tired of the screen. In a July survey of nearly 9,000 people, Clarity Check found 58% had deleted a dating app because it felt draining. Forty-four percent said they would rather meet in a low-pressure room than study a profile.
Company survey. It still sounds like the complaint at dinner.
If your week is a pile of chats and no plans, open the tab once and pick one thing. Trivia, pickleball, or the Tuesday a friend already hosts.
Then put the phone away when you get there.