Today, dating apps have
become one of the most Common ways for couples to
meet. They've grown rapidly in
popularity since first Getting traction in the
2000s. And by 2017, 39% of Straight couples were
meeting online. And over half of the LGBTQ
community said they had used The apps. So it's no
surprise that making friends Online is also becoming the
norm. But not all online friends
become in-person Relationships. While a majority of teens surveyed In 2015 said they'd made
friends online, usually Through social media or
video games, only 20% ever Met those online friends in
person. Now, that's starting to
change, as some dating apps Hope to broaden their
business by becoming Friendship apps, too. I feel like in recent years
people are moving a lot. And if you go to a new
city, especially during COVID, it's very hard to
meet people, very hard. And like right now I feel
like there's less shame Because people are like,
'How else are you going to Meet people?' Now, many Gen Zers are
making friends through apps Like Bumble BFF and Meetup
and actually meeting with Them in real life. When I moved to New York
almost a year ago, I knew Essentially no one. The way I saw it, I could
either swallow my pride and Download an app to make
friends or wait to make Friends in a more so called
natural way. I was doing it when it was
still embarrassing, you Know, to admit that you
were on these dating apps. And so it's going to be the
same thing with friendships. And after the peak of the
COVID pandemic, these apps
Became more popular. Connections were lost and
people moved away, leaving Many to try friendship apps
or join Facebook groups. When you think about the
changes that the pandemic Brought, the move to remote
work, I think it's very Common for folks across all
ages and life stages to say That, 'Hey, I've grown,
I've changed in the last few Years and I'm looking to
rebuild community and Connection now.' One survey last year found
15% of men say they have no Close friendships. That's
more than the number of Women who reported no
friendships and higher than In 1990. While technology is often
blamed for driving a wedge Between us, could easy to
use, apps like Bumble BFF Actually be a solution to
this problem? While it's now easier to
communicate with nearly Everyone on Earth.
Face-to-face interaction has Taken a hit. A 2022 study
found that non face-to-face Interaction can help
prevent the deterioration of Mental health, but they may
not be sufficient for Maintaining physical
health. That's something That friendship apps are
trying to help fix and make Money with in the process. One of the biggest
companies to get into the Friendship business is
Bumble, where Beth Berger is The VP and GM of BFF. I think that the need for
community and connection has Never been higher than it
is today, and a lot of the Ways that humans have built
relationships and come Together over the last
decades have changed a lot. Bumble BFF functions almost
identically to the dating App on a separate tab
within the Bumble app, which Was launched in 2014 purely
for dating, you create a
Unique profile and swipe
right on potential friends. If you match your chat and
hopefully meet up soon After. Bumble has certainly
dominated as the number two Dating brand globally after
Tinder, which is owned by Match. They've done a
really great job of Monetizing their user base,
particularly in the United States. Whether friendship apps will
become as monetizable as Dating apps remains to be
seen. But despite this, Bumble is
still seeing significant Growth since the launch of
BFF in 2016. Berger said that by the end
of 2021, Bumble saw about 15% of their users on BFF,
up from about 10% the year Prior. With the online
dating market valued at $8.9 billion in 2021, there's no doubt tech has Become a huge player in the
world of relationships. Though the potential of
tech dominating in the world Of platonic relationships
is still up in the air. We're born in relationships. We need each other. We thrive in relationships
of all sorts romantic, Platonic parent
relationships, child Relationships. Despite the need for
relationships of all types, Bumble BFF hasn't been an
overwhelming success Financially. The vast
majority of bumble's revenue Comes from users paying for
features on the dating app, Like being able to see
everyone whose liked your Profile. Bumble has talked about
monetizing BFF and biz and Other relationship
verticals that they see as Opportunities. Going
forward next year, in 2023, We have it contributing
about one and one million
Dollars out of over a total
base next year of 1.06 Billion, and only one million dollars that we Think will come from non
dating. Badoo is another dating app
under the Bumble brand, Which also markets itself
as a place to meet friends. Other apps like Clock Out
and Meetup put their own Spin on forging friendships
online and are specifically Made for that purpose,
which differentiates them From giant dating apps. They're geared towards
connecting people with Similar interests like rock
climbing or being a foodie In New York. Besides Bumble, big dating
apps like Tinder and Hinge Are largely sticking to
romance. And Bumble BFF has a smaller
user base than its dating App. That may be tied to a
sense of shame associated With trying to make
friends, especially by Paying for it. The stigma has sort of been
erased for online dating Because it's become more
normal. I still think There's a little bit of a
stigma of paying to find Friends. I think dating
will always probably be the Most monetizable use case
and probably will always Represent the vast majority
of their revenue. But it is possible friend
finding becomes kind of Secondary to that. From my experience, using an
app like Bumble BFF can be a Little odd because it feels
eerily similar to using a Dating app. But I was
successful in finding a Handful of friends that
way, like Alex Kristiansen. Much like a dating app, after we met and messaged For a couple of days, we
exchanged numbers and met at A bar that's about halfway
between us. What was it about my profile
that made you want to be
Friends? That's a good question. I think you were looking
kind of like a hipster. I was trying to make a
hipster friend. That's really what it was. I think I told you that you
looked like a hipster. Yeah, that kind of vibe. You moved to Brooklyn, so
you felt like you had to Have a hipster friend. Definitely. Right. Anyways, at this point, it's
hard for younger generations To remember the time when
dating apps were Embarrassing to use. They've become completely
mainstream, but using an app To make friends is a newer
concept that still carries a Certain stigma, like online
dating once did. Did you feel any shame about
that. Little bit for like a
second? And then I was like, You
know, there's a lot of Potential here. I don't
feel any shame. I wasn't going to make that
many friends if I just like, Went to the park or went to
bars or like went to the Gym, etc.. And I was like, 'This is
what people do to make Friends now.' And I did it. While it may feel strange, in a way, it makes sense. As dating norms have
shifted to the internet, Friends were a fitting next
move for social apps. If you're on a dating app,
you're trying to find Characteristics of someone
you want to be in a Relationship with, or maybe
just talk to you very Quickly. Right? But you're looking for
characteristics of what you
Want. For like Bumble BFF you could say it's the same Thing. You're looking for
characteristics that you Want in a friend. While it does sometimes feel
like you're hunting for Friends, it has proven
successful. For people like Me, Alex and my fellow
associate producer at CNBC, Sydney Boyo. It feels like you're
shopping for friends, so you Kind of have that like
initial, like guilt of just Like judging someone based
on, you know, you're Literally just seeing like
their picture. And some people don't even,
like, write like information On their profile. It's just
their picture. So it's like, how do I
judge someone off of this? Like, I don't know if you
would make a good friend Because I literally know
nothing about you. Yeah, I mean, people do that
with the dating apps and I Guess it makes a little bit
more sense there. But for something like BFF
it just, I don't know, like, What are you what are you
trying to gain from that Just by showing your
pictures here? But much like dating apps,
it's not a perfect system. I mean, it's definitely hit
or miss. Like, there are definitely
a lot of people on Bumble That you'll talk to and it
just doesn't work out. In moments of transition
like a move new job or a Breakup, you might find
yourself like me eating Alone in bed, endlessly
scrolling through pet Adoption websites in New
York City. It really is the desire for
deep connection with Friends. And so I'm not
saying it's our Responsibility as a culture
to find friends for Individual boys. Obviously it's not.
But the point is, is as a
culture, why is it that we Don't value friendships in
the first place? And lacking this deep
connection could have Detrimental impacts. Social isolation has been
proven to increase the risk Of premature mortality from
all causes and increase the Risk of developing dementia
by 50%. Young men in particular,
are statistically more Likely to struggle with
finding and maintaining a Community. One in four men
under the age of 30 said They have no close
connections and only about 48% said they're satisfied
with the amount of friends They have, compared to 54%
of women. But apps like Bumble BFF
could help. 70% of the men who said that
they've looked online to Build friendship and
community have successfully Done so. As dating apps become friend
apps, some hope they'll help Everyone with a disconnect
that's been growing since Long before social media
and video games could be Blamed. It wasn't until about the
1940s and 50s. It's basically post-World
War Two. Post World War Two we
essentially created the Nuclear family. So then it becomes focused
on the romantic relationship And the marriage as the
focus of a good American Family. And all of a sudden
you see friendships just Drop out of the equation. It's a 20th century, 21st
century phenomenon that we Have put all our emotional
eggs into one basket, one Romantic basket, so that we
think somehow we just need a Romantic partner in life. I think that there has been
no time in history where the
Need for new tools to
start, build and maintain Community have ever been as
high as they are today. The idea of social discovery
and sort of expanding the Barriers of online dating
beyond just sort of romantic Relationships to more just
meeting people, finding Friends online, etc. Is something that both
Match and Bumble are really Focused on. So while in modern day
America, it might seem like Technology is what's
driving us apart, it could Actually be an answer for
those struggling to connect And an emerging market for
dating apps to capitalize On.
