Tinder is an application (app) used
on smart phones to find local singles in the area. Recently, Tinder has
enhanced its dating app with a “Super Like.” This feature allows the user to
indicate to a perspective match that they are more interested in the
perspective match than any other user within that 24 hour period. This new
feature was developed by Tinder through the use of another company called Interana.
In a press release that was republished on a reuters.com, Interana’s service is
highlighted as being critical to analyzing how users interact with the app. As
a result, Tinder has come out with new features, one previously being mentioned
the “Super Like.” Furthermore, Interana
is practically a high profile company with valuable experiences: “Interana is
founded by top technology experts from Facebook, Intel, LinkedIn, Google,
Apple, Netflix, Oracle, Symantec and VMware, and is backed by venture capital
firms Battery Ventures, Data Collective, Fuel Capital, Index Ventures, SV
Angel, and YCombinator” (Woods). This blog will emphasize the major aspects of
the press release as well as some things not mentioned explicitly in the press
release.
One thing to note is the velocity
or the rate at which Interana provides information to Tinder: “Tinder's
Interana instance has passed the trillion rows of event data threshold, so
being able to obtain insights in seconds with Interana vs. the hours it used to
take has proven invaluable” (Woods). Additionally, Interana’s service is multifarious
in nature: “Using Interana's simple and flexible behavioral tools, Tinder is
able to quickly understand user behavior, reasons for conversion and retention,
root cause, as well as types of connections made” (Woods). Lastly, the
improvements are implicitly felt by its users or at least the ones who are scrutinizing
potential matches too swiftly: “For instance, using Interana, the team realized
that a small percentage of users were swiping right on every profile,
potentially decreasing the value of matches. As a result, when company launched
Tinder Plus shortly after, it also introduced a limit in right swipes each user
could perform each day” (Woods). Something amazing happened when Tinder started
to synthesize the data analytics provided by Interana: “Since introducing this [limit
in right swipes] just 10 days ago, we’ve seen a 25% increase in the number of
matches per right swipe, a 25% increase in the number of messages per match,
and a 52% decrease in spam bots (another of our biggest user complaints)” (Tinder
Blog).
Moreover, there are other things to
consider that this press release has not provided. One being the concept of big
data that Tinder is now entering the realm of. Big data in loose terms is an
extremely large data set. Another way to define it is data that has high amount
of volume, variety, and comes at a high velocity. Consequently, it is
imperative to note the ways in which tech companies are now utilizing other
tech companies for business improvements. Lastly, the range of products offered
by Interana may not have been easily identified in the press release: “By using
Interana's behavior-based tools -- like funnels, cohorts, metrics and sessions
-- for visual and interactive ad hoc exploration and discovery of data,
Tinder's product team is able to identify key user behaviors” (Woods). For a
firm experimenting with the idea of using these tools, it may prove beneficial
to mention a moniker for specific tools.
Bibliography
"Keeping Tinder Real." Tinder Blog —. Tinder, 11 Mar. 2015. Web. 30 Oct. 2015.
Woods, Natasha. "Tinder Swipes Right on Interana's Behavioral Analytics for Event Data." Reuters. Thomson Reuters, 28 Sept. 2015. Web. 29 Oct. 2015.
With the introduction of the "super like" people who are currently on Tinder may be more inclined to stay to use the new feature, but I cannot see it making Tinder take off as the dating site of the future. I do not use Tinder, nor do I think I ever will. There is a large portion of people who use the app just to see if they can find matches, it does not matter if they are dating someone already or not. Furthermore, the idea that people can form meaningful relationships based on whoever has the better profile picture on Facebook is shallow to say the least. The benefit here, however, is the use of analytic on the big data. This information, when compared with the way people use the app, can provide a good snapshot of a large group of young people. Since Interana works with other forms of social media, and because Tinder can connect with the users Facebook and Instagram accounts, there is a large variety of data that could be available. With data of likes, interests, name, age and even relationship status, companies can better hone into their target group and understand age groups before they enter the market.
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