INTHEBLACK February 2022 - Magazine - Page 59
GLOBAL
DATING
APP USERS
2015
Above: Violet Lim,
Lunch Actually
Left: The Badoo Project
launch in New York in 2012.
1 .69
BILLION
2016
1.88
BILLION
2017
2.05
BILLION
generated via advertising or by unlocking
enhanced features for a fee. Sites like Hinge,
for instance, charge users for unlimited
daily matches. The site has an estimated
six million monthly active users and about
400,000 subscribers.
“Sites that have a free offer have lowered
the barriers to entry, because it’s a volume
game,” says Williams. “They want to be able
to say that your odds of success are higher,
because the ‘pool of fish’ is much greater,
but there are points at which they seek to
monetise your involvement.”
Hinge is marketed as a site for serious
relationships – its slogan is “The dating app
designed to be deleted”. However, Mark
Brooks, CEO of UK-based internet dating
business consultancy Courtland Brooks, says
dating apps get deleted both when they are
successful and when they are not.
“Given the choice of the two, it’s better
to be deleted because you’re successful, and
then benefit from word of mouth,” he says.
Williams adds that even if users delete
an app after finding their match, they may
be likely to use it again if the relationship
doesn’t go the distance.
“The beauty of these sites is that people
don’t necessarily blame the service for any
failings in a relationship,” she says. “By the
time you’ve met someone and you think
you’re falling in love, if it ends it’s either your
fault or it’s their fault. By that stage, you’d
rarely think it’s the fault of the dating site.”
ENTER THE LOVE MACHINES
The first attempt at computer dating took
place back in 1959, when two Stanford
University students used the institution’s
IBM 650 to build a program that matched
49 men with 49 women.
While some sites, such as Lunch Actually,
continue to conduct personal consultations
with potential clients, most modern-day
matchmakers are robots.
Dr David Tuffley, senior lecturer
in applied ethics and cybersecurity at
Griffith University, says the use of artificial
intelligence adds a greater degree of
precision to the matchmaking process.
2018
2.23
BILLION
2019
2.52
BILLION
2020
3.08
BILLION
Source: BusinessofApps
intheblack.com February 2022 59