The algorithm of love: Match Group's CEO on the new science of dating
Key points
Key takeaways from the In Good Company podcast hosted by Nicolai Tangen of Norges Bank Investment Management, with Spencer Rascoff, CEO of Match Group (October 2026):
Algorithm overhaul. Since taking the helm in 2024, Rascoff, who built Zillow as co-founder, has driven through "Q unification" — folding the separate ranking decks used for different user goals into one personalised stack that he says "radically improved" recommendation quality as measured by matches, chats and sparks. The roughly 40-person recommendations team, including senior hires from TikTok, is now targeting real-time recommendations, like Spotify and Instagram, later this year.
Why profiles fail and succeed. The profiles that perform best have seven or more photos, written content and answered prompts — signals of effort — whereas the single gym selfie so common among men is precisely what women do not respond to. Rascoff, who keeps a Tinder profile for research complete with his dog, says a strong profile shows friends, activities and diverse sides of a person's life.
Contextual likes and AI scoring. Newer Tinder lets users leave "contextual likes" on specific parts of a profile, teaching the algorithm not just who you liked but what about them. Match is also testing an AI feature that scores profiles and suggests improvements — it told Rascoff to vary his clothing and show more of his life, since typical Gen Z users respond most to photos with friends and fun activities.
Scale and segments. Tinder is the number one dating app in 166 countries and roughly 60 per cent of its users are Gen Z (18–28). Match does not collect income data on Tinder or Hinge; Japan's Pairs, the leading app there, asks for salary and blood type, and The League, aimed at "highly ambitious" people, skews female. Rascoff speculates online dating has widened the socioeconomic and racial diversity of couples versus meeting through local networks.
Untapped data and outcomes. The CEO sees Match sitting on data others lack: dating trends such as the global Gen Z "mustache renaissance" could be mined the way online retailers track fashion trends by city. He says couples who meet online appear to have lower divorce rates, partly because users "play the field" and learn about themselves before settling down.
Dating got social — and lonelier. COVID reshaped behaviour: Gen Z treats a one-on-one date like a high-pressure job interview, so dating is now friends-first, and Tinder is rolling out in-app events (25 cities now, aiming at 75 or more by the end of the year) for mixers and pickleball. Meanwhile 45 per cent of men aged 18–25 have never approached a woman in person; Rascoff calls the loneliness epidemic "worse than smoking" and says it is why he came out of retirement. Hinge's "designed to be deleted" tagline is literal: losing a USD 20-a-month subscriber to a successful match is outweighed by the word of mouth.
Read more: In Good Company — Match Group CEO: What Makes a Match on Tinder?
