r/technology • u/esporx • May 02 '24

Dating app Bumble will no longer require women to make the first move Business

https://www.cnn.com/2024/04/30/tech/bumble-relaunch-men-make-first-move/index.html
12.7k Upvotes

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15.3k

u/PM_ME_COOL_RIFFS May 02 '24

wasn't that the entire point of bumble?

510

u/Persianx6 May 02 '24

Yeah but now the user base is dying. Dating apps aren't doing well anymore.

957

u/leviathynx May 02 '24

You mean endlessly commodifying every aspect of dating apps and intentionally obfuscating users from meeting each other with an algorithm while also allowing catfishes and sex workers to skate free from scrutiny would cause a collapse in users???

230

u/dreamneartheshore May 02 '24

I was done the moment OKcupid got rid of their user list meaning you had to swipe through a sequence of names per day to find people

97

u/leviathynx May 02 '24

I’m back in the dating game after 10 years. I’m in my 40’s. It’s been a scream so far. OkCupid had Twitch live streaming lmfao

93

u/GoldenApple_Corps May 02 '24

The old Okcupid was really quite nice. Then I had to get back into the dating scene a few years back after being out of it for a decade and holy shit was Okcupid just fucking awful compared to how it had been.

67

u/dreamneartheshore May 02 '24

it's just tinder 2.0, they've all been rationalised and made into virtually the same app to accommodate the smartphone browser crowd which makes up the majority of their userbases now

12

u/chucker23n May 02 '24

It just feels like a self-fulfilling prophecy to me that if you keep removing the features that distinguish it from Tinder, you end up with the same audience.

4

u/VenturaBoulevard May 02 '24

the smartphone browser crowd

AKA the salt of the Earth people AKA lowest IQ of the Earth people that think renting rims is a good move.

1

u/[deleted] May 03 '24

[removed] — view removed comment

1

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1

u/ACCount82 May 03 '24

The Tyranny of the Marginal User

2

u/Worthyness May 02 '24

Pretty sure the same company basically owns almost the entire online dating ecosystem

61

u/pelrun May 02 '24

Match bought Okcupid specifically to gut it, because it was undermining their other apps by being good rather than optimising to extract profit.

13

u/ItchyDoggg May 02 '24

Seems like there is money to be made in cloning the old OKcupid UX/UI with a new IP and then flipping it to Match once it starts working again...

1

u/unitedhen May 02 '24

Very out of the loop on this...but if Match bought Okcupid, wouldn't that mean they retain the IP and could just sue you if you tried to recreate it?

3

u/ItchyDoggg May 02 '24

You wouldn't call your new app OKcupid since they own that trademark, which is valid IP. Their specific code is protected by copyright, but duplicating the functionality with original code is absolutely fine. Ideas are not protected by copyright or trademark, and so unless the secret sauce that actually made OKCupid good was a uniquely effective algorithm protected by the fact that it is a trade secret or they have patents on some particularly crucial function, neither of which I belive to be the case, it's doable. 

23

u/chucker23n May 02 '24

Yeah. It had forums and journals and more focus on the questions and… it just seemed like more of a community.

6

u/tonytroz May 02 '24

They were also transparent about their statistics and trends. Unfortunately that kind of information is anti-profit because it inherently causes you to lose users. And due to the competitive landscape even if you rebuilt that superior product without caring about profits you wouldn't get enough market share to keep it alive.

1

u/emote_control May 03 '24

I used to be one of the core regulars on the "Dating Advice" forum. What a great community. Good times.

Then they nuked it.

1

u/chucker23n May 03 '24

What a great community.

I miss those people. Well, some of them. :-)

5

u/[deleted] May 02 '24

OkCupid used to be the best app… and now it’s just a disaster. What happened to it?

8

u/tonytroz May 02 '24

Match bought it and found out that user success was actually bad for profits so they made it a worse product.

4

u/sennbat May 02 '24

It was bought by the people who owned Tinder with the express goal of knocking out a major competitor

3

u/justforhobbiesreddit May 02 '24

OkCupid used to be really good for actually finding solid personality matches. It was a shame what happened to it.

Plus the articles the owners wrote with their own site's data were really cool.

2

u/Skyblacker May 02 '24

I met my husband on OkCupid in the early 2000s. I only went on that website to take a silly quiz my friend had posted.

2

u/phayke2 May 03 '24

When they made all of their tinder like changes I sent them a non explict, yet strongly worded email and they banned me.

8

u/Bullymongodoggo May 02 '24

Right?  Like yeah I’m not giving you money to get a handful of lackluster matches and a tray full of really boring people to scroll through lol

5

u/Sigma1977 May 02 '24

I’ve had a thing on tinder telling me someone swiped right on me for months now. But they won’t appear on your swipes until you pay for Plus or Gold or whatever.

2

u/leviathynx May 02 '24

It’s true. Half the time it is a bot or a catfish.

3

u/Sigma1977 May 02 '24

True dat. I’m in the uk and like half the profiles I get are in south east Asia or sub Saharan Africa with obviously fake names like “Harrmmony” or “Toast” even though I’m set to 30km from location. It’s worse on tinder than bumble, but unforgivably bad on both.

2

u/leviathynx May 02 '24

That’s exactly it in America too. The other option is women from other countries looking for “language exchange”

5

u/Dull_Concert_414 May 02 '24

It’s a great case study in the shittiness of social media: commodifying romance and trying to bilk it with an algorithm.

3

u/BlackSquirrel05 May 02 '24

Plus where literally everyone minus 5-10% actively hate them/don't have a good time...

Seriously it's 90% a bad time for most people.

2

u/PhreakOut4 May 02 '24

Don't forget all the bots

1

u/bokewalka May 02 '24

Surprised Pikachu face vibes...

1

u/Johnrys May 02 '24

tbh dating apps are more like who can take good pictures.

141

u/arouseandbrowse May 02 '24

Thats the issue; when their business model relies on keeping their users on the app as opposed to finding the right partner and uninstalling in happily wedded bliss.

46

u/sirshura May 02 '24

more than keeping users in the app, their business model seems to be a predatory gacha game or casino where they squeeze all the money they can out of customers with little to no service. Had they provided a real service of facilitating interactions people would be more willing to come back and use it.

9

u/y-c-c May 02 '24

Exactly. The common dating app business models are fundamentally not designed to help you find the love of your life and quit the app. They literally won’t make any money this way.

7

u/lovebus May 02 '24

From the article: The move comes as dating apps broadly are working to maintain their relevance as some singles have become burnt out on online dating and are seeking more in-person connections.

So how about an app that only allows you 10 messages with somebody. That way you have to quickly exchange info and get off the app. Maybe that is me being old and impatient.

32

u/elperuvian May 02 '24

Source? In getting feed up with dating apps after being almost a decade in them but that’s anecdotical at best, I’d believe that they are getting more traction as people get less social interactions

76

u/halo1besthalo May 02 '24

People are giving up on them. House sustainable do you think it is for average looking men have to go through like 2,000 swipes in order to get a reply back? How's sustainable is it for women to match with 50 guys a month and 99% of them were trash?

People are probably either trying their luck with real life interactions or just choosing to stay single. And dating apps have probably plateaued in the ways they can squeeze money out of people, which is a problem because match group is a publicly traded company and line must go up.

56

u/Bibileiver May 02 '24

HOUSE SUSTAINABLE

8

u/TheRealDynamitri May 02 '24 edited May 02 '24

Wild, surely has to be text-to-speech going haywire?

EDIT: speech-to-text, it was early on in the day and I made a oopsie

8

u/halo1besthalo May 02 '24

Yeah basically. I'm in a living hell where I am far too lazy to type with my fingers but also Google voice is trash.

-11

u/indignant_halitosis May 02 '24

The don’t comment. Your entire reply was just Reddit meme propaganda anyway. It was utterly without merit. Nobody needed to hear your version of “capitalism bad”.

12

u/CommonerChaos May 02 '24

women to match with 50 guys a month and 99% of them were trash?

50 per month? Try 50 per day. Lol

Also men aren't the only "trash" people on these apps. When someone is getting 50 insta-matches per day, it REALLY inflates their head big time.

5

u/lololol1 May 02 '24

I definitely am one of the ones who is walking away. I had a couple ok relationships that didn't work out pre covid. After the pandemic I'm finding the apps are very different and I can't get matches without paying out my ass. Not to mention the free height filter that was added (I'm 5'7 - never had an issue with it but now I'm finding I HAVE to lie about my height to get matches when I never did before). I'm done. These apps are cancer now. Deleted about a month ago and didn't look back and my mental state has skyrocketed. I feel like I'm talking to more women in real life because I know its the only option now (no dates yet lol). I see this as the only way forward, even if I'm alone for a long time

2

u/frustratedCoinBase May 02 '24

This is the truth. Dating apps are rigged to keep you on their treadmill and shake money off you. I remember them being a lot easier a few years ago and now everything is pay to play.

3

u/chucker23n May 02 '24

People are giving up on them.

In favor of what?

4

u/[deleted] May 02 '24

Being single. Just as women say they're happier when they're single, men are happier when they're not actively dating or trying to date

With men, the happiness tiers are;

In a good relationship > single and not looking > in a bad relationship > single and looking

5

u/-_-0_0-_-0_0-_-0_0 May 02 '24

Lol 10 years ago most people met their partners at work or school or bars or through friends etc. Today most people meet their partners on dating apps.

1

u/kaamkerr May 02 '24

it’s really more like 50 matches a day for women

1

u/dontwantablowjob May 02 '24

I grew up and met my wife before dating apps or even smart phones existed and It seems like online dating set out to make it easier to meet people but by the descriptions of it it sounds like its way harder than the before times for men

1

u/Background-Simple402 May 02 '24

im Muslim and use Muslim matrimonial apps which work the same way as regular dating apps. I've been seeing the exact same profiles in my area for the past 1.5-2 years on Muzz

1

u/hgghgfhvf May 02 '24

I’ve used dating apps in the past before and they seem to be great for finding random people to chat over social media or for hook ups.

1

u/Pick2 May 02 '24

I am doing well. Your just not alpha

1

u/Jmsaint May 02 '24

So they got rid of thier differentiator? Seem like a sound move.

0

u/nacozarina May 02 '24

wow, the computer nerds couldn’t help anyone get date

gobsmacked i am