Tinder online dating app is 10 years old this year. It’s a celebration for any company, but so much more for a company that needs more people to come together. cancel it. again. And one more time.
Apps that allow users to swipe left or right depending on whether the profile they’re viewing is of interest have become an important element of digital dating culture.
Not long ago, in the classifieds of dating magazines, people who posted “Lonely Hearts” ads were ridiculed at most for not being enough, and at worst, ridiculed by the theme of money and murder. People.
Today, online dating is no longer a prerequisite for a pervasive app culture, with consumers using their phones for everything from ordering food to riding a bike.
However, the new, or rather old, style of face-to-face communication is undergoing a metamorphosis that challenges the leading role of digital dating. While these meetups and events are often linked to apps for invitations, they also help combat the stressful conversations and incessant swiping on digital products like Tinder.
So, with the rise of personalized experiences for weary singles, we have to ask, are people tired of dating apps?
A personal meeting? what is that?
Overall, each dating app has its own tricks. In Tinder swipes, Bumble lets women make the first move, while Hinge says it makes lasting connections by asking users to answer questions about themselves.
There are also LGBTQ+ apps like Grindr (Tinder & Co. offers a “selective” option for all genders) and other special offers for different tastes and glamors.
Face-to-face meetings can vary and of course these techniques can also be used.
Saturday’s headline delivers a hot singles event. Every week (guess what day) the app shows users who are online today and want to join. Meanwhile, depending on your budget, Inner Circle organizes larger events and even trips to destinations.
“I would call what we did the reverse Tinder,” said Ben Mellor, 25, co-founder of Connect Two, which organizes personal dating events in Liverpool and Newcastle, England.
The pairing of the two events takes place in a traditional speed dating format, with participants having a set time, with participants rating the date based on their relationship rather than their physical appearance. and said that they want to meet when they go out.
“It has a market and it’s a great alternative to Tinder, Grindra and Hinge,” says Mellor.
Is romance dead?
In the age of social media, where personal stories are everything, part of the shift from apps to personal conversations, people want more romantic love stories.
It’s true that great love stories like Romeo, Juliet, and Anna Karenina don’t start with dating apps, but it’s also true that many of the characters in those stories go through the motions. It’s heartwarming to imagine people longing for a fairy tale in an age of skepticism, isn’t it?
“We’ve seen a shift where everything is going digital and people want to go back to old school,” said Rutger Bruning, CEO of biographical service Story Terrace.
“We wanted to see if people were really… tired of all the dating apps.“
Story Terrace conducted a study on this topic, in which 47% of respondents believed that their parents’ generation had more love stories than their generation, with more than half still believing “either “.
“Our research shows that people are looking for more romantic ways to find love again,” says Bruning.
– I think people prefer to talk about us meeting through someone or by chance rather than seeing someone 50 meters away from you.
According to Mellor, dating app fatigue is common among the show’s contestants.
“We say why are you here, they say I’m fed up with dating apps; people don’t treat them like real people, they seem like they’re having fun, a little bit of authenticity,” she said. .
“I think when you do that in person… you’re more motivated to actually talk to the people you meet.”
The outbreak after the pandemic
There was an elephant in the room amid the rumors about this – COVID-19.
In 2020-2022, people will stay at home for months. For singles, this means endless chats on dating apps, no dating hope for drinks, and scary Zoom days when it comes to parties. The pandemic also affected the younger generation growing up during the lockdown and deprived of dating opportunities in the late 1920s and early 1920s.
According to Inner Circle, 69% of users now go to a bachelorette party, up from 45% in the past, and an additional 87% believe that meeting someone at a bachelorette party is now more socially acceptable than during the pandemic. COVID-19. – change behavior.
“IRL (in real life) is really a post-pandemic trend,” says Bruning.
Mellor agrees, having heard that the app is weak among young people and that there are always public Connect Two events where, in addition to holding meetings, they have the opportunity to interact in public.
“People come with their friends and meet there. It’s funny to see a bunch of people sitting around a table,” he said.
– For women, half are colleagues working in the same position, most of them are partners.
With 323 million users worldwide, this valuable and engaging app has a market share of over $5 billion, so honestly, it’s not going away.
Tinder is so popular that swiping right is part of the English dictionary, and Badoo, an app that’s more popular than Tinder in Europe, is still more popular.
But face-to-face dating is becoming more popular, with regular Thursday matches and Connect Two events planned in new UK cities such as Manchester and Glasgow. Digital ticketing platform FIXR increases the number of dating events on the site.
In-person and digital methods are considered part of a dating ecosystem that can peacefully coexist and often complement each other through collaboration.
Dating apps are here to stay, but that doesn’t mean today’s singles are turning left in search of love.
