Tinder, Bumble, Meetic: Dating apps are at an impasse and are opening up to “real life”

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There is change in the air. For several months, dating apps have been struggling. Not as many users are willing to put their hands in their pockets to find their soul mate sister, preferring “organic” encounters. As before. In this sense, the market valuation of Match Group, which owns Meetic but also Tinder, Hinge and OK Cupid, is “only” 8 billion dollars this year, while it was 50 billion dollars three years ago. .

In recent years, the expectations of users of these dating apps have evolved. And market players have every interest in understanding this if they don't want to be thrown into oblivion. Tired of searching for the rare pearl by searching through a rich catalog of potential candidates for long hours, with no guarantee of finding the right shoe for them, it seems that fans of dating apps want to rediscover the magic of meeting people in real life. As Claire Renier, Happn's communications director, explained to journalists from Figaro, dating apps can reinvent themselves by choosing to “facilitate the meeting without provoking it”.

Reinvent yourself and get back to basics ?

Dating apps still have a few strings to their bow. Today, the stakes are high if they want to continue to prosper. To do this, there is only one solution: put people back at the center of everything. Meetic understood this well before anyone else. The app has been organizing events (such as workshops or aperitifs) for a decade now so that singles can meet in an ideal setting. In total, more than 12,000 events have been organized throughout Europe, allowing 7,000 single hearts to meet and chat. Meetic is even reinventing speed dating evenings by partnering with Printemps. Every month, singles can meet at the Perché bar at Printemps Haussemann in Paris to “rediscover the magic of real-life encounters”.

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© Unsplash/Good Faces

Bumble, whose concept is that it is up to the woman to make the first move, has been eyeing up its neighbor's copy. From July 22 to August 11, 2024, the dating app opened its own café, in partnership with the Spanish coffee chain Good News. Last year, it launched “Bumble nights”, so that singles could meet people in a different, more authentic and intimate setting.

And what does Tinder think about all this ? The dating app with the flame has been the undisputed market leader for a long time. For its part, it believes that we need to go further than speed dating or dedicated evenings. Especially for shy people, for whom dating apps can be beneficial and a great help. Thus, Tinder is banking on the associative, explaining that “it allows them to connect through a common cause that is dear to them”.

Other applications have understood the challenges of recent months in the dating market and have made this “return to basics” their standard. Timeleft and Thursday are two applications that are based on meeting “in real life” above all. Enough to get off the beaten track.

Read also – I tested the dating app Hinge, and I found love as promised

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