约会软件Tinder谋求转型

    我看起来怎么样？

    不好。不好。不好。好！不好……

    这或许就是用户使用Tinder时的思维过程。这款移动应用提供人们的照片，让用户根据他们的外表吸引力，用“好”或“不好”来进行点评。这款去年10月上线的iPhone应用与Facebook绑定，展示了用户相册中的照片。它的好处在于避开了令人尴尬的拒绝：用户对某人的照片点击“好”，而如果那个人刚好也喜欢该用户，那就“配对成功”，双方就可以聊天了。如果配对不成功，一方不会知道另一方的存在。某人点击“不好”时，用户绝对不会知道有这回事。

    这种做法——在网络约会迅速增长的时代——似乎很奏效。市场调研公司IBISWorld今年3月份发布的报告显示，全球“约会服务”行业的营收为20亿美元，其中11.3亿美元（占到56.3%）来自于在线约会。影视界巨子巴里•迪勒的IAC公司拥有婚恋网站Match.com和在线约会网站OkCupid，在这个市场上处于领先地位，市场份额达到23.7%；在线约会网站eHarmony位居次席，市场份额为13.6%。

    与提供约会对象综合性资料（OkCupid普通用户自愿回答233个有关自身情况的问题）的网站不同，Tinder完全靠照片，没有个人最喜欢的电影列表，也没有默认的爱好菜单可供选择，除了性别和年龄以外没有其他的“搜索”过滤设置。用户只能看到对方的名字，年龄，与自己所处位置的距离，照片和共同的Facebook好友或爱好。

    Tinder来自于IAC公司的研发部门。“我们让它保留了某种直接连接的特性，使它成为不会与市场领导者发生关系的全新产品，这种做法更加吸引人，”IAC公司旗下Match.com和OkCupid的CEO萨姆•亚根说。“但我们一直试图在Match网站上打造某种新东西。去年底，我们开始与洛杉矶的团队合作开发这种产品，于是Tinder诞生了。”亚根认为，吸引人们的正是Tinder的用户体验。“News Feed是我们考虑过的东西之一。现在它已经变得无处不在。Instagram拥有令人入迷的用户体验。Tinder也有。”他说。Tinder不愿公布下载数据，但声称已经匹配了5,800万对，照片评价次数达到58亿次。联合创始人兼CEO肖恩•雷德表示，他听说有20对男女因为使用这项服务而订婚。

    类似的应用和网站还有很多。Bang with Friends面向热衷于性爱的人；Coffee Meets Bagel提供午餐时间约会服务；Kisstagram是依托于Instagram的现代版交友网站Hot or Not。有些应用和网站引发了争议，Tinder本身已经作为所谓的“连接”应用取得了成功（雷德排斥这个词语）。“按照我的经验来看，我在Tinder上与女生聊天时，我们双方都十分清楚我们这样做是为了什么，”纽约的25岁学生马修说。他估计，他已经把在这款应用上认识的70%女性带回了家。“没人会非常严肃地看待它，这就是它令人满意的地方。”

    How do I look?

    Nope. Nope. Nope. YES! Nope …

    That might be your thought process while using Tinder, a mobile app that offers up photos of people to judge with a "yes" or a "nope" -- depending on their attractiveness. The iPhone app, which debuted in October, connects to Facebook (FB) and displays photos from users' albums. Its genius is in the avoidance of outright rejection: When users clicks "yes" to someone who has also liked them, it's a "match" and both users gain the ability to chat with each other. If nothing happens, the other person may simply have not seen you yet. Users never find out explicitly when someone clicked no.

    That formula -- in an era when online dating is growing rapidly -- seems to work. According to a March report from IBISWorld, $1.13 billion or 56.3% of the international $2 billion-in-revenue "dating services" industry is online dating. Barry Diller's IAC (IACI), which owns Match.com and OkCupid, has a dominant 23.7% of that market; eHarmony is closest after that, with 13.6% of the dating services pie.

    Unlike sites that provide a comprehensive dating profile (the average OkCupid user voluntarily answers 233 questions about themselves) Tinder is strictly photo-based. There is no list of the person's favorite movies, no default menu of hobbies to select from, no "looking for" filters beyond gender and age range. Users see only the person's first name, age, distance from their location, photos, and mutual Facebook friends or interests.

    Tinder came out of IAC's research and development arm. "We keep it sort of on the DL because it's much sexier for it to be a totally fresh startup that has nothing to do with the market leader," says Sam Yagan, CEO of IAC's Match.com and OkCupid. "But we're constantly trying to build new startup-y stuff at Match, and this is a product that we started working on late last year with the team in L.A., and it popped." In Yagan's view, it's the user experience that has hooked people. "News Feed is one of those things that comes to mind, that has now become ubiquitous. Instagram had some UX attributes that made it addictive. Tinder has that," he says. Tinder declined to release download figures but claims 58 million matches have been made, out of 5.8 billion ratings. Co-founder and CEO Sean Rad claims he's heard of 20 engagements resulting from using the service.

    There have been a number of similar apps and websites. Bang with Friends is aimed at those interested in having sex; Coffee Meets Bagel books a lunchtime date; Kisstagram is a contemporary "Hot or Not" based on Instagram. Some have created controversy, and Tinder itself has achieved its success as what could be called a "hookup" app. (Rad rejects that term.) "My experience has been that when I'm chatting with a girl on Tinder, we both really know what we're there for," says Matthew E., a 25-year-old student in New York. He estimates he's gone home with 70% of women he's met up with from the app. "Nobody takes it very seriously, and that's what makes it great."