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- Have you ever felt like dating
apps are manipulating you?

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Well, I spent six months
reporting on the Hinge Algorithm,

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and according to what
I found, you're right.

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A lot of people don't know
that there's one giant company

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that controls almost every dating app.

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It's called Match Group,

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and with the exception
of Bumble and Grindr,

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it probably owns every dating
app you've ever heard of.

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Match Group owns Tinder,
Hinge, OkCupid, match.com.

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Plenty of Fish, The League,
Pairs, and a whole lot more.

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The company made almost
$3.2 billion last year,

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and 98% of that money
came from subscriptions

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and other paid features.

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Think about it, we're not
talking about subscriptions

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to a food delivery service here,

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it's about monetizing loneliness.

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It turns out sex really does sell.

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So I talked to Hinge,

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and they said that they
don't manipulate their users.

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A spokesperson said,

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"We do not withhold
possible matches from users.

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We want our users to match

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with the people they're compatible
with and delete our app."

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But it really depends on your definition

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of the word, withhold.

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Let's start with your standouts.

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So Hinge uses AI to decide who
you're most compatible with,

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and then it hides them
in this special feed

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where the people are harder to contact,

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you can only reach out to
them by sending them a rose,

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and you only get one rose per week,

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unless you're willing to pay for more.

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People talk about the best matches

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being trapped in Rose Jail.

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As you use the app,

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Hinge blast you with messages

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about how they can help you find love,

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all you have to do is
break out a credit card.

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After all, subscribers go
on twice as many dates.

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And then there's the page
of people who've liked you.

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They hide most of them
behind these blurry images

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where you can only see their first name.

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If you want to talk to
more than one at a time,

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you'll have to pay.

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If we look at other companies
historically, it's even worse.

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Last year I wrote an article about Tinder

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where a study found that
it seemed like Tinder

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was charging people
more if they were older,

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male, living in a rural area,

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basically factors that might make it seem

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like you were a little more desperate

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or at least more likely to be desperate.

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Now, Tinder said they
weren't doing any of this,

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although they did admit that for a time

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they were charging older users more.

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Then there's the fact that some people say

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that they're shadow banned on Hinge,

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that the app is hiding their best matches,

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or keeping their profile from other users.

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Now, Hinge says that they don't do this,

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but when you're living
life under an algorithm,

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it's hard to know for sure.

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In 2019, a study found that
40% of couples in the US

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met on a dating app,

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and the number's probably even
higher for younger people.

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Hinge wouldn't tell me
how many users it has,

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but according to another study,

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almost one in five dating
app users are on Hinge.

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Don't like it, you can
just switch to another app,

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except of course,

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almost all of them are
owned by Match Group anyway.

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These days in the United States,

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dating is basically the domain
of one giant corporation.

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Now, if you believe what they tell you,

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your perfect matches are out
there somewhere on the apps,

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but one way or another,

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Match Group's algorithms
decide whether you get to meet.

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Check out more stories
here on gizmodo.com.