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Tinder is a location-based dating and social discovery application (using Facebook) that facilitates communication between mutually interested users, allowing matched users to chat. Originally incubated inside Hatch Labs, the app was launched in 2012, and by 2014, it was registering about one billion “swipes” per day. Tinder was among the first “swiping apps”, where the user uses a swiping motion to choose between the photos of other users: swiping right for potentially good matches and swiping left on a photo to move to the next one. In 2015, Tinder acquired the messaging company, Chill.
In a new turn of events on Friday the popular mobile dating app unveiled a new feature that allows members to play Cupid by sharing profiles of potential matches with their friends. Spot someone in the app you think a friend might like, tap the "share" button and the app will fire off a link to your friend. The new function is part of Tinder's effort to reposition itself in the world of dating, a realm it's already disrupted with a service that some say promotes hookup culture. The Los Angeles-based company upended the online dating model of serving profiles through algorithms by teaching us to swipe right if we like someone and left if we don't. Tinder's simplicity and meteoric popularity have been called both revolutionary and a threat to relationships as we know them.
The company also courted controversy in November when founder and CEO Sean Rad mistook the word "sodomy" for "sapiosexual." The unfortunate remark came just as parent company Match Group readied for its initial public offering. "It was one of the most popular requests from our users," said Rosette Pambakian, a vice president at Tinder. "So we are testing it."
A 2014 study by researchers at Duke University and Harvard Business School found that people who regularly introduce people to others are happier with their lives than the general population, which they attributed to matchmaking. In fact, that study's authors compared the happiness achieved through setting up friends to exercising, though they noted the latter requires more energy.
Tinder is slowly rolling out this the newly added feature to share other people's profiles with friends. Currently, a small number of users will spot a "share" icon under some profiles and tapping it lets you send a temporary link to that profile via text.
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