No dating app has more engagement than Grindr
Smartphone app stores are chock-full of dating apps, all vying for screen time. But gay dating app Grindr actually trumps them all when it comes to sheer user engagement.
According to a new study from New York City-based research firm 7Park Data, Grindr users spend an average of 165 minutes, or 2.75 hours, a week inside the app, far surpassing dating apps Badoo and Tinder, with users on average spending 68 minutes and 55 minutes a week using those apps, respectively.
7Park Data based its findings on anonymized mobile user data from millions of Android smartphone devices during the last two years from across 16 countries, including Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Taiwan, the UK, and the US.
The findings may be something of a surprise, particularly to the Grindr uninitiated. But ever since CEO and founder Joel Simkhai launched Grindr in 2009, the smartphone dating app has effectively transformed the way millions of smartphone-toting bisexual and gay men interact with one another.
Although Simkhai initially positioned his app as a location-based social network — and indeed, some actually use the app for dating, even making new friends — many more of its 5 million-plus monthly active users rely on the app for convenient hook-ups and still do. After all, why go through the hassle of going to a bar in San Francisco’s Castro neighborhood, when Grindr can tell you exactly who’s a few feet, yards or blocks away?
Still, Tinder remains the overall winner when it comes to user base. The four-year-old app, which helped simplify online dating into finger swipes — swipe right to like, swipe left to pass — had 50 million users when the company last reported user base statistics back in 2014.
“While Grindr leads in terms of app engagement (time spent and frequency of sessions), the app doesn’t have as big of a mass appeal as the top five dating apps do,” the report reads. “One of the reasons could be because Grindr was created for, and used by, a niche market — gay and bisexual men.”
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JP Mangalindan is a senior correspondent covering the intersection of business and technology.
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