A lack of competition in dating apps

In a previous post I mentioned that misaligned incentives could be a reason why dating apps deliver such poor results. But if that's the case, why don't users just switch to a better app?

That's easier said than done, because — in the English-speaking world at least — most of the dating apps are owned by the same company: the Match Group.

The dating juggernaut

The Match Group, Inc, headquartered in Dallas, Texas, owns over 45 dating apps, including Tinder, Hinge, OkCupid, Plenty of Fish, and, of course, Match.com.

The only major dating app they don't own is Bumble, and they tried very hard to buy it too, offering $450 million in 2017.

What this means is that if a user gets fed up with Tinder, deletes it, and switches to, say, Hinge, the Match Group keeps making money. Match only loses if the user switches to Bumble, but since that's essentially a clone of Tinder, chances are the user will get fed up there as well, and switch to another Match product eventually.

So the existing market structure is rather stable and profitable for the Match Group, which has little incentive to make a better product. To the detriment of the end-user.

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