Is flirting dying? Yes, claims a preternaturally cynical 24-year-old Los Angelean interviewed by NBC News in the US earlier this month. “If someone thinks you’re cute, they just ask for your Instagram these days and then DM you or swipe up on your story to show they’re interested,” they told the journalist. It was a bold claim, seemingly made out of frustration, and in the specific context of the youngster’s renegade dating choice:

They prefer to meet people in person.

The first dating app, Match.com, launched in 1995 as one element of an entrepreneurial project to digitise a whole range of commercial contact services formerly provided by print classifieds. After one year of operation, Match.com had about 100,000 users – but by 2015, and with stiff competition from other market entrants, Fast Company valued the online dating industry at US$2bn.

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It’s 2024, and, friend, Tinder alone generated almost that much in revenue just last year. The market cap of the Match Group – which now owns Tinder, Hinge, Plenty of Fish, and OkCupid, among others, as well as the original Match.com – is US$31.8bn. Competitor Bumble has a US$6bn valuation.

Why wouldn’t they? Worldwide, dating apps are thought to have about 300 million customers. In Australia alone, more than 3.2 million people used a dating app in 2022. At........

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