Tinder now has more than 1 million paying customers

Tinder now has more than 1 million members who pay for its Plus subscription, which costs less than $5 a month and lets you swipe an unlimited number of times on the mobile dating app. The user numbers were released as part of parent company Match Group's first quarter earnings report out today. Tinder is fast becoming one of Match's more lucrative properties, despite now competing more directly with the company's other online dating services, including OkCupid and Match.com.

While being able to swipe right to your heart's content is Tinder Plus' most appealing feature, the service also removes ads, lets you reverse a previous swipe, and allows you to change your location. These features may sound trivial, yet their appeal is central to Tinder's growth. A boost in paid members shows the app is shedding its image as a shallow hookup platform and may be tapping into the types of audiences who have long gravitated to more personality-driven dating services. Still, Tinder does not appear interested in removing its core swipe feature, which lets you decide at a moment's glance whether you'd like to match with someone based solely on their physical appearance.

Tinder is working to shed its image as a shallow hookup app

On whether Tinder is undermining Match's other dating services, CEO Greg Blatt says the app has a lot of growth potential without cutting into the success of competitors. "Nothing we see in the numbers support the idea that Tinder is the driver of any softness in our business," Blatt said on an earnings call this afternoon. "Tinder is a huge category expansion story. The category expansion far outweighs any cannibalistic impact."

• ViaBloomberg
• SourceMatch Group