I imagine that making a profitable dating app is difficult. Your most successful customer is one that no longer needs your product. If you make it a subscription service, there's a perverse incentive to make sure you never find a good match. But if you make it a one-time fee, the fee has to be high enough to make a profit, but not so high that people don't want to gamble the money.<p>Tinder's biggest problem, IMO, has always been whether it's a <i>dating</i> app or a <i>hook-up</i> app. I've found that generally, men consider it a hook-up app, while women think it's a dating app. Granted, there's been absolutely zero rigorous study on my part, so my conclusion is easily 100% confirmation bias. However, I think it's worth noting that generally, women are already less likely to use a dating app than men, and would be even LESS likely to use a hook-up app than men.<p>I would bet money that if the $500/month sub added some fancy symbol to your profile so everyone knew you were paying $500/month, you would easily get more matches simply because it shows that you have money.