4 ms·

It's crazy how they talk of a bunch of risk to their business, but don't talk about their main risk. The more people are able to find interesting people on thei

by polote 6y ago

It's crazy how they talk of a bunch of risk to their business, but don't talk about their main risk. The more people are able to find interesting people on their app, the more they will loose their paying customers. So basically the better they do their job, the less revenue they make. At least they never advertise or tell in their S-1 than they want people to find exclusive relationships. But they are not alone Tinder neither advertise themselves like that, they always use tricky expression like "Bumble empowers users to connect" Today their product is great compare to Tinder (Tinder is more profitable mainly because their product prevent guys to match with girls, don't forget that dating apps, the less people match, the more you make money) so they are gaining users. But I bet in 2 years, they will have the exact same profitability that Tinder has today, and their product will be as bad.

raziel2701 6y ago
I wonder if like many games with microtransactions most of their money comes from a few whales? You raise a good point that if people quickly find a partner they won't pay.
- nightowl_games 6y ago
  ~50% whales, 50% 4.99$ spenders
tedsanders 6y ago
This argument strikes me as shortsighted, because it could apply to many products & services. Consider a company that sells dishwashers. Most people only need one dishwasher, so as you soon as you buy a dishwasher from that company, you're out of the dishwasher market. At that point, the company no longer will get revenue from you, so they might as well sell you a dishwasher that doesn't last and breaks down. And yet, we see that some dishwashers are actually fairly functional and long-lasting. Why is this? It's because (a) you might need another dishwasher in a few years, so it's good to give you a good experience, (b) if you have a good experience you'll recommend this dishwasher to other potential customers, (c) you might be the type of customer who buys many dishwashers in volume and this good experience will cause you to buy more here. All three mechanisms incentivize selling a quality dishwasher. Similarly, a dating app that achieves good outcomes for its users may, in the short-term, deplete its pool of users. But in the long-term, those satisfied users may (a) come back, (b) tell others the app is good, or (c) continue using the app.
- polote 6y ago
  There is no membership to buy dishwashers. And there is planned obsolescence which mimic this behavior. Compare that with clothes, the whole economy of fashion is built on people not wearing what they buy. Same with gym membership. There is nothing new. And there is no monopoly in the dishwasher market. Match until 2019 owned almost all the popular dating apps. This article for more info : https://marker.medium.com/what-i-learned-about-the-business-of-dating-apps-after-trying-to-build-one-8e5d04225c21 https://marker.medium.com/what-i-learned-about-the-business-...

by polote 6y ago

raziel2701 6y ago

I wonder if like many games with microtransactions most of their money comes from a few whales? You raise a good point that if people quickly find a partner they won't pay.

nightowl_games 6y ago
~50% whales, 50% 4.99$ spenders

tedsanders 6y ago

This argument strikes me as shortsighted, because it could apply to many products & services. Consider a company that sells dishwashers. Most people only need one dishwasher, so as you soon as you buy a dishwasher from that company, you're out of the dishwasher market. At that point, the company no longer will get revenue from you, so they might as well sell you a dishwasher that doesn't last and breaks down. And yet, we see that some dishwashers are actually fairly functional and long-lasting. Why is this? It's because (a) you might need another dishwasher in a few years, so it's good to give you a good experience, (b) if you have a good experience you'll recommend this dishwasher to other potential customers, (c) you might be the type of customer who buys many dishwashers in volume and this good experience will cause you to buy more here. All three mechanisms incentivize selling a quality dishwasher. Similarly, a dating app that achieves good outcomes for its users may, in the short-term, deplete its pool of users. But in the long-term, those satisfied users may (a) come back, (b) tell others the app is good, or (c) continue using the app.

polote 6y ago
There is no membership to buy dishwashers. And there is planned obsolescence which mimic this behavior. Compare that with clothes, the whole economy of fashion is built on people not wearing what they buy. Same with gym membership. There is nothing new. And there is no monopoly in the dishwasher market. Match until 2019 owned almost all the popular dating apps. This article for more info : https://marker.medium.com/what-i-learned-about-the-business-of-dating-apps-after-trying-to-build-one-8e5d04225c21 https://marker.medium.com/what-i-learned-about-the-business-...