Algorithm's arrow

Older adults are now embracing online dating as enthusiastically as digital natives. But many find the path to true love as pothole-strewn as old-school approaches.

- SARAH CATHERALL

A couple of months after his marriage ended, Ian Howarth signed up with an online dating app. A client had told the marketing writer: "You need to get onto Bumble you'll be a catch," he says, laughing.

But online dating was like learning a new language for the dad who was single again after 28 years. Howarth duly uploaded his profile to Bumble via Facebook, which the app allows. But it also meant the algorithm divined that the 52-year-old Aucklander was after someone older, and he was suddenly matched with women over 60 seeking "hook ups" (casual encounters).

Eventually, Howarth got the wording right to indicate he was interested in a more settled relationship. Not long after he rewrote his profile, he met his current partner, who lives in another part of Auckland. They moved in very different social circles. He says they would have been very unlikely to have met without the help of a dating app. "If you are in a position where you're trying to meet people, there is no simpler or easier or better approach than online dating," he says.

The biggest players in dating apps have been around for about a decade: market leader Tinder has been downloaded more than 530 million times since its 2012 launch, leading to more than 75 billion matches (where both parties "swipe right" to indicate they like each other). Bumble, founded by Whitney Wolfe Herd, one of the original partners in Tinder, will turn 10 in December next year. In 2022, more than one billion matches were struck through Bumble, and more than 10.1 billion messages were exchanged on the app.

On Bumble, the woman has to make the first move. Other big players in the online love race are Badoo, Hinge, aimed at younger adults, and Grindr, launched in 2009 and aimed then at gay men (it's since broadened to the wider LGBTQI+ community).