Bumble Tenden

W28514
BUMBLE: TAKING ON TINDER, ONE WOMAN AT A TIME1
Daniel Clark and Imge Kaya-Sabanci wrote this case solely to provide material for class discussion. The authors do not intend to
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Copyright © 2022, Ivey Business School Foundation Version: 2022-07-08
Whitney Wolfe (as of 2022, Whitney Wolfe Herd) arrived at her hotel room in London, England after a
very long day. She had flown in that morning from Texas, in the United States. Her stop in London was
mainly due to a brief business lunch meeting, before she would continue on to Paris, France, where she
would visit her sister. It seemed fitting—given Wolfe’s background as a co-founder of Tinder, the world’s
largest dating app—that a random lunch with someone she barely knew, could change her life. Except,
unlike many Tinder meetups, Wolfe and Russian billionaire Andrey Andreev (another dating app veteran)
were not meeting for romance, but rather business. 2
Wolfe was exhausted from the flight, and from events that had taken place over the previous year. In a few
short months, she had gone from being a highly successful co-founder of an online dating empire to
enduring public humiliation from a relationship breakup, verbal abuse over text messaging, sexual
harassment in the workplace, and launching a lawsuit against the company she had co-founded. After the
trip to Paris, Wolfe planned to return to her native Texas, where she would possibly launch her next business
venture. But before she could proceed with her plans, she had scheduled a brief meeting in London with
the reclusive Andreev to discuss an idea.3 Wolfe pitched him her idea for a new business called Merci, a
social media platform for women complimenting other women, which, Andreev had quickly dismissed.
Instead, Andreev proposing a different collaboration: a new dating platform, focused on servicing the
unique needs of women.4 Wolfe, suddenly had a difficult decision. Should she continue with Merci, alone,
or partner with Andreev and return to the bruising world of dating apps, competing against her former
Tinder colleagues. And if so, what does a dating app for women even mean?
TIME AT TINDER
Wolfe was no stranger to start-ups. Indeed, she was a founding member of one of the biggest start-ups in
the dating world. Tinder (originally named MatchBox) was founded in 2012 as a side project by Sean Rad
and Joe Munoz.5 Both had been hired to work on Cardify, originally an online customer rewards business.
Rad and Munoz brought along many of the early Cardify team members, including Rad’s childhood friend
Justin Mateen (who provided office space) and Wolfe (a sales representative for Cardify).6
Tinder’s unique contribution to the dating space came from its “double opt-in” system.7 Users were
presented a series of potential pairings and given the option to “swipe right” to express interest or “swipe
This document is authorized for use only in Laura Escobar Goicochea's Nuevos Medios y Nuevas Tendencias (PRE 2023-I) at Universidad Peruana de Ciencias Aplicadas (UPC) from Mar
2023 to Jul 2023.
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left” to reject the pairing. A match was only formed, and thus communication facilitated, if both users
swiped right. One swipe left from either user resulted in a non-match. Most existing dating platforms used
a profile system where users browsed posted profiles and then initiated communication with the ones they
were interested in: hence, a single opt-in system. The criticism of this approach was that some individuals
could be harassed and pursued by users they had never seen or had ever expressed an interest in seeing.
In September 2012, Wolfe formally became a part of Tinder (renamed from MatchBox in August of 2012
due to a potential brand name conflict). Wolfe worked on marketing the new app and began dating Mateen
later that year. Wolfe was later appointed the titles of vice-president of marketing and co-founder, which
she held until her departure in April 2014.8
Early marketing for Tinder was highly focused on college-aged men and women in Southern California.
Mateen and Wolfe attended fraternities and sorority parties to promote the new app. They worked tirelessly
to draw attention to the app. Wolfe might stand on a table in a fraternity and announce that there were 200
hot sorority girls on the app waiting for the men to sign up, then run to the sorority and tell them the reverse.
They left a trail of stickers behind them—in the best campus bars, in the most exclusive nightclubs.9
Early users responded favourably to the high speed of interactions, the ability to quickly browse a large
number of potential partners, and the general physical attractiveness of the men and women on the platform.
The live dynamic quality of both parties interacting at the same time led to faster and more productive
connections. Rad explained the app’s immediate appeal: “We always saw Tinder, the interface, as a game:
what you are doing, the motion, the reaction. Nobody joins Tinder because they are looking for something.
They join because they want to have fun. It doesn’t even matter if you match, because swiping is so fun.”10
Tinder was becoming one of the most popular dating apps in the world. It ranked among the top 25 dating
apps within only nine months of its launch.11 In contrast, the relationship between Wolfe and Mateen was
not as successful. The two co-workers ended their relationship in late 2013. What followed was a well-
documented string of harassment from Mateen directed at Wolfe, including repeatedly calling her a “whore”
in front of others, and attacking her position as a female-founder suggesting it make Tinder seem “slutty”.12
Indeed, in a lawsuit, Wolfe later alleged that Mateen used demeaning and insulting terms, including calling
her “disgusting”, “a desperate loser”, and “a gold digger”;13 even in front of Rad.14 At various points Mateen
threatened to get Wolfe fired, or the removal of her co-founder title.15 The tensions reached a boiling point
on April 6, 2014, at a Tinder company party, where a physical altercation between Mateen and Wolfe took
place. Wolfe’s association with Tinder quickly ended after that incident.16 The lawsuit was eventually
settled with a non-specified monetary payment, although Forbes reported a figure of approximately US$1
million.17 However, the business breakup did not include a non-compete clause.18
ONLINE DATING MARKET
The history of computerized dating and matchmaking dated as far back as the 1950s. In 1959, Stanford
University students Jim Harvey and Phil Fialer used the university’s IBM 650 mainframe computer to
match 49 men with 49 women.19 The process was repeated with a similar IBM mainframe computer in 1965
by Harvard University students Jeff Tarr and Vaughan Morrill.20 However, two important digital trends
accelerated the evolution of computer-based dating: the proliferation of the Internet in the 1990s and the
widespread use of mobile phones in the 2000s. The exponential growth of online dating started in the 1990s
with web pages, expanded in the 2000s with mobile phone apps, and was fuelled by the introduction of
fourth-generation (4G) technology and smart phones in the 2010s.21
2023 to Jul 2023.
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Regardless of the interface, the goal of online dating was the same—to create an introduction between two
people. Despite the ubiquity of the function, the form of these services and the requirements from the user
varied considerably. The early services were online versions of the personal classifieds that were a standard
feature in newspapers. The process usually began with an individual posting a profile with a photo and
personal statement. The next step was to browse other people’s profiles and initiate communication with a
user of interest. These legacy services had three main shortcomings. First, they were fraught with
information asymmetry—one user’s posting could be far less extensive, detailed, or insightful than the next.
The second issue was effort incongruence—browsing and messaging required a considerable amount of
effort, without an accurate prediction of the outcome. A third issue was related to the currency of the
information—many postings featured profiles that were out of date, or even inactive.22
These shortcomings were addressed in part by the launch of the online dating service eHarmony in 2000,
which stressed quality over quantity. Neil Clark Warren, a religious clinical psychologist, created the
service focused on compatibility and long-term relationships, with no facility for casual dating. The service
required an extensive and highly structured questionnaire (which addressed information asymmetry),
featured guided communication (which reduced effort incongruence—more work preparing the profile
implied a more successful outcome), and was anchored by a membership fee (which reduced stale profiles).
Other services (e.g., Match and Chemistry) followed eHarmony’s high effort model.23
Research found that one of the challenges of online dating was the amount of information—too little or too
much. Too little information made it difficult to get a clear picture of the other user. Too much information
led to cognitive limitations—processing and making sense of a large amount of data could overwhelm users
with unwanted information.24 Was a lot of information up front preferable, or was it better to limit the initial
amount and let the users learn more over time? The desired and the required amount of information tended
to vary considerably among different people.25 However, women seemed to generally ask for much more
information than men (see Exhibit 1).
By 2012, online dating services were differing on two primary criteria: the degree of effort required to make
a match (e.g., completion of questionnaires, browsing versus suggested matches, detailed histories, profiles)
and the revenue model (i.e., representing varying degrees of barriers to access). The most common services
were differentiated by ease of use and cost to access (see Exhibit 2).
The launch of Tinder revolutionized the market by introducing the first ultra-low effort service, anchored
by its “swipe right” and “swipe left” mechanisms and its “double opt-in” system.26 The speed and instant
gratification of Tinder was effectively a “gamification” of a dating service. The model proved highly
popular, in particular with younger users, and further accelerated the growth of the online dating market.
Between 2013 and 2016, the percentage of online dating users aged 18–24 in the United States nearly
tripled, from 10 per cent to 27 per cent. Among users aged 55–64, the percentage doubled, from 6 per cent
to 12 per cent.27
In 2015, the US dating service market was estimated at value of $2.5 billion,28 with the top five dating sites
generating half of total revenues. The market leader, with a share of 21.8 per cent, was
IAC/InterActiveCorp, a US holding company that owned numerous brands, including online dating sites
Match.com, OkCupid, and Tinder.29 In particular, Tinder generated 1 billion user “swipes” (or activities)
per day.30 Other major competitors included eHarmony with 13.5 per cent of the market, Zoosk with 5.0
per cent, Plenty of Fish with 4.9 per cent, and Spark Networks (which owned JDate and Christian Mingle,
among others) with 3.0 per cent (see Exhibit 3).31
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By this point, dating apps were reaching up to 185 million users across the world.32 Of the total market, 70
per cent of users were aged 16–34, and men made up two-third of all users.33 Women, who were fewer in
number, were also less likely to make the initial contact. When they did, they were 2.5 times more likely to
get a response, compared with men making the first move.34 In fact, women were five times more likely
than men to complain about getting too many messages, but approximately half as likely to complain about
getting too few messages.35
The launch of Grindr, in 2009, dramatically changed methods for finding a sexual partner within the gay
community, taking gay dating from the darkness of backrooms to the ease of clicking an app on a smart
phone.36 Four out of five (or 40 per cent) of gay men reported meeting their long-term partner online in
2015, compared to only 14 per cent in 2001.37
SWIPING LEFT ON TINDER
The period following Wolfe’s departure from Tinder was both rewarding38 and horrifying. Wolfe left Los
Angeles and returned to her home state of Texas, where she had attended college at Southern Methodist
University. However, her negative experiences at Tinder followed her to her new home, where she had to
contend with a significant amount of online harassment, bullying, and even some threats to her life.39
These events were bookended by the larger question of what the future held for her. She had some
compensation from Tinder, but she was 25 years old and she needed a new career. She struggled with what
her next move should be: having a marketing position, starting a new venture, or doing something
completely different.
Her experiences with online bullying and negativity, and the overall reliance of the dating market on
superficial attributes had planted the seed of a new venture idea. Wolfe decided to use social media in a
positive way instead. Before meeting with Andreev in 2014, she had started planning a new social media
platform aimed at women. The new service, called Merci, was designed to be a truly positive environment
for women to connect, share, and enhance their personal well-being, with “no compliments on physicality,
[but] compliments about who they are.”40
Wolfe was excited by her new idea, but she was unsure how to carry it forward. Her income from Tinder,
combined with a round of investment from friends and family, could potentially launch Merci as a new
social media platform start-up. But the market was already crowded, and her venture would be enormously
expensive to develop, which was where Andreev could help.
ANDREEV AND BADOO
Andreev was an Internet dating pioneer. In 2004, he had launched his first dating platform, Mamba, which
was aimed at the Russian market. Within two years he had sold 90 per cent of the company for $20 million.41
He reinvested his Mamba windfall into Badoo, a dating service based in the United Kingdom that was
focused on the European market. Badoo was launched only one year before the release of the first iPhone.
The timing was perfect for Badoo to quickly develop an iPhone app and make dating in Europe portable.42
Badoo grew rapidly over the following years. Andreev expanded his positioning in the online dating market
to include Latin America, which was currently underserved by major competitors such as Match Group. He
also considered forays into specialty markets such as the LGTBQ2S+ community, which was currently
served by the dating app Chappy, and the over age 50 market, which was currently served by Lumen.43
2023 to Jul 2023.
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By 2015, Badoo was the most downloaded dating app in 21 countries across Europe, Latin America, and
Southeast Asia. In comparison, Tinder was the most downloaded dating app in 15 countries.44 Andreev,
who made the 2018 Forbes list of the world’s billionaires with an estimated net worth of $1.5 billion, had
first met Wolfe in 2013 when she was still working at Tinder. His reaction was, “To be honest, I
immediately fell in love with Whitney’s passion and energy. I thought she was a really cool lady, and I
would be watching her closely.”45 Therefore, after Wolfe’s legal issues with Tinder were resolved, Andreev
asked her to join him as chief marketing officer at Badoo. Wolfe turned down his offer and instead pitched
him her idea for Merci. Andreev was not interested in starting a social media platform, but he was instantly
intrigued by the potential of a dating app aimed at women.46
THE ONLINE DATING EXPERIENCE
Online dating services had been helping people meet and connect with other people for years, but various
drawbacks—both real and perceived—had been well documented. A Pew Research poll found that 43 per
cent of users had an overall negative experience with online dating services, with only 14 per cent reporting
as very positive experience.47 More than half of female users (57 per cent) reported experiencing
harassment, compared to only 21 per cent of men. The highest figures were linked to Tinder and OkCupid,
with an overall harassment ratio of up to 40 per cent.48 From 2009 to 2014, the number of sexual assault
reports in the United Kingdom for the first in-person meeting after an initial online contact increased by
450 per cent.49
Online dating was also used as a venue by convicted criminals such as Shimon Hayut (using the online
name Simon Leviev), who was accused of defrauding female Tinder users for an estimated $10 million
between 2017 and 2019.50 Ostensibly, online dating services introduced two people who assumed the
contact was an attempt in good faith to satisfy mutual desires. In reality, however, many such matches
involved a person with ill intentions.51
Many women cited assault, harassment, and stalking among their main concerns with using online dating
apps (see Exhibit 4).52 Women generally felt personally responsible for their own safety and often took
measures to ensure it by meeting first in crowded places, keeping a friend posted, asking their date for
driver’s licence photos, and conducting an independent Internet search on the date.53 These types of user-
initiated measures helped reduce certain physical risks, but they were inadequate to lower problems such
as harassment or stalking.54
Demand for speed, convenience, and gratification was accelerating the online dating process, as
exemplified by Tinder, with initiatives that seemed to promote more frequent negative outcomes,
particularly for women, and users seemed unable to help matters.55 Therefore, Wolfe and Andreev decided
that the dating service itself could assume more responsibility for the well-being of its users.56
Wolfe discovered that the human desire to meet a partner with minimal effort, low cost, and a maximum
amount of fun was in conflict with three dating service systemic realities. First, there was an historic power
differential between the genders. Second, in-person meetings posed a risk to the user’s personal, emotional,
and financial safety. Third, women tended to passively wait to be chosen, even if they preferred to act first
and be the one to make the choice.57
Wolfe’s ideas were also driven by personal negative experiences—not only from recent highly-public
relationship difficulties with Tinder co-founder Mateen, but also from painful high school memories, stating
that “I experienced severe emotional abuse from my high school boyfriend during my really formative
2023 to Jul 2023.
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years, and it stripped me down to nothing. It showed me a very dark side of relationships, and it helped
inform my understanding of what was wrong with gender dynamics.”58 Personal unpleasant experiences
had led Wolfe to develop her new venture Merci. She wanted to create an online platform that was free
from abuse. The service would provide a space for women to support each other and grow together. It would
be a platform where women could be in control.59
MOVING FORWARD
The conversation with Andreev, however, did not unfold as Wolfe had expected. After offering Wolfe a position
at Badoo as chief marketing officer, which was of no interest to her, he suggested that they could work together
to start a business that would be more interesting.60 Andreev had raised the question before of whether a dating
app could be focused on women. But what would women want from a dating service? What needs could the
service fulfil? What technological and business constraints would be involved? What would make the online
dating experience safer and more comfortable for women? After the trauma Wolfe had experienced over the
past year, she felt a strong desire to create a more positive environment for women online.61
The advantage of Wolfe partnering with Andreev was clear. He had experience, infrastructure, resources,
and endless data on how to monetize a new venture.62 With his help, a new dating app could be operational
within months.63 In comparison, getting her own social media platform idea started and developed could
take a long time. She lacked the technological experience to build the service and oversee its development,
and she knew well the barriers that her peers—other women entrepreneurs in technology—faced in
accessing financing and other resources to grow their companies.64
Wolfe was reluctant to start yet another online dating service, but she thought about some advice she had
been given by her boyfriend: “This opportunity doesn’t strike twice. You’re going to try and raise money
right now [for Merci]? … Good luck to you.”65 He was reminding her, harshly, about how the Venture
Capital community might perceive her because of her rapid exit from Tinder followed by legal action.
Wolfe considered all her options. There was a real need for Merci to promote the psychological and
emotional health of women, but she could not deny the potential in Andreev’s suggestion. It occurred to
Wolfe, “I always wanted to have a scenario where the guy didn’t have my number but I had his.”66 Perhaps
a new venture could make such a scenario into a reality.
2023 to Jul 2023.
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EXHIBIT 1: INFORMATION PREFERENCES IN ONLINE DATING PROFILES BY GENDER
Political Affiliation
Height
Occupation
Racial or Ethnic Background
Religious beliefs
Hobbies and Interests
If they have children
Type of Relationship they are looking for
Photos of Themselves
0 20 40 60 80
Women Men
Note: Percentage of online dating users who agree with the statement, “It is very important for a profile to include the following
feature.”
Source: Emily A. Vogels, “10 Facts about Americans and Online Dating”, Pew Research Center, February 6, 2020,
https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/02/06/10 facts-about-americans-and-online-dating/.
2023 to Jul 2023.
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EXHIBIT 2: ONLINE DATING BRANDS MAP (EFFORT NEEDED VERSUS ACCESS)

(Membership and
Pay to Access
Relative Cost)
Match
eHarmony
(Paid Messaging)
Free to Access
Zoosk
Badoo
(With Advertising)
Free to Use
Tinder Plenty of Fish
Grindr Hinge OKCupid
Low Effort High Effort

(Speedy interface, (Self-directed profile search,
upload photo, required questionnaires,
demographics) guided communication)
Source: Compiled by the case authors with information from Amanda Chatel, “The Most Googled Dating App in 2015 Was...,”
Bustle, December 31, 2015, https://www.bustle.com/articles/132678-these-are-googles-top-searched-dating-apps-and-sites-
in-2015; Julie Spira, “Top 10 Best Mobile Dating Apps in 2013,” Cyber Dating Expert, May 9, 2014,
https://cyberdatingexpert.com/10-best-mobile-dating apps-2013; Tess Ward, “10 Dating Apps to Get Your Love Life Back on
Track,” The Guardian, November 7, 2014, https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/nov/07/-sp-10-best-dating-apps.
2023 to Jul 2023.
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EXHIBIT 3: MARKET SHARE OF US ONLINE DATING BRANDS IN 2015
25.00%
21.80%
20.00%
15.00% 13.50%
10.00%
5.00% 4.90%
5.00% 3.00%
0.00%
InterActiveCorp eHarmony Zoosk Plenty of Fish Spark Networks
(Match.com, (JDate, Christian
Tinder, OkCupid,...) Mingle,...)
Source: “Market Share of Leading Online Dating Companies in the United States in 2015,” Statista, June 18, 2015,
https://www.statista.com/statistics/426023/market-share-us-online-dating-companies.
EXHIBIT 4: PREVALENCE OF HARASSMENT BY DEMOGRAPHICS
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Total Men 18-34 Women 18-34 Men 35-49 Women 35-49
Continued to be contacted after saying not interested

Received sexually explicit message or text without asking
Called an offensive name
Physically threatened
Note: Percentage of online dating users who agreed with the statement, “On an online dating service, I was subjected
to this.”
Source: Emily A. Vogels, “10 Facts about Americans and Online Dating”, Pew Research Center, February 6, 2020,
https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/02/06/10-facts-about-americans-and-online-dating.
2023 to Jul 2023.
Page 10 W28514
ENDNOTES
1
This case has been written on the basis of published sources only. Consequently, the interpretation and perspectives
presented in this case are not necessarily those of Bumble, or any of its employees. At the time of the decisions in this case,
late-2014 and early-2015, the dating app world was focused on a primarily bifurcated gender (male/female) perspective, which
is apparent in the source material from this period. In the intervening years this perspective has evolved and most major dating
applications now reflect a broader view of gender. For consistency, we follow the historical decision makers and present a
bifurcated perspective but encourage readers to consider where this perspective engenders limitations or can be extended to
a broader consideration of gender.
2
Clare O’Connor, “Billion-Dollar Bumble: How Whitney Wolfe Herd Built America’s Fastest Growing Dating App,” Forbes,
November 14, 2017, https://www.forbes.com/sites/clareoconnor/2017/11/14/billion-dollar-bumble-how-whitney-wolfe-herd-
built-americas-fastest-growing-dating-app.
3
O’Connor, “Billion-Dollar Bumble.”
4
Fitz Tepper, “Whitney Wolfe Herd Doesn’t Care What She’s Supposed to Do,” TechCrunch, May 13, 2018,
https://techcrunch.com/2018/05/13/whitney-wolfe-herd-bumbles-founder-doesnt-care-what-shes-supposed-to-do.
5
Alisha Kapur, “UCLA Alumni, Brothers Create Tinder and Slide Mobile Applications,” Daily Bruin, October 22, 2015,
https://dailybruin.com/2015/10/22/ucla-alumni-brothers-create-tinder-and-slide-mobile-applications; Nick Summers, “The
Truth about Tinder and Women Is even Worse than You Think,” Bloomberg, July 3, 2014,
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2014-07-02/the-truth-about-tinder-and-women-is-even-worse-than-you-think.
6
Jordan Crook, “Burned”, TechCrunch, July 9, 2014, https://techcrunch.com/2014/07/09/whitney-wolfe-vs-tinder/.
7
Dan Primack, “Tinder Has Patented Swiping and Double-Opt-In Matches,” Axios, February 7, 2018, https://www.axios.com/tinder-
patent-swipe-left-right-double-opt-in-bumble-merger-ab228141-bdf7-4477-9b2e-c7ec0891c0a8.html.
8
Jordan Crook, “Burned”, TechCrunch, July 9, 2014, https://techcrunch.com/2014/07/09/whitney-wolfe-vs-tinder/.
9
Emily Witt, “Love Me Tinder,” GQ, February 11, 2014, https://www.gq.com/story/tinder-online-dating-sex-app.
10
Laura Stampler, “Inside Tinder: Meet the Guys Who Turned Dating into an Addiction,” Time, February 6, 2014,
https://time.com/4837/tinder-meet-the-guys-who-turned-dating-into-an-addiction/.
11
Katie Humphrey, “Lust at First Photo: Tinder Heats Up the Dating App Scene,” Star Tribune, May 15, 2013,
https://www.startribune.com/lust-at-first-photo-tinder-heats-up-dating-app-scene/207573481/.
12
“Complaint for Damages,” Whitney Wolfe v. TINDER; MATCH.COM; and IAC, INC., and DOES 1 through 20, inclusive,
June 30, 2014, accessed July 8, 2022, https://web.archive.org/web/20140702003557/http://www.rezlaw.com/News-
Events/06-30-14_Complaint_with_Exhibits-1.pdf.
13
“Complaint for Damages,” Whitney Wolfe v. TINDER; MATCH.COM; and IAC, INC., and DOES 1 through 20, inclusive.
14
Paresh Dave, “Ex-exec Sues Tinder Execs, Claiming Sexual Harassment, Discrimination,” Los Angeles Times, July 1, 2014,
https://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-tn-tinder-lawsuit-20140701-story.html.
15
“Complaint for Damages,” Whitney Wolfe v. TINDER; MATCH.COM; and IAC, INC., and DOES 1 through 20, inclusive.
16
Crook, “Burned.”
17
All currency amounts are in US$ unless otherwise specified.
18
19
Christine Foster, “Punch-Card Love,” Stanford Magazine, March/April 2007, https://stanfordmag.org/contents/punch-card-love;
“The History of Online Dating,” eHarmony, accessed February 25, 2022, https://www.eharmony.com/history-of-online-dating/.
20
Christine Foster, “Punch-Card Love.”
21
Anita Shargall, “Innovation Through the Years: Timeline of Smartphone Features,” MoneySuperMarket, November 28, 2017,
https://web.archive.org/web/20210506133716/https://www.moneysupermarket.com/mobile-phones/timeline-new-phone-features/.
22
Scott Morrissette, “Investigating Catergorization Preferences for Online Dating Sites.” PhD dissertation, Nova Southeastern
University, 2015.
23
Jessica Shambora, “eHarmony’s Algorithm of Love,” Fortune, September 23, 2010,
https://fortune.com/2010/09/23/eharmonys-algorithm-of-love.
24
Torkel Klingberg, The Overflowing Brain: Information Overload and the Limits of Working Memory (Oxford, UK: Oxford
University Press, 2009).
25
Morrissette, “Investigating Catergorization Preferences,” 44.
26
David Curry, “Dating App Revenue and Usage Statistics (2021),” Business of Apps, accessed November 4, 2021,
https://www.businessofapps.com/data/dating-app-market/.
27
Elyse Romano, “5 Facts about Online Dating from Pew Research Center,” Dating Sites Reviews, March 31, 2016,
https://www.datingsitesreviews.com/article.php?story=5-facts-about-online-dating-from-pew-research-center.
28
John LaRosa, “American Singles Fuel the $2.5 Billion Dating Market,” Market Research Blog, August 15, 2018,
https://blog.marketresearch.com/american-singles-fuel-the-2.5-billion-dating-market.
29
“Market Share of Leading Online Dating Companies in the United States in 2015,” Statista, June 18, 2015,
https://www.statista.com/statistics/426023/market-share-us-online-dating-companies/.
30
Tinder was launched through the IAC owned incubator Hatch Labs; as such, IAC had a share of Tinder from the near
beginning and IAC/Match bought out the remaining early shareholders on July 17, 2017 for US$1 billion; Steven Bertoni,
“Tinder Hits $3 Billion Valuation after Match Group Converts Options,” Forbes, August 31, 2017,
https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevenbertoni/2017/08/31/tinder-hits-3-billion-valuation-after-match-group-converts-options;
Mansoor Iqbal, “Tinder Revenue and Usage Statistics (2021),” Business of Apps, accessed November 4, 2021,
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2023 to Jul 2023.

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W28514

BUMBLE: TAKING ON TINDER, ONE WOMAN AT A TIME1

Copyright © 2022, Ivey Business School Foundation Version: 2022-07-08

ONLINE DATING MARKET

SWIPING LEFT ON TINDER

ANDREEV AND BADOO

THE ONLINE DATING EXPERIENCE

EXHIBIT 1: INFORMATION PREFERENCES IN ONLINE DATING PROFILES BY GENDER

Racial or Ethnic Background

Hobbies and Interests

If they have children

Type of Relationship they are looking for

EXHIBIT 2: ONLINE DATING BRANDS MAP (EFFORT NEEDED VERSUS ACCESS)

Tinder Plenty of Fish

Grindr Hinge OKCupid

Low Effort High Effort

EXHIBIT 3: MARKET SHARE OF US ONLINE DATING BRANDS IN 2015

EXHIBIT 4: PREVALENCE OF HARASSMENT BY DEMOGRAPHICS

Continued to be contacted after saying not interested

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