Tinder’s new chief government needs to revamp the relationship platform and its status as a “hookup app” — a bid to win over Gen Zers who he says “don’t have as much sex.”
After launching in 2012, Tinder revolutionized relationship for a technology of millennials. Nevertheless it’s been falling flat amongst members of Gen Z, or folks aged 18 to twenty-eight, not together with these too younger to obtain relationship apps.
“This generation of Gen Z, 18 to 28 – it’s not a hookup generation. They don’t drink as much alcohol, they don’t have as much sex,” Spencer Rascoff, 49, chief government of Tinder proprietor Match Group, advised traders this month.
“We need to adapt our products to accept that reality,” added Rascoff, the co-founder and former CEO of actual property market Zillow.
The corporate is targeted on creating low-pressure methods for folks to fulfill on the app, like a “double dating” function, to win over Gen Zers.
This function, which permits customers to pair up with associates and match with different pairs for dates, will probably be rolled out globally this summer season, Rascoff advised The Wall Road Journal. Tinder has been testing “double dating” in Europe and seen constructive outcomes.
Rascoff took the helm at Match Group, which owns Tinder, Hinge and OkCupid, only a few months in the past, and has mentioned that fixing Tinder is his essential concern.
He’s taking a hands-on strategy. Final week, he introduced that he’d be stepping in to guide Tinder, too, after Faye Iosotaluno posted on LinkedIn that she’s going to depart in June after lower than two years on the job.
In an inside memo despatched late Tuesday, Rascoff known as on staffers to hurry up product modifications, leverage synthetic intelligence and concentrate on enhancing person security, in keeping with the Journal.
Workers ought to concentrate on enhancing the person expertise, even when it comes on the expense of short-term income, he mentioned.
“Users don’t want more matches, they want better ones,” he mentioned within the memo.
That’s definitely true for Gen Zers, who’ve fled the platform in quest of relationship apps that might result in extra lasting relationships.
Amongst 500 relationship app customers, about 85% mentioned they didn’t use Tinder due to its affiliation with “hookups,” in keeping with a 2023 Wells Fargo survey.
Development on Hinge – additionally owned by Match Group – has outpaced that of Tinder, with each day energetic customers leaping 17% in 2024 from the yr earlier than, in keeping with a observe by Wells Fargo analysts.
Tinder, in the meantime, noticed a ten% lower over the identical interval.
“Tinder has fought with – has been fighting with – a perception problem,” Ken Gawrelski, a Wells Fargo analyst, advised Fortune on the time.
In the meantime, Match Group has seen a number of management shakeups over the previous few years.
Rascoff was solely appointed Match Group’s new chief government in February, succeeding Bernard Kim, who gave up the position after lower than three years as activist traders began to construct up stakes within the firm.
It was introduced final month that Match Group’s chief know-how officer can be stepping down on the finish of Could. A alternative was not instantly named.
In March 2024, Match Group appointed two new members to its board and signed an settlement with Elliott Administration after the activist fund reportedly purchased a $1 billion stake within the firm.
Starboard Worth and Anson Funds have additionally amassed stakes in Match Group and pushed for modifications that might reduce prices and enhance the relationship conglomerate’s margins.
Rascoff has been main a turnaround effort on the firm, saying a 13% workforce discount earlier this month. The majority of the cuts hit Tinder.
Executives are hoping to return Tinder to income development, although Iosotaluno in December warned traders that this purpose wouldn’t be reached till 2027.
