GoKawiil
Tech News
Match Group said Monday it is testing a lower-cost membership option on Hinge targeted at women. The move comes even as Hinge's paying subscriber base has been growing, and amid broader complaints about the rising cost of online dating apps.
Match Group said on its Q3 2026 earnings call that Hinge is testing a cheaper subscription plan offering extra filters and custom location boundaries. CFO Steve Bailey said the tier targets women and price-sensitive users, noting Hinge's revenue per payer is nearly double Tinder's at around $30, while its payer penetration is only about half of Tinder's. Pricing details were not disclosed.
Match Group has repositioned its dating app Upward, moving away from its original Christian-dating identity to appeal more broadly to Gen Z singles interested in marriage. The relaunch cites Match's 2026 Singles in America survey findings that 72 percent of Gen Z want to get married and a quarter of 18-34 year-old singles identify with traditional values around family, faith and community. Brand marketing director Lauren DeFord said the change opens the app to people who share marriage-focused goals but don't necessarily lead with faith.
A joint investigation by Senators Maggie Hassan and Marsha Blackburn into romance scams on Match Group platforms found that Tinder had not updated most of its machine-learning fraud-detection models in years, weakening its ability to catch scammers. Company data cited in the report showed nearly 1.5 million suspected scammers or bad actors on Tinder and Hinge matched with at least one user through the third quarter of 2025, with close to 500,000 going on to exchange contact information with victims.
Spencer Rascoff, CEO of Match Group, discussed how he is steering the dating-app company through a strategic reset as it confronts changing customer behavior and the rise of AI. He described leadership approaches meant to inject more speed, accountability, and entrepreneurial drive into a large, established organization.
Fast Company's Best Workplaces for Innovators 2026 list recognized 20 companies for excellence in AI, automation, and machine learning. Honorees range from large firms like Google, Lenovo, Match Group, and Williams-Sonoma to smaller companies such as Kiss My Apps, all cited for using emerging technologies to boost employee productivity and workplace innovation.
Tinder says 98 percent of its content-moderation actions in 2025 targeted fake accounts, scams and spam, prompting it to roll out a mandatory face-verification tool called Face Check for new users and expand it to existing users in markets like the US and UK. More than a dozen major dating platforms now use similar biometric checks, including liveness detection and video selfies, to confirm users are real people.
Match Group turned to one of its own directors, Spencer Rascoff, to take over as chief executive and steer a company turnaround. The move highlights a growing trend of boards selecting insiders already familiar with the business rather than launching external searches.