Tinder CEO and Founder Sean Rad, based on three years' worth of data with over 10 billion matches, told Cosmopolitan magazine (via Business Insider) "The data shows this: When your photo expresses something about your interests - like a skier skiing - or something about your personality, you do better. You do better as in you get more matches. I always tell people to be yourself."
Rad added that the worst kinds of photos on Tinder are where people try to be fake. "The model-y poses never work," he adds. Adding further, Rad said that several users tend to upload their photos with other people in a group, something which also doesn't work - users usually swipe past the initial image to other photos to discover whose profile it actually is. According to Rad, "Shots that display what you look like but [in] the environment you live in, and your interests - they work." Headshots are also a no no.
Talking about Tinder's algorithm, Rad said that it tries to find matches for users that they'd like to meet in the real world. However, some users need more help, and Tinder does what it can to nudge matches by boosting discoverability.
"About 89 percent of our users, just through normal behaviour, find matches and have meaningful connections. But there are a group of users that despite swiping, I think, can't find a match. We give them a little boost to get extra love and attention and hopefully they end up meeting someone," added Rad.
He went on to suggest that Tinder's success metric is getting the user to "meet someone." He said, "Success is ultimately defined by how much real-world interaction we created."
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