Match Group, the parent company of Tinder, intends to update the popular dating app so that it better meets the expectations of its new target, Gen Z. On the program: a premium subscription at nearly $500 per month, Tinder Vault, and new features derived from artificial intelligence. In light of these changes, how do we see the future of digital dating?
Starting in the fall, the Tinder Vault paid subscription should be added to those already offered by the Tinder application. It will offer exclusive services that will allow members to “get better quality matches faster, while making their experience more fun,” according to Bernard Kim, CEO of the company. A beta version has already been tested by a handful of users and has been successful with the targeted age group: 70% of the guinea pigs in favor of the exclusive offer were under 30 years old.
More and more free applications are now relying on paid subscriptions to maximize their profits. X (Twitter) and Instagram, for example, enable this type of value-added service, notably through their monetized verification program, which promises their members to increase the visibility and reach of their online presence.
While the price of Tinder Vault may raise eyebrows, it is in line with that of other elitist dating services, such as The League, an app that Match Group acquired in July 2022. Within this league of privileged singles, a subscription can approach US$400… per week.
If love is priceless, this proliferation of luxury supplements should worry us all, to the extent that dating apps now structure our love lives for better and for worse. This type of supplement (not affordable for most of the world) benefits the rich and gives them an advantage in the race for seduction, in particular by offering them better choices and making their profile more visible, therefore more discoverable. Conversely, the romantic horizons of the less fortunate could narrow as algorithms downgrade them in favor of paying members. The day is not far away when our soul mate will be locked under a paywall!
Since the mere mention of the term “artificial intelligence” is enough to cover any activity with a veneer of innovation, Tinder has also announced that it wants to take advantage of the latest AI technologies to mitigate the inconveniences incurred with the app. For example, the company hopes to limit the stress of users forced to choose their six best photos to build an attractive profile. She wants to provide them with an artificial intelligence tool that will select for them the shots that have the potential to maximize their matches.
By facilitating the profile creation process, these features enhance efficiency. But by allowing us to delegate less pleasant tasks to a machine, they also treat the quest for love as work and explain the laborious side of the Tinder experience. No wonder we are talking about dating burnout today.
If the meetings themselves can lead to a form of exhaustion, I have always found it painful to write my profile on an app. This procedure is similar to filling out a questionnaire and forces us to fit multiple and complex identities into boxes. On Tinder, the passions supposed to define us are thus predetermined, for example, “the mountains”, “wine” or even “Harry Potter”. However, this standardization seems to be the price to pay for our identity to be algorithmically readable and to circulate easily on the platform.
Whether AI and the advent of a luxury subscription will really help make the experience more interesting remains to be seen. The breath of fresh air blowing over the app does not in any way guarantee the future of the digital giant, but rather signals an increasingly competitive ecosystem. As the offer diversifies and public expectations change, the company must renew itself.
In fact, it may be the very architecture of dating apps that will need to be rethought. Most of the ones on the market share the same format: a profile with photos. But the presentation of oneself to others does not have to adopt this prescriptive model. Snack, a new dating app designed for Gen Z, allows users to introduce themselves by sharing memes and videos, without having to write a bio! When users inadvertently swipe their screen, an error message appears: “Swiping is old af”.
