Research shows that Gen Z is going on fewer dates compared to what previous generations experienced in their collective 20s. That trend presents a challenge for dating app operators like Match Group, but the parent company of Tinder, Match.com, Hinge, and OkCupid has an idea. The Tinder brand is connecting with lovelorn members of Gen Z by partnering with TikTok relationship gurus like Madi Webb.
Webb, the host of the hit podcast In Bed, uses her TikTok account to dispense practical dating advice to more than two million followers. With help from Match Group, Webb broadcast her message more widely through a Tinder-sponsored series titled The Connection Experience.
The resulting “dating updates” are collected in a playlist that chronicles Webb’s life on Tinder after Match Group invited her to rejoin the app. Webb’s self-deprecating charm shines through as she guides her skeptical fans through her current dating pool.
@madibwebb getting ready for a first date with sauna man ft @Tinder ♬ original sound – Madi B Webb
At the end of her Connection Experience, Webb wound up with a girlfriend, and she credited Tinder for giving her the confidence to publicly identify as queer. “I genuinely can count on two fingers how many times I have been in-person hit on by another woman, and that was because I was making the most crazy eye contact you’ve ever seen in your life,” Webb told Axios.
Match Group has long paid attention to social media and the creator culture that has spawned from that industry. Tinder’s Loops represented a pre-TikTok experiment in vertical, short-form video. The app has since gained cred among digital natives through creator-driven partnerships and scripted content.
TikTok, the home of so many jaded Zoomers, may not jump out as an obvious milieu for a Tinder campaign. But there are plenty of connections between video platforms and dating apps: YouTube was initially meant to be a dating site, according to Co-Founder Steve Chen, and more couples became F.B.O. thanks to a Facebook Dating hub revealed in 2019.
Multiple startups are betting that TikTok-style feeds are the future of online dating. Match Group will get to reveal the results of its foray into TikTok when it reports its fourth-quarter 2024 earnings on February 5.
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