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Match.com Used Fake Ads to Swindle Users, F.T.C. Says

nytimes.com

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Re: Match.com Used Fake Ads to Swindle Users, F.T.C. Says

#61

Post by 14 »

paul7986 wrote: post #42

All dating apps are filled with fakes and scams mostly perpetrated by those who own the app to milk you of your money. Ive used match on and off for awhile and the crap stunt of them sending me a bunch of likes, messages just as my subscription is expiring has always ticked me off. Ummm where were these matches the first few weeks and oh wait if i want to find out if they are fake or not i have to subscribe again. Th…

I on occasion would like to browse Tinder if I have time. One time after like half hour I get a pop up that I have used all my likes for the time being but if I pay I can continue to swipe right on people I like. Ok not interested in that so I will wait the 12 hours or whatever it is and not pay anything. We I forget about it and of course they send me a notification telling me someone likes me find out now who! So I load up the app and then again hit with the I have used too many likes and have a few more hours to wait. I felt a little annoyed and I have no idea if they are measuring some metric or not but like to believe they are so after I get hit with a like paywall I exit the app and do not load it for a couple days. I like to think it scares them into thinking I am leaving which is ultimately what I ended up doing.

Re: Match.com Used Fake Ads to Swindle Users, F.T.C. Says

#62

Post by [deleted] »

cameronbrown wrote: post #54
dvt wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a lot of thoughts on this, so excuse the long post (maybe I'll write a blog post on it at some point): First, there's a clear (and artificial) skewing of supply-demand curves. There are probably like 30 (active) guys for every 1 (active) girl on these apps (looking at you, Tinder). This creates an imbalance where women are incredibly selective while men end up being incredibly non-selective (e.g. swipe right o…

> First, there's a clear (and artificial) skewing of supply-demand curves. What makes it artificial? Also, there's strong evidence that roughly twice as many women have reproduced than men across human history [0], so if we're reducing it to a number game women have always had the ability to be more picky than guys. What's different today is Tinder/OLD let's them access a much larger area, whereas in the past they wo…

[deleted]

Re: Match.com Used Fake Ads to Swindle Users, F.T.C. Says

#63

Post by dvt »

cameronbrown wrote: post #54
dvt wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a lot of thoughts on this, so excuse the long post (maybe I'll write a blog post on it at some point): First, there's a clear (and artificial) skewing of supply-demand curves. There are probably like 30 (active) guys for every 1 (active) girl on these apps (looking at you, Tinder). This creates an imbalance where women are incredibly selective while men end up being incredibly non-selective (e.g. swipe right o…

> First, there's a clear (and artificial) skewing of supply-demand curves. What makes it artificial? Also, there's strong evidence that roughly twice as many women have reproduced than men across human history [0], so if we're reducing it to a number game women have always had the ability to be more picky than guys. What's different today is Tinder/OLD let's them access a much larger area, whereas in the past they wo…

Even if this were true (the research is speculative at best), the dating app pool is skewed far worse than a 1:2 F:M ratio.

> ... they're just a more efficient dating market than in times past.

This might be true if women were actually going on dates and starting relationships. Except that no one is. We are a lonely bunch[1].

[1] https://www.forbes.com/sites/neilhowe/2019/05/03/millennials...

Re: Match.com Used Fake Ads to Swindle Users, F.T.C. Says

#64

Post by jimmaswell »

lone_haxx0r wrote: post #47

Do you think that an open source dating app or a decentralized dating protocol would be a good idea?

Dating apps are a failed idea. If you're a man and have any imperfections appearance-wise you'll go on these sites and get no responses. In college I did hundreds of swipes and sent a bunch of messages on OKC and got nothing because I wasn't a human Ken doll. I could've spent all day in the gym and gotten plastic surgery and spent hundreds on whatever wardrobe was in style but why do all that for people who can't appreciate you for anything else but how likely you are to be in a Calvin Klein ad? I've seen experiments where they put male model pictures on tinder profiles that say stuff like being nazis and convicted rapists and surprise, they got more matches (a ton) than me (0) with my well-thought-out profile/pictures but not literally Brad Pitt.

Re: Match.com Used Fake Ads to Swindle Users, F.T.C. Says

#65

Post by 9HZZRfNlpR »

echelon wrote: post #22
smt88 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree and will add that all dating apps do things like this. They prey on lonely people using false hope. Tinder even introduced paid “boosts” (pay to be shown to users who otherwise might never see you), which is identical to a slot machine.

OkCupid charges more for your membership the older you are. By the time you're in your 30s the rate is outright highway robbery.

Wonder if they get hit by gender/age discrimination lawsuit?

Re: Match.com Used Fake Ads to Swindle Users, F.T.C. Says

#66

Post by toastal »

fortran77 wrote: post #55
chongli wrote: post #20

I think it's a fatal flaw in the dating site business model, to be honest. Their incentive is for you to stay on the site for as long as possible. If you could find a relationship quickly and then they would leave the site quickly. This would reduce the amount of ad and subscription revenue, in addition to reducing the size of the pool of "potential matches", discouraging those who have more trouble finding someone.

It would be nice to have a dating site where potential matches were verified, including height, weight, and photo. Perhaps have them visit a kiosk in a participating business to get a photo taken from a standard angle (no "myspace" angles) along with a verified height and weight (stand on a scale!)

People wanting to flatter themselves? The nerve. Get off your high horse.

Re: Match.com Used Fake Ads to Swindle Users, F.T.C. Says

#67

Post by 1024core »

Back when I was single, I was on a dozen dating sites. It was frustrating as heck to keep getting led on by fake profiles.

eHarmony is the worst: they actually sold my email address to spammers. How do I know this? I have my own domain, and use a unique (hard to guess) email address for each site I have to give an email address to. So it was trivial to nail eHarmony as the culprit.

Someone has already linked to the OKCupid blog post which explained pretty well why you should not pay for a dating site. Then they were bought out by Match (how did the anti-trust people let Match accumulate so many sites?), and any principles they had went down the drain.

Basically, the market is ripe for a respectful dating site. But OKCupid started this way; and in the end they sold out. What makes you think you won't sell out when the money is right?

Re: Match.com Used Fake Ads to Swindle Users, F.T.C. Says

#68

Post by tempsy »

queercode wrote: post #59
tempsy wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A bit presumptuous to assume the OP is a gay male, no?

It's no more presumptuous to assume OP is a straight male.

Right. If someone asks what a good dating app is then the better thing to do is to not assume sexual orientation or gender and recommend an app for all e.g. Tinder/Coffee Meets Bagel/Hinge?

I mean, just thought it was weird for a complete stranger to recommend to another complete stranger a gay hookup app for men...

Re: Match.com Used Fake Ads to Swindle Users, F.T.C. Says

#69

Post by averros »

vadym909 wrote: post #57
chongli wrote: post #20

I think it's a fatal flaw in the dating site business model, to be honest. Their incentive is for you to stay on the site for as long as possible. If you could find a relationship quickly and then they would leave the site quickly. This would reduce the amount of ad and subscription revenue, in addition to reducing the size of the pool of "potential matches", discouraging those who have more trouble finding someone.

isn't this the job board model too? Indeed, ZipRecruiter, Linkedin?

No, LinkedIn works to establish the network of professional connections which stays with you even when you got a job.

Now, I'm not sure if these are of any worth (I never got anything useful out of LinkedIn... either people trying to sell me something, or colleagues I know already).

I've heard of people (of gold digger kind) using LinkedIn as a dating site.

Re: Match.com Used Fake Ads to Swindle Users, F.T.C. Says

#70

Post by dvt »

fragmede wrote: post #60
dvt wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a lot of thoughts on this, so excuse the long post (maybe I'll write a blog post on it at some point): First, there's a clear (and artificial) skewing of supply-demand curves. There are probably like 30 (active) guys for every 1 (active) girl on these apps (looking at you, Tinder). This creates an imbalance where women are incredibly selective while men end up being incredibly non-selective (e.g. swipe right o…

I believe incentivizing meeting IRL is the lynch pin to disrupting the existing market. My idea is that at some point after the initial match, both users put in $5. Doing so gets them a coupon/something worth $15 at an app-chosen local restaurant or bar. If one person does not show up, the other person gets $7. (The important part is those prices relative to each other rather than those specific values.) The way this…

I wholeheartedly agree with this. In fact, I think there was a dating app a while ago that had a similar feature.

Either way, I've thought many (many) times of making a dating app and running a pilot/MVP on UCLA's campus. But I think dating apps have been (justifiably) getting such a bad rap lately, it'll be too hard to get initial traction.

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