Over the last couple of years, dating app companies like Match Group and Bumble have learned that, like love, their business is a battlefield. Their stock prices are on the rocks. Their investors are heartbroken. They're getting ghosted by users and failing to woo Generation Z.
It's no wonder why the CEOs of both companies have recently resigned. Lost love in the crowded dating app market is nothing new. One moment a dating app might be hot and heavy with consumers, but the next they're getting dumped.
Match Group has tried to overcome this problem by incubating new dating apps and, more aggressively, acquiring rival ones. Originally just associated with the dating site Match. Before we dive deeper into their problems, it's worth saying that dating apps have helped many people find love. According to a survey of Americans by Pew Research Center published last year , "one-in-ten partnered adults β meaning those who are married, living with a partner or in a committed romantic relationship β met their current significant other through a dating site or app.
But there's an awkward tension at the heart of the dating app business model. They are for-profit tech companies that want to attract as many users as possible and inevitably make money from them. But at the same time, true success for their users β at least for the large population looking for more than just hookups β means that they find love and get off the apps.
For each successful match, the dating app loses not just one, but two customers! Call it the dating app paradox: Dating apps are supposed to be matching lovebirds together, but once they do, the lovebirds fly away β and take their money with them. You can sign up here.
