Thursday News Coverage
20 articlesThursday's Bold Pivot: Can Bookstore Mixers Outperform Dating Apps?
Thursday operates in-person dating events across 150 cities globally after shuttering its digital platform entirely Bumble reported 49% adjusted EBITDA margins in Q4 2024, whilst Thursday faces venue …
Run Clubs Aren't Replacing Dating Apps—They're Exposing Their Flaws
Sydney Run Club attracts 200-600 participants weekly to sessions at Ramsgate Beach and Bondi Beach The club explicitly does not market itself as a dating service, only asking members to introduce them…
Mattr's 'Pitch My Queer Bestie' Event: Social Proof as Product Strategy
Mattr hosted a sold-out 'Pitch My Queer Bestie' event in Edinburgh on 31 July in partnership with Diageo and Edinburgh Pride The event format requires friends to deliver five-slide presentations vouch…
Dating Apps Shrink Age Gaps: A Product Design Reckoning
Singles who met online had 37.4% lower odds of having an age gap of six years or more, according to analysis of 3,292 U.S. adults Same-sex couples met partners through dating platforms at three times …
TUGG's AI Compatibility Claim: Innovation or Just Another Quiz?
71% of US dating app users report frustration with existing platforms, according to Pew Research Tinder's paying subscriber base has declined for six consecutive quarters as of Q3 2024 43% of UK adult…
Bumble's Swipe Pivot: Innovation or Desperation?
Bumble added just 200,000 paying users in Q2 2026, down from 400,000 in the same period last year Match Group's Hinge added 1.1 million downloads in Q1 2026 and continues to grow revenue per user fast…
Meet Me at The Bar: Can Venue-Based Dating Solve Messaging Fatigue?
Eight bars in Riga are testing Meet Me at The Bar, a dating app showing who's at each venue in real time The platform bypasses messaging entirely, displaying users already at or heading to participati…
Breeze's Group Dates: A Retreat from Digital or a Revenue Revolution?
Breeze ran 500 pilot events in London attracting 3,500 participants at £25 per head Match Group's paying user count dropped 6% year-on-year in Q3 2024 Comparable group dating services report 70% of pa…
Lamu's £7.50 Paywall: A Test of Whether Users Will Pay for Less
Lamu launches with £7.50 monthly paywall before users see any matches, inverting the industry's freemium model Platform limits distribution to one to two matches per week and withholds photos until mu…
Gen Z's TikTok Paradox: Distrust Fuels Dating App Dissonance
65% of Gen Z singles open TikTok daily despite 60% reporting decreased trust in the platform 42% of Gen Z say they prioritise face-to-face socialising, with 19% recommitting to offline dating 37% of G…
Tinder's AI Camera Roll Scan: A Retention Gamble Wrapped in Privacy Risks
Tinder revenue fell 6% year-over-year in Q4 2024, with engagement metrics showing particular weakness The app now offers AI-powered camera roll scanning to infer personality traits and curate daily ma…
Begins' AI Overhaul: Efficiency or Algorithmic Overreach?
Begins, a South Korean dating app, has introduced AI matching that assesses 'lifestyle alignment' and 'genuine compatibility', limiting who users can meet South Korea has the world's lowest fertility …
Tinder's Events Pivot Is a Retention Play, Not a Product Strategy
Tinder announces Events tab launching in beta late May/early June, marking first major pivot to in-person meetups Match Group paying subscribers dropped 6% year-on-year in Q4 2024, with Tinder cited a…
Bumble Is Killing the Swipe. Here Is What It Is Betting On Instead.
Bumble will trial the removal of swiping in select markets this year, replacing it with an AI assistant called Bee and narrative-based profile chapters rolling out globally by spring 2026 Match Group …
LegacyX Launches a Double-Date App Into the Most Crowded Corner of Dating
LegacyX, a London tech firm with no dating industry experience, has launched Vortex, an app centred on double dates rather than traditional one-on-one matching The top five dating apps accounted for 8…
Pinterest Knows What Singles Want Before Dating Apps Do. That Is the Problem.
Pinterest searches for 'no phone summer' climbed 340% year-over-year, with 'screen free activities' up 200% The platform reaches 40% of US parents and 52% of expecting parents, according to its own da…
Match Group Hired a Roblox Executive to Fix Engagement. That Tells You Everything About the Problem.
Match Group is appointing Manuel Bronstein (former Roblox CPO) and Raina Moskowitz (CEO of The Knot Worldwide) to its board, marking the fifth and sixth new directors in two years During Bronstein's t…
DUA AG Bought IRLY. The Acquisition Logic Raises More Questions Than It Answers.
DUA AG has acquired Vancouver-based personality-first dating app IRLY in an undisclosed all-cash deal IRLY emerged from UBC's entrepreneurship programme with internet personality Cameron Dallas as co-…
Singles Events Surge: A Symptom of App Fatigue, Not a Disruption
Match Group reported a 6% year-on-year decline in paying subscribers in Q3 2024, falling to 10.3 million users Bumble's revenue growth slowed to just 7% in Q3 2024, missing analyst expectations Single…
X's API Ban on InfoFi Apps: A Warning Shot for Incentive Models
X has revoked API access for 'infoFi' apps that reward users with tokens or perks for posting promotional content The platform's head of product cites "tremendous amount of AI slop & reply spam" as th…
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