Popular dating app Tinder is not just about casual sex, according to CEO Sean Rad. A vast majority of 80 percent of Tinder users are actually swiping for love.
Tinder has become a widely successful app and is currently among the top offers of its kind. The dating app is famous for its simple swipe-left-swipe-right system, where users can swipe right on the profiles of users they find attractive, or swipe left to reject profiles of people they don't like.
Plenty of users, however, go on Tinder looking for a hookup, which led to the general belief that Tinder is mostly for casual sex.
Tinder CEO Sean Rad took the stage at the Web Summit 2015 in Dublin, Ireland to discuss the dating app's vision, success and future, and offered some interesting statistics in the process. According to Rad, an overwhelming majority of Tinder users are actually using the dating app to find partners for committed relationships, not just to hook up for the night.
Sure, Rad does reckon that some Tinder users are on the app for casual sex, but that's not what the dating app is actually about.
"What we found was that over 80% on tinder are there to find long term relationships," said the CEO.
What about the remaining 20 percent?
"Friendships," Rad replied, laughing, "or hooking-up".
The CEO further jokes that those hookups are "very brief friendships." What Tinder basically does, according to Rad, is help people connect to each other in a pleasant and efficient manner. What people do with that connection afterward is up to them. Some of those Tinder matches end up in marriage, others in beautiful friendships, others don't last. There are even "Tinder babies," Rad highlights.
"The best piece of advice I give our users is be yourself," adds Rad. "We underestimate our ability to look at a photo and pick up the nuances. When you're not yourself, people can sniff that."
Tinder reached these 80-20 figures after conducting a survey on more than 300,000 users, the CEO further noted at the Web Summit. The dating app is constantly growing in popularity and is already available in 145 countries, with more likely set to join the party soon.
