Latest / What's Uptin? / The End of Swiping? How Dating is about to change forever
Transcript
- 0:00Dating apps were supposed to fix dating.
- 0:03Instead, 78% of users say they feel emotionally, mentally, or
- 0:09physically exhausted by swiping. Gen.
- 0:11Z isn't falling in love, they're burning out.
- 0:14So what does the world's most downloaded dating app do?
- 0:17They will soon let AI go through your entire camera roll.
- 0:21You are who what's in your camera roll, right?
- 0:23It is a treasure trove of your past experiences.
- 0:26This is Mark Cantor, head of product at Tinder, and he says
- 0:29the ERA of endless swiping is over.
- 0:32He claims their goal at Tinder is for you to delete the app.
- 0:36You know, because that means you found love.
- 0:38If the goal is to genuinely make someone delete the app of
- 0:41Tinder, then shouldn't like the default screen be my messages
- 0:45instead of more swiping options? Yeah, that's.
- 0:47It's a great question. I talked to many people that
- 0:51seem to just be over dating apps, but will new AI tools
- 0:55actually save them? This is what's up 10 on how
- 0:59dating could change, change as we know it.
- 1:01Tinder has a new AI powered feature which will use insights
- 1:05from your camera roll photos. What kind of insights are we are
- 1:08we talking about here? So that feature is, is, is still
- 1:11in development right now. But we know that you are who
- 1:15what's in your camera roll, right?
- 1:16It is a treasure trove of your past experiences.
- 1:20So we're doing a couple of different things with camera
- 1:22roll. The first one that is currently
- 1:24live is to help people during the profile creation process.
- 1:28So you know, the average person now the average Genzi is 10s of
- 1:31thousands of photos in their camera roll, sometimes even
- 1:34more. And picking those photos can be
- 1:37stressful and time consuming and people would rather spend the
- 1:40time actually chatting with people and getting off the app.
- 1:43So the first feature we have that is camera related is
- 1:47essentially with the user's permission, looking through
- 1:51their camera. It's all an on device model.
- 1:53So we are not actually storing that data.
- 1:55And then we make a handful of suggestions of photos that we
- 1:58think would perform well and that would be high quality.
- 2:00We show them to the user and we've gone from, you know,
- 2:03you've got 70,000 photos in your camera.
- 2:05Well, you probably have hundreds of thousands.
- 2:07And then we're saying, hey, how about these 12?
- 2:08We think these 12 would work well and then people can select
- 2:11those. But Camera Roll is really this
- 2:13thing that we continue to push into because there is so much
- 2:17amazing information there, but we haven't yet released kind of
- 2:21the the next wave. OK.
- 2:22So is it primarily going to be used for picking the best photos
- 2:26for my profile or is it also going to say, hey, you really
- 2:29like skateboarding, you really like coffee?
- 2:31So you're ahead of the game here.
- 2:33We are actively working on a version where we extract
- 2:37insights from your camera roll, and there's a couple of
- 2:40important things to note that. So what we do do is, with the
- 2:42user's permission of course, we can look through the camera
- 2:45roll. From that, we can actually use
- 2:47vision to see where you've been, hobbies, if you've got pets, if
- 2:53you're a foodie. Those are the types of things.
- 2:56We then surface those insights to the user and say, hey, this
- 2:59is what we've learned about you. There's 73 things we've learned,
- 3:02and the user has the ability to look at those things and always
- 3:05get back to those insights. If there are things that are
- 3:09inaccurate or just things that they wouldn't want to share,
- 3:12they can remove them. And then we use that data to
- 3:17help personalize the experience them and give them
- 3:20recommendations that might have commonalities.
- 3:24And we're not there yet, but I can see a world in which you
- 3:28match with somebody and you have the empty chat.
- 3:30And the empty chat is a challenge, right?
- 3:31So we'd like to fix the empty chat and instead highlight
- 3:35things that we've learned about you that might help spark
- 3:38conversation. Like this person has a dog or
- 3:42something like that. I think we can certainly start
- 3:44there. That's the that, that's, that's
- 3:45kind of like the, the, the easy stuff really.
- 3:47But for you, you're a world traveler.
- 3:49And I think that we can get to a point where we understand that
- 3:52you've been to 23 countries in the last six months.
- 3:55And that's something that a match of yours would probably
- 3:57really love to know. And people, it's difficult for
- 4:00most people to introduce themselves, to advocate for
- 4:03themselves without bragging, right?
- 4:05Like if you meet somebody, it's hard to say, hey, just so you
- 4:08know, Jennifer, I've been to 23 countries in the last six months
- 4:12alone. But AI can kind of do that for
- 4:15you a little bit. So we can, what we're hoping to
- 4:18be able to do is not just do the you've got a dog and you like
- 4:22pizza and you go to the beach, but also understand specifically
- 4:27maybe where you've gone, the number of places you've gone.
- 4:29You're going through a paddle phase right now or something?
- 4:32Yeah, recency is really important too, right?
- 4:34So which is what makes this so fun and challenging is that your
- 4:38camera roll has stuff from 15 years ago probably which it's no
- 4:40longer relevant for us. And we need to know what's
- 4:43relevant and what's not relevant.
- 4:45But if the last 10 weeks of photos have 80 photos of you
- 4:50playing a certain sport, clearly this is something that, like, is
- 4:52interesting to you. And you probably have some
- 4:54stories and you want to bond over that.
- 4:56We might even be able to understand, are you a night out?
- 4:59Are you taking photos at 2:00 AM?
- 5:00Because that's like says something about who you are.
- 5:04It's very interesting because when I went to college, I
- 5:06remember they asked us three questions.
- 5:08They said, are you clean or messy?
- 5:10Do you sleep, you know, early, mid, medium, which is 11:50 or
- 5:14late past midnight? And I think the third one was,
- 5:16do you smoke or do you not smoke?
- 5:17And based on those three questions, they assigned us a
- 5:19random roommate. And I remember there was another
- 5:22university that would ask like 70 or 80 questions.
- 5:25And the retention rate between freshman year and sophomore year
- 5:28of those continuing to live with the, that, that person was like,
- 5:32you know, maybe I think over 70% compared to my university, which
- 5:35was maybe like 20%. And I always thought that that
- 5:38was so interesting when you can use data to, to, to complement
- 5:41matches, right? And not necessarily people who
- 5:43were always picking the same answers, but complementary to
- 5:46that. And I always thought this, the
- 5:48swiping game was, was interesting because I'm like
- 5:51you, you, there's so much data that I can volunteer.
- 5:54And now, of course, the AI is very excited when it comes to
- 5:56doing Yaps. So, so do you think we're going
- 5:59to have, we're going to see like the end of swiping when we have
- 6:02so much, you know, AI that can just speed up this process?
- 6:05Essentially, I love this roommate example, by the way,
- 6:07and I feel like you just invented the camera roll, a
- 6:11roommate, you know, Finder. But yeah, so ultimately for us,
- 6:16our goal is to get people to find connection as soon as
- 6:20possible, have fun conversations, get off the app
- 6:23and have a great time. And I do think that with more
- 6:27information, we're able to personalize the experience
- 6:30better and should ultimately lead to fewer swipes, less time
- 6:34spent and kind of the quicker kind of path to to that
- 6:42connection. So, yeah, I mean, I think we
- 6:44have this feature, you know, since you're a traveler and you
- 6:47get to Australia, New Zealand, you can check it out there.
- 6:50And it's called chemistry. And the point there is we ask a
- 6:53series of questions. It's about 5 to 10 a day.
- 6:56These are fun. Every day like every new day
- 6:58you, every day more. Questions.
- 6:59Yeah, And the goal is to really learn more about who you are,
- 7:04what you want, really get in there and try to understand the
- 7:07nuance of the person and go beyond the like, I like soccer,
- 7:12I like movies, right? These are like very general.
- 7:15And then based on that, we're able to take more and more of
- 7:18that information and give you an like a highly, highly
- 7:21personalized recommendation that will, you know, can be the first
- 7:26thing you do when you open Tinder.
- 7:27So I can imagine that there are people out there that don't want
- 7:29to swipe and want to open up Tinder.
- 7:31They want to get their daily recommendation, see it and be
- 7:35in, you know, express interest or not.
- 7:37And then they can leave. And if they when they come back
- 7:39the next day and they can get their personalized
- 7:43recommendation again too. So for us, ultimately, our goal
- 7:46is to help people find connection, get off the app,
- 7:50meet IRL as quick as possible, and AI has, I think, really
- 7:54given us this leg up and this ability to disrupt ourselves.
- 7:58And so it's interesting to hear you say get off the app.
- 8:00You don't hear many people in Silicon Valley or anywhere in
- 8:03the world say my goal is for you to delete the app.
- 8:06How does that? How do you?
- 8:07Play that balance with driving revenue and and users.
- 8:11Is it just make this so successful that the next wave of
- 8:14of of singles or or people looking for friends just want to
- 8:17use it because it's so effective and you're OK with them deleting
- 8:20it genuinely. I think that that that that's
- 8:22pretty much there is that if you know that coming to Tinder is
- 8:25going to give you success and you can get the app on a Monday
- 8:29and meet somebody great just a couple days later, I think
- 8:32that's tremendous. And if you have if you churn
- 8:35because you've had success, that is a huge success story for us.
- 8:38And we know that Tinder is often people's first dating app.
- 8:43It is like a rite of pass. If they turn 18, they get
- 8:46Tinder. Now, some people meet their
- 8:48favorite person when they're 18, but many people have to go
- 8:51through, you know, a number of relationships.
- 8:54So, you know, the hope for us is if we can get really, really
- 8:57good at finding, helping people find connection quickly.
- 9:00You get the app when you're 18 or 19, you find connection.
- 9:04If you remove the app because you found connection, great.
- 9:06But we know some relationships are not going to last forever.
- 9:09And if they know that that experience was positive, they'll
- 9:12likely come back and tell their friends.
- 9:14And ultimately, if we have to change and evolve our business
- 9:17model, I think that's like a huge success story for us.
- 9:21I used to be in gaming and in gaming, oftentimes we would
- 9:25actually try to get people to spend as much time as possible.
- 9:27And I would, I love about working at Tinder is that it is
- 9:30the opposite. We're really trying to give
- 9:32people a fun experience, but one in which they are spending more
- 9:35of their time actually talking and interacting with people and
- 9:38then again getting off the app and having fun.
- 9:41Do you think we're going to see a day where AI agents are dating
- 9:43each other on Tinder and we don't even know if we're talking
- 9:46to someone's agent or them? On Tinder, no.
- 9:50I think for me, we really want to keep this experience
- 9:53authentic. I don't personally want to
- 9:56receive messages from an AI. I don't want an AI responding as
- 10:00me. I think there's fun in human
- 10:02connection. There's fun in that.
- 10:03I think that we can use AI instead to help spark
- 10:07conversations, highlight information like when you get to
- 10:11that match that would be fun to talk about, You've got friends
- 10:15in common, you've traveled to these countries, you both play
- 10:18rec soccer that people would want to have.
- 10:22I think we would kind of be depriving people if we are like
- 10:24outsourcing that to AIH. OK, so when you think about
- 10:27dating, there's the obvious compatibility, right?
- 10:29Maybe let's say, you know, is it a smoking location?
- 10:33Things like that. Then Part 2, I see it as sort of
- 10:36interest, sense of humor, you know, maybe values, which is
- 10:40like kind of the next stage. The third stage would almost be
- 10:43chemistry, you know, the vibe that you get when you're around
- 10:46them, even pheromones. Do you think like AI can ever
- 10:50get to that stage 3 and really kind of identify if you're a
- 10:54match? So you use the word vibe, which
- 10:56I'm happy about because I was going to use that and I thought
- 10:58you'd be frustrated because it's sometimes it's hard to define
- 11:00what a what vibe is. But ultimately I think if we
- 11:04look at where Tinder was a year ago and where Tinder has been,
- 11:08you know, it was a little bit of a photo centric product that
- 11:14people make quick decisions based on the first photo they
- 11:16see. And we've evolved that and start
- 11:19collecting more information. We now have photo prompts and
- 11:22text prompts, but we can do better and we will do better.
- 11:25I think with Camera Roll, which is what you you really started
- 11:28with, there is the nuance there, right?
- 11:31You really can get a sense of the vibe and it goes far beyond
- 11:34the like movies and like love of the same band and you can really
- 11:39start to understand who a person is.
- 11:41I think we can also start to personalize the experience such
- 11:44that when you're looking at Jenny's profile and I'm looking
- 11:46at Jenny's profile, are we seeing the same thing or are we
- 11:49seeing different things? So those are also things that
- 11:51we're exploring. But I think that with AI and
- 11:54with more information, we can start getting to that vibe part.
- 11:58But ultimately though, like compatibility is difficult.
- 12:01And I think the first thing we can really do is get people into
- 12:04fun conversations and have them kind of work to figure it out.
- 12:09Interesting. So you're as head of product,
- 12:11you lead product design, revenue and safety.
- 12:15That's a lot of different angles within the company.
- 12:18What happens when those priorities flash?
- 12:20How do you think about product versus revenue?
- 12:23Yeah. So for us, what we are moving
- 12:26toward is positive outcomes, positive conversations, we call
- 12:31them sparks, right, a really high quality conversation and
- 12:34nothing can supersede that. So the revenue team is an
- 12:38incredible team. And ultimately we're a business.
- 12:41We have to make money such that we can invest in making the
- 12:44product better and better. But ultimately, if any of their
- 12:47work impacts user outcomes and reduces that, we don't do it.
- 12:52So they know that it's very, very clear.
- 12:54It's the same across the board safety.
- 12:56We often make decisions to make people safer that end up hurting
- 13:01us on a revenue standpoint. We are rolling out a feature
- 13:04called Face Check right now, which is required for all users
- 13:08in California as well as a handful of other countries.
- 13:10It'll be all in the US in the coming months and it requires
- 13:15all new users to do this video selfie to make sure that they
- 13:18are who they say they are and they're a real person.
- 13:20They only want to count. And that will introduce
- 13:22friction, which if you're really trying to optimize for number of
- 13:26users and amount of time spent, you would never want to
- 13:29introduce any friction into the into the product.
- 13:32But for us, we are looking at quality over quantity when it
- 13:35comes to that. We of course want to find ways
- 13:38to design that feature where people don't get stuck along the
- 13:41way. But ultimately for us, the
- 13:43priority is on user safety and getting those positive outcomes.
- 13:48And if we have to take revenue hits for that, that's fine and
- 13:52that's the right kind of long term decision.
- 13:53What's the feedback been so far in California?
- 13:55Are people are people doing the check or kind of putting it off?
- 13:58Yeah. It's it's, it's honestly
- 14:01exceeded my expectations. It's a little bit of extra
- 14:04effort, but I think people understand why we're doing it.
- 14:07And it's one of those things that they know that if they
- 14:09participate, it means that everyone else they see on the
- 14:12platform has also participated. So people are getting through it
- 14:16and we've seen more than a 60% reduction in the behavior,
- 14:22essentially prevalence of these bots and bad actors.
- 14:24And the number of reports from our users has gone down by more
- 14:29than 40%. So we see people willing to do
- 14:32it because they understand the value of it.
- 14:35And, you know, again, this will get better and better.
- 14:38So for our first crack in California, it actually
- 14:41performed kind of way better than expected.
- 14:43If the goal is to genuinely make someone delete the app of
- 14:47Tinder, then shouldn't like the default screen be my messages
- 14:51instead of more swiping options? I mean, isn't there an inherent
- 14:54dopamine rush that comes from seeing new people?
- 14:56Yeah, that's it's, it's a great question and it's actually
- 14:59something that I've asked. I'm six months into Tinder.
- 15:02I wondered the same thing and I think we've actually tested lots
- 15:06of different things and it turns out when people come Tinder,
- 15:08oftentimes they will go to their messages first.
- 15:11But we know that people always want to get in there and see
- 15:14more people. What one thing that we do that I
- 15:16think it may not be as clear is that often what we're what we're
- 15:20going to be doing more of is making sure that when you open
- 15:23Tinder, the top of that of your Tinder stack are high quality
- 15:28personalized recommendations. So we think it is important that
- 15:31you should check that, but the messages are there too.
- 15:34And I think that's it's really interesting and it is something
- 15:37that I think we consistently will come back to and think
- 15:40about whether that is the right thing to do or not.
- 15:42Yeah. It's almost interesting when you
- 15:43think about paradox of choice. It becomes a an issue, right?
- 15:46Not not just for for the people using the app, but for.
- 15:50People who will. I mean, yeah, for people who use
- 15:52the app, it's like there's so many choices.
- 15:54I remember, I think it was 2012, I read an article in The
- 15:57Atlantic and, you know, dating platforms.
- 16:00I think it was like match.com, OkCupid.
- 16:02We're really starting to take off and the the article was
- 16:05basically about a woman who was 80 or 90 at the time and she was
- 16:08talking about her lover of 50 years.
- 16:11They would write letters to each other and there would have to be
- 16:13days, sometimes weeks waiting and seeing.
- 16:15Am I going to get the letter back?
- 16:16And how much, you know, demand and lust that created in the in
- 16:20between that that's just been eliminated by by the Internet.
- 16:24And I almost wondered that, you know, if, if paradox choice is
- 16:27causing so much pain within, within dating.
- 16:30And so it's interesting some of the initiatives you're rolling
- 16:32out like chemistry and things like that.
- 16:35Yeah, I think it's a great point and I do think that it it, it's
- 16:38a real challenge for us. We actually just started I think
- 16:42yesterday testing a new, our center tab is to see who likes
- 16:45you, right? This is like a really important
- 16:47part of Tinder and it's, it's the page that shows you the
- 16:50people who have expressed interest in you.
- 16:52But one of the challenges with it is that for many people, they
- 16:56have these long columns of people that are interested and
- 16:59it can be difficult to figure out who to pay attention to,
- 17:01right? So this new design that we're
- 17:04working on is really trying to highlight who is on that list
- 17:08that really, really is like the diamond, the rough, the needle
- 17:11in the haystack. And similarly, when you get to
- 17:14that messages tab, is there a way for us to do a better
- 17:17organization at that, to really highlight the people who you
- 17:21have active conversations with, who we think maybe you haven't
- 17:24kicked off a conversation yet, but we think they're really like
- 17:27high compatibility. These are things that are great
- 17:30questions that we're really like constantly thinking about.
- 17:33You know, for me, I've only been a Tinder for six months.
- 17:35And with that, our CEO is joined just a few months before I did.
- 17:39And there is a newfound focus on outcomes and on these active
- 17:43conversations. So it gives us this new ability
- 17:46to look at designs that really haven't changed for many years
- 17:49and rethink them based on those new metrics do.
- 17:53You have any data on how many users are using Tinder for
- 17:57friendships or how much friendships are being formed
- 17:59because, you know, there's a male loneliness epidemic right
- 18:03now. A lot, a lot of people are are
- 18:04lonely post pandemic work from home.
- 18:06Even your moderator on your talk, you know, she said, she
- 18:10said I haven't used Tinder in in ages.
- 18:11I'm married, right? And so, you know, the zeitgeist
- 18:15still imagines Tinder for romantic relationships and and
- 18:19so how is the friendship component still important for
- 18:22the product? Yeah, So I think that people
- 18:24come to Tinder and will continue to come to Tinder for the
- 18:28possibility of a romantic spark. But I think friendship is often
- 18:31the result. So I was talking to a college
- 18:34student actually last week, and she told this great story about
- 18:37meeting up with a guy on her campus who went to her school.
- 18:40She never met before, but she met because of the app.
- 18:42They met and they went, and they had boba.
- 18:44They realized after 15 minutes, like, yeah, this isn't like
- 18:47there isn't really a spark. So they parted ways as friends.
- 18:51They see each other in class. They're totally cool with each
- 18:53other. It's a friendship.
- 18:54They didn't set out to be friends.
- 18:56They set out to be something potentially more.
- 18:58But the result was positive. I think they both went back to
- 19:02Tinder and are now trying to find people that they might have
- 19:04that spark with. So I think friendship can
- 19:06totally happen. But we are still focused on, you
- 19:09know, singles with romantic intent.
- 19:14You know, there's hundreds of millions of singles out there.
- 19:17So I think there's quite a lot more we can do for that before
- 19:20we kind of start branching out to friendship.
- 19:22OK. So a survey found that 78% of
- 19:26dating app users feel emotionally, mentally or
- 19:28physically exhausted by the experience of swiping and
- 19:32matching this, this notion of swipe fatigue.
- 19:34So we talked about it a little bit, but any plans to
- 19:38essentially that you can confirm today that that we might not
- 19:41have the swipe feature anymore and and do so another UI
- 19:44experience? Yeah, there's a lot of things
- 19:46we're doing there. I think that I love this swipe.
- 19:48I actually think people love the swipe.
- 19:50I think what they don't like is having to swipe so much for the
- 19:53outcome. The gesture is a great gesture.
- 19:56But you know, if we look back, Tinder has been primarily for
- 20:01many years, just a few photos, and there isn't enough
- 20:05information for people to really figure out what they can connect
- 20:07to. So we are revitalizing profiles
- 20:11for figuring out what content we should show.
- 20:14We're working on our, our algorithms to essentially be
- 20:17able to personalize and give people connection faster.
- 20:20But then we're also building new features for people that don't
- 20:22want to swipe. Chemistry is a great example
- 20:24where if you are not interested in the core tender experience,
- 20:28you can answer a handful of questions and we can deliver you
- 20:31a small number of highly personalized recommendations.
- 20:35And then we're also building things like modes, which I'm
- 20:37excited about, which are kind of new ways to use Tinder.
- 20:40So we we have now live double date mode as well as college
- 20:44mode. So double date essentially you
- 20:47pick a friend and you partner with them and you can swipe on
- 20:50other double date pairs. It still was swiping but the
- 20:54experience is different. You're now only seeing other
- 20:56people that want to double date. So again, it kind of brings me
- 20:59back to this belief that people actually don't mind the swiping.
- 21:03They mind swiping hundreds of times before they get to that
- 21:07positive. Connection.
- 21:08Interesting. So you want to almost find that
- 21:09balance between what's a good amount of swipes, let's say per
- 21:12day, not too much, but you're not too little.
- 21:15Still have the options, yeah? You know, I think I also believe
- 21:18that people want to see a variety of other people.
- 21:21So ultimately, like I, I really do believe that the killer, you
- 21:25know, that the ideal experience is not just one recommendation a
- 21:28day. I think it is a variety.
- 21:30We just want to make it enjoyable and we need to make it
- 21:33quicker. We don't want people spending,
- 21:36you know, dozens of hours swiping endlessly and not
- 21:39finding that success. So I do think that we want to
- 21:42reduce some of the swiping and improve the quality of profiles
- 21:46and give people new ways to Cinder if in fact they do need a
- 21:49change. So this chemistry feature that
- 21:51you're testing in Australia, New Zealand, you said they're gonna
- 21:54have maybe one or two yeah matches per day.
- 21:57Yeah, but they can also do the traditional swiping.
- 21:59Yep. OK, So chemistry right now is
- 22:01actually the, the, the second tab we've replaced an we have
- 22:06explorer. Typically we've replaced
- 22:08explorer with chemistry. So for users in New Zealand,
- 22:11Australia, it's got a a home down there so they can bypass
- 22:15kind of the main swipe sack experience if if they choose to.
- 22:19So I'm sure you you you would say the same.
- 22:22But I have friends in at least a dozen cities who say the words
- 22:25Dating sucks in my city in London.
- 22:27London the dating is the worst in London.
- 22:30The dating is so bad in LA, do you have any data to actually,
- 22:35you know, kind of quantify if dating is better in some cities
- 22:38or another? I mean, obviously these are
- 22:40anecdotes, but I feel like a lot of people just tend to say that
- 22:43about whatever. See.
- 22:43Yeah. You know, that's a good
- 22:44question. I don't have the data on hand,
- 22:46but what we do look at is we look at the percentage of people
- 22:51that are using our products that are finding success.
- 22:53And success for us is quality multi way conversations that
- 22:58ultimately lead to people getting off the product.
- 23:01So we look at that and we look at different geographies and we
- 23:05try to figure out why is it working here more than here?
- 23:08Is it an issue with a feature? Is it a cultural issue?
- 23:13Can we do a better job? I don't have the data to know.
- 23:15It's actually really interesting.
- 23:18I do know offhand because I was really involved with the
- 23:21development of Double Date. Double Date is crushing it in
- 23:24the Nordics. So I'm not sure exactly why that
- 23:28is and what that what that says. But I can tell you that in the
- 23:31Nordics it is like it's it's it's everywhere.
- 23:35So that is where that is really, really.
- 23:36Kicking off interesting, how does Gen.
- 23:39ZS approach to dating differ from millennials?
- 23:44You know, I think that there's a desire for a lower pressure
- 23:48experience. I think Tinder has been a little
- 23:51bit of a hot or not for many years and it can feel high
- 23:55pressure both to create a profile and be represented that
- 23:59way, but also to make those quick decisions based solely on
- 24:02a photo. So I think that what Gen.
- 24:05Z wants, which makes a lot of sense to me, is they want to go
- 24:07at their own pace. They want lower pressure and
- 24:10they want a reason to kick off a conversation that's not so
- 24:15physical, right? So they want to bond over a
- 24:18shared interest, a life experience, which I think is
- 24:22authentic. That's actually more like what
- 24:23happens in the real world when you meet through friends or meet
- 24:26through activities. And I think that's how we have
- 24:30to evolve as Tinder. We've been a very similar
- 24:33product for many years and that's why I'm excited to be
- 24:36here and know that in six months from now, when you use Tinder,
- 24:39it's going to look very different from the Tinder that
- 24:40people used six months ago. Interesting.
- 24:43Well, excited to to see those changes, especially with AI.
- 24:46I think AI has been, you know, being in San Francisco, every
- 24:49single billboard you see is AI has, has Tinder been maybe kind
- 24:54of of the mindset that we don't necessarily need to be first
- 24:57here, but we want to, you know, take our time and, and do it
- 24:59right. I think we want to be early and
- 25:02have been early to adopt A lot of AI tools in different ways.
- 25:06We were an early partner up with Open AI for both the API usage
- 25:10as well as even ChatGPT enterprise inside the company.
- 25:13So we are using AI as a team to help us build products, to help
- 25:18us prototype and design products, to help us with data
- 25:21analysis. And then we are using it
- 25:23throughout the app. But I think we're using it in
- 25:25ways that is less expected. So for us, like we use AI to
- 25:30help people connect IRL, right? We want to use it to like help
- 25:34assist people and not replace them with chat bots.
- 25:37So for us, we use it to reduce friction and solve problems
- 25:42during onboarding. Like, you know, with photo
- 25:44selection. We use it to improve safety,
- 25:47like the face check. We use it to help people get
- 25:50better matches, like chemistry. So it is really woven into the
- 25:53product in many different ways, but in some ways it's just not
- 25:58as front and center and out as some of the other companies that
- 26:02are putting billboards up. My final question here is I've
- 26:05done a lot of covering of the birth rate crisis in countries
- 26:09like South Korea, Japan, China, even the US.
- 26:12President Trump has said we, you know, he wants to do more
- 26:15incentives for, for couples to either get married or or have
- 26:19kids. Has Tinder been approached by
- 26:22any government to kind of make the app free in their country or
- 26:25is that something you would consider?
- 26:28I'm not aware specifically of Tinder specifically as from a
- 26:31match group standpoint, we have a number of of brands pairs in
- 26:35Japan, I believe works with the Japanese government.
- 26:39I don't work at that product, so I'm not sure of the details, but
- 26:42I do think those things are happening at Tinder
- 26:44specifically. I'm I'm.
- 26:45I'm not aware of that, but I'm open to it for any.
- 26:49Yeah, yeah, I was, I was just thinking about that the other
- 26:51day. I was like, you know what, all
- 26:52these countries, that's where they should be doing their
- 26:55putting their money. I mean, yeah, incentivize for
- 26:56babies for sure, but you got to create the tools as well.
- 27:00Well, cool. Is there any trend in dating
- 27:03that has completely surprised you since you've taken this
- 27:06role? I think I'm, I'm surprised by
- 27:12how much double date has taken off.
- 27:15I think we've all like, I've grown up hearing about double
- 27:16dating but have never had the opportunity to do it.
- 27:19I think that is something that when we pitched the idea, some
- 27:22people just kind of didn't necessarily get it.
- 27:24But it's, it's very clear that for Gen.
- 27:26Z specifically that it had that it's working.
- 27:29Double date is available to all of our users, but I think 90% of
- 27:33our double date users are under 30.
- 27:35So it's clear to me that was like, oh wow.
- 27:37Like we've really struck A chord with that feature, with that age
- 27:41group. It kind of it's like, like you
- 27:44said, it's a, it's a lower pressure way to experience
- 27:47something. And I almost feel like if the
- 27:49date is bad you have your your friend or your best friend next
- 27:52to you that you can go laugh about it with later.
- 27:54You know, honestly, I think everything's better with
- 27:55friends, right? A good date with a friend there
- 27:58is amazing. And if the date is a little bit
- 28:00awkward, it's a little bit funny.
- 28:01You have awesome stories to tell, to talk about.
- 28:03Yeah. Yeah, I'll say.
- 28:04Well, Mark, thank you so much for your time.
- 28:05Thank you. Very busy guys.
- 28:07So really appreciate it and enjoyed the conversation.
- 28:09Thanks so much. Thanks.
- 28:10For listening to this. Episode of What's up Tim where I
- 28:12bring you inside the mines driving tech, money and power.
- 28:16Follow along on YouTube, Spotify, Apple or wherever you
- 28:19get your podcasts. You can also follow my personal
- 28:22account on Instagram at Upton. Would love to connect with you.