Tinder’s CEO, Renate Nyborg, said in an interview at the Reuters Next Conference that the company is looking at blurring the lines between the physical and online worlds through its Tinderverse.
According to Shar Dubey, CEO of Match Group Inc — Tinder’s parent company — Tinder recently released the Explore feature. Users can create their experiences and match others depending on their choices at interactive events like “Swipe Nights.”
Dubey said the company is experimenting with in-app cash, which daters would use to pay for premium services and earn as a reward for good app behaviour.
”From a Tinder perspective, we’ve been talking about a Tinderverse internally. This is more about blurring the borders between offline and online,” Nyborg said when asked about the company’s intentions for dating in the metaverse.
The term “metaverse” is a shared virtual world just like the real world. People can access and navigate it through their devices using Virtual Reality (VR) or Augmented Reality (AR) technology.
Tinder is not the only dating app venturing into this space. Bumble said during its November earnings call that it is planning for “whatever emerges in the metaverse.”
Nyborg maintains that Tinder is still focused on helping people meet in real life.
She added that “the COVID-19 pandemic revealed that it was possible to feel connected just through the internet. But it also emphasised the value of real-life contacts”.
