A Match Made In Heaven
Why the company behind Tinder and Hinge is betting on the Metaverse
Hey all, Robin here—I hope you enjoyed my last Substack on China’s Metaverse ambitions. Today, we’re going to be doing a deep dive into the future of dating and why companies like Match Group (the company that owns Tinder and Hinge) believe it is the future.
Strap in for a short internet history lesson on Match Group and what Match Group believes the future of dating will look like.
The internet’s 1st big dating site
Match.com is the internet’s OG dating site, while a relic of history, they still have a relatively stable aging audience. Match.com was founded by Gary Kremen in 1993 and he would leave the company in 1995 due to frequent disputes with Venture Capitalists. In 1997 the company would be sold to a company named Cedant and would then change hands to IAC (a monolithic holding brand of internet and consumer services).
Match.com would then continue operating under IAC and would acquire and incubate several internet properties such as Plenty of Fish, OkCupid, and Tinder.
In 2009, Match.com would spin out from IAC and go public (trade on the stock market) as Match Group.
One key thing to understand from Match Group’s history is that they are a large company that has a real talent for constant reinvention and experimentation with new technology.
When Match.com was at its peak, Match group would acquire Tinder (which was launched in an IAC accelerator (an accelerator is a program created by companies to incubate newer companies with mentorship)).
Match Group would acquire Hinge (Match’s current darling growing at around 25% yoy and doubling revenue on a quarterly basis) in 2018 for an undisclosed amount (probably large sum of money). This is likely due to the fact that Tinder is starting to lose its “cool”.
As Hinge continues to explosively grow and mature, Match group is looking towards the Metaverse for the future, but in an unexpected part of the world.
South Korea and Singles Town
In February 2021, Match group acquired Hyperconnect for $1.7 billion. Hyperconnect is one of South Korea’s premier social networks that have seen incredible growth.
Match Group’s Q3 2021 earnings mentions a key experiment in South Korea known as “Singles Town” which is currently being experimented with on college campuses.
Match group believes that “Singles Town” is the future of dating and it is essentially a virtual world like a park or bar where one can have one-on-one conversations, and then they can send requests if they’d like to talk more in private and eventually meet IRL. Their information would be tagged to a Tinder or Hinge profile or some other Match Group IP so you’re not meeting up with someone you know nothing about. The technology really isn’t that impressive or incredibly new—Roblox has done it for a long time along with VRChat and Rec Room—but Singles Town appears to be a very different metaverse in the sense that Match Group wants the service to be a launching off point instead of “this is where people develop relationships”
Humans need physical intimacy and no amount of fancy hardware could ever replace that, so Match group wants their new evolution of dating apps to be a sort of “getting to know you” type of app along with dating.
Hyperconnect has done remarkably well on these college campuses with users spending a whopping hour using the app; this isn’t very comparable to Metaverses like Rec Room or Roblox, but it’s a good sign that users are spending time in the world and are getting what they need instead of being immersed in the world.
It’s also worth mentioning that the results we are seeing now in South Korea can’t be extrapolated to any part of the world based on what we know—courting cultures in every corner of the world are very different and Asia—specifically—has embraced more digital services unlike the West.
Match Group has also expressed interest in making Singles Town its own app, or possibly extrapolating the same app into regular dating apps like Tinder and Hinge.
Tinder has been experimenting with “coins” for in-app purchases in an attempt to gamify the app more and more (it’s already pretty gamified for what it's worth).
The use of these coins is set to be linked to “community experiences” in the app which are yet to be unveiled.
Looking towards the future
The Metaverse is on a collision course with dating giant, Match Group, and Match Group knows it, which is why they’re pushing key experiments right now on the subject. Based on how Match Group has been able to maneuver through the past nearly 20 years, it’s clear that they know how to insulate themselves well against existential threats like social media, mobile apps, and now the Metaverse.
You can use Match Group’s recent move into experimenting with the Metaverse as an indicator of where things are going due to their history of reinvention in the face of existential threats to their business.
Disclaimer: This is not financial advice in any way shape or form. I’m literally just an angry and angsty bird writing down my thoughts on the future and technology. Mom said the tendies would be done in 5 minutes but it has been 20.