CS371 - Tinder

Tinder was launched as a free application in 2013 and in two years changed to a freemium model. This means that the basic application is free but you must pay for upgraded features. In this app, those upgraded features would include, unlimited swipes, changing locations and many other benefits. Tinder began to offer Tinder Plus, which costs between $9.99 - $19.99. Tinder Gold was an extension of Tinder Plus and the next step up. Boost was the newer feature that has been added on. This feature allows users to be the top profile in the area for 30 min. This can be bought for $1.99 to $3.99. All of these different aspects go into the business model for Tinder and ultimately how they make a financial gain. Another way Tinder makes money is from businesses. Different corporation partner with Tinder in order to show their sponsored content in the form of profiles. They have camouflage these sponsored profiles so they almost blend into the normal outline, which makes it less obvious for Tind...

Ever feel as if you have gotten to know someone better after scrolling through their social media? Whether it be seeing pictures of them with their family and friends or listening to a song on their playlist we tend to feel closer to an individual by experiencing them through multiple different platforms.When online dating, this additional glimpse into another's personal life may be especially beneficial as it may provide support for their claims and increase your trust in them. Tinder has acknowledged this by allowing users to include both their Spotify music accounts and their Instagrams in their Tinder profiles in order to increase connections between users.   We can see that Tinder’s collaboration with Spotify is playing into music’s ability to strengthen social bonds in that users are able to connect with each other over the same interest in a genre or love for a song. Having users most played music visible to potential matches may spark an interest that may have not b...

I can’t tell you the amount of times that I have heard my friends say that they have found some of their closest friends on Tinder. Interesting that they seem to have formed these platonic friendships on this app considering Tinder was designed with the purpose of connecting individuals on a romantic level. The reach that this platform provides opens us up to others who we may not have ever met otherwise and because of this it is almost inevitable to make some friends in the process. This may have been Tinders inspiration for partnering up with the company Hey! VINA, a Tinder like app that is catered towards women looking for platonic friendships with other ladies. Hey! VINA allows users to view other women's profiles in the area who have similar passions and hobbies and matches them based on their mutual interest in each other (Hey! How do I.., 2016). Having been a company operated by only two individuals, Hey! VINAs rapid growth prompted them to reach out to Tinder and form...

Many people use Tinder with the expectation of receiving affirmation from others. This encourages Tinder to be referred to as an “ego-booster” and a “hot-or-not app”. This affirmation can easily be received through matching with others, receiving messages and super likes. The expectations of what people are looking for when signing up for Tinder can vary greatly as some people are on it strictly for entertainment purposes, others are looking for hookups, and in some cases, people are looking to develop meaningful relationships. “The prevalent view that Tinder is a sex, or hookup app, remains salient among users; although, many users utilize Tinder for creating other interpersonal communication connections and relationships, both  romantic and platonic” (LeFebvre, 2017). An article from the Guardian said that “With Tinder, the pretext is to hook-up, but the real pleasure is derived from the Tindering process” (Chamorro-Premuzic, 2014). People get pleasure simply...