It has been confirmed that in future Tinder updates, the dating app will make a big user interface change. The update will intend to test if the app will become a more female-friendly platform and empower women without affecting its dominance as the leading dating app.
Newer versions would presumably adopt policies similar to those of rival dating app Bumble, which makes conversations possible only if women initiate the interaction an enable it.
Currently, Tinder allows both men and women to start conversations after a match has been made. This double-ended feature has made Tinder the most popular app in the dating field with more than 3 million paid subscribers and over 100 million downloads overall, plus pitching in 30 percent of parent company Match’s revenue in 2017.
Bumble is slowly creeping on Tinder
Bumble was the first social platform to employ “ladies first policy,” consisting of women only beginning conversations in heterosexual matchmaking, while in same-sex matches either party is free to begin interaction. However, the interlocutor has 24 hours to reply messages from the sender.
The company was founded by Tinder co-founder Whitney Wolfe Herd after leaving Tinder and suing it over sexual harassment and discrimination, which she finally settled for $1 million. Badoo founder Andrey Andreev contacted Wolfe and formed a partnership and agreed on founding Bumble with a Badoo based interface designed by fellow Tinder designer dropout Chris Gulczynski.
Currently, the company holds a global number of 70 employees in its headquarters in Austin, Texas, and recently released a new mode called BFF which allows users to switch the search and instead of looking for potential partners it allows them to set up a search for friends.
In fact, in June 2016 they reached an agreement with Spotify so the music preferences would be featured in the user’s profile. Slowly but surely, Bumble has been gaining on Spotify reaching the 26 million users so far, which is probably why Tinder has been trying in the past years to feature the app too.
Will Tinder’s Bumble gamble pay off?
Tinder, however, has been trying to reaffirm their dominance on the dating market since it has been buzzed that they will include a wide variety of new features in their app; being among the most popular the “ladies first” feature which is seen as an “empowerment to women”.
Since the “ladies first” policy hasn’t become completely official, not everybody seems to be in complete favor of it. Match group CEO Mandy Ginsberg stated that the policy should be included as a choice feature regarding that this may imply pressures for women and a possible decrease in user numbers.
Ginsberg stated “Often, women don’t really want the pressure of kicking off the conversation, but if they want it, that’s great. Giving people the choice versus telling people how to engage is the big difference.”
Source: TechCrunch