Tinder · B2C · dating app
Add an even pricier top tier for the biggest spenders
Didn't fit a mass-market brand; being scaled down
Failedpricingpositioning-niche
What they did
Tinder Select: a higher-end tier above Platinum targeting 'whales' who already spend heavily on top subscriptions and a la carte, offering better service and product. Guest's diagnosis: identity/brand fit; users of a mass-market app don't feel the environment is exclusive (like an expensive table in a regular club vs an exclusive club), so the luxury benefits don't meet expectations.
What happened
Not worth continued investment; not expanding and gradually scaling down
In their words
Sub Club by RevenueCat · Dynamic Paywalls That Drove Millions in New Revenue – Shawn Gong, Tinder“Let's try if we have an even higher end tier and then provide even better service and product, would user buy them or not?”
“we realized it is not worth the continual investment”
Related topics
Get tactics like this every Monday
New tactics from the week's founder interviews, each linked to where it was said.
More from Tinder
All 22 Tinder tactics- Put a toggle in the top bar that opens a new paid tierAbout $50M in revenue from one small A/B test
- Keep dating free for most users so there are plenty of people to match85-90% never pay; the 10-15% who do fund the business
- Sell a paid 'super like' that stands out from a normal likeSuper Likes are 3x more likely to get a match
- Give each paid feature its own paywall and check its sales every morningShowed 2-3 features drive most new subs; weak ones were made free
- Offer three subscription levels and sell extra boosts on topFormer CPO calls it one of the best ways to price consumer apps; no revenue split given
- Let people start swiping in two minutes using Facebook login and photosOnboarding cut from ~20 minutes to under 2; brought younger people into online dating
More from this episode
- Tinder: Use a prediction model to show each user just the one plan they'll likely buyEstimated multimillion-dollar yearly revenue gain in an A/B test
- Tinder: Sell the travel feature on its own for 1 day, 3 days or a weekConversion jumped, but it pulled buyers away from the cheapest subscription
- Tinder: Raise the price of the standalone feature so it stops stealing subscriptionsFewer lost subscriptions, slightly lower conversion, higher total revenue
- Tinder: Price the 7-day feature pass the same as a 7-day subscription, shown side by sideLess cannibalization and more revenue, but still not good enough
- Tinder: Offer the subscription first; show the one-off purchase only to people who say no