Dating Apps In 2023: Are We Over Them?

Mid-last year, figures showed Tinder subscriptions dropped, and it was largely attributed to Gen Z making a switch.

More recently, Bumble has taken a tumble late last year, and it was largely Gen Z users who were not renewing their subscriptions.

On today’s Briefing, Lisa Portolan, author and PhD candidate at Western Sydney University, joins us to explain why we’ve seen a slump in users on dating apps – particularly Gen Z.

Listen here:

Does Covid have something to do with it, or is this generation of people turning to niche dating apps and alternatives when looking for love online?

“We definitely saw slumps across the last 12 months in terms of downloads for dating apps and I guess that would indicate that potentially there has been some sort of climax that’s occurred,” Portolan said to the Briefing.

“We have to reflect on the fact that these slumps come as we go into this post-covid world, or not necessarily a post-covid world, but a post-lockdown world. People can go back out there and mingle and meet people face to face.”

Portolan explains that Gen Z is a lot more adaptive to the changing world compared to Gen X and Gen Y and mainstream dating apps have failed to also adapt.

Dating apps like Tinder and Bumble operate by asking the user to select a binary – male or female - and Portolan said Gen Z is more fluid with identifying themselves, making it difficult to confirm to mainstream dating app requirements.

“An ongoing problem is engaging Gen Z: a younger cohort of people and I guess, that’s around the fact that Gen Z is a lot more fluid from a gender, relationship, sexuality perspective and probably a lot more empathetic and compassionate.

“They’re a lot less of that generation of going who’s hot and who’s not which is what bred dating apps to start with.”

Subscribe to The Briefing, Australia's fastest-growing news podcast on Listnr today. The Briefing serves up the latest news headlines and a deep dive into a topic affecting you. All in under 20 minutes.