Could these challenges be detrimental to digital dating?
HOW DID WE GET HERE?
Whether you love or loath them, no one can deny that dating apps have revolutionised the landscape of love, offering us a digital way to escape singledom with a swipe.
Although the concept of ‘lonely hearts’ match-making is nothing new — it can be traced back to personal ads in the 19th century, the pioneer of digital dating emerged in 1995 with the creation of Match.com. Online match-making was then imitated by other websites, but meeting a partner in this way was still considered unusual and taboo by society.
MAKING IT MAINSTREAM
This changed with the launch of Tinder in 2012 — the first mobile dating app, which successfully targeted millennials, finally bringing online dating into the mainstream. The now booming online dating industry is expected to continue growing — In 2022, there were over 366 million online dating service users. By 2027, this number is estimated to reach 440 million.
However, despite the popularity of online dating, there are still major challenges being faced in the industry, for both the companies creating the apps and the user’s experience of them.
COMPETITION OF THE CUPIDS
Tinder, Hinge, Bumble, OkCupid, Grindr, Feeld, the list goes on. In fact, there are over 1,500 dating apps and websites worldwide operating in 2024, all available at our fingertips. This has created a competitive, rivalrous market, making standing out a major challenge —for both the well-known dating apps (needing to keep users from straying to shiny new options) and new apps on the scene eager to attract users.
IT’S ALL ABOUT THE USP
The solution here is creating a USP — a unique selling point. Whilst Tinder created the ‘gamification’ of dating with the left or right swipe, many newer dating apps are carving out a niche by focusing on particular interests. This includes the music-taste based dating app ‘Vinylly’, and ‘Thursday’, the dating app only active one day a week, for people who hate the monotonous pressure of online dating.
DIGITAL MARKETING
However, a USP is useless if no one knows about it, so integrating it into marketing is key for dating apps to beat the competition. Social media is the ideal place for an effective digital ad campaign, because crucially, social media apps such as Instagram share the same key demographic that most dating apps are targeting — 18–34 year olds.
It’s also important to take a multi-channel approach to digital marketing, especially covering newer social medias like TikTok — currently the most frequently used app worldwide! Advertising on TikTok could simultaneously help reconfigure the gender imbalance faced by many dating apps, (e.g 75% of tinder users are Male), as TikTok’s userbase skews female.
THE DARK SIDE OF DATING APPS
Another challenge for dating apps is user safety. Unfortunately, harassment, catfishing, and trolls are all unpleasant realities hiding behind the champagne-and-roses promise of online dating. According to a study of college students in America, 88.8% of dating app users reported at least one instance of sexual harassment via dating apps, and this number is majority female users.
Dating app harassment is part of ‘technology-facilitated-sexual-harassment’ and has some particular contexts — e.g, the geolocation in dating apps creates an easy way for sexual predators to find potential victims. Also, consent on dating apps is unclear and underexplored. Does consent start with a match? A flirty message? An emoji even?
This lack of clarity can be manipulated by harassers, e.g by sending unsolicited sexual pictures, which the recipient may feel they have unknowingly consented to through their presence on the app, therefore choosing not to report the individual, who can then do this again.
A SAFE SOLUTION
Dating apps need to create and encourage simpler user-friendly routes to report inappropriate behaviour, and educate users upon joining, about their strict codes of conduct.
Also, developing a safety communication network across dating apps could function as a digital screening policy, determining whether individuals have a criminal history or have used and abused any dating apps in the past. This would limit the dangerous predators who have access to this technology-facilitated-sexual-harassment. Whilst user’s privacy is important, safety should be the first priority of dating apps, especially in the current social climate of pervasive misogyny and violence against women.
IS HOOKUP CULTURE DETRIMENTAL TO DATING APPS?
Tinder has a notorious reputation as ‘the hook-up app’. My friend Emma, a dating-app-connoisseur, once advised me: “trust tinder for a one-time-thing, don’t expect a marriage proposal”. This ‘hook-up culture’ was not created by dating apps, it’s a product of increased sex positivity in society, and as long as both parties are on the same page, is a perfectly valid use of online dating.
However, it has resulted in some people — myself included — opting out of online dating altogether when seeking a relationship, categorising dating apps as only facilitating casual fun, not commitment. This removes a key target audience of potential online daters.
Whilst these apps can’t control how users date each other, they could stress the importance of honesty and transparency. Also, they could add a profile button for users to specify if they’re looking for ‘casual hook-up’ or ‘relationship’.
RETRO ROMANCE
According to a new study — 79% of college students are foregoing regular app usage in favour of in-person connection.
Whether people are searching for relationships or hook-ups, this suggests a clear comeback for ‘analogue’ dating (meaning dating which does not begin with digital technology). Dating apps have made getting someone’s number in a bar suddenly ‘retro’, and we know our society loves all things retro — clothes, vinyl’s, etc. But, if ‘analogue dating’ becomes the new hot trend…Tinder may be in trouble!
SOLUTION: BACK TO BASICS
A solution here is for dating apps to blend analogue and digital dating, as ‘Thursday’ has exemplified. ‘Thursday’ hires out trendy bars across various locations and fills them with single people (their app users), effectively replicating the now ‘retro’ romance of the in-person ‘meet cute’.
Other dating apps should follow their lead, to widen the reach of potential users, and refocus online dating onto facilitating connections which effectively transition into real life, whether that’s for one night or a lifetime.
