Bumble’s women worn out with making the first move
It was the dating app that pioneered women making the first move. Now it seems they just don’t want to any more.
Bumble has dropped the requirement that women must message a new match first in response to feedback that they are becoming burnt out.
The app, which was launched in 2014, has produced a redesign allowing female users to set a question for a man to answer after matching, in effect reversing the burden of making the first move.
Lidiane Jones, Bumble’s new chief executive, who announced the revamp, said: “We have always believed that when you make dating better for women, you make it better for everyone. In listening to our community, many have shared their exhaustion with the current online dating experience and, for some, that includes making the first move.
“We’re also hearing from women that empowerment today is not only about control but it’s also about agency, and we’re excited to offer more choice in how women make the first move with our new Opening Moves feature.”
A new survey of women on Bumble found that 70 per cent had experienced dating app burnout. The “opening move” question can be set by the user or chosen from a list. Bumble is also introducing new dating intentions, including “intimacy without commitment”, “life partner” and “ethical non-monogamy”.
Dr Martin Graff, senior lecturer in the psychology of relationships at the University of South Wales, said: “A typical kind of first-contact message for a man is around about 12 characters. From women it’s about ten times as many. So women are far more selective in evolutionary terms than men are. There’s definitely a gender difference in the way in which people approach messaging and contacting people.”
• Old age begins at 75? Don’t tell that to my online dates
A study by the Pew Research Center last year showed that women were more likely to feel overwhelmed by messages on dating apps, whereas men were more likely to feel insecure about a lack of messages. Overall, users were about evenly split between feeling positive and negative about their experiences, but women were more likely than men to have had a bad experience.
The industry is struggling to cope with market saturation, changes in sentiment and challenges from start-ups promising more success using AI tools.
In-person dating events such as Thursday have also cropped up as an antidote to the relentless swiping and “ghosting” standard for online daters.
Jones replaced the Bumble founder, Whitney Wolfe Herd, as chief executive in January and the company cut a third of its workforce in February. Its share price has fallen 86 per cent since 2021. Match group, which owns Tinder, OK Cupid and Hinge, has seen similar falls.