Solitude is the richness of self but loneliness isn’t. The feeling of being unwanted can be terrible and normally leads to direful outcomes. Loneliness can be classified into 7 types particularly with the most convincing being the ‘No-sweetheart loneliness’. As the term states, It generally addresses the kind who do not have an intimate attachment with a romantic partner. But being as busy as people are nowadays, very few have the pleasure to lament over the fact that they are single. Hence, Dating Apps!
To create a Dating app is much easier than before now. Once created and in the market, they offer a wide variety of unmoderated matchmaking services, most of which are profile-based. You can download the respective app, create yourself a profile and start scouting for a special one out there, waiting just for you. All you’ve got to do is, either send invites or swipe left or right according to your preferences. Yes, it’s that easy! Most dating apps are created employing the swipe technology to express your likes and dislikes. Online dating has become so increasingly popular that as many as one in five relationships are believed to begin online.
But what has led to the popularity of dating apps and why should entrepreneurs think to create a dating app?
With the online world becoming an ever-present part of our existence it was perhaps inevitable that we would begin shopping for love. Quite in the same way we do for clothes, music and most other components of our everyday lives. Dating apps have revolutionized the dating scenario all around the world. Now, investors are looking for startups ready to create a dating app more than other apps.
Let us have a look at why they’re garnering such huge public interest in such a short span of time.
1. Enables You To Resort To Instant Dating
Firstly, with its prime feature of speed dating or instant dating, they’ve embraced the minds of numerous young lonely souls. And this is probably the main reason attributing to the enormous popularity of these apps. These apps provide you with a platform where you meet strangers with just a few taps on your smartphone. Dating apps like Aisle promote dating with one-liners like ‘Plan online, meet offline’ which attracts a lot of traffic to the app.
2. Acting As A Secured Platform For Daters
Secondly, one of the major reasons why online dating concept has become so popular among people is the fact that the dating app users can completely check each other profile before they hang out. Earlier, people used to be mysteries when it comes to dating. However, dating apps provide a completely secure platform to users while dating no matter where they are. Now, people also have options to opt for such dating apps like Zoosk and Lively, where they get the idea of the match in terms of the verified profile. This is another reason why startups venture to create a dating app for millennials.
3. Loaded With Features Including Location-based Matching
Thirdly, Apart from the obvious matching, startups can consider dating apps as it provides a clear and valuable solution to user problems like security and in-detail information about users to know each other.
Moreover, such apps also come with a lot of features location-based matching, group video chat, gamification and many more interesting features that are widely liked by users. If you want to create a dating app, you have to give major importance to this matching algorithm.
4. Huge Profit Grossing Industry
And Fourthly, dating app industry could be a booming business as they have gained huge popularity in recent times. Undeniably, the online dating industry also brings a huge profit to entrepreneurs. This is one of the reasons why startups need to opt to build a dating app if they are looking forward to making a huge profit.
So, as you can see how dating apps are garnering popularity, it makes sense to invest in creating one. Wondering how to create a dating app? Let me take you through the joyride!
How To Develop A Location-based Dating App?
There are three primary functions that we’ll focus on when we are talking about developing dating apps. Let’s explore the dating app development steps in details –
1. Access Control – Let Your User Enjoy His Accesses
Most of the dating apps like Happn and Tinder allow users to log in through Facebook. Facebook sign up offers access to user data that you can use in your dating app to suggest singles in the area, find common friends and interests, and fill out other profile information about the user.
It is also very convenient to use Facebook login because it enables you to skip steps like typing the email id and password which can get a bit more troublesome and time-consuming. But also if you’re using Facebook to sign up to dating apps, you should keep an eye on the fact that your information is not shared on Facebook. Most of the users find dating apps embarrassing and they would not like their dating information flashed on their timeline.
The majority of dating apps display user pictures as Pinterest-style image boards. Dating app developers not only do this for the purpose of looking like a dating version of Instagram but also to increase their app’s credibility.
A dating app is supposed to be about meeting people. So, naturally, you have to push your users to show their real names and include information about themselves in their profiles.
2. Matchmaking Should Be Your Priority When You Create a Dating App –
Gauging people’s personalities using math is terribly hard, if not impossible. And it’s an absolute necessity for a dating app to develop matchmaking algorithms. Apps like Dine and OkCupid serve as proofs to the anti.
Dine offers a unique way of matching people. The app integrates with Yelp to get users out on a date in a restaurant. After filling out a profile, Dine asks you to pick three restaurants or bars where you’d want to go on a date. Then, you’ll get matched with two to five people per day based on the places you choose, and you can request to go on a date. On the other hand, OkCupid will ask you questions like “Are you a coffee or tea person?” and compare your answers to other people’s answers. In this way, OkCupid also tells you what percentage match you are with someone. So, if you plan to create a dating app like OkCupid or better, you have to be better than this question game!
3. Messaging – Users Can Have In-app Chat
Messaging is an absolute necessity when it comes to dating apps as the people matched need to have a conversation after matching with each other. The majority of people ignore their matches on dating apps. They’re more concerned about how not to be the first one to message rather do the job that they’ve registered themselves in the first place.
This is exactly how Dating apps like Bumble work. On Bumble, women have to message first. JSwipe uses a different but no less effective tactic: matches on JSwipe expire. This forces both parties to start conversations right away. To incite people to initiate conversations, you can send them reminder messages and push notifications so they don’t forget about the matches that are waiting for them.
Technologies Used To Create A Dating App: The Technology Of Attraction.
The mind-blowing features of dating apps like Tinder are a visible result of hours of hard work put into development and the many tools tested and applied. An app’s performance is its best asset and thus best technologies and teams should be put to work behind it.
Technology Stack for a dating app like Tinder includes JavaScript, HTML5, and Python as programming languages and AWS platform for building and testing apps.
GoDaddy SSL certifications ensure safety while keying in data and carrying out transactions. Tinder has its own custom map designed on the open source platform, Mapbox. It is also important to know which platform the app has to be developed on when you think of how to make a dating app. The most popular being iOS and Android.
But the most important step in the technological process is developing matching algorithms, thus justifying the title ‘Technology of Attraction’. Dating apps may use a wide variety of dating techniques to match up partners who like each other. They are:
1. Location Awareness –
Chances of success always increase when you make acquaintances in your city itself. This is why Dating Apps use the inbuilt GPS in your mobile phones for Geo-positioning to present you with options from your area, within a certain distance. NoSQL and MongoDB are among the best platforms to use as scalable database environments.
2. Calculative Matching –
Another technology, which is widely used, is the calculative or mathematical algorithm that connects people by finding similarities in answers given to a suggested questionnaire. Such algorithms are mostly based on the compatibility percentage of answers given for each question separately or all questions collectively. Apps like OKCupid determine the compatibility rate in a more complex way taking into account not only your answers but also how you would like someone else to answer and how important a question is for you.
3. Behaviour-based matching –
People generally tend to provide incorrect information when it comes to answering on-app questions about themselves. In that case, there is a solution. Creating a dating app such as Tinder using Algorithms for behaviour-based matching are more complicated than mathematical and location-based ones. It is because they operate with data gathered from outside sources like profiles on other social media platforms like twitter and Instagram, music playlists and so on. Generating and analyzing large datasets require significant resources. It’s where a Big Data analytics approach helps to increase chances of the right match.
4. Advanced matching –
Dating Apps apply new technological advances to improve the user experience and ensure more accurate matching. Machine learning technology, artificial intelligence (AI), VR & AR all these influence dating apps’ evolution as well. To be specific, the particular machine learning technology that powers Netflix and Amazon’s personalized recommendations can be applied to dating apps as well. Facial recognition, GPS, and biological data supported by AI are going to boost matching algorithms and connect people in entirely new ways in the near future.
Now, we get to the part where we discuss how Dating Apps earn revenue.
Monetizing From a Dating App
An average user spends roughly 90 minutes on a dating app which calls for huge revenue along with potential risks. Listed below are some of the ways of How a Dating app makes money.
Subscription Model:
The model entails high-quality features at a monthly, quarterly or yearly basis. For example, the FLOH app is based on a subscription model and matches users with specific users as per their choice.
Freemium:
Several apps, the biggest being Tinder use a freemium revenue model. All basic services are free but there are also options of premium membership. Tinder, for instance, provides Tinder Plus service that enables unlimited matches and going back on the profile you’ve already swiped left on.
Gifts:
Inbuilt gifting facilities can also turn out to be a feasible revenue model. Gifts like flowers, chocolates and greeting cards can be provided for a minimum fee.
Advertising:
Advertising can be a risk for dating apps, given the competition. Users tend to be averse to repeated ads showing up and intent to uninstall. However, short and rather subtle ads that do not interrupt much are used. Ads are probably the most plausible answer to the question of ‘How does Dating apps make money?’
Third Party Services:
Dating apps can involve services that allow booking taxis or booking a table with special offers and even movie date facilitators.
Some successful dating apps in the market today
Tinder – The pioneer of dating apps as it is referred to, was founded in the year 2012. Tinder was one of the first dating apps that changed the online dating scenario completely and continues to rule the market till today. Being the stalwart that it is, Tinder has evolved into an efficient ‘dating app guide’ for the budding ones.
Tinder is a location-based dating app that finds you members of the opposite sex in your area and lets you swipe left or right based on your liking. You swipe right when you like someone and left if you do not. That is how the app works. It enables you to link your account to your Instagram which in turn gets quite helpful for a person trying to get to know the one he or she has liked.
Tinder was reported having more than 3.7 million subscribers on Agust 6, 2018 by the Match Group. It has also made its way among the highest revenue earning dating apps of its time.
Bumble – Bumble was founded after Whitney Wolfe Herd, a co-founder of Tinder resigned from the company and decided to develop her own app. Bumble is a tad different from other dating apps in a way that it enables female users to make contact with matched make users in case of heterosexual matches.
Bumble works similarly to Tinder swiping defining one’s likes and dislikes briefly but it stands out in giving women the priority to make the first approach. For this particular factor, Bumble has been publicly hailed as a ‘Feminist Tinder’. It could act as a dating app guide to many other aspiring entrepreneurs looking to venture into the industry with a certain nose for giving women the upper hand.
According to the New York Times, as of March 2017, Bumble had more than 800 million matches and 10 billion swipes per month and is the second most popular Lifestyle app in the iOS App Store. You can create a dating app like Bumble with your own unique features. Think about it!
Badoo – Badoo is one of the earliest dating apps launched way back in the year 2006 by Russian entrepreneur Andre Andreev in Moscow. Presently operating in 190 countries around the world, in 47 different languages, Badoo can be deemed as the most widely used dating network in the world. It operates on a freemium model, whereby the core services can be used without payment.
Badoo functions on swipes based on your momentary likings and also helps you text the person you’ve liked. You can also video chat with the person you’ve matched with on mutual agreement. Badoo is reported to have a $200 million turnover annually.
Zoosk – Zoosk was founded in 2007 by Iranian immigrants Shayan Zadeh and Alex Mehr. But after financial struggles in the year 2014, Kelly Stuckelberg took over as the new CEO of the company. Presently, Zoosk is available in 25 languages and is spread across 25 different countries.
Zoosk has an iOS and Android app and a desktop chat client. Zoosk uses big data and algorithmic recommendations technology to help users find partners. Its proprietary Behavioral Matchmaking engine learns from users’ clicks, messaging, and other actions to help produce more accurate matches. The idea is that the more data Zoosk obtains from its users, the better its recommendations can be.
The company is the number one gross dating app and a top 25 grossing app on the iPhone in the United States. Zoosk generated an annual turnover of USD $178.23 million in 2013 and has been growing since the arrival of a CEO in 2014.
Intimidating much? Thinking to create a dating app of your own like Zoosk? We can help. Read more to know how.
Having discussed the different things ranging from factors contributing to the popularity of these apps to different technologies used to develop them and lot more, it’s time to address the most crucial pillar to support the idea – A good collaborator.
How to find a good Technology Partner to Create a Dating app?
As collaboration is considered among the top three soft skills to be scouted for nowadays, a good collaborator could make or break the game for you. Looking for a good collaborator, are you? We know you are and that’s why we are here to help you create the dating app you desire for.
We at Logic Square Technologies are a dedicated consortium of professionals, always ready to take on your problems for you. It’s not only connecting but creating the dots is what we believe in along with breaking the toughest of walls to establish a healthy and communicative relationship with the employer.
So, what are you waiting for? Let’s team up and develop the most amazing and unique dating app one could ever dream of. Start NOW.
