Tinder · B2C · swipe dating app
Interview users spending $100-250 a month, then build a top plan for them
Led to Tinder Platinum; no results shared
Unknownupsell-expansionpricingfeature-development
What they did
Spotted Tinder Gold subscribers spending $100-250/month on microtransactions. Researched their motivation: status signalling or utility? It was utility (more matches); users framed it against ~$400/month spent on dates. Built Tinder Platinum, bundling extra Super Likes and Boosts and letting people break a core rule: message someone before matching. Insight: they were hitting the limit of what Tinder could do for them, not of what they would spend.
What happened
Tinder Platinum launched; no performance numbers given.
- Stage
- scale
In their words
Sub Club by RevenueCat · How Tinder Captures More Value With Tiered Pricing and Consumables — Ravi Mehta“So I actually started work on Tinder Platinum, and this came out of insights from this graphic knowing that there were people on Tinder Gold who were purchasing a lot of micro transactions”
“And it turns out it was more utilitarian. People are just looking for more matches.”
“The other rule that was sort of golden in Tinder is you can't message someone until you've matched one of the products that's in Tinder Platinum is the ability to message someone before you've matched”
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
- 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
- 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
- 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
- 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
More from this episode
- Tinder: 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
- Tinder: 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
- Tinder: Test many prices for each plan and add-on, country by countryHundreds of price SKUs live at once; no test results shared
- Tinder: Sell a paid 'super like' that stands out from a normal likeSuper Likes are 3x more likely to get a match
- Tinder: 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
- Sesame Care: Replace a 3-screen checkout with a 20-question intake before paymentConversion up (host says 40%); 99%+ of people answer each next question
- TripAdvisor: Sort hotels by each traveler's past behavior without calling it 'just for you'Unlabelled version converted better; labelling it 'just for you' dropped conversion
- Tinder: Show ads to free users to cover their costSmall share of revenue; ads worth far less than a subscriber
- Start at $20-30 a month; if nobody pays, fix the product, not the price
- Wispr Flow: Give a short free trial that builds a daily habit, then chargeGuest converted without hesitation; a free-tier rival he uses daily never got paid
- Sell live classes, Zoom sessions and week-long intensives to your most engaged usersRevenue almost doubled; live offers now half of revenue
- Calm: Play rain sounds the moment the app opens, and in 15-second ads
- TripAdvisor: Set quarterly goals as a short why, 3-5 commitments, and a task listGuest says teams that adopted it found it works better than OKRs; no numbers