Talk to single people in their 20s and 30s and chances are they will shudder at the mention of dating apps. There are social media pages dedicated to ‘Tinder Nightmares’ while men are infamously left defeated by a hugely skewed sex ratio and women swear they run into the same ‘situationships’ on the apps every few months.
Result: the interest in dating apps is waning and younger folks, especially Gen Z, are turning to Instagram, TikTok and more offline events to find love.
Clearly, the apps need to fix this crisis of faith. We found Bumble and Tinder addressing the problem in India, but with diametrically opposite approaches.
Bumble has a heartfelt campaign in all black-and-white focused on loving couples holding hands and sharing small moments of joy set to the tune of ‘Tum mere ho’ (in Hindi: You are mine) sung by indie artist Bombay The Artist. The one-minute video extends to a larger campaign celebrating real love stories of real-life couples across India who met on Bumble.
On the other hand, Tinder is running a more fun campaign—a series called ‘Dating Scaries’ starring villains of Hindi films and TV shows of the ’90s and 2000s. Each mini-episode is built on a crappy dating habit—ghosting, gaslighting and stringing dates along. The idea is to convince people not to do these things that make online dating a bad experience for everyone involved, even as legendary villains like Urvashi Dholakia’s vamp, Dalip Tahil’s evil dad and Rajat Bedi’s creepy college friend convince you to give in to your worst tendencies.
These campaigns are a sign of the deep crisis among dating apps worldwide. Stocks of Bumble have collapsed to a measly $3 apiece since the company listed on the Nasdaq in February 2021. The Match Group, which owns Tinder and Hinge, is doing better; its stocks are up 3.3% over the last one year but it is still less than a third of its market cap of 2020, when it demerged from its former parent company.
Both campaigns ultimately bring home the same message—that there is indeed true love at the end of a journey on the dating apps. The question is—what’s more convincing? Is it the inspiration from true love stories made online or the promise that people on the app at least won’t break your heart with the worst dating habits?
