Trying to fix the dating app backlash

The Indicator from Planet Money

NPR

Business

4.7 • 9.5K Ratings

🗓️ 24 October 2024

⏱️ 11 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Unanswered messages. Endless swiping. An opaque algorithm. The backlash to online dating feels like it's reached a fever pitch recently. For today's Love Week episode, why people are unhappy with online dating and what Hinge's CEO is trying to do about it. Also, a Nobel Prize economist delivers a little tough love.

Related listening:
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Hinge: Justin McLeod (How I Built This)
The dating app paradox
The economics behind sorority rush

Special thanks to Grant-Lee Phillips for our Love Week theme song and Kaitlin Brito for episode artwork.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	NPR. This is the indicator from Planet Money. I'm Darren Woods.
0:15.0	And I'm Whelan Wong.
0:16.0	One in ten couples found each other online.
0:19.0	But it feels like we're in the middle of a dating app backlash.
0:22.0	It's certainly not hard to find critics. were in the middle of a dating app backlash.
0:22.5	It's certainly not hard to find critics.
0:24.7	What were your experiences?
0:26.6	Overall bad.
0:27.8	People are out there not actually dating on dating apps.
0:30.9	They don't know how to date.
0:32.0	It's harder to find people that you connect with
0:34.4	online dating. Mostly felt like it was a game I had on my phone. People have always
0:39.6	griped about online dating, but these complaints are now hurting business.
0:44.6	Match Group owns Tinder, Hinge and OK Cupid and its share price has been walloped over the last
0:50.0	couple of years.
0:51.2	It's plummeted more than 75% according to Morgan Stanley
0:55.3	downloads for swipe-based dating apps like grinder, bumble and tinder are stalling or
1:01.0	falling. One exception is hinge.
1:04.6	Amidst this whole dating app rethink,
1:07.1	more and more people are using this particular app
1:09.5	promising long-term love.
1:12.4	And so for Love Week on the indicator we are talking to
	...

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