How Bumble continues to foster genuine dating connections online

Since the first dating app, Match.com, was created in 1995, finding love virtually has changed aplenty. Created in 2014 by Whitney Wolfe Herd, former VP of Marketing at the dating app Tinder, who sued the latter for sexual discrimination and harassment, Bumble was deemed a “feminist dating app” where only women could make the first contact in heterosexual matches. 

Nine years later, the business of virtual dating apps has seen an explosion of entrants catering to different countries and clientele with up to 1,500 dating apps and websites available in the world. In the United States alone, the number of users is expected to reach 35 million in 2024.

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With singles spoilt for choice, we speak to Lucille McCart, APAC communications director, to find out how Bumble remains competitive and continues to pave the way for more genuine connections online. 

Dating apps may seem commonplace now, but that hasn’t always been the case. What was the market like when Bumble first launched? 

The dating landscape has changed immeasurably over the last decade. Let’s start with when Bumble first launched in December 2014 — at the time our CEO and founder Whitney Wolfe Herd said: “So many of the smart, wonderful women in my life were still waiting around for men to ask them out, to take their numbers, or to start up a conversation on a dating app. For all the advances women had been making in workplaces and corridors of power, the gender dynamics of dating and romance still seemed so outdated.” So her idea was to flip all that on its head and create a platform where women made the first move, with the hypothesis being that this would lead to kinder and more respectful conversations and relationships.

When Bumble first launched, there was a stigma attached to meeting people online. This was due to both the limited products on the marketplace, the unfamiliar nature of looking for a romantic partner on the internet, and some hesitancy about whether it was safe and if you could find a quality match.

In just a few short years, that has swiftly changed, in large part due to the pandemic, when dating apps were a lifeline for social connection and meeting new people virtually. 

It is also worth noting that Bumble came onto the market prior to the #MeToo movement that put conversations around gender at the forefront of cultural conversations globally. So asking women to make the first move toward a romantic connection was truly revolutionary — and in many ways it still is. 

How has the market for dating apps changed since then? 

It has been a privilege to see how women have been empowered on Bumble to make the first move and be in the driver’s seat of their dating lives. From the beginning, we have believed that by asking a woman to take this small step on a dating app, it can inspire her to make the first move in all parts of her life. Countless Bumble babies, engagements, marriages, and anniversaries later, our concept is here to stay.

As the director of APAC, what are some things that Bumble does differently in this part of the world? 

When it comes to the Bumble community in the Asia Pacific region, there are a few ways that audiences in Southeast Asia differ from our more westernised markets, such as Australia and New Zealand. For example, in Singapore and the Philippines, religion is very top of mind; on average, people in our Asian markets adopt the religion badge at a higher rate, indicating that this is a more important factor when assessing compatibility with potential matches.

Shifting cultural norms around dating and gender roles is an enormous task, so a lot of our campaign strategies focus on normalising making connections online while also challenging some of the more traditional ideas around relationships and meeting people. 

In fact, when it comes to our most recent campaign around kindness, some interesting insights came up about the Bumble community in Singapore in particular. Singaporeans are really thinking differently about what makes a great romantic partner, and more than a third of people said that wider education on gender equality and women's empowerment has contributed to this shift.

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For Singaporeans who are single, 81 per cent say being kind is more important than physical attributes in a potential partner, and the top two defining characteristics of kindness are honesty and compassion. Partners who respect personal space and boundaries and those who value equality in a relationship also rated highly.

The virtual world can be a cruel place. How does one engineer kindness in interactions on a platform where anyone can hide behind anonymity? 

First, we start with a rigorous focus on safety, which has been central to our mission from day one. A community where people feel safe and are able to be their authentic selves leads to more positive experiences. 

Some of the safety features we have built include robust Block & Report tools to help monitor any bad behaviour, Photo Verification tools that allow users to add a “verified user” badge to their profile, Voice Call and Video Chat features that let you communicate with your match without having to exchange phone numbers or other personal information, and a feature called Private Detector that significantly limits the ability to send unsolicited nude images through Bumble. 

In terms of how to build kindness into interactions between our community members, we recently launched a feature called Compliments, which gives people on Bumble the opportunity to be even more intentional about starting the conversation in a positive way. Compliments is a message before match feature that allows members to stand out by sending a note before connecting.

Has Bumble been able to measure the effectiveness of these measures/campaigns? 

One of the ways that we know that kindness matters on Bumble is that members who engage with our Compliments feature have a statistically increased likelihood of matching, and are more likely to have a good chat. So people are responding well to this feature that is centred around kindness and compliments. 

How does the app encourage genuine connections? 

I think one of the most common misconceptions about dating apps is that it is all about the photos and that the matching that takes place is very superficial. We know from our previously mentioned research that this is not the case, given that so many single people in Singapore say that traits like kindness are more important than physical appearance. 

Physical attraction obviously has a place in romantic connections, but relationships are also built around things like shared interests, similar lifestyles, and shared values. On Bumble, we have a number of different Interest Badge options that allow you to declare your interests, passions, and the things that you stand for to help you display who you are to potential partners and find people with whom you know you will have things in common. 

For example, my profile tells people that I am an Aries, drink alcohol socially, don’t smoke, love cooking, watch true crime, drink coffee, and am passionate about LGBTQ+ rights and feminism. You can also elaborate on all of these badges in your bio and Profile Prompts!

What are some of the challenges Bumble has faced trying to foster more kindness in the app’s interactions? 

At Bumble, we are committed to helping people create safe and healthy relationships. That doesn’t mean that bad behaviour doesn’t occur on occasion. 

We have built robust Block & Report tools, and we ask our community to report any behaviour that makes them feel uncomfortable or unsafe to us so that we can take action. Reports are always kept confidential so that the reported individual doesn’t know who reported them, and we encourage our community to use this function. This feature is easily accessible at any point in your dating journey within the app.

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At Bumble, we have made a commitment to empower women and provide a safe platform for people to meet each other, which includes a human support network that works around the clock to enforce our code of conduct. In addition, we have proactive measures in place to try and prevent instances of hate speech or harassing language. 

Are there any plans for the future to help its users show more kindness on the app?

Kindness and respect have always been core values at Bumble, so as our product and business continue to evolve, these values will remain at the forefront of everything we do and all that we build.