Thirty-one theses on dating capitalism
02 / 31
PART ONE — THE PORTFOLIO
I
Revenue up, payers down
II
Success ends subscriptions
III
Manufactured scarcity
IV
One owner, many brands
Hidden ranking, patented swipe
VI
Volume produces refusal
VII
The app is the destination
VIII
Demographic pricing
IX
Fabricated interest
X
Safety became an upgrade
XI
Intentionality drives growth
XII
Queer platforms consolidated
XIII
Contraction intensifies extraction
XIV
Free users are inventory
XV
Global risk, concentrated revenue
XVI
Health data as telemetry
XVII
Data as national security
XVIII
Membership reveals identity
XIX
Identification without breach
XX
Profiles sold as commodities
XXI
The platform remembers more
XXII
Community versus its workers
XXIII
Extraction is optional
XXIV
Refusal is not innocence
XXV
The grid is optional
XXVI
Filtering is not sorting
XXVII
The applications work
XXVIII
Lifeline and trap
XXIX
Loneliness is the market
XXX
Companionship without reciprocity
XXXI
Named, not stopped
THESIS II
PART ONE — THE PORTFOLIO
The revenue model is indifferent to whether a user succeeds, and is mildly penalised when one does.
A successful relationship removes two potential subscribers.
Two people who stay together cancel two subscriptions. Financial journalism has put the arithmetic bluntly: each successful match costs the platform not one customer but two. No Match Group executive has ever said this on the record, and this manifesto does not claim otherwise. The claim is narrower and harder to answer. A subscription business reporting payers, revenue per payer and churn as its primary disclosures is measuring retention, and retention and resolution point in opposite directions.
EVIDENCE SNAPSHOT
2 exits
SUCCESSFUL MATCH
A successful relationship may end two subscriptions
Payers/churn
PLATFORM METRICS
Retention is tracked through payers and churn
Exit
USER GOAL
The user’s desired outcome is leaving the product
Opposed
STRUCTURAL TENSION
Platform retention and user resolution point opposite ways
KEY FINDING
Two people who stay together cancel two subscriptions.
IMPLICATION
The user’s ideal outcome and the platform’s preferred commercial outcome do not fully align.
Source apparatus
SOURCE 01
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JOURNALISM / SCHOLARSHIP
Rosalsky, G. (2024, February 13). The dating app paradox: Why dating apps may be worse than ever. Planet Money. NPR.
SOURCE 02
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JOURNALISM / SCHOLARSHIP
Srnicek, N. (2016). Platform capitalism. Polity Press.