Dating Apps Are Dying

Because Gen Z can't stand them.

Dating apps as we know them are dying.

Don’t believe me? Check the data.

📉 The scoreboard doesn’t lie.

Match

Match Group (MTCH) owns Tinder, Hinge, OKCupid, Plenty of Fish, The League, BLK, Pairs… and Match.

MTCH peaked at over $45B of market cap in 2021. Now it’s $8B.

That was during peak Tinder and when Hinge was surging.

I was an early investor in Hinge via Red Swan and on the board for a few years — I’m proud of the team for what they built. Their exit to Match was timely and strategic, both selling to Match—and now leaving Match. Founder Justin McLeod, who is exceptional, just left to… start an AI-powered dating app.

Though Match benefited from the acquisition of Hinge and had a great run with Tinder, the tale of the tape for Match is crushing.

$37B in market cap erased.

82% drop from the peak.

Bumble

Bumble (BMBL) was worth over $8B at the IPO. Now it’s $360M.

I am inspired by Whitney Wolfe Herd and am glad she mostly got out while the getting is good. She’s now worth more than her company. And I’m sure she’ll help it rebound since retaking the helm as CEO last year.

That said, a 96% tumble from the IPO is wild.

Grindr

Grindr (GRND) is doing the best.

They’re only down 54%, from $4.5B to $2.0B.

At Pie we are the lucky beneficiaries of this. Our VP of Engineering and Principal Engineer are both from Grindr.

🙂‍↔️ Gen Z hates the apps.

Here’s a perplexity summary of 25 sources on the consumer sentiments and some user data.

By the way if you’re using Google instead of Perplexity as your primary search engine, that’s weird.

When you see “offline-first,” I know a guy…

Over the next few weeks, I’ll be sharing a number of building-in-public posts on what we’re doing about this problem.

What we’re building, who we’re serving, and how we’re going about it.

But I wanted to start first with the why:

The people deserve better.

I met Manuela in the lobby of the Ace Hotel in New York. I complimented her on her shoes.

We met in real life.

Marrying her was the best decision I ever made.

I want to help other people make good decisions too—and to enjoy the ride along the way.

In real life.