Wednesday, March 4, 2015

Tinder's not so smooth move

My roommate asked me if I would pay $10.00 a month for Tinder. I said no. He said it would "seem desperate" to pay for the app, I agreed.

I admit that I've used Tinder in the past (with varying degrees of success), but deleted the app after finding the endless swiping and trivial conversations exhausting. Maybe I'm just bitter and single, but the app isn't that great.

A redeeming feature, however, is that apps like Tinder, Grindr, OKCupid, etc., have usually been free to download and use, so at least you weren't charged for any unpleasant psychological effects induced by the apps. But Tinder recently revealed it would start charging users for a premium service and would charge more for people over 30 -- $20.00 a month.

That really adds up, and I'm certainly not willing to pay $120.00 a year for mediocre app dating. Ultimately, this will be a bad move for Tinder. People won't pay for premium service--especially on they can get for free--unless the premium service is substantially better.  Tinder's upgrades aren't that much better. Premium allows users to "rewind" or swipe right when they meant to swipe left, which (to me) is not worth a monthly fee. When people use Tinder, they aren't looking for serious relationships, usually just chatting and the occasional date.

If people, especially those of 30, are serious about online dating, then they'll probably use a more legitimate service like eHarmony. And since other apps and websites, like Craigslist, are providing the same mediocre and slightly creepy experience for free, I'd be shocked to see many people jump on the premium bandwagon.

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