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Grindr is a quintessential example of first-mover advantage. Countless follow-up competitors have failed to challenge Grindr's market dominance, despite these c

Grindr is a quintessential example of first-mover advantage. Countless follow-up competitors have failed to challenge Grindr's market dominance, despite these competitor apps being vastly better designed and more feature rich. The app itself remained practically stagnant (because the first-mover advantage was so immense there was no real need to improve the product) for years until it was bought by Kunlun Tech who actually employed enough people to work on releasing new features. Multiple profile photos weren't supported until this year, while most of its competitors have had the same feature for years or even close to a decade (e.g. Jack'd). The world has been better for queer people living in many civilized & tolerant countries compared to 10 years ago when Grindr was first released. How much role Grindr had to play in this is extremely doubtful.

perardi 7y ago
Bingo. Grindr was a terrible app. Inconsistent push notifications, lots of lost chats, and it took forever to support new phones. (I was using it back during the iPhone 5 era, and it was apparently a 6-month technical slog to update a simple collection view to target that SDK.) But it was first, and the network effects were obvious. You had other apps in use in large gay cities in the States, but while traveling, and you want that fun hotel action, you pretty much had to go with Grindr.
- mutt2016 7y ago
  By fun hotel action, you mean sex right?
methodover 7y ago
It's such a squandered opportunity from a product prospective. Yes, sure, Grindr started with being just about sex. But there's a huge interest amongst gay people for long term relationships and a dearth of apps that cater to them. OKCupid was, for a time, a go-to app for gay men interested in LTRs. But OKC never capitalized on that opportunity -- never built features, or outreach, or anything to grow that niche. Plus, a couple years ago they dramatically changed the app (in ways to address issues for straight users) which negatively affected gay LTR-oriented men. Tinder is now the primary app for LTR-oriented gay men, and it's terrible. Filtering options suck. The matching system is terrible. Grindr could've been more than it is. It could've had a monopoly over the entire gay men dating app vertical -- for short term and long term relationships. But they squandered that opportunity. If the software had been better, and if the management and community side had been better, I think we'd be talking today about Grindr as a successful model for a startup. But nope, we're reading articles like this instead.

perardi 7y ago

Bingo. Grindr was a terrible app. Inconsistent push notifications, lots of lost chats, and it took forever to support new phones. (I was using it back during the iPhone 5 era, and it was apparently a 6-month technical slog to update a simple collection view to target that SDK.) But it was first, and the network effects were obvious. You had other apps in use in large gay cities in the States, but while traveling, and you want that fun hotel action, you pretty much had to go with Grindr.

mutt2016 7y ago
By fun hotel action, you mean sex right?

methodover 7y ago

It's such a squandered opportunity from a product prospective. Yes, sure, Grindr started with being just about sex. But there's a huge interest amongst gay people for long term relationships and a dearth of apps that cater to them. OKCupid was, for a time, a go-to app for gay men interested in LTRs. But OKC never capitalized on that opportunity -- never built features, or outreach, or anything to grow that niche. Plus, a couple years ago they dramatically changed the app (in ways to address issues for straight users) which negatively affected gay LTR-oriented men. Tinder is now the primary app for LTR-oriented gay men, and it's terrible. Filtering options suck. The matching system is terrible. Grindr could've been more than it is. It could've had a monopoly over the entire gay men dating app vertical -- for short term and long term relationships. But they squandered that opportunity. If the software had been better, and if the management and community side had been better, I think we'd be talking today about Grindr as a successful model for a startup. But nope, we're reading articles like this instead.