How to Earn Customer Love as Dating Apps Fall Behind

Online dating is a $9.6B market that lures in millions of singles worldwide. The US leads the pack: Three in 10 Americans have dabbled in dating apps, and 10% even found a serious partner there.

But it’s not all roses:

😥 ~80% of users say they have online dating burnout

🚫 ~90% have felt the need to take a break from online dating

👀 Dating apps are getting creepier with too much AI

Subsequently, popular apps have been losing users.

Source: Similarweb

This fatigue is ushering in a renaissance of ‘the good old days,’ when dating was less digital.

Singles, especially Gen Zers, are preaching the good vibes of a pre-swipe world. Here are two ways business builders can serve them:

Get more business ideas and trendy data in our weekly Trends Newsletter.

How Your Business Can Solve for Online Dating Woes

1. Help your audience lean on a trusted network

One of the reasons for online dating burnout is the lack of trust (unsurprising, really). Finding a boo through more reliable channels, like friends, is making a comeback.

Tinder recently launched a friend matchmaking feature, responding to the fact that over 75% of singles discuss their dating life with friends every month.

Your friends gulping down that hot relationship tea. Source: B Currently In

But with Tinder’s user decline and overall perception, you could unbundle it and build a community-driven platform that focuses on friend-vetted dates. A few ways it could thrive:

• Keep it tight-knit: Act as an independent middleman and screen candidates based on social media presence and even friend interviews, before allowing them to create profiles.

• Learn from others’ mistakes: Existing friend matchmaking options like Wingman have abysmal reviews. Find out what users hate about it and optimize that experience.

• Intention matters: Sometimes the lack of trust comes from lackluster effort on a date. So add on a resource hub with friend-approved dating spots and activities.

2. Invest in self-love

At least one third of app users have experienced fatigue or burnout from today's dating landscape. Luckily, 80% of 18-25 year olds now see self care as the top priority when dating, and want their prospective partners to do the same.

Source: Google Trends (Six months rolling average)

So, why not focus your business or offerings on helping singles enhance self-love in their dating life? To do this, you could:

📝 Create a dating detox app with quizzes to assess users’ self-love strengths and weaknesses. Then provide a curated list of resources to teach them self care, communication, and setting healthy boundaries.

🤓 Help produce high-end date-me docs. These are long-form profiles that tech workers in the US are using to tell prospective dates about themselves, and they need help.

❤️‍🩹 Niche down and offer self care counseling to divorcees. Divorce is still heavily stigmatized in many cultures, and these people need to build the self-love muscle before they get back into the cruel dating world.

Finally, don’t snooze on those who are enjoying a break from dating altogether. Opportunities abound in the singles market, like consumer-goods-for-one, and financial planning apps (because it can get expensive).

Want more content like this? Sign up for our weekly Trends email, filled with all sorts of data, deep dives, and trend insights for business builders, entrepreneurs and innovative professionals.