Under the Influence

This dating app aims to be deleted

Find love and dump the app. One popular dating service boasts an unusual marketing angle.
Stock image of hands holding a smartphone with a heart on it, indicating a dating app.
(iStock/Getty Images)

A popular dating app has an interesting marketing angle. It's called Hinge.

It bills itself as: "The dating app designed to be deleted." Meaning it will help you find your soul mate, then you can dump the app.

The founder of Hinge, Jordan McLeod, was a Harvard student who had lost the love of his life due to his drinking problem, so he didn't like to go to bars to meet people - now that he was sober. So he decided to create a dating app for people like him.

He managed to raise some seed money, but building an app is an expensive proposition. He and his developers were quickly running out of money. So McLeod decided to throw a Hail Mary pass. He wanted to take the company's last $25,000 and throw a big launch party. They were just waiting for the Apple app store to accept Hinge's application.

But days before the party, Apple rejected the application. It was devastating news, and most of the party money had already been spent.

McLeod began to panic - he was throwing a huge launch party without an app to launch.

Then, the morning of the big party, Apple sent an email saying it had accepted Hinge.

That evening, thousands of guests partied alongside DJs and enjoyed food and drink. The day after the party, Hinge was all the rage. The dating app employs a funny advertising strategy. It has a mascot - named Hingie - which is a furry version of the app icon.


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