Match.com: Swiper, No Swiping!

Bumble follows a “swiping concept,” where users must physically swipe left (no) or right (yes) to determine whether they wish to match with other users. To give a different perspective of online dating, Match.com is a great example of a successful online dating platform that has a different interface and target market than Bumble. As Match.com has over 22 years of experience, the site has a variety of different aspects than Bumble and should be taken seriously as a competitor.

While Bumble tends to attract people in their twenties, 48.6% of Match.com members are between the ages of 30 and 49, and the group of users over 50 is the fastest growing age demographic for the site. The target audience for each platform affects the method of attracting users and the type of interface available for users.

Users are able to filter the types of people they see on Match.com beyond gender and location preferences like Bumble. Users on Match.com can determine matches based on height, body type, marital status, faith, ethnicity, smoking and drinking habits, education and more. Instead of swiping to match, users can send “winks” or messages to the people they wish to connect with. More information is available for interested parties, as the “about me” sections are not limited to 300 characters. Increasing the amount of initial information on the online dating platform allows users to make more thoughtful decisions when connecting with others.

Another major difference between Match.com and Bumble is the way each platform attempts to attract users. While Bumble focuses on developing interest by promoting confident women, Match.com advertises longevity of relationships. If a user signs up with Match.com, he or she will find the right person and fall in love, which could be a factor in the older age group of users compared to “swiping” apps.

An example of a Match.com advertisement that promotes the ability to find a relationship using the site.

Although Match.com targets a different age group and promotes using the site to find love and start a relationship, Match.com acquired multiple other sites to increase the threat of the company to smaller companies like Bumble. Match Group, Inc. also owns Tinder, OkCupid and PlentyOfFish, three other major online dating platforms that compete with Bumble. Despite the major differences between Bumble and Match.com, Bumble must remember the size and strength of Match.com and act accordingly.

A Man’s Perspective

Hello Insight Delight followers,

My name is Easton and I run a blog over at Easton Social Media Conquest. If you haven’t read my blog I urge you to go check it out. If you have you would know that my focus has been on modified automotive social media, but my background is in social media as a whole not just specifically automotive social media. I am happy to be able to give some commentary on my friend’s blog about Bumble and how they are changing dating for the modern world.

My personal experience with dating apps is pretty extensive without going in to too much of the details. On an urge I decide that I should download the app to have a better understanding of the app. Just a few thoughts about the User Interface, I love it. I found it was super easy to set up a profile with no hassle. I really enjoyed that it just linked up Facebook. The only thing I did not like about the set up with Bumble was the fact that I was limited to only 300 characters, although it is not really that bad, just a minor inconvenience to be honest with you.

So what about the target audience? I am going to have to tell you I love it! The fact that the majority of users are women is a single mans dream. So I have no trouble finding a match, so fellas I highly advise you to check it out if you’re having trouble with Tinder or real life. I know you guys might be thinking that you have the best pickup lines, and Bumble not allowing you to message first is going to kill your game. Well let me tell you they aren’t that good, and are counterproductive to say the least. I actually enjoy that women get to message first, and let me tell you why. They get to set the tone of the conversation, and you have a better idea of the intention allowing you to not get mixed signals or put your foot in your mouth. So whether you’re looking for a date or something more adult you can know what to expect.

Honestly guys Bumble is a great new app place to meet women and get dates. Enjoy the ease that this app will bring to your love life.

Bumble and the Bumblebees: Who’s the Target?

After co-founding and leaving Tinder, Whitney Wolfe created Bumble, a dating app intended to make women more comfortable when making the first move. While the app tends to attract college students and recent graduates in their early twenties, Wolfe wants the app to welcome women of all ages, typically from 18 to 35.

Wolfe explained that she and her colleagues wanted to “modernize dating” through Bumble because “there’s this unwritten rule that it’s not ladylike, or it’s wrong, or the guy should go first” (Wolfe). Within 24 hours after matching with a man, or woman depending on a woman’s interests, the woman must contact her match before it expires. After the woman initiates contact, the man has 24 hours to respond before the conversation expires. Of course, women have always had the opportunity to initiate the dating process, but because it’s not society’s norm, it can be difficult for a woman to have the confidence to actually pursue someone first.

Although the app accepts all people of all ages, it seems that dating apps with a mass-population swiping concept (swiping yes or no through many people) typically attract millennials, people who want instant gratification and attracted to this form of social media. According to hellogiggles (http://bit.ly/2mpQdWw), 63.3% of Bumble users are between the ages of 18 and 29, and Bustle (http://bit.ly/2n49Jcq) states that 59% of total Bumble users are women. Because of the women empowerment aspects of Bumble, the app targets younger women, specifically ones that wish to explore the dating world without the pressures of traditional male-oriented concepts. The app also allows women to search for friends through the BFF function, further targeting younger women.

While men are welcome to join the app and are encouraged to do so for obvious dating reasons, the app caters to women and attempts to provide a safe space for interactions between matches. Dating can be intimidating for the average woman, so providing a comfortable platform for communicating with potential suitors is a blessing for some ladies.

My Thoughts:

From my personal experience, Bumble seems to be a more sophisticated dating app than other popular dating platforms. By targeting women and promoting confidence, there’s a valuable respect aspect on Bumble. While women can start a conversation on any dating app, being required to start the conversation takes away the pressure of wondering how a man will react to a woman’s initiation. Most of the “what ifs?” can fade away by giving the women the power on Bumble. The man knows the woman has to contact him first, so there’s no question about who should say something first. I have yet to meet a man who isn’t thrilled by the idea of a woman approaching him first because there can be so much pressure when it comes to making “the first move.”

A boost of confidence for women and a stress-free experience for men? I’ll swipe right to that!

Read more about the original concept of Bumble through this interview with Whitney Wolfe here: http://www.racked.com/2015/3/24/8266243/whitney-wolfe-tinder-bumble

Bumble: What’s the Hype?

I’m going to break this post down for you in what I hope is a simple and comprehensive explanation of the Gartner’s Hype Cycle and how Bumble fits into it.

What/Who is Gartner?

Founded in 1979, Gartner, Inc. is a publicly-traded technology research and advisory company that is based in the United States and has about 9,000 employees in more than 90 countries. The company research, analyzes and interprets information technology (IT) for clients to enhance business decisions and processes.

Okay, so?

So Gartner is a pretty big deal. The company has been around for almost 40 years and a lot of companies trust Gartner’s research and insight when making decisions. I’ll explain how their Hype Cycle can be used to help Bumble make decisions.

What is the Hype Cycle?

Overall, Gartner’s Hype Cycle is used to explain how technologies and applications typically evolve over time. Using this model, companies can make decisions to reach specific goals and to solve potential problems.

There are five stages within the cycle:

1. Technology Trigger
   • At the beginning of the cycle, a technology breakthrough occurs and new technology begins to develop. Few people are aware of the technology, and it’s more of a concept at this point than an actual product.
2. Peak of Inflated Expectation
   • The technology is implemented and the media promotes a mix of success stories and failures.
3. Trough of Disillusionment
   • There are disappointments as the technology does not meet high expectations of users and investors when failures occur. At this point, a company must decide whether to improve the technology or dissolve the concept.
4. Slope of Enlightenment
   • The company understands the potential of the product and how to enhance it to best benefit the company. New generations may be created for consumers at this stage.
5. Plateau of Productivity
   • The technology is widely implemented and the benefits of the product are clearly understood. Standards for similar technologies increase at this stage as improvements were and continue to be made.

Where would Bumble fall on this cycle?

Based on what I know about Bumble, I would place the app on the slope of enlightenment. Considering the app has over 7 million users, the company seems to know how to best use the application and make improvements to reach success. I believe there is a greater potential for Bumble that hasn’t been considered, so until that is achieved, Bumble has more time before it reaches the plateau of productivity.

Where would you place Bumble on Gartner’s Hype Cycle? Let me know your opinion in the comment section!

Learn more about Gartner’s Hype Cycle at http://www.gartner.com/technology/research/methodologies/hype-cycle.jsp

Bumble Breakdown: AI & UI

One of the best aspects of Bumble is the app design, which is simple and clean. There is a fair amount of white space when needed and the perfect use of images. When users intend to quickly swipe through potential matches, the app needs to have clarity and avoid clutter. Speed and immediate gratification is expected on a platform like Bumble.

When exploring competitor apps, I noticed the most attractive and user-friendly platforms were the ones with an intuitive design and neatness. The ones that were difficult to use and immediately deleted were the ones with an overload of images and information and the ones that were difficult to navigate. With a combination of a high-end design and user interface and a sophisticated audience, Bumble ranks superior among online dating apps.

The following flowchart, which I made on canva.com (highly recommend) breaks down each page of Bumble:

The flowchart represents how simple and comprehensive the app is, which promotes the ease of online dating. There are no useless pages; each direction on the app has a purpose that is straightforward. Wolfe wanted to create an application to make it easier for women to talk to men, and she accomplished that beyond a conceptual level. Not only do women have the power to initiate a conversation, but they also have a basic app to do it on.

Another aspect to emphasize the simplicity of Bumble is the minimal information needed and displayed to connect with other users. All a user sees about another user is up to six images, the occupation, the education and a brief biography of the user. Bumble also allows users to connect their profiles to Spotify to show other users what they are listening to, but it is optional and does not clutter profiles.

My Experience:

There was a day when my friend and I decided to download multiple dating apps to see which was the best. We deleted most of the apps we downloaded because of the types of people we were connecting with, which ranged from rude to boring to inappropriate. Some apps had few users, so few connections were made altogether. The final straw for the apps was the design and usability of each app. I immediately deleted a few that were impossible to look at, but Bumble ranked at the top of our list overall for interface and users.

A Few Swipes Ahead: Tinder

With over 100 million downloads and 26 daily matches, Tinder is Bumble’s greatest competitor. Although the apps have similar swiping capabilities and concepts, Tinder consists of 62% men, which is over 10% more than Bumble. 45% of Tinder users are between the ages of 25 and 34, and another 38% of users are between 16 and 24. All of these statistics and more can be found at https://www.globalwebindex.net/blog/what-to-know-about-tinder-in-5-charts.

While Bumble focuses on attracting women and has been called a “feminist dating app,” Tinder is known for being a “hookup app.” Unlike Bumble, Tinder users have an unlimited amount of time to message each other without any restrictions on who messages first. The apps seem to be almost identical, but those minor differences put the two apps in separate categories in users’ minds.

One of the best aspects of Tinder is the ability for people to use the app for social experiments. Most of the experiments I have seen on Tinder relate to attractiveness and involve setting up multiple profiles to see how people will react to different looks. Others go beyond looks and present a number of different personalities to see how users will react. One girl even used Tinder to attract a pedophile and have him arrested! There are various types of experiments that use Tinder as the testing platform that couldn’t be done on an app with connection restrictions like Bumble.

“The number one fear for men [when online dating] is that the woman they meet is going to be fat” begins this social experiment, where a woman dresses up a fat suit to see how men react to meeting a woman that is larger than she presents herself in her profile:

The social experiment was then redone with a man in a fat suit instead of a woman:

Because of the ease of data accessibility on Tinder, users are able to use the app for social experiments like the one shown in the videos. Although the experiments use the app for an alternative purpose beyond dating, the concept of using a dating app for social experiments is creative and entertaining at a minimum. Most of the experiments don’t seem to analyze the results, but the concept gives a new perspective for dating and human reactions.

If you are as interested in Tinder experiments as I am, check out “8 Intriguing Experiments on Tinder” here: http://www.oddee.com/item_99435.aspx