Would You Pay for Tinder?
The beauty of Tinder, the reason it became everyone’s favorite way to date (digitally speaking) is its ease. You can check out potential dates literally anywhere—on the tarmac, in the office, at the gym—and start conversations, and escalate to real life dates in minutes. You don’t even need to make a profile if you don’t want to, and it won’t cost you a cent. At least, it didn’t.
On Monday, Tinder released Tinder Plus. Hardcore users, or anyone who regularly reads tech news, knew that this was coming. But they probably didn’t know that the upgrade would cost more or less depending on your age. Users over 30 will be charged twice as much as those under. “Younger users are just as excited about Tinder Plus, but are more budget constrained, and need a lower price to pull the trigger,” says Rosette Pambakian vice president of corporate communication at Tinder.
If you’re 18 to 30, Tinder Plus will cost you $9.99. If you’re over 30, it will cost you $19.99. So what does that buy you? There are two modifications to the hugely popular app. One feature, called Rewind, allows users to undo accidental left swipes, reports ABC, which is totally useful for users who tend to fly by potential dates based on their primary photo. Oops.
Tinder Plus from Tinder on Vimeo.
The second feature allows users to connect with people in different cities using the Passport function. In Tinder’s latest commercial for Plus, a 26-year-old girl is seen traveling Europe by means of the passport function. She’s connected with a handsome lad in Paris who later follows her to Istanbul. They engage in “first date” adventures—museum outings, boating, hot air ballooning, camelback rides, the usual. As the commercial depicts, the upgrade is directed toward the more serious daters, in contrast to Tinder’s oftentimes-sleazy reputation of one-night-stands and disastrous dinner dates.
Of course, you can choose to leave Tinder the way it is—for free. The question is, would you pay? And why, when there are more comprehensive dating services out there like OKCupid and Hinge that actually match you to people based on something, instead of just at random. OkCupid, for example, hosts a number of dating tools like quizzes and questionnaires that generate matches based on users’ activities on the app, as well as their answers to questions, while Hinge connects you to matches based on the Facebook friends you have in common.
Do you think Tinder Plus will trump its competitors in popularity? And more importantly, are you willing to pay for its fancy new features?
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