As recently announced, the benevolent folks at Tinder are bestowing upon their users the gift of Super Boosts (not to be confused with the much cooler gift of Berserker Rage). For the low, low price of 30 dollars, you get 180 minutes of prime time boosting that is supposed to net you “up to” 100 times more profile views (not to be confused with the much cooler matches) than regular old free Tinder swiping.

That is certainly a fantastic deal compared to the measly 10x views you would get when using regular boosts, as long as you discount the fact that a Super Boost is only cheaper than the ten regular boosts required for equivalent results, because Tinder recently jacked up the prices of regular boosts to almost double, which was likely at least in part done to justify Super Boost prices. Both the price increase of regular Boosts, as well as the introduction of Super boosts may also serve rebalancing match rates, as explained in the linked post.

While Tinder’s blog post is still saying that “These upgrades will begin testing in select markets soon.“, it would appear American r/SwipeHelper redditors already have the option to test Super Boosts. If you cave and buy one, be sure to report back with your findings. 🙂

Tinder Super Boost Known Details:

Functionality

180 minutes of boosting, only possible during “prime time”, should result in 100 times more profile views and possibly matches.

Price

$30 a pop, or more, depending on age and location.

Release Date

Already available in the U.S., albeit for testing purposes. Worldwide release outstanding.

[Opinion] Super Boosts – An Admission of Defeat?

Now this may seem a bit far fetched, but hear me out. My first thought when I read Tinder’s Super Boost announcement was “So, they’re admitting defeat, huh.”

Why?

As you’ve probably noticed yourself, getting matches on Tinder has been getting harder and harder (for guys) and one of the main reasons I suspect for this is a steep decline in active female users, leading to a vicious circle that leaves the average guy high and dry in terms of matches. Pretty much since their inception, boosts have been the only reliable way of getting any matches for many users. What a coincidence.

Now, the combination of a dwindling number of female users and a high number of men using boosts may have resulted in an unsustainable ecosystem where even those paying for matches don’t get (m)any as the competition has become too great, with boosters pushing each other and especially free users back in the queue.

Doom in the form of users leaving in droves on the horizon, Tinder may have figured out a way to at least somewhat rebalance and stabilize their little dating microcosm: Increase prices of regular boosts by a high enough factor to reduce competition, and introduce a Mega Super Boost to all but guarantee matches to those willing to really pay for them.

If their plan succeeds, Tinder may have averted disaster. At least momentarily. They will have also reinforced the budding two class society in their dating app, as only people for whom thirty dollars is peanuts will have any kind of good experience on the app. The kind of experience Tinder used to offer for free in its prime of ca. 2015, that is. Keep in mind even if you only use Super Boost once a month, that’s $360 a year. Which is on top of any subscriptions you may already be paying for. If they weren’t so ludicrously inefficient and ineffective, you may consider using an actual old fashioned paid dating site like match.com for that kind of money.

Conclusion

To me, this is only the latest of many signs that paint a clear picture: Tinder is on the decline, and may fail soon, if they can’t pull it around and restore the app to its former glory. With the suits of the match group in charge, and given their track record of ruining everything they touch, I somehow doubt they can.

If they continue down this path, most users will probably soon wander off to apps like Bumble or Hinge., which would not concern the match group as much as you might think, seeing as they already own the latter. Right now Hinge is the better app, but just wait until they reach critical mass in terms of user numbers and the suits start implementing clever monetization strategies.

Solution: Somebody has to develop and successfully launch a Tinder 2014/15 clone without any additional gimmicks and refuse selling out to the match group. Contact me if you did or think you can 😉

Meanwhile, if you have anything to add, feel free to leave a comment below, or visit the SwipeHelper Subreddit. See you there