24 ms·

Is it really a free market? Doesn’t the network effect create a monopoly?

• iratewizard 5y ago
  Match group (which owns many of the major dating apps) definitely performs anti-competitive and borderline illegal behavior. But tinder is far from a monopoly. The fact that they own 22 dating app companies is testament to how easy it is to break into that market.
  • bradlys 5y ago
    It’s a testament as to how easy to break in. It is not a testament as to how easy it is to turn a profit. These companies get bought by match because they’re not super profitable and able to compete until end of time against match.
    • 8f2ab37a-ed6c 5y ago
      To be fair, it's hard to expect to make much of a profit when there are 22 companies out there already selling the same exact product. Online dating is pretty much dead as a direction for new startups to pursue, one big red ocean at this point, and there's no clever play left in it that would set a new players in the space apart. I don't see how consolidation into a couple of major players swallowing most of the companies in the space is avoidable. It's Booking Holdings vs Expedia Group all over again.