Caroline Petrow-Cohen | Los Angeles Times (TNS)
When Joseph Feminella matched with his would-be wife on Hinge in 2020, he was already growing tired of traditional dating apps. He told her he’d like to meet in person right away, and they met that night.
The pair were married three years later, and Feminella launched his dating app First Round’s on Me nationwide in August after a four-year incubation period. The app is designed to help people meet in real life and was inspired by his own experiences, Feminella said.
The El Segundo-based app skips the swiping and encourages users to schedule a time and place for a date. Any user can send a date invite to another user, and the chat opens only 24 hours before the planned meeting time.
Feminella’s venture is one of several in Los Angeles and beyond that are trying to challenge the traditional dating app format by introducing innovative ways to encourage in-person interactions. In an industry that relies on the steady demand for human connection, new players are emerging as younger daters are starting to use the major apps less.
Los Angeles has become a hotbed for dating app startups that hope to gain attention in a crowded market and take advantage of cracks beginning to form within the most popular apps.
A select handful of apps including Tinder, Bumble and Hinge dominate the online dating market but have recently been struggling to grow, experts say (Match Group owns both Los Angeles-based Tinder and New York-based Hinge; Bumble is headquartered in Austin, Texas).
One reason: Gen Z uses online dating less than the broader population by about 11%, according to Match Group survey data from financial services firm Oppenheimer Holdings.
“The online dating industry is still making money, but from a growth perspective, they’re facing challenges right now,” said Andrew Marok, an industry analyst at Raymond James. “The customer base is changing and there are differences in the ways Gen Z and millennials want to meet people.”
Bumble, which once distinguished itself from other dating apps by requiring the woman to send the first message, has seen its shares plummet 55% so far this year after missing revenue expectations. Its share price closed Thursday at $6.57, up 1.08%.
Tinder — the dating app giant launched in 2012 — recorded the highest number of paying users in 2022, which peaked at 10.8 million after years of rapid growth. The number of paying users on the app dropped by 5% in 2023, and declined 8% in the second quarter from a year ago.
Match Group, which owns Match.com, reported a 5% drop in operating income in the second quarter to $205 million.
Still, Chief Executive Gary Swidler said in an earnings call this year he believes the company is on track to reach $1 billion a year in annual revenue.
A move away from the ‘swipe model’
When online dating got its start in the mid-’90s, the platforms were largely profile-based and matched users with shared interests and values. It was common for users to take a personality quiz or fill out a questionnaire in order to meet matches.
The release of Los Angeles-based Tinder introduced a swipe model in which users can decide if they “like” or “dislike” a potential date based on photos and a short bio. Other apps such as Grindr, which is headquartered in West Hollywood and caters to gay men, use a location-based model where users can browse potential dates in their area.
“You’re continuing to see some product evolution in the marketplace, but over the last few years the swipe-based model has been the one that’s attracted the lion’s share of attention,” Marok said. “We’re seeing that that doesn’t resonate quite as well with younger users.”
Gen Z daters prefer a slower, more intentional approach to finding a partner, Marok said, one based more on substance and less on split-second decisions. Younger daters are also more likely to turn friends into partners, he said.
“When you look at the swipe-based apps, their objective is to get a large volume of strangers in front of the user, which is kind of antithetical to how Gen Z wants to meet people,” Marok said.
Newer dating apps are trying to offer users a break from swipe fatigue and an abundance of startups in L.A. are embracing more advanced matchmaking services and group events for singles.
Feminella’s First Round’s on Me hosts group social events, such as a recent pickleball gathering in West Hollywood that attracted around 100 singles. The privately held app has garnered about 175,000 users and, like its competitors, has a freemium model in which customers can elect to pay for certain features.
Feminella, 34, hopes his app can offer users a different experience than what they’ve already found on the most popular cohort of dating apps.
“I saw that dating apps were becoming non-intentional and validation driven,” Feminella said. “I think they’re missing the point.”
Several other apps hold in-person events in Los Angeles, including London-based Feeld, which has been available in California since its inception in 2014.
“We strongly believe that people unlock people, not apps, so it was important to create another dimension in real life for our members to connect,” said Feeld Chief Executive Ana Kirova.
Summer, a dating app launched in 2022 by Marina del Rey-based tech company 9count, also aims to prioritize in-person meetups and is creating a members-only social club. When a user matches with someone on the app, they only have 25 messages to arrange a date before the conversation locks.
Based in Venice, Lox Club hosts regular events for its members such as weekly Shabbat dinners. The company recently released two more community-based dating apps: Jade Club for East Asian daters and Amara Club for South Asians. Lox Club is also getting ready to introduce a matchmaking service powered by artificial intelligence and human matchmakers, which has attracted a wait list of 10,000 people, according to Head of Marketing Samantha Ratiner.
“The consensus is that people are over using all these apps and doing all this swiping,” Ratiner said. “It’s so overwhelming and it can be a waste of time.”
Other tech-enabled matchmaking services that stray away from traditional dating app formats already exist in Los Angeles, like the self-described “modern matchmaking” company Three Day Rule.
There’s seemingly a dating app for everyone and every niche. The League is a platform for students and alumni of elite colleges to find each other; Kippo is a dating app for video gamers; the Fruitz app allows users to search for others seeking the same kind of relationship.
“There’s definitely room for apps that are focused on specific interest groups or specific demographics,” Marok said. “In the app-based dating market, the barriers to entry are relatively low but the barriers to scale are pretty high.”
Despite the plethora of smaller apps, the vast majority of the market remains dominated by Grindr, Bumble and Match Group, the three publicly traded dating app companies, said Oppenheimer & Co. analyst Jason Helfstein.
Tinder serves approximately 50 million monthly average users, a scale that no other app in the category has reached, according to a Match Group spokesperson. A 2023 poll conducted by OnePoll on behalf of Tinder showed that 55% of singles between the ages of 18 and 25 in the U.S., U.K., Australia and Canada have been in a serious relationship with a partner they met on Tinder.
Match Group is building its own assortment of community-based dating apps, making the space even more crowded for startups. Between 2020 and 2023, Match Group’s apps for gay men, single parents, Christians and the Black and Latino communities saw direct revenue grow at an annual compound rate of more than 70%, the spokesperson said.
Feminella said his company First Round’s on Me sees subscription and revenue growth month over month and has had success with in-person events. He did not disclose financial details, but said he knows he can’t realistically compete with apps such as Tinder and Hinge.
“For me to even get to that point, they would probably just buy me out,” Feminella said.
After a certain amount of growth, smaller dating app companies are likely to fizzle out or be sold to one of the major players, Helfstein said.
“For the private companies that focus on a small niche, it eventually gets too expensive to grow,” he said. “There will never be another publicly traded dating company.”
Helfstein described the dating app industry as profitable but somewhat stagnant — Match Group had 37% profit margins last year and is on track for 36% this year.
But Tinder downloads fell for the third year in a row this year and Bumble shares dropped 30% in August after missing Wall Street estimates. Artificial intelligence and other new technology could completely transform the industry and offer revitalization, Helfstein said.
“Maybe in five years from now, online dating will be reborn through virtual reality,” he said. “Right now it’s a healthy business, but what the market likes is growth.”
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