- [Narrator] Say you join a dating app because you're on a quest to find love or just someone to spend time with. You may think you're
freely roaming the market, but behind the scenes, companies
are creating new paywalls to profit off of what is
for some, a shrinking number of paying users. In 1995, match.com was where you went to meet someone online. At the time of its launch, only 14% of the US had internet access. Today, half of all relationships that started online began
on a Match Group platform. The dating app industry is
now worth more than $5 billion with nearly 350 million users across different apps worldwide. But people are getting tired of swiping and downloads are falling. So companies are trying to
build the next generation of dating apps by adding
social networks and AI wingmen. - We can see some backlash
against pure dating apps. - Generative AI with fundamental change how dating online works. - Do I think people will be
swiping in five years time? No. - [Narrator] This is The
Economics of Dating Apps. Match Group now owns
(soft music) and monetizes a big
portfolio of dating apps, including Tinder, Hinge
and Plenty of Fish. Across the industry, there's something for everyone,
whether you're looking for a casual hookup, a
polyamorous relationship, or someone with facial hair. Most apps today use a freemium model where part of the platform is free, but you have to pay either a subscription or one-time fee to unlock certain features like unlimited swipes or new cities. But if companies are successful
at setting up a match, they could lose paying customers. So they're trying to get more money out of the people while they're on the apps and keep them around for longer. - Most dating apps really
lock people up in paradox of choice by giving them millions
of people to choose from. That's how we kind of make
money is by helping you speed that process up, get more exposure, get more people contacting
you, help you sort through those contacts. - [Narrator] But the number
of people willing to pay for the world's most popular
dating app has been shrinking for six quarters now. - [Bernard] We have heard loud
and clear that some users, especially the Gen Z cohort, are looking for more
from their dating apps. - [Narrator] Tinder has 50
million monthly active users. It brought in $1.9 billion
in annual revenue last year and invented the now famous
swipe right mechanism. To try and bring in money from users while they are on the app, Tinder currently offers a
range of subscription tiers and one-off purchases to unlock
things like unlimited swipes and being able to see who likes you. - So they did a really
great job for a long time, and I think what's happening right now is that people wanna graduate. They'll be on a Tinder,
they'll hang out there, that's their go-to, but then they'll look for something else. They'll realize there's a
particular thing that they want, and it could be that they
want a long-term relationship, in which case they'll go to a Hinge. - [Narrator] Hinge was created in 2012, the same year as Tinder. It was also bought by Match Group. It now has more than 10 million users and an annual revenue of $396 million. This app isn't afraid of losing users. In fact, it's made it part
of its marketing strategy. While Tinder has been struggling
to retain paying users, hinge has seen a 31%
year over year increase in people who pay for the app. - What Match has done quite
well is buy other properties that then people will
go from a Tinder to one of their other properties,
and that's the magic. Having a portfolio of dating apps, that's really the ideal business model. - [Narrator] The companies
who don't own a portfolio of different apps are
taking another strategy, keeping people online even
after they meet someone. Enter Grindr. The so-called gayborhood in your pocket. - One of our straight counterparts
kind of classifies itself as like the app to be deleted, right? We are the opposite. We
are the app to be kept because people might get into
a long-term relationship, but they're still on Grindr very actively. Again, they have friends on Grindr. They use it in all these other ways. - [Narrator] Grindr
was originally designed as a casual dating app for queer men based on
people's geographic location. It's grown from one of the
first mobile meetup apps to a platform of more than
13 million monthly users with $260 million in revenue. To keep users on the app, Grindr's paving new
pathways to profitability by developing features around the ways people
are already using it, like for gay friendly travel tips and healthcare information. Kind of like how Uber started
as a rideshare business and has expanded into grocery
through food delivery. Grindr is building something
the company hopes will appeal to their users in long-term
relationships too. - We should not build a
dating product that is awesome for 2021 or 2022. We should build a dating product that is gonna be awesome for 2027. And so our dating product
should be AI first. - Online dating companies are sitting on massive treasure troves of data. We can see how people are communicating. We can see who is communicating
with who for how long. So to chew on all of that
and make sense of it, and look for disparate connections and correlations, that's when I think AI can start giving us something interesting. - [Narrator] Grindr has partnered
with romantic AI company, Ex-Human to develop a
digital dating assistant called the Grindr Wingman. - So this is something that
is kind of present in your app or in your profile always, and makes suggestions to you, right? Like, hey, maybe as you're talking to somebody about meeting
them for a coffee, these are the three places
you could go and and do that, because it's convenient for
them and for you geographically. Or this guy's coming over to your house, based on what I know about
him and what I know about you, play this music, you know, while you wait. It could be a conversation
starter as well. Like here's some suggestive text of what you could start
the conversation with. - [Narrator] There's
no official plans yet, but Grindr's AI features could one day go from wingman to actual companion - Obviously we want to solve loneliness for people in real life,
first and foremost, and that's what Grindr is really good at. But if conversational AI can
be helpful in solving some of that virtually as well, that is something we
should think about, right? What direction that will
go in, I don't yet know, but it's certainly something
we've thought about and we'll continue thinking
about and experiment with. - [Narrator] While Grindr is leaning into AI to retain its audience. Muzz, an app from Muslims, is
betting you'll want to stick around even after you get married. - Facebook started as a social network and added Facebook dating. We've kind of gone in and reverse. We've got the dating app, if you will, the marriage app, and we're adding the
social network afterwards.. - [Narrator] Muzz is an app for Muslims who want to get married. It has more than a million
monthly active users and more than 20 million
in annual revenue. There's a ton of different features unique to the Muslim dating
experience, including allowing for a chaperone on the app and letting women decide when
men can see their photos. - I think one thing that we consciously do is remind ourselves why we exist and effectively, for me,
why we are not a Tinder and a Bumble. For Muslims, getting married, finding your life partner, is
such a big part of our life, our culture, and even our religion, right? So it's deemed as being half of your faith is in finding a partner. - [Narrator] Muzz says it's facilitated at least half a million marriages based on the people who left the app and said they got married. On Hinge, that would mean losing at least half a
million potential customers. But on Muzz? - One of the interesting
things that we've launched is effectively a social
network for Muslims. And for me, this is looking at, well, how do we help generate
more authentic conversations between Muslims? - Younger users gravitate
more towards more social apps. It's what they're used
to being on all day. So to have something that's
social with an element of dating is a good graduation for them. - We started off with Muzz being the app where single Muslims meet, and I think now we're morphing into the at where Muslims meet. - [Narrator] Bumble is also investing into friendships as a way to
keep people on their apps, even if they're not looking for love. - This is an ecosystem
of human connections and using technology as a
bridge to build healthier and more equitable relationships. - [Narrator] Bumble
Inc, which owns Bumble, Bumble for Friends,
Bumble Biz, Badoo, Fruitz and Official, has 42 million monthly users and a revenue of more
than a billion dollars. Bumble has positioned itself
as the sort of antithesis to Tinder by putting women first. Today, that mission has remained, but it's also investing
in friendship apps. - Niche dating apps
tend to do a bit better when it comes to the continuity problem. People will tend to stick
around on the niche apps because it's with their people. Right? - [Narrator] Now, a decade
into the age of dating apps, these companies are working to capture wider audiences
and higher revenue, and your pool of potential matches may be
getting bigger and bigger. Say you joined a dating
app looking for love, maybe in the future you find it there, or maybe the apps help
you find a new friend, local tour guide, or even an AI companion. (soft music)
