This is pathetic.
Sad!
If you get a message from someone you never matched with on Tinder, it's not a glitch — it's part of the app's expensive new subscription plan that it teased earlier this year, which allows "power users" to send unsolicited messages to non-matches for the small fee of $499 per month.
As Bloomberg reports, the new VIP subscription tier, the highest of the company's new "Tinder Select" service, does come with an important caveat: it will only be offered to fewer than one percent of the app's user base, and even they'll have to apply in addition to paying the enormous subscription cost.
"We know that there is a subset of highly engaged and active users who prioritize more effective and efficient ways to find connections," Tinder's chief product officer, Mark Van Ryswyk, told Bloomberg. "And so we engaged in extensive tests and feedback with this audience over the past several months to develop a completely new offering."
Regardless of how Tinder tries to spin the new feature — which, it should be noted, only allows the rich and rizzless to send non-match messages twice a week — it's a very sad set of circumstances, even in the bleak landscape of dating apps.
Keep It Competitive
That landscape, in fact, is largely populated by apps owned by Tinder's parent company: as Bloomberg notes, Match Group Inc. not only owns the popular swiping app, but also Match.com, OKCupid, Hinge, and The League.
The new "Tinder Select" subscription, which will offer three tiers starting at $24.99 per month, was purportedly created in part to help the app compete with other expensive services. Indeed, Bloomberg notes that earlier this year, Match Group CEO Bernard Kim referred to Tinder's subscriptions as "low-hanging fruit" meant to compete with other, pricier services, though that was before this $6,000-per-year tier dropped.
While this "new offering" may seem like a blatant cash grab to the average person, JP Morgan Chase & Co seemed pretty impressed, as the report notes, naming Match Group's stock one of its top picks and upping its target price to boot.
"We expect Tinder payer trends to improve as focus shifts from price optimizations to product & engagement," a JPMorgan analysis viewed by Bloomberg read. "We believe the best (& perhaps only) way to turn the tide in online dating sentiment is for Tinder payers to stabilize & ultimately return to growth."
The money men, it seems, have spoken — and they really want to let people with no game message randos.
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