Section 2
Introduction
This section draws comparison between the Great Depression and the Covid Pandemic through the match maker classifieds in adult magazines from the 1900s and dating apps of today. The masses saw drastic cultural and social changes in both instances. People faced increased levels of unemployment, isolation, and loneliness. As people moved to working and interacting remotely during the pandemic, they flocked to dating apps for companionship. The apps saw a surge in traffic and their subscribers increased, multiplying their profits.
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Dating App Revenue during Covid
Dating apps saw sharp spikes in traffic and revenue starting the year the Covid Pandemic started, 2019. The first graph demonstrates a sharp increase in paid subscribers on Tinder. The next graphs detail the increase in the users and annual revenue of Tinder, Bumble, and Hinge respectively.
Sources:
Iqbal, Mansoor. “Tinder Revenue and Usage Statistics (2022).” Business of Apps, May 4, 2022. https://www.businessofapps.com/data/tinder-statistics/.
Curry, David. “Hinge Revenue and Usage Statistics (2022).” Business of Apps, May 4, 2022. https://www.businessofapps.com/data/hinge-statistics/.
Curry, David. “Bumble Revenue and Usage Statistics (2022).” Business of Apps, May 4, 2022. https://www.businessofapps.com/data/bumble-statistics/.
Dating App Subscription Models
Dating Apps have a common business model. They're free to download and use. You gain access to potential matches near you and you're able to make the first move by swiping right on them. On Tinder, a market leading dating app, free users get 100 free right swipes per day. For unlimited swipes and increased chances of getting matches, Tinder offers premium services like Tinder Plus, Tinder Gold, and Tinder Platinum.
Even though the number of paid subscribers on Tinder has multiplied over the years, according to Statista, the distribution of Tinder monthly active users in the United States as of March 2021, by gender, is still 75.8% Male and 24.2% Female. Moreover, Tinder has different prices for it's premium services based on age and gender. Men are charged more than women for the same services.
In his article "Exploitive Platforms: How Tinder Exploits Lonely Men to Make MASSIVE Profits", Omar Aboulezz states:
Tinder sells users a fantasy, a hope that maybe if they just purchase this premium feature or service maybe they will find the one. The claims about getting up seen by 10x more profile views, or up to 3x improvement in matches, when examined empirically means that many users still get almost no benefit from these features/services. The ease of use of the application to purchase said services acts as an almost gamification, that facilitates the microtransactions that create the app’s wild profitability. The app explicitly and almost exclusively preys on lonely men. What’s worse is the 20% of users who get all the matches (myself included), get most of the matches, thus creating a dating culture where people are disposable because there’s always another match waiting. This is the grim reality that the Tinder platform has created. Don’t waste your money on dating apps."
Ads in Dating Apps
At a glance, these ads and apps remind us of the same strategies as the ones used in adult magazines. Adapted for modern society, they're promising the potential for love and companionship digitally. Coincidentally, Tinder, a market leading dating app, also includes ads for male enhancement pills, exactly like the adult magazines in the 1900s.