$3.3 billion of the dating app industry's roughly $6 billion 2025 revenue went to Match Group, owner of Hinge, Tinder and OkCupid.
The report ties that scale to app design that rewards repeated swiping with occasional matches, likening user behavior to variable-reward conditioning that keeps people engaged even when results are inconsistent.
It also points to longstanding concerns over algorithmic incentives, citing OkCupid co-founder Christian Rudder's 2014 disclosure that the service manipulated compatibility ratings during experiments.
The broader argument is that dating apps profit from keeping users in a cycle of deletion and re-download, even as companies pitch new tools such as AI features to address user fatigue.