👆Tinder’s “Year in Swipe”

This is The Level Ups. Modern business news for the future business leader (in plain-Jane English).

Today:

• Tinder’s Annual Summary: The “Year in Swipe”

• How it will push businesses to adjust.

• Tesla’s new semi-trucks (and big problems).

Let’s get into it.

Estimated reading time: 2 minutes & 48 seconds.

Year In Swipe:

Tinder released the annual report covering everything from trends in dating to top activities, top interests, and more.

The highlights were ten major trends, I’ll leave a few here as a summary:

• The “situationship” is a valid relationship status. This isn’t new, but it’s the first time I’ve seen Tinder acknowledge it.

• Stances on social issues are dealbreakers. Politics is big in dating now.

• The dinner date might soon be dead. Mini-golf, picnics, and drive-ins are on the rise. A simple dinner and drinks are at an all-time low.

While the report itself is interesting, we’re here to talk about how it will impact businesses.

Tinder is a critical research.

There are two major forms of research: quantitative (by the numbers), and qualitative (interests, stories, pretty much everything else).

Tinder’s demographics are single (I hope), men and women between 20 and 35. Every company is fighting to understand their customers better, especially since we’re in a recession and it’s competitive.

Tinder shows us which emojis are popular, which activities are trending, and what people don’t care about anymore.

You might think a nice dinner is best when setting up company perks. But Tinder is telling you people in the same demographic love yoga. Wouldn’t it make sense to reconsider?

It’s a direct link to popular emojis, trending topics, and deal-breakers. This doesn't mean that companies would go on Tinder. Only use this report to understand what's popular among such a large group of people with serious purchasing power.

Companies that never wanted to take a political stance are realizing now that it’s hard not to.

Consumers want to align with brands (and date the people) who believe what they believe. 70% of consumers believe it’s important for brands to take stances on political and social issues.

How long before having no stance becomes the issue?

Top 1% businesses may get away with, but most are not there yet.

Time will tell.

What Tinder Should Do Next:

Spotify Wrapped, but for Tinder. A summary of what people liked, hated, and who they dated.

It would blow up online (and probably give people a lot to think about).

Tesla’s Highs and Lows.

Tesla released their semi-trucks (three years later).

It’s a shame because the technology could change things. The test run went for 500 miles on one charge with an 81,000-pound load.

Shame the markets didn’t care much.

The stock is down over 54% this year:

Market Share is Shrinking:

Tesla did a great job of using its “first mover” advantage to dominate the EV market. But things are changing. The golden years are over, and everyone is catching up.

Per estimates from S&P Global Mobility, Tesla’s US EV market share will drop to less than 20% by 2025, down from 65% this year and 71% last year.

And I can see why. It’s hard to compare a Tesla to a BMW or the new EQS from Mercedes.

Musk Is Picking Fights:

With Apple of all companies.

Why? Because Apple takes 30% of all payments made through the app store (predatory).

With Musk trying to turn Twitter around, such a huge cut makes it challenging. To make things worse, it’s alleged that Apple threatened to remove Twitter from the app store (good luck with downloads once that happens).

Hard to turn things around at Tesla when you’re picking fights with Apple.

How will things turn out?

Time will tell.

Thanks for reading!

Darwin