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Comment by Jommi | Hacker News Reader

Its crazy.

The global online dating culture / landscape / norms are currently COMPLETELY dictated by a private company from a single country.

That is absolutely insane.

What is the implication on mental health and stress if one gets banned from Match group apps for life?

Sure IRL is still there, but ABD is here to stay and is the one dictating the norms currently.

How do we solve this issue?

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Looks like Match Group owns Tinder, Hinge, OKCupid, Plenty of Fish (which is awful), as well as Match.com and a bunch I've never heard of.

Coffee Meets Bagel is independent and venture funded, though I did not find it to be a great app.

Grinder is also not owned by Match Group, but obviously that's not for most people.

There's also Feeld, which is independently owned, but mostly for couples, threesomes, kinky stuff etc.

I'd say Bumble is probably the best app out there not owned by Match Group.

And since the country of origin was mentioned, I'd add that when I was in Latin American I used Happn (very cool location-based app, independently owned) and Badoo (not bad, owned by Bumble).

So overall, I would say we're not in the dystopian phase of dating quite yet!

EDIT: Updates to add more sites and mention international stuff.

Yes like you said, there is ONE actually popular non-matchgroup app.

> What is the implication on mental health and stress if one gets banned from Match group apps for life?

I can understand someone getting banned for spamming other users with unsolicited explicit pictures, but what can get you unintentionally banned from the Match group apps for life? Has it actually happened?

I hope harassment can get you banned, especially if it's obvious and severe. I'm sure it happens, because that's how people are :(

You could get shadow-banned. If the ratio men:women is 4:1, they might prefer to have the top 50% of men get all the good leads and the bottom 50% of men talk to mostly bots or employees. It might make the website more interesting for women, which will drive engagement and earnings.

Remember also, the aim of the website is to keep you on the website, not leave the website and start a relationship. If they have a big part of the market, you will just have to put up and shut up. They might have tricks to keep you there and add a bit of noise when you seem to be dating someone long-term, like sending more explicit desireful emails to distract you with greener grass.

Just search any of the subreddits for these apps and you will find a barrage of complaints. Could be anything from pure mistaken bans from using recycled ip addresses or device ids, to low level ToS violations (using photos that arent picture of you, having an extra profile) or just somehow getting enough reports that you just get autobanned.

FYI there is no recourse for these bans.

Are there not at least 4 or 5 different competing companies in this space? Also you could, you know, go to a bar or meet people at special interest groups. I do believe that before internet dating most people had some kind of a life -- or lack of one -- and found each other through that.

> Are there not at least 4 or 5 different competing companies in this space?

No, there are a combined 4 or 5 apps that cover almost 100% of the attention in this space, and all but one are owned by the same company.

It's like antitrust is just not even a word anymore.

Pretty sure one main company owns ~80% of the dating app marketplace, though I could be wrong on the exact percentage.

I believe Badoo is also pretty huge, but I never used it. Perhaps not owned by the same company that owns Tinder.

Owned by MagicLab, which is the other second player in the market (Badoo and Bumble).

https://www.ft.com/content/1f179d7c-0249-11ea-be59-e49b2a136...

More or less a duopoly.

What's the solution to near monopoly power? Enforce existing regulations against it. Is an unregulated industry or company doing things the citizens don't like? Pester lawmakers until they regulate it.

i was inexplicably banned from using okc. wasn't really active much but that source of real 21st century socializing is effectively cut off by corporate policy.

welcome to the new age

Why?

The word 'inexplicably' means in 'in a way that cannot be explained'.

In my case, when I got shadowbanned I suspect it was due to my IP address changing after I bought a new router.

They finally fixed it after the second time I reached out to their support. Never got an apology or anything.

Bumble isn't owned by Match, so it's not a complete monopoly.

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