The Dating Business Model

If you ask your parents how they met they will likely tell you a story about a movie theater or a bowling alley and how lucky they were to be there that night. If you ask your parents to tell you that story via Facetime- you’ll likely be looking at their shirt throughout the tale because they have next to no idea how to work “this Iphone thing.” Maybe they lived through the golden age of serendipity, but we’re living through the most epic era in technology revolution- so I would call it even.

As with everything from education to dining- technology is changing the game. This is especially true for dating. Of course people still meet by happenstance in real life while waiting in line for coffee or at a book store, but with mobile ordering and in-store pickup- the chances of that happening are getting slimmer. So entrepreneurs did what they do and harnessed the technology available to solve the problem. Dating apps were born.

The First Wave

If you’ve been single at any point in the last two decades you have likely come across a dating website and/ or app. One of the first companies to connect lovers online was Match.com which was started in 1995. In the early 2000’s apps like Plenty Of Fish (2003) and OkCupid (2004) began popping up to appeal to a younger demographic. The revenue model of these early tech-dating pioneers was simple and is still used…