Description
Hinge is a dating app which bills itself as the "only dating app" that emphasizes long-term connections between users. Hinge has sought to allure a younger demographic than Match.com and eHarmony.
History
Founded by Justin McLeod in 2012, Hinge developed their mobile app in early 2013 and launched it that February. The app was designed to be less superficial than Tinder, dispensing with Tinder-like swiping and using the slogan "the relationship app".
Before Hinge gained enough users to sustain the business, the company nearly ran out of funding. When making the mobile app, McLeod spent much of their remaining cash on a launch party in Washington D.C. which enabled them to obtain their next round of funding, saving it from insolvency.
In 2017, Hinge received more mentions than other dating apps in the Weddings section of The New York Times. Hinge Matchmaker was released in September 2017 to reinvent online dating for "people that missed out on the dating app craze".
Match Group made investments in Hinge as early as September 2017. On June 20, 2018, Match Group acquired 51% ownership of Hinge, with the right to acquire all remaining shares within a year, which it exercised. Match Group owned 100% of Hinge by the first quarter of 2019.
The app's popularity was boosted in 2019 when US presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg revealed that he had met his husband on Hinge.
Also in 2019, Hinge started Hinge Labs to research successful matches and fine-tune the compatibility algorithm and other features.
