Tinder courts video-lovers with mystery series

Tinder said Monday it will launch a second edition of its popular interactive video series “Swipe Night,” as the dating app courts fans of short-form platforms such as TikTok and Instagram.

Users of the dating app, where you swipe left or right on people’s profile pages to signal interest, will be able to watch simultaneously as a murder mystery unfolds, making choices that affect the direction of the tale and even becoming a suspect along the way.

People taking part in the series on Sunday will eventually be paired with others to debate likely suspects and analyze clues in an effort to solve the crime.

“Swipe Night was our first big experiment to see if members wanted to do something more than Swipe, and the answer was resoundingly ‘yes,'” said Tinder vice president of product Kyle Miller.

“The evolution of Swipe Night, and experiences more broadly on Tinder, allow members to have a fun, low pressure way to break the ice.”

The first version of Swipe Night had an apocalyptic theme and attracted 20 million Tinder members, who logged a 26 percent increase in finding matches compared to a typical Sunday evening, according to the platform.

Tinder is out to appeal particularly to a generation of people aged 25 or younger with a proven appetite for connections and conversations around online content, according to Miller.

Short-form videos on platforms such as Instagram, TikTok and YouTube are proven hits with young internet audiences.

Tinder, which belongs to Match Group, is a leader in the online dating market, where it faces competition from established services such as Bumble and Hinge as well as newcomers such as video dating app Snack.

© 2021 AFP