Product gap analysis:
Tinder in Singapore

Note: This case was a curiosity project, completed at my own discretion.

Background

Online dating apps have become a popular way to find a partner. However, the gender ratio for dating platforms tends to heavily skew male. Therefore, ensuring women have a positive app experience is of paramount importance.

This research helps identify the issues Tinder should prioritize in order to boost engagement and minimize churn among female users.

What do women like about Tinder? What do they dislike?

A survey was administered to 100 women (median age = 32) living in Signapore who’ve used Tinder within the past 12 months (as of December 2023). Respondents evaluated Tinder’s dating pool across 7 key factors, and also provided their overall level of satisfaction with the app.

Overall, 67% of women said they were ‘very’ or ‘mostly’ satisfied using Tinder.

  • Women were most satisfied with Tinder’s dating pool when it came to conversational engagement (enjoyable conversations with matches) , followed by profile descriptiveness (well-written bios).

  • However, photo accuracy (how truthful/updated the photos of matches are) was rated least favorably, followed by match speed/ease (how quickly/often a user can get matched).

What product gaps should Tinder prioritize?

A key driver analysis was conducted to identify…

  • The performance of each dating pool factor – i.e., women’s level of satisfaction (based on % who are ‘very’ or ‘mostly’ satisfied with each factor)

  • The importance of each dating pool factor – i.e., how correlated each factor is to overall app satisfaction (higher correlation = more important)

Demographic alignment falls in the bottom-left quadrant. These are factors that women find less satisfying, but also less important.

The top left quadrant includes profile descriptiveness and photo attractiveness. Although Tinder performs well for these factors, women regarded them as less important when it comes to overall app satisfaction.

By contrast, the top-right quadrant contains factors that are both important and higher-performing. These are Tinder’s key strengths that don’t require immediate attention.

The bottom-right quadrant represents Tinder’s key weaknesses. Match speed/ease and Photo accuracy are factors that women consider very important, but ultimately disappointing.

Is Tinder effective for building relationships?

Respondents also indicated whether their use of Tinder resulted in any relationships.

  • 44% of women said they’re currently in an active relationship as a result of using Tinder; casual and serious relationships were evenly split

  • By comparison, nearly 80% started any type of relationship via Tinder; a majority of these were casual

  • 27% said they met a platonic friend on Tinder; 4% formed no relationships (romantically or platonically).

Lastly, a binary logistic regression was run in order to answer the following questions:

  • Is satisfaction with Tinder’s dating pool associated with higher relationship likelihood?

  • If so, which online dating pool factors are the most impactful when it comes to forming relationships?

The results suggest that women who encounter profiles wth good photo accuracy and conversation skills are more likely to end up in an active relationship.

Recommendations

In order to ensure women in Singapore have a positive Tinder experience, three product recommendations are offered:

  1. Create in-app nudges for encouraging users to submit updated, accurate photos of themselves.

  2. Ensure careful calibration of matching frequency, especially as a function of profile quality.

  3. Increase in-product prominence of Tinder’s key strengths, such as highlighting profiles whose demographics/dating goals matches those of the user.