With more than 57 million users and over 1.6 billion swipes a day, Tinder has become the world’s most popular dating app.
Considered by many the top application when it comes to looking for a partner, Tinder has completely transformed the chats of dating sites. The app is not without controversy, there are also those who describe it as a sexual meat market, but its figures speak of a successful platform that has even managed to get listed on the stock exchange.
Dating sites, which had been growing rapidly since the beginning of the Internet, offered a very bad user experience. In the words of one of Tinder’s members, with such archaic systems “women often felt overwhelmed, since men could contact any of them.” So the introduction of a dominant role for women was a key point. And from here the idea was born: like many other applications, Tinder came to revolutionize a very traditional sector up to then, making something fun and simple.
It wasn’t until August 2012 that Sean Rad, Justin Mateen, Jonathan Badeen and Ramon Denia began exploring this business at the University of Southern California. The intention of this group of entrepreneurs was to bring to the world the idea that meeting someone you don’t know is easier than you think. For that reason they wanted something that would make this process easy and would eliminate the psychological barriers and fears that make the process of meeting someone difficult.
So they took on the challenge and thought about how the Internet was changing the way we do things, as now you can buy almost any product online, talk to people who are in different parts of the world, work remotely and more. Why not change the way you make a date with someone you like?
They decided to incorporate several elements to the application to make it attractive, because unlike other social networks such as Facebook or Twitter that only allow you to interact with people you have added to your list, Tinder uses GPS technology to find people who are close to you. Thus, simply on entering the application, you will start finding people you can chat with and make a date with. Almost immediately the popularity of the application within the campus shot up: from one faculty to another the app to seek a partner began to spread across classrooms, schools and universities.
Tinder knows how to engage perfectly with its consumers, managing to integrate its profile with the Facebook social network, creating a more profitable interface that doesn’t require you to make it public when you like someone on the net. This alternative allows users to enjoy certain privacy parameters, without fear of being ridiculed for meeting new people. In addition, the app blocks and denies advertising access, improving the navigation process for its users.
With nearly 10 million daily users worldwide, the popular dating app took love to the stock market on November 11, 2015, at New York’s Nasdaq Park, within its main parent company, Match Group.
Today, Tinder is valued at more than 10 billion dollars, and since its launch more than 20 billion matches have been made. This business idea has paid off and without a doubt there are some points that, independently of the sector you are in, can help you in the creation of your project: an entrepreneur must find the way to make his/her business grow and avoid stagnation.
Tinder became known as a social network for getting dates, but today it wants to expand its market and get more users to join. That is, to make the application more social so that users have the possibility of using it not only to find a partner, but also to meet friends or even to do business.
Another experience provided by this platform is that of trying to understand and study the needs of potential clients. Tinder has shown that it understands its users, because a great design, the integration with the Facebook profile, the easy to use interface that doesn’t require clicks nor makes public that you like someone; are one of the strongest points of Tinder. It knows that its users don’t like to complicate their lives and that they want an easy way to meet new people without being ridiculed. Besides, Tinder does not include advertising in its app because it knows that its customers are not there to explore purchase options.
It has a large database, from age to interests and physical characteristics of users; in its task of creating a good relationship with its clients it has found a good way to take advantage of them. For example, it created a campaign on abductions to raise users’ awareness of the rights of women in other countries by collaborating with Amnesty International.
Without a doubt, Tinder is a success story that shows how an idea can become a reality. Sean Rad and his colleagues have had some difficulties on their path to success, but they realized that they don’t need to be expert entrepreneurs to undertake an idea, just focus on your goals and find the best way to reach them.
