Tinder · B2C · dating app
Build engagement and retention first; push monetization only years later
Reached 30-40M monthly users before revenue became a focus in years 4-5
Workedretentionpricing
What they did
Tinder focused on core engagement loops and retention first, and only turned on serious monetization in years four to five, at 30-40M monthly actives. The guest contrasts this with today's apps that monetize in the first session and can mistake hard-paywall revenue from young cohorts for product-market fit.
What happened
Product had 'extreme product market fit' by the time monetization began.
- Stage
- Scale (years 1-5)
In their words
Sub Club by RevenueCat · How a Single Paywall Experiment Generated $50M – Jeff Morris, Chapter One, Ex-Tinder“And what worked at Tinder and when we really started to turn on monetization didn't happen until years four or five into the product.”
Related topics
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New tactics from the week's founder interviews, each linked to where it was said.
More from Tinder
All 22 Tinder tactics- 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
- 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
- Raise the price of the standalone feature so it stops stealing subscriptionsFewer lost subscriptions, slightly lower conversion, higher total revenue
- 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
- 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
More from this episode
- Tinder: Put a toggle in the top bar that opens a new paid tierAbout $50M in revenue from one small A/B test
- Tinder: Limit free swipes per day and charge for moreStopped mass-swiping and auto-swipers; turned into a strong revenue driver (no numbers)
- Tinder: 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
- Tinder: Offer several paid tiers, from cheap starter to big spenders at $50K a yearGuest's biggest revenue unlock at Tinder; no numbers given
- Tinder: Set different prices by country, starting with fast-growing markets like India
- Tinder: Polish the paywall like a core feature, e.g. add a gold shimmerGuest says it showed users they cared; no numbers
- Tinder: Ask for payment only after a user gets a match and starts chatting
- Tinder: Create a revenue team with its own iOS and Android engineersGrew from 6 engineers in 2016 to 40+
- Flighty: Give the first flight free with every pro feature, then lock some
- Make free users pay before they can fix their buggy first buildFrustrated users complained publicly on Twitter
- Supabase: Ship a new feature every single dayBecame the default database for most major website builders