Now, though, Nick can spot the call girls because of their too–professional, too–sexed–up photos
Another pesky issue for men on Tinder: Sometimes, the women they’re matched with turn out to be prostitutes or webcam girls looking for clients. Once, Nick was messaging with a woman who wanted to video chat. She asked him to create an account on a website and input his credit card information, which is when he realized she wasn’t his long-lost soul mate.
And what do the denizens of Tinder think about this?
(For the record, the folks at Tinder have taken action to prevent sexcam workers and prostitutes from soliciting clients with the service.)
“The vision is more about social discovery than just dating,” he told Betabeat over the phone. “We launched our dating vertical first, because it was a sticky place to start … Facebook connects you with your existing network of friends; Tinder is where you go to meet new people.”
After logging on, I attempt to start a number of conversations with the line “Have you ever used Tinder strictly to make new friends?” After asking about 17 guys in a row (for some eros escort St. Petersburg reason Tinder only matches me with men, no matter how I toggle my preferences), I get nothing in response. No one wants to be friends with me! Am I using the wrong Kanye quote as my tagline?
Finally, though, someone writes back. “New friends with benefits, yes,” he says, appending a smiley face sticking its tongue out.
Despite all this, Tinder co-founder and CMO Justin Mateen insists the app isn’t for hooking up
“Well, that’s not what I mean,” I respond. “The founders of Tinder said it’s for meeting friends, so I’m trying to do that.”
“Oh yeah and snapcht [sic] isn’t for naughty pics haha,” he responds. (For the uninitiated, Snapchat is indeed largely used for sending naughty pics.)
Another guy says he’d love to be friends. He volunteers that he’s Arab Muslim and inquires about my heritage. Irish Catholic, I tell him.
He’s the first of quite a few guys who say they’d love to just be friends, only to hit on me minutes later. This is something a certain breed of guy is notorious for doing in real life, only to later complain they’ve been “put in the friend zone.”
It takes about 10 minutes of swiping (grueling research) before I even see another woman. Clearly, this is not the place for women who want to meet women; either that or women are preemptively rejecting me before I even get a chance to see their pictures.
I swipe right on the only three women I find in a sea of probably 100 dudes, but not one is a match. I know when I’m not wanted, so I close the app-after about 25 more swipes because, seriously, this is addictive.
So why do the Tinder founders insist their product is for making new friends when it so clearly isn’t? When I pressed him about this, Mr. Mateen was adamant about the app’s unexplored potential, using the example of a couple looking for another couple to play tennis with on vacation.
“People think of it as a hookup app, but all we’re doing is facilitating an introduction between two people who are interested in meeting each other,” Mr. Mateen says. “What comes out of it is up to them.”
Of course, if “playing doubles tennis” sounds to you like a euphemism for swinging, you’re not alone. Tinder’s creators may badly want to diversify, to become the next Facebook instead of a lame joke and dead product five years from now. Overcoming the perception that the app is simply for hooking up clearly remains a long way off, though.
