Hinge is a website and app used for meeting people online. The app shows one possible match at a time. Users can choose to ignore the match or try to connect by answering a question or sharing something about themselves from the other person's profile. Hinge encourages users to upload content they create, like photos, videos, voice recordings, and short messages called "prompts," to show their personality and how they look. As of February 2019, Hinge is completely owned by Match Group.
History
In 2011, Justin McLeod started a desktop service named Secret Agent Cupid with a small team. This service let users connect to Facebook and share which friends they had crushes on. In 2012, the project became a mobile app called Hinge, which launched in February 2013. Hinge was designed to focus less on looks compared to apps like Tinder, offering a different way to meet people. Before Hinge had enough users to support the business, the company almost ran out of money. McLeod used most of the remaining funds for a launch party in Washington, D.C., which helped the company get more funding.
In 2017, Hinge was mentioned more than any other dating app in the "Weddings" section of The New York Times. In September 2017, Hinge Matchmaker was released, claiming to help people who had not used dating apps before. Match Group began investing in Hinge in September 2017. In June 2018, Match Group bought 51% of Hinge, with the option to buy the rest within a year. By early 2019, Match Group owned all of Hinge. Under Match Group’s management, Hinge’s revenue increased from $8 million in 2018 to $284 million in 2022. Some people worried that this purchase showed companies gaining too much control over the technology industry.
Hinge became more popular in 2019 when U.S. presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg shared that he met his husband on the app. In 2019, the company started Hinge Labs to study successful matches and improve the app’s features. Hinge was listed by CNET as one of the best dating sites in 2021. A voice message feature was added to the app in October 2021.
As of 2023, Hinge had about 23 million users. At the end of the third quarter of 2023, Hinge had 1.3 million paying users, a 33% increase from the same time the year before. By the first quarter of 2024, paying users reached 1.4 million, a 31% increase from the first quarter of 2023, with $124 million in revenue.
Operation
Each user profile on Hinge shows six photos and three personal statements that the user chooses. The user’s location and height are always visible, which helps others focus on personality instead of just looks. Instead of swiping, users must "like" a specific photo or statement to connect with someone else. They can also send "roses," which are special likes, to profiles they find most interesting. Hinge lets users search for matches based on traits like height, ethnicity, and religion. Users can also block people they know in real life by entering their phone number, email, and name.
Hinge offers two paid membership plans: Hinge+ and Hinge X. Hinge+ gives users unlimited "likes" (free users can only send eight per day), better tools to filter matches, the ability to see who has liked their profile, and more ways to browse users (such as nearby or new users). Some users with older app versions still have access to 10 likes per day instead of the current limit of eight. This means users should think carefully about who they choose to "like" because the limit resets every day at 4:00 a.m. local time. Hinge X includes all Hinge+ features plus extra benefits, such as placing a user’s "likes" at the top of others’ "Likes You" lists, better profile suggestions, and making a user’s profile appear more often on others’ feeds.
To help users avoid being ignored, Hinge has a "Your Turn" feature that reminds users to continue conversations. In 2018, Hinge added a "We Met" feature that lets members confirm privately that they had a first date with a match. In July 2018, Hinge introduced a "most compatible" feature that uses the Gale–Shapley algorithm to suggest one user each day who Hinge believes is the best match based on their preferences. Earlier, Hinge used Facebook friend lists to help users connect, but in 2018, the app no longer relied on Facebook or friends of friends to find matches.
Marketing
Hinge marketing uses the "designed to be deleted" theme. When two Hinge users fall in love, the app's mascot, Hingie, is shown being destroyed in different ways, such as getting roasted in a campfire, encased in ice, run over by a taxi, or flattened by an air conditioning unit. In 2020, the app launched Hingie Shop, which sells products that can be "destroyed," such as bath bombs and s'mores, as well as clothing and jewelry.
After a video created by Gina DiVittorio titled "The ideal woman according to guys' Hinge profiles" became popular in 2019, the company hired DiVittorio to appear in a web series called Cheap Date. The series shows her trying and reviewing date ideas that cost less than $20. The series was nominated for a 2020 Webby Award in the "Social Culture & Lifestyle (Video)" category.