Tinder, You Know What’s Cool?

Tinder was one of our top five startups in 2013 and after a couple of months, it’s even getting more interesting than what we thought. As the founders have said, there are more than 600 million ratings and 6 million matches a day. In the last 60 days, Tinder has grown its user base by one million in Uk, Brazil and USA. A simple concept, that is so close to what Facemash was supposed to be, has turned to be disruptive in an app.

Tinder feels less awkward. People are judged but they don’t know when or how. They just know if someone that they like has liked them. The concept is simple and smooth and the user engagement is amazing. The guys at Tinder know what it’s really cool in the world of startups.

“A million dollar valuation isn’t cool. Do you know what’s cool?”

“A billion dollar”.

Yes, that’s where Tinder needs to look at and they have got everything to achieve this terrific result. By being part of the largest student community in Uk, we have been able to see the growth of this startup in the last months. When we firstly wrote an app review, the database was so small that we ended up finishing it; but now more and more people have signed up. It feels weird to hear people around you that never thought of online dating that now have already dated someone through Tinder.

Universities are the places where Tinder must focus on. People who live in campuses and are close together are more likely to end up dating the girl or guy who live next to them that they have just met on Tinder. Further they also need to find a way to make the people already rated available again in the future. It doesn’t mean that if I don’t like someone today, I won’t in the next weeks or months. In this way, the interactions and the user engagement will never end.

Another massive market for Tinder is the gay community that has been using this kind of apps for the last years, while the straight community didn’t even know they existed. While the app has crossed the line that was awkward for a lot of people; in the gay community there has never been a line. Think about Grindr, an app that lets you chat with the people who are around you, by telling you how far they are.

Further Tinder can implement dozens of business models. Dating is about spending money and this company could also provide us places to date the people we are chatting with. When it comes to flirting, smiles and custom symbols, that can be sold, are the first things we want to use. They could also decide to give us “super powers”, as Badoo does, and make us pay for a certain amount of extra services.

If they don’t want to expand it further, there is an open market to sell this app and get acquired. Without Facebook, this app would have never existed, so why doesn’t Facebook get interested in acquiring it? The integration is massive. The stats are awesome. The user engagement, when it comes to relationships and dating, becomes a huge deal. Tinder can be the ideal candidate, even if it’s too young, to expand the Facebook‘s ecosystem.

It could be a huge challenge and Facebook’s mission is to “to give people the power to share and make the world more open and connected.” I believe it’s perfectly aligned with what Tinder has been doing and Facebook could try to connect people on a different level, an emotional one.

If Snapchat is worth $3B, Tinder is close to this valuation, but there is still a lot to do and money to be made.