Tinder’s pricing algorithm can charge users up to 5x more for same service

They&#x27;re basically applying enterprise level pricing to a consumer product. You ever try and check the price for a SaaS service only to find that you have to contact them?<p>They will explain they need answers to a bunch of questions to know if the product is a good fit for you. What they&#x27;re really trying to do is figure out the max you will pay.

I seem to remember articles from lots of sources, I believe Stratechery was one, about a decade ago advocating for this kind of pricing scheme of using analytics to figure out the price that people will pay and charging them that. A lot of the examples was based on income level which of course made me think, hey here I&#x27;ve struggled all my life to get into the middle class and now they want to change up how you pay for things so at the end of the month I can buy the same amount of things and have as much left over as when I was poor.<p>Anyway I am against it, find it immoral, and think the EU should have some regulations forbidding it.

Of course, also Tinder&#x27;s profit is directly dependant on you not finding a partner, so you continue to use their service.

They did update their pricing as a result of this[0] (article has the same date). Not that I condone their old model, but it&#x27;s a shame the Mozilla article wasn&#x27;t updated given their call to action is unnecessary.<p>[0]: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.consumerreports.org&#x2F;consumer-protection&#x2F;tinder-is-phasing-out-higher-prices-for-users-ages-29-plus-a3881901881&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.consumerreports.org&#x2F;consumer-protection&#x2F;tinder-i...</a>

How does this work with the thing in iOS where you can just go to settings and change to any available subscription without going through the app UI? Don’t you have to give iTunes Connect the list of all subscription tiers and prices?

Tinder is basically 5&#x2F;100 guys getting all the matches per 90&#x2F;100 women.

1. It isn&#x27;t obvious to me that dating for older people is to be treated as the same service as dating for younger people. There are profound differences. Dating as a 20 year old female is a completely different situation to dating as a 40 year old of either gender.<p>2. Even if it is the same service, what is the problem with Tinder charging some people an extra $20? This isn&#x27;t an essential service in any way.<p>3. foundation.mozilla.org ? Why is the Mozilla foundation of all groups investing time into this sort of advocacy?

Is Mozilla’s new strategy to raise its profile and gain Firefox users to become ProPublica?<p>(I’m a FF fan but this seems off brand to me)

If your phone is a recent or expensive model, the subscription prices for apps may be higher, or the discounts lower, because you presumably have more disposable income.

Tinder is so chock-full of dark patterns and in-your-face modals that I&#x27;m not surprised, at all.

Tinder is so extremely effective that it&#x27;s almost certainly underpriced at all of these levels purely because of perception. I only had gold once and bought a couple of boosts but for over two months I would fill my calendar with 2-4 dates a week at something close to Spotify sub ($20&#x2F;mo iirc).<p>There is no other way to meet women this efficiently. And it was a lot of fun, too. It took out all the slog out of dating. It would be a steal at $100&#x2F;mo.

Based on EU Charter of Fundamental Rights.<p>Any discrimination based on any ground such as sex, race, colour, ethnic or social origin, genetic features, language, religion or belief, political or any other opinion, membership of a national minority, property, birth, disability, age or sexual orientation shall be prohibited.<p>Is this then legal?

Thought Mozilla was making a Web browser

Not a Tinder user or investor, but this makes me curious. Why is it okay for insurance companies to sell me products with hyper-personalized pricing (often based on sex, age, and race), but it&#x27;s not okay for Tinder or other tech companies to do so?

Does paying for plus even make a difference?

Can this be the basis of a class action lawsuit by the affected demographics?

Tinder’s parent Match is part of the coalition against Apple’s control over In-app Purchase payment system, very likely because they want to circumvent Apple’s customer-friendly refund process when an app rips them off.

Disclaimer: I think Tinder is a rent-extracting garbage app, BUT, philosophically speaking, why is dynamic pricing unfair? If the algorithm detects that based on your biography, location and usage patterns, you would keep using this service even if it charged you 5x as much, isn&#x27;t that just the market becoming more efficient?

eHarmony&#x27;s algo may be less extreme but they do this too.

Uber does the same thing. I noticed this one time when a friend was asking for the same ride. He has a basic credit card and i have a platinum amex card. My ride was 40% higher for the same trip

This will likely become more normal over time. No one really cares because it’s mostly men who are losing their money. And rich men aren’t often on these apps - so it’s only the working class that is losing. So, working class men are getting screwed over by a corporation? No, you don’t say.