Olympic Attention May Boost Tinder in South Korean Market

The 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea has seen Tinder receive local media attention because of its popularity with athletes.

The dating app gives out free Tinder Gold memberships in the Olympic Village, and has reportedly seen a ~350% increase in activity since the games began.

The newfound notoriety may help the platform break the South Korean market further – a space which Western apps have traditionally found difficult.

The region’s dating industry is worth a reported 70 billion won ($66 million).

The most popular dating app is Amanda with over 4 million registrations – this in a country with fewer than 9 million singles under 40.

Other popular services include Korean apps NoonDate, Simkung, Angtalk and Dangyeonsi.

Tinder has struggled to break onto the scene thus far, despite success in other Asian markets such as Hong Kong and Singapore.

According to App Annie, it ranked seventh and third in these markets respectively across iOS and Android consumer spend in 2017.

It has also been unable to gain a foothold in China, where Facebook is blocked and users cannot authenticate their profiles.

Shin Sang-hoon, CEO of Nextmatch (the umbrella which owns Amanda), said of the market “Public sentiment regarding dating services in South Korea is nervous, so it seems that locals prefer Korean services with better security.

“Amanda and other top-ranked local dating apps have features like reporting policy violators or avoiding meet-ups with people you know, which suit local preferences”.

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