Match Group's 2025 annual report shows the split in dating app marketing: Hinge direct revenue grew 26% while Tinder's fell 4%. The 25 moves below cover Tinder's reset, Hinge's "designed to be deleted" growth engine, Bumble's celibacy billboard apology and comeback attempt, and Grindr's subscription push.
Figures are attributed to the source that reported them. Several come from SEC filings and company statements.
How did Tinder try to win back Gen Z?
1. Swipe Night
Tinder launched Swipe Night in 2019 as an interactive "choose your own adventure" story, according to TechCrunch. The first series drew engagement from more than 20 million users and a 26% increase in matches compared with a typical Sunday night, and it was recognized at Cannes.
2. The second Swipe Night series
In August 2021 Tinder announced a second series, a "Gen Z whodunnit," using its Fast Chat feature so users could solve the mystery together before matching, according to TechCrunch. It debuted in the app's Explore section.
3. Double Date
Tinder launched Double Date globally in June 2025, a feature that lets users connect as a pair, according to Match Group's second-quarter 2025 filing.
4. Face Check and bot detection
Match Group says Tinder expanded Face Check, which helps confirm users are real and match their photos, and improved bot detection that cuts false positives, per the same filing. It framed the work around three Gen Z pain points: authenticity, dating fatigue and outcomes.
5. A "low-pressure" reset
Match Group said it intends to transform Tinder into a low-pressure, serendipitous experience designed for Gen Z, according to its second-quarter 2025 shareholder letter.
6. What the reset cost in 2025
Tinder direct revenue fell 4% to $1.863 billion in 2025, and payers fell 7% to about 9.0 million, according to Match Group's annual report. Revenue per payer rose 3%.
How did Hinge build its "designed to be deleted" brand?
7. The tagline as strategy
Hinge advertises itself as the dating app "designed to be deleted," according to Marketing Dive. The message positions success as users leaving the app for a relationship.
8. "It's Funny We Met on Hinge"
Hinge's campaign features real stories of couples who met on the app. In 2026 it launched a third chapter, "Can't Believe We Met on Hinge," about the mindset people were in before finding a partner, according to Marketing Dive. The campaign was developed with creative collective Birthday and directed by filmmaker India Sleem, and it runs across streaming, cinema and social, including in the US, Canada and the UK. Gen Z makes up more than half of Hinge's audience.
9. The One More Hour fund
Hinge's One More Hour initiative launched in 2023 to help young adults meet in person by funding social groups in cities including New York, Los Angeles and Atlanta, according to Marketing Dive. It has provided more than $2 million in grants and planned another $1.5 million globally this year.
10. Local brand campaigns in Europe
Match Group credits Hinge's European growth to brand campaigns tailored to local dating culture, and it planned launches in Mexico and Brazil, according to its second-quarter 2025 shareholder letter.
11. 2025 revenue growth
Hinge direct revenue grew $140.4 million, or 26%, in 2025, according to Match Group's annual report.
12. The path to $1 billion
Marketing Dive reports Hinge is on a path to be a $1 billion business by 2027 and saw revenue rise 28% in the first quarter of 2026.
What did Bumble's marketing get right and wrong?
13. "Be the CEO your parents always wanted you to marry"
Bumble's best-known ad before 2024 carried that line, according to Fortune.
14. The April 2024 "new Bumble" relaunch
Bumble launched a brand redesign in April 2024 to revive lagging user interest, according to the Associated Press.
15. The celibacy billboards
Billboards from the relaunch carried the message "You know full well a vow of celibacy is not the answer," and women on social media criticized them, according to the Associated Press. On May 13, 2024 Bumble apologized, removed the ads, pledged donations to the National Domestic Violence Hotline and other groups, and offered them the billboard space.
16. An in-house campaign
Fortune reports the campaign was developed by Bumble's in-house creative team, and chief marketing officer Selby Drummond described it as a bold approach to celebrating the app's evolution.
17. Letting men start conversations
Bumble changed its messaging policy in 2024 to let men initiate conversations, ending the rule that only women could make the first move, according to Silicon UK and Texas Standard.
18. The founder returns
Bumble announced on January 17, 2025 that founder Whitney Wolfe Herd would return as CEO in mid-March, replacing Lidiane Jones, who resigned, according to Bloomberg and CNBC.
19. "Make the first move for yourself"
Wolfe Herd told Fortune the 2014 to 2024 idea was that women make the first move and 2025 onward is to make the first move for yourself. She said she was rebranding the parent company as the "Love Company."
20. The 30% layoff
Bumble's board approved cutting about 240 roles, roughly 30% of employees, on June 23, 2025, according to an SEC filing reported by Silicon UK.
How did Grindr and Match Group respond?
21. Grindr's weekly subscriptions
Grindr introduced Weekly Unlimited in late March 2024 and says paywall optimization and merchandising lifted direct revenue 25.4% in the third quarter of 2025, with average paying users up 188,000 to 1.3 million, per its 10-Q.
22. The gAI push
Grindr's third-quarter 2025 letter says it made its first pricing change to Unlimited and XTRA since 2018 and plans a premium AI tier it expects to drive revenue growth from 2027. Its annual report says the goal is to make Grindr an AI-native company and product.
23. A strong 2024 finish
Grindr's fourth-quarter 2024 revenue grew 35% to $97.6 million and it announced a $500 million buyback, according to a news report carried by iTiger. The report also mentions plans for an AI "wingman."
24. Match goes after the same audience
Match Group launched Archer in 2023 to go after gay, bisexual and queer men, the report notes, while Grindr pushed toward long-term dating.
25. A regulatory charge for Match
Match Group took a $14 million charge in the second quarter of 2025 for a preliminary settlement with the Federal Trade Commission over a case filed in September 2019, according to its filing. Total revenue was $864 million, flat year over year, and payers fell 5% to 14.1 million.
What do these dating app campaigns have in common?
The growing apps tied their marketing to a product promise: Hinge to outcomes and in-person events, Grindr to paid tiers and AI features. Tinder and Bumble spent 2025 resetting their products and leadership, and Bumble's billboard apology shows the cost of a message that misreads its audience. For how brands recover from that kind of reaction, see EPR's crisis communications guide and the Pepsi Kendall Jenner ad case study. For more launch and growth examples beyond dating, see the 25 best app marketing campaigns.
