[9] Sean Rad launched Tinder at a hackathon at the Hatch Labs incubator in West Hollywood, Los Angeles County, California, United States in 2012.

[32] On the company's third-quarter earnings call, Match Group's CEO Greg Blatt described the popular dating app Tinder as a "rocket" and the "future of this business.

[42] Initially, it was available only in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Indonesia, Italy, Mexico, the Philippines, and Sweden, and did not include special features such as "Super Likes" or "Tinder Boost".

[48] This boost in revenue and profits came as Tinder's paid member count rose by a record 476,000 to more than 2.5 million, mainly due to product changes and technology improvements.

[56] Tinder's subscriber growth led Match Group's shares to the best single-day gain in their history on August 7,[57] adding more than $5 billion to the company's market capitalization.

[65][66][67][68] On November 4, Tinder reported higher than expected third-quarter earnings and significant platform growth amid the pandemic: the app grew its user base by 15% and its subscriber count by 16% since the third quarter of 2019.

According to Business Insider, Tinder's growth was fueled by a large population that turned to online dating in response to increasing social isolation and health risks.

[70] The app reported that month an all-time high in users ready to "go on a date" as opposed to virtual and online chats during the height of the pandemic in the U.S.

[71] In March 2021, Tinder announced a service that would let users run background checks on potential matches after an investment in Garbo, a company that "collects public records and reports of violence or abuse, including arrests, convictions, restraining orders, harassment, and other violent crimes".

The company is also testing Tinder Coins, an in-app currency users can earn as a reward for good behavior, allowing them to pay for the platform's premium services.

[77] In May 2023, Match Group announced its intent to restrict access to Tinder in Russia and withdraw from the Russian market by June 30, 2023, citing the need to protect human rights.

[81][82] According to Tinder, the addition of a feature that allows friends to select compatible matches makes online dating safer[83] because the "team-based" approach helps users mitigate potential risks associated with interacting with strangers.

[98] The monetization of the site has come through leaving the basic app free and then adding different in-app purchase options for additional functions and features.

It has sparked debate by restricting the number of "likes" a free user may offer in a given length of time, as well as charging varying amounts for different age groups.

[110] An ad campaign launched by "The Barn" internship program of Bartle Bogle Hegarty (BBH) used Tinder profiles to promote their NYC Puppy Rescue Project.

[113] On December 11, 2020, Tinder announced a partnership with popular artist Megan Thee Stallion for the Put Yourself Out There Challenge, giving $10,000 to users who made unique profiles.

[114] On June 30, 2014, former vice president of marketing Whitney Wolfe filed a sexual harassment and sex discrimination suit in Los Angeles County Superior Court against IAC-owned Match Group, Tinder's parent company.

The lawsuit alleged that Rad and Mateen had engaged in discrimination, sexual harassment, and retaliation against her, while Tinder's corporate supervisor, IAC's Sam Yagan, did nothing.

Pambakian alleged former Match Group and IAC CEO Greg Blatt sexually assaulted her in a hotel room after a company party in December 2016.

[120][121] In August 2018, Rad, Mateen, and eight other former and current Tinder executives filed suit against Match Group and IAC, alleging that they manipulated the 2017 valuation of the company to deny them billions of dollars they were owed.

[122] The suit charges that Match Group and IAC executives deliberately manipulated the data given to the banks, overestimating expenses and underestimating potential revenue growth, to keep the 2017 valuation artificially low.

[128] In July 2017, a study published in Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing found that Tinder users are excessively willing to disclose their personally identifiable information.

A Prison Policy Initiative spokesperson claimed that because the U.S. applies laws unequally, introducing criminal background checks to dating apps filters out marginalized groups.

"[138] In late 2019, articles in Reuters and The Independent focused on Tinder's lack of action to correct the issue of transgender users' accounts being reported and banned.

Relationship experts interviewed by the newspaper said that users used the photos that come in succession on the app to derive cues as to social status, confidence levels, and personal interests.

[146] According to University of Texas at Austin psychologist David Buss, "Apps like Tinder and OkCupid give people the impression that there are thousands or millions of potential mates out there.

When there is ... a perceived surplus of women, the whole mating system tends to shift towards short-term dating,"[147] and there is a feeling of disconnect when choosing future partners.

[150] In August 2015, journalist Nancy Jo Sales wrote in Vanity Fair that Tinder operates within a culture of users seeking sex without relationships.

[151] Psychologists Douglas T. Kenrick, Sara E. Gutierres, Laurie L. Goldberg, Steven Neuberg, Kristin L. Zierk, and Jacquelyn M. Krones have demonstrated experimentally that after exposure to photos of or stories about desirable potential mates, people decrease their ratings of commitment to their partners.

[155] By sending out questionnaires to frequent Tinder users, the researchers discovered that the reason men tended to like a large proportion of the women they saw was to increase their chances of a match.