The ceo of Tinder, Sean Rad, has defended the users of the notorious hook-up app at the Web Summit conference in Dublin; he believes people using Tinder are looking for long-term love, not just casual bonking.
During the conference Rad revealed company data that Tinder receives 1.6 billion swipes per day, 26 million matches per day and nine billion total matches. According to Rad, every week there are more than 1.5 million Tinder dates, with one million first date and 500,000 second dates.
“We just conducted a survey of over 300,000 of our users. What we found was over 80 per cent of people on Tinder are there to find a long-term relationship,” Rad said during the conference.
“So something stable and long term. 20 per cent are there for things more short-term: either friendships or … dare I say hook-ups. Very brief friendships!”
Unlike previously were Rad and other Tinder employees have downplayed the hook-up aspect of the app, Rad acknowledge that one-night stands are just “a part of life. All Tinder’s doing is we’re connecting people. We’ve built the most efficient way for you to meet somebody new.
“What you want to do with that connection is completely up to you. Sometimes there’s marriages, friendships and everything in between … There are Tinder babies. There are many Tinder babies!”
During his presentation, Rad dismissed a recent Vanity Fair article which lampooned the app for causing a ‘dating apocalypse’ and hookup culture.
“I don’t care about the few things the press likes to focus on that creates newsworthy … The press is always going to focus on things that are controversial. Eventually that story’s going to die, and they’ll focus on things with more substance.
“If you want an angle, you’re going to find that angle, you’re going to find the supporting evidence to prove what it is that you’re trying to say, just because it gets more eyeballs.”
But whatever happens, Rad isn’t worried about other dating apps intruding on Tinder’s turf: “Everybody’s trying to be the next Tinder. We don’t care much about the competition and the copycats. We’re flattered. It’s a bad business model to want to be another company. You’ve got to try to be 10 times better and to reinvent the wheel.”
