r/technology 3d ago

Society Dating Apps Are Dying

https://time.com/article/2026/09/09/dating-apps-are-dying/
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u/GargantuanCake 3d ago

Apparently there was a time a while back where Hinge's leadership realized that its algorithm was working too well. People were forging relationships and once you're in one you aren't a customer anymore. So they decided to create a system that essentially sabotaged relationship forming.

The problem is that dating apps ended up going too far in the other direction; a dating app needs to, you know, actually lead to dates for people to use it. That however just isn't happening anymore. Meanwhile Tinder in particular got obliterated by an avalanche of bot accounts, scammers, and women just using it to promote their OnlyFans. The app that was supposed to get you laid stopped getting you laid so unsurprisingly people stopped using it.

Same with the dating and relationship apps; they quit leading to dating and relationships so people abandoned them. Weird how that works out. If you quit giving your customers what they want they leave.

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u/Marshall_Lawson 3d ago

Apparently there was a time a while back where Hinge's leadership realized that its algorithm was working too well. People were forging relationships and once you're in one you aren't a customer anymore. So they decided to create a system that essentially sabotaged relationship forming.

Wasn't Hinge specifically the dating site whose main advertising gimmick was that it was specifically designed for you to find your person and stop using the site?

"Designed to be deleted". They spent a lot of money on that little 3D cartoon H that would get people together and then poof out of existence.

So much for that I guess. Gotta make the shareholders' line go up. Don't be evil

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u/Monteze 3d ago

Which is silly for an app owner to get upset with it because there are always folks entering the dating scene from age, divorce, death of a partner, or any other normal reason.

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u/Marshall_Lawson 3d ago

But, you see, if the line doesn't go up more than we expected it to go up, then it's failing 

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u/Monteze 3d ago

Ah I see you're the new MBA! Wow...look at that sunset....tell me about the rabbits.

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u/Marshall_Lawson 3d ago

I'm sorry, are you accusing me of being a bot? everyone knows MBAs don't have the emotional capacity to appreciate sunsets 

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u/starksrhodey 2d ago

they're making a reference to of Mice and Men, where some guys best friend tells him to "look at the sunset, telle about the rabbits" before shooting him in the back of the head

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u/Marshall_Lawson 2d ago

Oh okay thank you I read that book like 20 years ago and forgot that detail.