MASHABLE - Dec 3 - Hinge, which at one point called itself "the relationship app," is one of the many apps now owned by the Match Group but still strives to set itself apart. Its founder, Justin McLeod, set out to make an app less shallow than Tinder - but with a younger demographic than eHarmony and Match. Hinge ditched swiping in 2016 and charged seven dollars for the app to weed out non-serious users. By 2017, the mandated membership fee was gone, but they did not go back to the swipe model. After being acquired by Match Group, Hinge went through another rebrand that included a design makeover and a new tag line, "Designed to be deleted." Hinge has been fine-tuning their algorithm and figuring out what leads to better matches. Using data to help users get into relationships is partially the inspiration behind Hinge Lab, the app's new data department. Hinge Lab is like personal trainers at the gym.
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Hinge's Founder Leans Into Data to Set the Dating App Apart From Other Apps
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Tinder or Bumble - The Clichés of 'Big Dating'
USA TODAY - Nov 21 - Swiping to find a date came into the cultural lexicon when Tinder launched in 2012 and revolutionized the online dating scene. "It's a game, it's fire and it's fun," said online dating consultant Mark Brooks about Tinder. Brooks said the app can skew toward audiences looking for a "casual" encounter, whereas other apps, like Hinge, tend to build more "meaningful" relationships. "Since Match Group bought Hinge, they positioned Hinge as 'long-term' and Tinder as 'casual'," Brooks says. "I always regret going on a date from Tinder," said 28-year-old Justyna Kedra, a frequent user of Hinge, Bumble and, sometimes, Tinder. "I feel that people are very transactional. There's no depth." Hinge's approach tends to focus more on getting to know someone based on their politics and religion. According to Hinge's global head of communications Jean-Marie McGrath, 99% of the app's users are college-educated. The app gained recognition when 2020 presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg publicly said that he met his partner on Hinge.
by Coral Murphy
See full article at USA Today
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Mark Zuckerberg Let Tinder Get Special Access to Users' Data
FORBES - Nov 8 - Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg considered entering the online dating business as far back as 2014, but he put the idea on the back burner, instead giving Tinder special access to its users' data, leaked emails between top executives show. The leaked correspondence is part of an ongoing lawsuit between Facebook and Six4Three, a now-defunct app developer that sued Facebook in 2015 for restricting user data access, alleging the actions were uncompetitive. The correspondence shows how perilously close Tinder came to losing key access to Facebook user information that helped Tinder grow rapidly in its early years, when members often used their Facebook logins to access the app. When Facebook further restricted the kind of information third-party apps could access after the Cambridge Analytica scandal broke in March 2018, Tinder's app crashed. Tinder was on Facebook's radar in 2013. Zuckerberg wrote in January 2014 to two executives: "Tinder's growth is especially alarming to me because their product is built completely on Facebook data, and it's much better than anything we've built for recommendations using the same corpus." In 2014, Facebook announced it would start preventing third-party app developers from having access to data on users' friends, including birth dates, photos and pages they liked. The company gave a May 2015 deadline for developers to comply with its new set of access rules. However, Zuckerberg made some companies and apps an exception. Tinder was one. Facebook agreed to give Tinder a special data-sharing agreement, internally known as "whitelists," if the dating app shared trademark rights on "MOMENTS." which was the planned name for a photo app that Facebook wanted to launch, an email exchange in March 2015 showed. When asked about this agreement in 2018, a spokeswoman for Tinder said: "Tinder never received special treatment, data or access related to this dispute or its resolution." Other dating apps that had whitelist agreements with Facebook include Bumble, Badoo, Coffee Meets Bagel, Hinge and jSwipe.
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CEO of Hinge: What the World Will Be Like in 50 Years
QZ - Nov 4 - Justin McLeod is the founder and CEO at Hinge, the dating app designed to be deleted. McLeod founded Hinge in February 2011. Upset by the negative hookup culture dating apps had created, he relaunched the app in October 2016 as more serious dating app. The company's user base has grown 400% in the last year.
Q: What kinds of companies will be the most important?
McLeod: Companies that serve our deeper human needs and help us feel connection, not validation.
Q: What will cause the biggest conflicts?
A: The same thing that causes the biggest conflicts today. As Pascal put it more than 400 years ago, "All of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone." With constant distraction in our pockets, we seem to be connected to everything and everyone - except ourselves.
Q: How will people earn a living?
A: Empathy, connection, and companionship.
Q: How will we communicate with each other?
A: My hope is that we can engineer ways for people to communicate and connect on a deeper level than many of us are used to via social media updates and small talk.
Q: How will we entertain one another?
A: We'll be doing it in-person. I believe screens will fade out of existence, though augmented reality will certainly be part of our daily lives.
Q: How will we find love?
A: I believe choosing a partner will become an informed, data-driven decision.
Q: What kinds of stories will we tell?
A: We will look back on today with shock at how tethered we were to our phones.
Q: What will our most valuable resource be?
A: Love. The scarcest resource will be giving one another our time, care, and attention.
Q: What technology will bring about the biggest change in society?
A: Nanotech, augmented reality, AI, and connected devices.
Q: What's your best prediction for the world in 50 years?
A: Screens will become a thing of the past as we become disenchanted with our phones and tablets, and we learn to make real life more exciting through connected devices, augmented reality, and biological innovations.
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Top Dating News for Oct 22nd - Hinge & OpenTable, MyLife Offering, SD Ventures Merger
OPW - Oct 22 - News about Hinge and OpenTable partnering, MyLife's Offering, and SD Ventures merger with SOL for $215m to form Dating.com Group.
Here's the top dating news in ~2 minutes. Subscribe to the Two Minute Tuesdays (TMT) podcast on Breaker, Google podcasts, Spotify, Anchor or Stitcher.
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Hinge and OpenTable Launch 'Date Night Matchmaker' to Help Plan Date Night
ASKMEN - Oct 15 - Dating app Hinge and restaurant reservation service OpenTable have launched Date Night Matchmaker, a service that will help users plan the date night by asking about budget, desired style of dining and the overall vibe or ambiance.
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Hinge to Launch Podcast With Ghost Stories
OPW - Oct 3 - Ghoster is a person who ends a relationship with someone by suddenly and without explanation, withdrawing from all communication. Dating app Hinge is about to launch a podcast called "Ghost Stories", which will feature real daters talking about their own experiences of ghosting.
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Facebook Dating Is a Threat to Match, But Not to Tinder
SEEKING ALPHA - Sep 20 - Facebook Dating isn't likely to kill Tinder, but investors seem to be forgetting that Match also owns other dating properties that may be under threat from Facebook. Facebook Dating focuses on long-term relationships and skews towards older people, which puts it in direct competition with apps like Hinge or OurTime. Match's current valuation is also far higher than when Facebook Dating launched.
See full article at Seeking Alpha
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Dating Apps Can Serve as Professional Networking Platforms
FAST COMPANY - Aug 15 - Platforms that are meant for social connection could also help your professional advancement, says Jeff Steen, special projects editor for FitSmallBusiness.com. FitSmallBusiness.com made a list of the most surprising apps users can use for business networking, which included Reddit, Goodreads, AncestryDNA and dating apps like Hinge, Bumble and Tinder. With a dating apps, there can be a natural progression in a conversation to users' career. "''What do you do?' is usually one of the first questions people ask when getting to know someone," says Steen. "This can overlap into professional conversations, even if no romantic interest is established."
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Dating App Hinge Wants to Be Deleted
MARKETING WEEK - Aug 12 - The dating app's first major international marketing campaign sees app icon Hingie "dying to be deleted". The new campaign will appear on TV and streaming sites, as well as on Snapchat, Twitter, Reddit, Instagram and YouTube.
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Tinder's Take on Safety in Its New Commercial
OPW - July 27 - "It's really important that women never go to someone's house, they meet in a public place, they don't drink...", said Mandy Ginsberg, CEO of Match Group, in 2018 HBO documentary "Swiped". And here are Tinder's official guidelines to women for not getting raped: 1. Never go to someone's house, 2. Meet in a public place, 3. Don't drink, 4. Let someone know where you're going and 5. Never go into someone's car. Yet the new Tinder commercial "Don't Fly Solo" suggests just that. The video features a young woman traveling alone. She is meeting strangers through Tinder app, and jumping into their cars. What's worse, she arranges a meeting with strangers literally in the middle of nowhere. She has a good time and makes lots of new friends but unfortunately, we don't live in a fairytale world. In the real world, these encounters could end up really badly. We find this ad disconcerting. What are you thoughts?
For years Tinder had been trying to shed its hook up imagine. But in Q3 2018 Match Group decided to double down on its casual nature following the acquisition of Hinge, a dating app for more serious relationships. This video is a part of the new "SingleNotSorry" campaign that is celebrating the single life, and portrays Tinder as a more casual dating app. - Irena Brooks, editor of OnlinePersonalsWatch
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Justin McLeod, Founder of Hinge, Whose Life is Destined for the Screen
INDEPENDENT.CO.UK - July 18 - Justin McLeod almost lost the love of his life. But he took a bold risk that paid off. He asked a woman who was engaged to another man to leave him and come back to the US because he felt he had changed. "And she did." There is an actual TV episode currently being planned about it.
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Hinge Partners With Political Nonprofit to Raise Voter Turnout in 2020
FORTUNE - June 26 - Dating app Hinge is partnering with Rock the Vote, a political nonprofit organization aimed at "building the political power of young people" through voter registration and issue-based awareness campaigns. From Wednesday - the first day of the Democratic presidential primary debates - to Friday, Hinge will donate $1 to Rock the Vote for each "like" on its Rock the Vote Instagram post, up to a total of $50K.
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Can We Trust the Match Group Cartel With Our Dating Data?
PROPRIVACY - June 6 - Nearly half of the Match Group's subscribers are not aware of the other dating platforms owned by IAC. 61% of subscribers across Match.com, Tinder, OKCupid, Plenty of Fish and Hinge are concerned about the amount of data they share with the platforms. 65% don't know who owns their dating service. In order for online dating services to be effective at finding compatible partners, they require data. The more personal data they feed into the platforms, the better chance they have of finding a match. But many users don't realize just how much data they're giving away or exactly how these companies use that data once it's handed it over. This lack of awareness is by design. Tinder states in its privacy policy, "…we do not promise, and you should not expect, that your personal information will always remain secure."
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Bumble and Hinge Are Trying to Get People to Meet up in Real Life
MARKETWATCH - June 5 - Bumble is opening a coffee shop and wine bar for New York City daters to get off their phones and meet up in real life. Dine, an app that launched in 2015, lets users match with people and their favorite restaurant and ask them out on the spot. Once a "Dine" request is accepted, users can confirm the time and day they'll meet up at a bar or restaurant they can book through the app. Hinge has also tried to encourage users to get off their phones. In March, it hosted open bar events in New York, LA, Miami and Chicago to celebrate "National Day of Unplugging" by inviting members to put their phone away and meet potential matches in person. One-third of people who have used online dating have never actually gone on a date with someone they met, according to Pew Research Center.
by Jeanette Settembre
See full article at Marketwatch
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Hinge Saw 30% Increase in Gay Profiles After Pete Buttigieg Revealed He Met Husband On It
TOWLEROAD - May 29 - Pete Buttigieg's revelation that he met his husband Chasten on the gay dating app Hinge spurred a sizable increase in profiles created by gay men. There's been a 30% increase in profiles created by gay, male individuals since April 1.
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Hinge CEO Justin McLeod on Bringing Data to Dating
STANDARD.CO.UK - May 16 - Justin McLeod founded Hinge after graduating from Harvard in 2011 and rebranded it three years ago, after a 14-year love story culminated in him winning back his now-wife, Kate. Hinge has since become the UK's fastest growing dating app. Now, a date is arranged between users every four seconds. For him, it's all about data. Users are invited to like parts of others' profiles, rather than the profile as a whole, which allows Hinge to "zero in" on their tastes. Instead of lining up 1K potential matches to "mindlessly" swipe through, it is "thoughtful" about who is shown to whom. A feature called Most Compatible uses a combination of AI and a Noble Prize-winning algorithm called Gale-Shapley (aka the "stable marriage algorithm") to send users daily match suggestions. The idea isn't that you're shown "the person you most want in the world" but "someone you like who's also going to like you back", McLeod explains. "A "We Met" feature follows up after the initial match to see if users went on a date and if so, how it went. So far, results have proven the new algorithm is eight times more likely to lead to a date than other apps," he says.
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CEO of Hinge: I Had Heartbreak So I Built My Own Dating App
TELEGRAPH.CO.UK - Apr 23 - Earlier this month, Hinge revealed a redesign, with a more 'sophisticated' look, to encourage less swiping and more meaningful communication. The technology behind most dating apps is, says CEO & Founder, Justin McLeod, "literally designed to be addictive". "They're hacking your biology and your neurochemistry to keep you coming back. The parallels to addiction are really striking." In his twenties, he battled drug and alcohol addictions, which saw him in and out of rehab. He now considers himself adept at spotting addictive tendencies. "The drug of choice is now social media, which is free and just as destructive. Hinge is designed to be deleted, and everyone else is designed to be addictive," he adds.
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Hinge CEO: Advertising Would Be 'Antithetical' to Our Message
THE DRUM - Apr 17 - Hinge brands itself as the dating app that's 'designed to be deleted'. Justin McLeod, founder and CEO of Hinge, said the goal is to create an entertaining but ultimately effective user experience that takes people off the app and out on dates. "We don't use advertising...because that would be pretty antithetical to the way that we work," said McLeod. "If you run ads, then you need people to spend a lot of time on your platform so that you get a lot of ad impressions, and we're trying to get you to spend less time in the app." McLeod said he could see Hinge exploring brand partnerships that "deliver value to our users," but the app will "almost certainly" never sell ad inventory.
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How Hinge Hopes to Resist the Gamification of Dating
CREATIVE REVIEW - Apr 11 - Dating app Hinge rolls out a vibrant new interface. CMO Nathan Roth spoke about the app's approach to measuring success and the design features that encourage users to delete it. Hinge is reminding its users repeatedly that it is "Designed to be deleted". The app actively encourages users to meet and take things offline. "We measure success by the number of dates we set up each week," said Roth. Last year, the app launched a feature called 'We Met' to get feedback on its people's dates, with the aim of learning more about individual members and streamlining any future recommendations. "It's working. Hinge members only spend six minutes a day setting up dates." he says. Last year, Hinge also made the news for announcing they were looking to recruit an Anti-retention Specialist, a role which is in the final stages of being filled. Roth says this 'digital wellness expert' will help identify more ways to encourage users to to get off the app.
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