Dating Disruption — How Tinder Gamified an Industry
Case study analysis of how Tinder massively disrupted an already technologically adept industry.
What is especially powerful about the MIT Sloan case study of Tinder is that they didn’t just disrupt traditional, non-tech competitors, but actually those who, technologically-speaking, had superior products.
As the case study explains the essential strategic dynamic was reinventing the paradigm of online dating, from a data capture-intensive process to one that was much more fun, by introducing new gamelike features, such as swiping and variable rewards, which altered the user experience.
Hand in hand with this was a strategy to target a new segment previous ignored by the industry, young 18-24 year olds, who naturally took to this approach and drove the viral growth of the app.
Vox explores the matching algorithms of Tinder and other dating apps, setting the scene for the various revenue generating features they incorporate into the service, such as “Super Likes”. New features like ‘Passports‘ enable you to bypass the location restriction and look for dates anywhere in the world.
Technology Blueprint
Want to develop your own Tinder-like venture? Check out this technical analysis presentation from Gaurav Sen.
