A growing number of students at the University of Maryland are now using the “fastest growing dating app in the world:” Tinder.
Tinder is an app available for smart phones that connects you with those around you. Roughly resembling the “Hot or Not” website which allows you to rate photos of random people, Tinder matches you with people in your area and sets up a chat with those you rate highly.
Founder and CMO of Tinder, Justin Mateen, said that Tinder was conceptualized as a social networking tool that could connect users with people outside of their friend circles.
“We realized that it is difficult to meet new people around you and that social discovery was broken…there wasn’t an effective, socially acceptable way of meeting new people around you,” Mateen said.
But the widespread success of the app is even more than the Tinder team expected. According to Mateen, the app has had over 1.5 billion profile ratings and has made over 15 million matches in the last three months.
“It’s a new way to meet people and it’s fun to see who likes you,” said junior public health major Martine Botallico.
Though Mateen said “college students are tough critics,” the app appears to be popular with all kinds of students: men and women, those in Greek life and those not involved in Greek life, and older and younger students.
“I think it’s popular with students because of the simplicity of it; just swiping yes or no [for a match] is easy and fun,” junior journalism major Drew Rauso said.
Mateen said he thinks the app has become so popular with college students not only because of their tendency towards social media, but because the app connects with real people that are nearby.
“College students live in a highly social environment and creating new relationships is a very important part of their daily lives…Tinder has spread so quickly because we have tried to emulate the way the real world works in terms of how you meet someone,” Mateen said.
The fact that the app helps you meet completely new people is one of the reasons that college students find it appealing.
“Every once in a while, I’ll see a person I know on Tinder, but most of the time its one or two Facebook friends or none. It’s the classic online ‘dating’ thing, you don’t want to talk to people you know,” Rauso said.
Though the app is based on fresh relationships from attraction to strangers, Rauso and Botallico both said they just use the app for fun and entertainment.
Tinder may have already exploded, but the app’s founders are not finished yet.
“We are constantly looking to improve Tinder and we have many new features and changes on the road map. We have only accomplished about 5 percent of our vision for Tinder. Stay tuned,” Mateen said.
Top photo credit: hothardware.com
Bottom photo credit: ca.news.yahoo