Hinge has built its brand around helping

people get off the app and into real

relationships. Yahoo Finance's Brian

Sozzi sat down with Hinge CEO Jackie

Jantos at Cannes Lions to discuss how

the company's differentiating itself in

an increasingly competitive dating

market.

>> Yeah, I mean Hinge has always been a

dating app for the highest intentioned

dater. So, we you know, you may have

heard that we're the dating app designed

to be deleted. That's a philosophy for

how we build our product. So, it's

literally built to encourage people off

the app and into great dates. We measure

that. Our North Star metric is great

dates and it's a follow-up survey. Did

you go on a date? If you say yes, we

say, "Do you want to go on a second

date?" And if you say yes, that checks

that box. So, that is the role that we

play inside of the portfolio.

>> What How are you different compared to I

guess some of the other apps?

>> We're very different. So,

and that's very much by design. So, for

example, when you're onboarding on

Hinge, the difference starts right there

because we want to make sure that you're

there looking for an intentional

relationship. We lose about 20% of

people who decide not to go through that

onboarding and we're fine with that

because we're building a community of

daters who are all there for the same

purpose. And what onboarding is doing is

helping you build out a really rich

profile. And the profile is what's very

different about Hinge. So, we're asking

for photographs, we're asking for

prompts. These are icebreaker questions.

You can respond to a prompt with a voice

voice prompt, you know. We're also

putting modulars in there like modules

in there like date ideas. Do you want to

go on a date? If so, like when and

where? And then all of this builds out a

really rich expression of who you are as

a profile for someone else to look at.

So, when I'm looking at your profile on

Hinge, I might see

>> I don't have a profile.

>> [laughter]

>> I don't have one. Okay?

>> Hypothetically speaking.

>> He's being very, very clear.

>> Hypothetically speaking, if I'm looking

at your profile on Hinge, I'm I'm to see

a couple of photos. I might see a voice

prompt. So, you've like literally like

me heard your voice respond to an

icebreaker question. I might see some

written content. And then I It's not a

wholesale yes or no. I can engage with

pieces of that content. I could like

something and provide a comment to it.

So, the purpose of Hinge right from the

jump is to get people to interact with

each other with more intentionality.

>> Is that what is missing on

so many other apps? And again, I am not

on this app. I haven't used a dating app

since maybe I was in early college. And

I know it was it was on Match, like not

on it. But, um

it was always just a swipe and go meet

up somewhere. But, it's I'm listening to

you and it sounds like it is a more

more of a time investment, but it's more

personal than it has ever been before.

>> You know, I would say the biggest

difference about Hinge is for a long

time we've been focusing on the outcome

of the human who's using our app. And

that outcome is going on a great date.

And so, when you're focused on that

outcome quite singularly, you're

designing the experience to get to that

outcome. You're measuring that outcome.

And word of mouth of people who meet

their partners on Hinge is the greatest

growth driver to our business. And so,

the user growth follows, the revenue

growth follows. So, it's really that

singular focus on a high-intent user

experience.

>> Um what have been some of the biggest

features that you've rolled out this

year? And as you look at your product

roadmap over the next 18 months, what

else do you want to launch?

>> Oh my goodness. We are uh we have real

product momentum right now. It's been a

very exciting moment to be in the

category and an exciting moment to be at

Hinge. We just rolled out a feature

called Signals. This is a feature that

was built really on the insight that

women in dating and many places in life,

if I'm honest, uh feel like they put in

a disproportionate amount of emotional

labor and aren't seeing that returned

from other people. And so, it's really a

feature that celebrates effort and

thoughtfulness and badges uh users on

Hinge with a signal. And that signal,

uh, is a sort of a heart badge and it

lets you know that this is a user who is

um putting effort and intentionality

into Hinge. They have,

uh, verified themselves through face

check. They have filled out a really

rich profile. They have actually looked

through your profile before liking, uh,

a a module content. So, it's really

something that's delivering against that

promise of I'm putting of effort into

looking for someone, uh, and I want to

know that other people are putting in an

equal amount of effort and I want to

reward them for that.

>> Is it super I just a lot of competition

in this space. Is it super difficult to

innovate?

>> No.

I think what's challenging is

understanding what are the needs of

every next generation. You know, I've

spent my career at the intersection of

global brands, technology, connection,

and culture, you know, and how all those

things come together and how you're able

to understand where your audience is

going and what their needs are. Dating

is a an incredibly human category. You

know, we're connecting to people in a

relationship and here at Can I've had a

number of people come up to me,

just to tell me that they met their

partner on Hinge and to thank me for

that. You know, it's it's an

overwhelming thing. And I would say

that, you know, if you're uh, doing your

job, you're sort of looking around the

corner at what are the needs of the next

generation. So, I look at Gen Z, for

example, they are, um, have much more

fluid identities than generations in the

past. And by the way, this is will

continue with Gen Alpha. If you look at,

for example, the LGBTQI+ spectrum and

how people identify, we're seeing more,

uh, more, uh, experimentation and, you

know, growth there, particularly in the

bisexual segment of young women

identifying as bisexual. So, innovation

in the category comes from a deep

understanding of who your core audience

is and what sort of forces and culture

they are rejecting and pushing against

and using as ways to evolve how they're

living and dating and how they want to

connect with others and then building

against that.

>> Uh I imagine you have an amazing,

interesting, fascinating, mind-blowing

data on your platform. I'm a millennial,

an aging millennial, uh but a still

good-looking one. But nonetheless, how

how is this next generation dating

differently

than the millennial generation? When I

was dating, let's say in high school, I

would go to a restaurant, spend 2 hours,

and then we go home. Maybe we do it

again, maybe we don't, whatever it was.

Is there still that formality to it?

>> Yeah, you know, I think one thing that

is uh acutely different with this

generation is they are experiencing a

crisis of loneliness. Uh they grew up

during a pandemic, their peak dating

years in their late teens and early 20s

when you were sort of hanging out in the

way you just described. They didn't

experience that. They were in lockdown.

And those are years for figuring out who

you are, what you like, who you want to

be with, how to flirt, kind of all of

that. So, without that, you know, paired

with the fact that they're spending a

thousand less hours in person with

others than two decades before them of

the same age. That's two plus hours per

day spent literally on a phone most

likely in isolation. So, the core

ability to walk up to a stranger and say

hi, you know, that confidence and that

resilience to work your way through that

just doesn't really exist. So, it's

very, very different.

>> Nobody You just made me realize that

nobody taught me how to flirt. I don't

even know how I because I was still

coming up there was no internet like

really when I was coming up. I was

>> Yeah, well, you probably experimented

and tried. And so, you know, so they

didn't necessarily have that experience.

And you know, what we really see is they

are really deeply wanting to be in a

intimate relationship with another

person and they really want this. They

don't necessarily know their way into

it. And so, dating apps provide a really

clear avenue for exploration of dating

someone.

>> Real quickly, last one. Is there a such

thing as a perfect dating profile? And

if so, how would I go about making one?

>> You know, we have uh a lot of features

uh that can help extract from you more

information because a great profile is a

rich profile. It leverages all of the

tools that we have in the arsenal. You

know, you are um filling out a prompt

response with your voice. You're adding

photographs that show who you are, show

interests that you have, you know,

things that you love to do. And

basically, a great profile is one that

gives someone else a good imagination of

who you are and what you're like because

you want them to imagine what it could

be like meeting you on a date.

>> Well, look, if I had a Hinge profile, I

would actually use our photo. Now, here,

I want people to know that, "Hey, I get

to hang out with Ken and talk to like

really cool people such as yourself." Um

congrats on this new role. Look forward

to to follow your journey. I appreciate

it.

>> Thanks.