Tinder’s Growth
In reference to this study.
This lengthy article attempts to describe Tinder’s dramatic growth. The article walks through several topics that the author believes contributed to the adoption of Tinder, but I will focus on the network effects.
The article describes how Tinder took advantage of dense networks such as Greek fraternities and sororities to allow its userbase to grow. Because members of the Greek system were so close, the network cascade was immediate; the app was able to reach and pass its critical point relatively easily. Additionally, because the concept itself was attractive, the threshold for adoption was low. In an app like Tinder, network effects are even more important since users’ utility is very directly related to the number of users; more users implies increased chances of a match.
Tinder was posed very well to take over such a market. There were very few, if any, alternatives that provided the same features. By marketing directly to colleges, Tinder hit a large number of close-knit users that were optimal choices for such a service. At that point, as the article mentions, Tinder’s growth was fueled by network effects – “the more users Tinder got, the more valuable it became, and so even more people joined.”