I've posted this here before, but this phenomenon isn't unique to dating apps, though dating apps are a particularly good example. The problem is that capitalism uses computers backwards.

If you want a TLDR: every time dating apps work, they lose two customers, and they don't want that

Match Group, of course, denies that its acquisition strategy hurts healthy competition in the dating app market.

I'm sure it has 45 apps just for funsies. /s

Glad I met someone when OkCupid and Tinder were not complete garbage.

The old rape whistle paradox. The better your product works, the less it's needed.

Soon some company will find a way to charge us for the air we breathe.

The only fix I came up with, is to charge people some amount up front, then if they're still active weekly users in 6 months, they get a refund. That would create a better incentive structure for the app.

This is the best summary I could come up with:

Over the last couple of years, dating app companies like Match Group and Bumble have learned that, like love, their business is a battlefield.

Morgan Stanley found that dating app users who choose to pay end up spending "between $18 and $19 per month on either subscriptions or a la carte purchases."

In its mission to make money, it has been using tricks and schemes — like, she says, putting desirable matches "behind a paywall" — to convince more of its users to pony up and use premium features.

Basically, Doctorow says tech platforms start off trying to make their user experiences really good because their first goal is to try to become popular and achieve scale.

It's possible that new apps are failing to rise and topple the reigning ones because of monopolistic strategies of companies like Match Group, which has been systematically acquiring rivals, including Hinge back in 2018.

Over time, the earnest daters go on a bunch of bad dates, encountering people who have no interest in real relationships or whose profiles are completely misleading.

The original article contains 1,909 words, the summary contains 178 words. Saved 91%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

Ha, I just looked at hinge. These girls are my age super model types? Get the fuck out of here

I knew these apps were fucked up when I kept matching with my ex-wife. Yeah no thanks. I was trying to FIX that fuck up.

I've never seen so many uses of the word "lemon" in an article before

They touched on something that could pave the way for a new and better dating app experience. Let your exes rate you. This tell your would-be dater 1. they aren't such a POS that everyone they date ends up hating them, and 2. Would provide the real info that you'd like to see on dating profiles.