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I worked on a dating website for a while and while the market was fascinating, the motivations and alignment of the site/team vs the customer are completely bro

I worked on a dating website for a while and while the market was fascinating, the motivations and alignment of the site/team vs the customer are completely broken. It's not in their best interest to give you a great match but someone who is just "pretty good" or - at minimum - compelling because if you fail on the site, they lose one customer.. but if you're successful, they lose two. It's the only business model worse than cigarettes. I lay out some more detail in a post here: https://caseysoftware.com/blog/working-for-a-dating-website https://caseysoftware.com/blog/working-for-a-dating-website

lotsofpulp 7y ago
Does this mean a business shouldn’t aim to ever solve a customer’s problem? Surely, the value of a successful marriage is many, many multiples what a dating app might charge. And surely, a dating app that successfully pairs people into high value marriages will recoup any losses by earning new customers through the word of mouth recommendations.
- pferde 7y ago
  That only matters if the management looks beyond the next quarterly report.
- Sohcahtoa82 7y ago
  > Does this mean a business shouldn’t aim to ever solve a customer’s problem? I don't think you can extrapolate the case for a dating site to all businesses, especially to cases of tangible goods. A car salesman doesn't make a dime until I buy a car. Dating sites are an interesting business because a happy customer is one that is no longer using their product. So how do you monetize that? If you charge a one-time up-front cost, and a paying customer uses the site for months and never has success, then you end up with a disgruntled customer. If you charge a monthly subscription, then you get a perverse incentive to not please your customer, or only please them enough to keep paying, because as soon as they enter a relationship, they stop paying. Only charging after some sort of measurement of success (Like marriage) would be impossible to enforce.
  - saddestcatever 7y ago
    Here's an idea. Give users an option to put $1,000 in limbo. The condition being, if you date/marry someone for 2+ years that you met on the app, the app gets to keep that money. In return, you get a badge on your profile. It's a certified stamp that your "money is where your mouth is" and that user either as plenty of disposable income, or is intent on long term commitment. ^ Both are positive signs for the prospective market.

lotsofpulp 7y ago

Does this mean a business shouldn’t aim to ever solve a customer’s problem? Surely, the value of a successful marriage is many, many multiples what a dating app might charge. And surely, a dating app that successfully pairs people into high value marriages will recoup any losses by earning new customers through the word of mouth recommendations.

pferde 7y ago
That only matters if the management looks beyond the next quarterly report.
Sohcahtoa82 7y ago
> Does this mean a business shouldn’t aim to ever solve a customer’s problem? I don't think you can extrapolate the case for a dating site to all businesses, especially to cases of tangible goods. A car salesman doesn't make a dime until I buy a car. Dating sites are an interesting business because a happy customer is one that is no longer using their product. So how do you monetize that? If you charge a one-time up-front cost, and a paying customer uses the site for months and never has success, then you end up with a disgruntled customer. If you charge a monthly subscription, then you get a perverse incentive to not please your customer, or only please them enough to keep paying, because as soon as they enter a relationship, they stop paying. Only charging after some sort of measurement of success (Like marriage) would be impossible to enforce.
- saddestcatever 7y ago
  Here's an idea. Give users an option to put $1,000 in limbo. The condition being, if you date/marry someone for 2+ years that you met on the app, the app gets to keep that money. In return, you get a badge on your profile. It's a certified stamp that your "money is where your mouth is" and that user either as plenty of disposable income, or is intent on long term commitment. ^ Both are positive signs for the prospective market.