Tinder Puts a Price on Love With $499 Membership

As dating apps look to drive more revenue from their most active users, adding premium subscription tiers, Tinder is reportedly launching a VIP membership for as much as $499 a month.

The app’s parent company, Match Group, which owns a range of popular dating apps and websites, is accepting applications for this so-called “Tinder Select” membership, Bloomberg reported Friday (Sept. 22). The new membership was offered to the app’s most active users (less than 1% of them), giving subscribers more options in searching for, matching with and conversing with other users.

“This new premium tier [or] super-premium tier — whatever you want to call it — for Tinder, [is] going to have a relatively tiny amount of new players,” Match Group president and CFO Gary Swidler said in a Q&A for the Citi Global Technology Conference. “But we think, given that the rate we’re going to charge for that feature [is so high], because it’s going to be so appealing to this small group of people, it’s going to have a significant impact on revenue.”

According Tinder’s website, the subscription program enables users twice a week to send messages to those they have not matched with, offers visibility into the most-liked profiles, promises exclusivity and more.

The news comes as high-cost subscriptions become increasingly common in the dating app space.

Match Group’s Hinge now has a $50/month membership offering, and its The League app reportedly has a premium plan that costs a whopping $1,000/week. Competitor Bumble, for its part, has its Bumble Premium offering, which costs about $40/week.

Attracting high-value customers may be especially key now, as overall paid memberships decline. According to Match Group’s earnings report last quarter, Tinder had 10.5 million paid members at the end of June, a 4% year-over-year decrease.

Yet overall, dating apps reach a significant share of consumers, especially in younger generations, according to PYMNTS Intelligence. The study “ConnectedEconomy Monthly Report: The Love and Social Media Edition,” which draws from a March survey of a census-balanced panel of more than 2,700 U.S. consumers, reveals that 27% participate in online dating each month. That said, 57% of Generation Z consumers and 48% of millennials reported using dating sites and apps.

Moreover, consumers with cash to burn are the most likely of all income demographics to turn to these dating websites and apps. The study found that 39% of those who make more than $100,000 a year participate in online dating, well above the 26% of those who make between $50,000 and $100,000 and the 16% of those who make less than $50,000 that said the same.

Additionally, by reaching ultra-loyal users, Tinder may find a significant revenue opportunity. PYMNTS’ study, the “Subscription Commerce Readiness Report: The Loyalty Factor,” created in collaboration with sticky.io, which drew from a census-balanced survey of more than 2,000 U.S. consumers, found that 30% of retail subscribers generate 79% of revenue.

Plus, these subscribers have an average subscription lifespan of 30 months, though they only spend $65/month per retail subscriptions on average — a fair amount, but far less than $499.