Zohran Mamdani may be the exception that proves the rule.
uncertain
that → prove → rule
“I think I was in love from the moment I saw her profile,” the New York mayor said of his wife, Rama Duwaji, in an interview with Complex magazine.
asserted
mayor → think → magazine
“I screenshotted her Hinge profile.
asserted
I → screenshotte → profile
But for every Mamdani-Duwaji love story there are countless complaints and despairing headlines about dating apps (‘ding-dong, dating apps are dead’, ‘why young adults are caught in a dating recession’, ‘I feel so cringe on dating apps’), taking aim at their habit of locking away desirable profiles, making users feel unwanted, or providing an overwhelming sense of infinite potential mates.
asserted
users → be → mates
“They have an economic incentive to stop you partnering in long-term committed relationships,” says Alistair Kitchen, an Australian writer who has developed an alternative dating app that is in an early test period.
asserted
that → have → period
“What I tell people is this: every time a Hinge user falls in love on Hinge, Hinge loses two customers, and so the worst thing possible for Hinge is for people to fall in love.
asserted
people → tell → love
So, Kitchen argues, mainstream Western dating apps like Hinge, Bumble and Tinder have an incentive to keep users online and spending money to overcome the limitations they have placed in users’ way.
asserted
they → argue → way
Yet if commercial needs are frustrating dating apps’ social potential, the business side is scarcely going better.
asserted
side → frustrate → potential
Match Group, which owns Tinder and Hinge among other brands, has suffered repeated falls in its user base.
asserted
which → own → base
Bumble, which shot to a $US14 billion ($20 billion) valuation after it went public in 2021, has done even worse.
asserted
it → shoot → 2021
After sharp declines in the company’s revenue and users, this week a private equity group bought it for $US1.3 billion, or about a tenth of what it had been worth (and yet much more than the $US350 million it had been trading around before the buyout became public).
asserted
buyout → buy → million
The two men who run buyout group Ithaca Holdings, Ravi Gupta and John Hegeman, will become Bumble’s co-chief executives and confront the defining problem facing the dating app business: how to turn around a sector that is supposed to make money and help people find love but is trending towards doing neither.
asserted
people → run → neither
To date, the dating apps have relied on product changes to entice users to give them another shot.
asserted
apps → rely → shot
In January, Bumble’s founder Whitney Wolfe Herd returned to lead the company.
asserted
founder → return → company
“I love Oprah and … I had been doing her exercise of ‘don’t tell the universe what you want; tell the universe to use you [for] what it needs from you’,” Wolfe Herd told The New York Times.
asserted
Herd → love → Times
She decided that the universe should use her for “love and light”, prompting her to accept a return to run Bumble.
asserted
universe → decide → Bumble
In June she laid off 30 per cent of Bumble’s staff.
asserted
she → lay → staff
Then, in August, the company – which was contacted for comment – nixed its signature feature, which had required women to send the first message as a step to help them lead the conversation.
asserted
them → contact → conversation
The investment bank UBS told clients in an August note seen by this masthead that Bumble’s revenue had fallen from about $US1 billion in 2023 to an estimated $US833 million this year, with no recovery forecast by 2030.
asserted
recovery → tell → 2030
Wolfe Herd will step down as chief executive when the buyout goes through, but keep working with the company.
asserted
buyout → step → company
Match Group’s Hinge has been performing far better than Bumble, with strong user growth globally.
asserted
Hinge → perform → growth
Yet its larger Tinder business, which was the original app-based dating platform, has been deep in the doldrums for years.
asserted
which → base → years
In response, the company launched Project Aurora this year.
asserted
company → launch → Aurora
It came with features like double dating (“The group chat? On fire.
asserted
It → come → fire
Small talk? Doesn’t stand a chance,” intones one ad), star sign checks and AI tools.
asserted
ad → stand → chance
Match, which was contacted for comment, selected Australia as the first market.
asserted
which → contact → market
There has been “steady progress on turning the ship”, investment bank Barclays told its clients in August.
asserted
Barclays → turn → August
The rate at which Tinder’s user base was shrinking was slower, it noted.
asserted
it → shrink → which
The share price has risen accordingly but remains far below where it was five years ago.
asserted
it → rise → ?
University of Sydney lecturer Dr Sam Chan, an expert on dating apps, is unconvinced that new features will make a durable difference.
asserted
features → make → difference
“They’re coming up with gimmicks,” he says.
asserted
he → come → gimmicks
“How many people want to double-date?”
asserted
people → want → ?
Chan says dating apps are now competing for attention in a wider world of “emotional support” entertainment.
asserted
apps → say → entertainment
AI companions and treacly sweet Netflix romances now vie for time that may have once been spent on an app, to say nothing of pornography or erotica.
uncertain
that → vie → pornography
Still, for all the gloomy headlines, dating apps are still a vital way for Australians to partner up.
asserted
Australians → partner → headlines
The nationally representative Australian Study of Health and Relationships survey found that in 2022-23, more than half of people aged 20 to 39 had found their most recent partner online.
asserted
half → find → partner
Kitchen, the Melburnian writer who is launching a dating app called One, says his product is distinct from those that came before.
asserted
that → launch → those
Users create a profile and then speak to an AI matchmaker about their goals and lifestyle for about 10 minutes.
asserted
Users → create → minutes
Then they get three matches a day, select one, and can only communicate via voice notes.
asserted
they → get → notes
For now the app is free but eventually there will be a one-off fee to join, Kitchen says.
asserted
Kitchen → join → ?
…and 26 more, not listed.
The Aporia
