Dating apps focused on facilitating serious relationships present a bit of a business conundrum if you think about it: as long as people are single, they will stay on your app. But if they find *the one* then bam!  You’re out. One less user. Counterintuitively, the most effective dating app should actually eventually make itself unnecessary.  

The sacrifices we make for love…

Hinge, a dating app intended for more serious relationships, has decided to focus its messaging around that very concept. Their latest advertising campaign features a fuzzy manifestation of their app widget, happily bouncing around their users until… they find the one. Little Hingie faces various deaths by neglect – from catching fire to suffering pigeon attacks – as the couples become so infatuated with each other they completely ignore him. The ads tell us : “Find each other. Make us go extinct,” and “Let the sparks fly. We won’t feel a thing.”

Hinge’s chief marketing officer, Nathan Roth, told The Drum:

“[P]eople often ask how we stay in business if our goal is to lose customers. It’s actually quite simple. There’s no better advertising than our users’ own success stories. Right now, most downloads come from happy couples who encourage their friends to give the app a try.”

Move over, Tinder

This campaign is also in stark contrast to the approach of Tinder, which has a bit of a reputation for facilitating non-committal romance. Just last year, Tinder released its “Single, Not Sorry” campaign, glorifying singleness and all the opportunities the stage of life offers. Showing young women having fun, going out partying, and doing daring things, the advertisements say things like: “Single never has to go home early,” and “Single is a terrible thing to waste.”

Source: The Drum

How is Hinge Different?

Both of the companies are owned by Match Group. What exactly makes Hinge different? The Drum relates: 

Roth says that another feature that differentiates Hinge is the fact it is “the only dating app that asks people after they go on a date, how it went.” For this reason, it is able to provide stats that claim three out of four users are interested in going on a second date and such a service demonstrates what makes it essentially different to Tinder – it’s a relationship app that wants people to go on good dates that end well.

“Our mission has always been one thing and one thing only and that’s building the dating app that’s designed to be deleted,” explained Roth. “So, everything from what we do now, from our product team to our marketing team is dead set on creating a real-world success instead of in-app engagement.”

An app that’ll die for your successful love life? Now that’s what we call committed. 

Source: the Drum