One of the world's most popular hookup apps is now a very profitable business. Tinder now boasts more than a million paying customers for its Plus subscription. The subscription, which costs less than $5 for the annual package, unlocks some novel features which users are more than happy to pay for.
The Plus subscription makes swiping left and right unlimited, allows a "rewind" to your previous swipe in case of a mistake, removes all ads, provides access to match with people "around the world" and increases the number of Super Likes which is normally capped at only one per day, Business Insider noted.
Tinder's parent company Match revealed its growing number of paid subscriptions in its Q1 earnings report. While a million users is just a fraction of its total user base, estimated at 50 million worldwide, it does reveal something about Tinder's users.
It would seem that Tinder is "shedding its image as a shallow hookup platform" and is moving towards "personality-driven dating," as The Verge reported. Even if this is the case, however, Tinder has no plans to remove its swiping feature-something that lets its users match with others based primarily on appearances.
Match has also revealed that the rise of Tinder Plus outweighs its cannibalistic impact on its other businesses like OK Cupid and Match.com. CEO Greg Blatt said, "Nothing we see in the numbers support the idea that Tinder is the driver of any softness in our business" and has even labeled Tinder as a "huge category expansion story."
The success of Tinder and the rest of Match's services could potentially open up new jobs within the company. Since most of its revenue is derived from paid subscriptions, it was observed that Match's acquisition of PlentyOfFish for $575 million gave them a 24% rise in revenue, or around $260.4 million. The continued expansion of Tinder supports the idea of possible job openings within Match.
