# Rizz Data Shows Instagram's Dating Surge: A Swipe Model Rejection > By DII Data Team | Published: 2025-02-03T00:00:00+00:00 | Section: Data & Analytics | Source: https://www.datingindustryinsights.com/news/ai-dating-assistants-instagram-hotspot | Publisher: Dating Industry Insights (High Intent Media Inc) Rizz reveals Instagram hosts 22% of dating chats, outpacing Tinder and Hinge. Is this a swipe model rejection? ## Key points - Instagram accounts for 22 per cent of dating conversations uploaded to AI assistant Rizz, exceeding Tinder's 11 per cent and Hinge's 10 per cent share. - Match Group reported that paying users across its dating app portfolio fell to 10.3 million in Q3 2024, down from 10.8 million in Q3 2023. - Bumble saw its paid user base drop to 4.1 million during Q3 2024, compared to 4.3 million paying users in the previous year. ## Article - Instagram accounts for 22% of dating conversations uploaded to AI assistant Rizz, more than double Tinder's 11% and Hinge's 10% - Match Group 's paying users fell to 10.3 million in Q3 2024, down from 10.8 million the previous year - Bumble 's paid user base dropped to 4.1 million in the same period, down from 4.3 million - The data comes from users actively seeking AI help with dating messages, representing the most invested segment of online daters Match Group and Bumble have spent years insisting their algorithmic matching and swipe-based interfaces represent the most efficient way to find a partner. Data from Rizz, an AI-powered dating assistant, suggests their users are voting with their feet—or rather, their Instagram DMs. According to figures released by the company, [Instagram now accounts for 22% of all dating conversations uploaded to its platform](https://www.globaldatinginsights.com/featured/ai-dating-assistants-have-made-instagram-a-dating-hotspot/), more than double the share of Tinder and Hinge individually. Social media platforms on mobile devices ### The DII Take This isn't just app fatigue. It's a referendum on the entire swipe-left-swipe-right model that's generated billions in revenue but increasingly miserable users. Instagram's rise as a dating channel exposes the fundamental flaw in purpose-built dating apps: they optimised for engagement metrics rather than the actual experience of human courtship. What makes the [Rizz](https://www.datingindustryinsights.com/news/ai-assisted-dating-app-rizz-growth) data particularly telling is its source. These are users struggling enough with online dating that they've turned to AI for help—the segment most invested in making digital romance work. If even this cohort is abandoning apps for Instagram's unstructured, lower-stakes environment, the shift runs deeper than any quarterly user survey will capture. But the data requires careful interpretation. Rizz measures where conversations occur, not where connections begin. Singles may still match on [Hinge](https://www.datingindustryinsights.com/news/former-hinge-execs-raise-rodeo), then immediately migrate to Instagram for actual communication—a pattern operators acknowledge privately but rarely quantify publicly. ### Why Instagram works where dating apps don't The appeal of Instagram as a dating platform inverts nearly every assumption underlying modern dating app design. Where apps present curated profiles optimised for maximum swipeability, Instagram offers months of stories, posts, and tagged photos that reveal personality, friendship groups, and lifestyle in granular detail. Where apps force an immediate yes-or-no decision, Instagram allows weeks of passive observation before a DM lands. > Dating apps commodified humans into baseball cards. Instagram kept them human. The shift also reflects exhaustion with the paradox of choice that defines app-based dating. [Tinder](https://www.datingindustryinsights.com/news/tinder-names-vccp-uk-social-agency) presents an endless buffet of potential matches, each one disposable because another appears with the next swipe. Instagram's social graph creates natural scarcity—your dating pool consists of friends-of-friends, people in your industry, users who follow the same niche accounts. Person using smartphone for social media For operators, the migration compounds an already difficult retention problem. Match Group disclosed in its Q3 2024 earnings that paying users across all brands fell to 10.3 million, down from 10.8 million the previous year. If users are defecting to platforms where they can date without paying for premium features or super likes, the revenue implications extend beyond user numbers into monetisation itself. The competitive response has been predictable: feature parity. Hinge added video prompts. Bumble introduced interest badges. Tinder launched its Explore feed. Each addition attempts to recreate Instagram's richness within a walled garden designed for transactional matching. ### The trust crisis hiding in plain sight What the Rizz data doesn't capture—but operators should note—is how Instagram's rise intersects with the dating industry's deepening trust problem. Dating apps face mounting criticism over fake profiles, scams, and safety failures that prompted the UK Online Safety Act and increased regulatory scrutiny across Europe. Instagram, despite its own moderation challenges, benefits from verification through social proof. That informal verification costs Meta precisely nothing whilst dating apps spend millions on ID verification, photo authentication, and trust and safety teams. The economics alone should trouble investors watching operating margins compress. There's also the unspoken reality that Instagram allows what dating apps increasingly restrict: organic discovery without algorithmic gatekeeping or paywalls. Want to see if someone's interested? Check if they're watching your stories. These mechanics replicate real-world courtship patterns in ways that submitting a rose or sending a like never will. > Dating apps optimised for conversion funnels. Instagram accidentally optimised for flirting. Coffee meeting and smartphone on table ### What operators should actually be worried about The data carries several implications for product teams. First, conversation quality matters more than match quantity. If users are fleeing to Instagram despite its absence of matching algorithms, the problem isn't discovery—it's what happens after the match. Dating apps have spent a decade perfecting the top of the funnel whilst letting the actual dating experience atrophy. Second, context beats curation. Instagram's messy, unoptimised format conveys more useful information than any six-prompt profile. Operators who continue treating profiles as marketing materials rather than conversation starters will watch their TAM erode to platforms that never intended to facilitate dating at all. Third, the monetisation model that's sustained the industry for years—charging users to overcome artificial scarcity—becomes untenable when free alternatives provide better experiences. Bumble and Match can't paywall their way out of a product problem. The threat isn't that Instagram launches a formal dating product tomorrow. It's that it doesn't need to. The infrastructure for sliding into DMs already exists. The social proof that reduces risk already exists. The audience already exists. Meta isn't competing with Tinder. Whether this data point represents a temporary migration during a period of peak dating app dissatisfaction or a permanent shift in courtship behaviour will become clear over the next eighteen months. Watch Q1 2025 retention metrics from Match and Bumble. If the declines steepen, Instagram isn't just where conversations happen—it's where [dating apps' strategic disconnect between brand promises and product reality](https://bettermarketing.pub/swiping-right-on-brand-product-alignment-9-strategic-business-lessons-from-dating-app-failures-a9683b12f069) becomes fatal. Meanwhile, [Match Group's digital assistant initiatives and AI-powered features](https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2024/dec/30/dating-apps-prepare-to-launch-ai-features-to-help-users-find-love) may arrive too late to reverse the exodus. - The migration to Instagram reveals a fundamental product failure in dating apps: users value authentic context and natural conversation flow over algorithmic matching and optimised profiles - Dating apps face a dual crisis of retention and monetisation as users discover they can achieve better outcomes on free platforms that were never designed for dating - Watch Q1 2025 retention figures from Match Group and Bumble closely—if declines accelerate, this represents a structural shift in how people find partners online, not temporary dissatisfaction ## Key takeaways - Dating app operators face severe retention and monetisation risks as users increasingly migrate to free social media platforms like Instagram for organic courtship. - Investors should closely monitor Match Group and Bumble retention metrics in Q1 2025 to determine if current subscriber declines represent a permanent structural shift. ## FAQ ### What percentage of dating conversations on Rizz happen on Instagram? Instagram accounts for 22 per cent of all dating conversations uploaded to the AI dating assistant Rizz. ### How many paying users did Match Group have in Q3 2024? Match Group reported 10.3 million paying users in Q3 2024, down from 10.8 million in Q3 2023. ### How many paid users did Bumble have in Q3 2024? Bumble recorded 4.1 million paid users in Q3 2024, declining from 4.3 million in the previous year. --- Canonical: https://www.datingindustryinsights.com/news/ai-dating-assistants-instagram-hotspot Citation: "Dating Industry Insights" (https://www.datingindustryinsights.com)