The popular dating app Tinder is, well, popular because it lets users match up with potential dates for free. Sure, the dinners and movies can rack up a hefty bill, especially if you’re committed to the art and finesse of serial dating, but that’s just a tradeoff in the grander scheme of things if true love and lifelong marital bliss are your goals, right?
So, how do you feel about a new ‘premium’ service set to debut on Tinder next month that can up your odds of potential coupling? Excited? Thrilled? Tickled even? What if you have to pay? Less enthused? Indifferent? Outraged?
Regardless of how you feel, this is happening. But don’t worry, Tinder’s CEO and co-creator, Sean Rad, ensures us there will be no changes to the current free Tinder we all know and love. Rad is simply introducing a beefed-up version of the app that will give paying users more opportunities, which he announced at the Forbes Under 30 Summit in Philadelphia.
Like what?! I know. You’re itching to know.
Rad told Forbes’ Steven Bertoni that, though he can’t give specifics, one of the features will have an emphasis on travel, which could help expand Tinder into other markets. For example, NBC News suggested the app could possibly recommend nearby bars and restaurants. I mean this app will basically do everything for you besides talk to your date…but I’ll bite my tongue since we already have Cortana and Siri.
Another big question people are asking is how this ‘premium’ service will offer advantages and incentives. Right now, Tinder is location based; you swipe through photo after photo of people looking to meet up in in your city. The new version will likely expand these geographic limits, widening your Tinder reach and thusly your potential for matches and dates and so on. This is a feature users have been begging for, Rad told Forbes, and he thinks users will be willing to pay a fee (though we still don’t know how much it is) because of its value.
Can you really blame him? Tinder has over 15 million matches every day among the 1.2 billion profiles that get swiped left or right. The company has remained revenue-free for two years in order to perfect its product and build a strong following, both of which it has accomplished. This is really a no-brainer for the company, especially since the head of Internet holding firm IAC’s match division, Greg Blatt, predicted Tinder could earn $75 million in 2015. Now we’re all wishing we had the wherewithal to have invented Tinder years ago…
