Bumble
p/bumble
Dating, friend-finding, and career-building in one app
Rob Isaacs
Bumble — Dating, friend-finding, and career-building in one app
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Bumble is the first app to bring dating, friend-finding, and career-building into a single social networking platform. It has changed the way people date, find friends, and the perception of meeting online, for the better. Women make the first move.

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Ryan Hoover
Just signed up. The on-boarding is simple, using Facebook to populate photos and make assumptions as to what gender and age I'm interested in. I went to my profile to change the photos it automatically chose and found it frustrating that I couldn't choose pics from Facebook (only my camera roll) or reorder the photos. Understandably, they're releasing this a little early. I like the "women choose first" mechanic, which I've seen in other apps. I also like that it doesn't provide an overwhelming number of options. By restricting the number of options like Hitch and Coffee Meets Bagel, it feels like less of an investment to quickly check the app. That said, it success entirely depends on the number and "quality" of matches. I'll report back in a few weeks. :)
Rob Isaacs
@rrhoover good to see more stuff released 'early', but i think the limited photo options will be disappointing for a lot of users. my favourite part of the app was seeing the main screen - it's a great UI that I can see working really well in other markets, e.g. retail have you added this to the "Tinder for X" collection yet?
Philip
@isaacsrda I agree minus the photos part. We already know everyone is cool so we dont need to see all your photo albums— we already have instagram for that. 😃
Rob Isaacs
How do we think the 'Girls have to message first" will impact user demographic, the 'typical' conversation & levels of engagement? Is Whitney or any other Bumble-rs on PH?
Kiki Schirr
@isaacsrda I think this is genius. As a formerly frequent user of dating apps, I can attest that I and my female friends would NOT message first, even if we really thought a profile was great. This removes the stigma, while simultaneously turning the painful contact process that guys go through on its head.
Rob Isaacs
@KikiSchirr yep, completely. also they've managed to keep the tinder swipe UX without it feeling cheap. if anything, it's better.
Hanh Nguyen
@KikiSchirr @isaacsrda Female point of view here: I think it is genius. Girls want to message first, we just don't want to feel like we're too forward (which can be a turn off for guys). Being it a rule makes it less awkward for girls.
Taylor Crane
@isaacsrda I'll agree with the other repliers and say that this feature is so genius. I've felt for a while that this sort of restriction could provide so much value to dating apps. Really excited to see if it works in practice.
Angelo Milanetti
@KikiSchirr @isaacsrda you're right, this is the genius idea of Bumble. As a male, I tried tinder a bit, but my matches would never message first... or show not that great interest... This way female will feel more committed. It's a win win
Taylor Hou
So what's gonna entice people to download and use this as the primary dating app vs tinder? I see this as best case, people have both. Almost like Uber and Lyft. If you have one, you very likely have the other and if things aren't up to snuff on one, you just simply open the other. The real question is which do people prefer. In the Uber/Lyft scenario, some people go to Uber first and others go to Lyft first. Many times it has to do with perceived price/quality and secondarily it is availability. Would love to hear from a Founder.
Rob Isaacs
@taylorhou think there are loads of reasons why Tinder won't be the forever primary dating app, naturally incl. evolution of single to not single. the UI is way more subtle for one, which probably will lead to more fluid conversation. also think this market isn't really about one or the other, but allows for multiple apps that people can easily use as frequent or infrequently as they like..
Ross Rojek
Much like dating sites on the web, I think we'll see lots more dating apps, targeting specific niche markets. Just because Match and Matchmaker are huge, didn't stop Plenty of Fish or OK Cupid from launching and finding a market.
Asher Snyder
As one of the pioneers of this space and co-founder of Mesh, I think it's pretty interesting overall. Nothing here is really unique compared to other apps with a near identical feature set, such as Siren, Anti-date, and more. However, the sensationalism of the story, Tinder vs Bumble, former founders, etc. essentially has the press salivating over the story/conflict and setting Bumble up as heir apparent. Which honestly is a bit unfair to the other players in the space hustling every day, but such is life. All the exposure has all but guaranteed Bumble will at least do okay (due to likely userbase), regardless of anything else. I have some interesting thoughts on how I think it'll do based on its feature set, norms in dating, gender roles, etc. but I'll leave that to a more elaborate blog post in the future.
Rob Isaacs
@asherraph Hey Asher - let us know when you do the blog post - as be great to read your perspective on this & how you think this fits into the evolution of online dating. Definitely submitted it due to the sensationalism of the story, it's a great app/biz to dissect.
Ryan
Really not sure about showing job details. Interesting to see how this matures, and if it can poach users from Happn & Tinder
Rob Isaacs
@ryanamurphy check the link i put at the top re: how WW did the early user acquisition for Tinder..
Daniel Jefferies
This is brilliant. Empower females > attract the best females > attract the best males > huge advantage.
Andrew Torba
Curious to see if this conflicts with any non-compete agreements.
Rob Isaacs
@torbahax definitely, i mainly submitted this as i was excited to hear everyone's input into the controversy. people are being quite quiet for now..
Rob Isaacs
@torbahax definitely, i mainly submitted this as i was excited to hear everyone's input into the controversy. people are being quite quiet for now..
AJ Adejare
The problem with Bumble is the same with Tinder and others: No real emotional connect. Gamify who you want to see and hoping that you two match really isn't envoking of communication.
Casey Newton
Would definitely use this when there is surge pricing on Tinder
Anuj Adhiya
@caseynewton Surely you meant "urge" pricing :D
Rob Isaacs
@AnujAdhiya @caseynewton have you seen Happn? I think the pricing system works well. It surely comes down to content & experience at the end of the day - & to make sure I'm not being rude, by content I very much mean the likelihood to match with someone who you're interested in.
Nicholas Colletti
So with the "women choose first" requirement, it seems this app will just target the heterosexual market?
Eric Futoran (Fuf)
I'm curious to hear about when someone eventually figures out how to get around this... Let the cat and mouse games begin!
Fajar Siddiq
Love this!
Sara Khan
I think this will be a fabulous app in future ... Everyone need friend company now a days..