Tinder Pushes Offline Features and Events During Usage Decline
Tinder is rolling out a broad slate of in-person initiatives and product updates as it works to regain momentum among younger daters. The company is facing a noticeable downturn: in the most recent quarter, Tinder reported 9.2 million paying users, a 7% year-over-year slide, and revenue fell 3% to $491 million. Sensor Tower estimates that U.S. monthly active users have dropped from roughly 18 million in early 2022 to about 11 million this quarter.
Against that backdrop, Tinder is leaning heavily into real-world engagement. One recent effort involved a large on-campus event at UCLA, where students gathered for a music set by DJ Disco Lines. The company used creator partnerships and social media promotion to encourage students to download the app to access event details. The goal, according to Tinder’s head of product Mark Kantor, is aligned with what younger daters are asking for: “Gen Z wants to connect authentically. They believe in romance. They’re open to serendipity.”
This shift comes as the app works to shed an image that many users associate with fatigue, superficiality, and burnout. After years of swiping-based design dominating online dating, some singles have turned instead to group meetups, interest-based communities, and offline “meet-cute” opportunities. That sentiment has helped competitors emerge, and at the same time prompted Tinder to rethink its own experience.
New leadership is part of that reset. Spencer Rascoff, who became CEO in July and now leads both Tinder and Match Group, has been emphasizing product changes designed to match evolving expectations. Tinder’s recent releases include Double Date and College Mode, while the company is also testing an AI feature called Chemistry, which analyzes a user’s camera roll to infer interests and personality traits. Verification requirements have expanded as well, with video selfies introduced in several markets to verify authenticity.
“Dating has become this thing that, for many people, has felt like work and meeting people really needs to be fun,” Kantor said.
Whether this new strategy succeeds will depend on how well Tinder can reposition itself in a crowded and increasingly diversified dating landscape. Despite the challenges, Rascoff told analysts that the company sees a large untapped audience of people who are actively dating but not using dating apps at all — a gap Tinder believes it can still fill with the right mix of features and real-world connection points.
