How Come So Few Lesbians Use Dating Apps?

Lauren O’Reilly, Director of advertising at OKCupid, states compared to their present 10 million active users, ladies searching for females just comprise 7 % of this. Nevertheless the great news is because the site expanded their sex and orientation choices, they have seen a 7 per cent increase in feminine LGBTQ users, suggesting that lots of females could have sensed stifled by the requirement to determine as one sex or one sex, that could additionally be a problem whenever hoping to get queer females on an app that is lesbian-specific.

The wide range of identities of women-seeking-women not merely helps it be difficult to subscribe to apps that only have three options (straight, lesbian, bisexual) but may possibly also explain why a lot of the queer women we talked to express they would like to satisfy times through buddies. “we develop every thing on trust, ” my pal Valey, 27, whom satisfies other females through friends IRL, explained. All things considered, she claims, it really is simpler to ask your entire buddies what that precious woman’s situation occurs when each of them understand her and probably have for years. While which is clearly exactly the same in right relationship, right people do not have to determine so just how right somebody is, be concerned about navigating a relationship with somebody who’s not away, or potentially experience somebody with them being a test. Fulfilling some body during your LGBTQ network that is social a level of Date Insurance that numerous queer females can not manage to do without.

All of this partner-vetting is not to express all lesbians are serial monogamists. A 2013 research from Liverpool Hope University that studied 126 lesbian and right females because of the typical chronilogical age of 27 unearthed that lesbians had and wished to have as much casual sex as straight females. However the homosexual ladies we talked to stated they should have some style of link with your partner, regardless if their only intention is to hook-up (that is usually is).

“Tinder changed the landscape of online dating a little, ” my friend Nomi*, 30, whom identifies as queer, said. “we utilized OKCupid years back also it had been awesome. I experienced some luck that is legit. Nevertheless now on Tinder every person is apparently afraid to be too earnest. Dating apps nowadays make me like to relocate to a cave within the hills and alter my title. “

Another buddy of mine, additionally called Lindsay, 34, whom additionally identifies as queer, echoed comparable sentiments, stating that she hates lesbian app that is dating given that it is excessively like Tinder in every the incorrect methods. “I would like to really hear more about anyone than one headline and 10 selfies. ” Her founder Robyn Exton did tell CNN Money back might that the rebranded app would do have more text boxes and photos to ensure that people could see “the interesting components of exactly exactly exactly how she lives, ” but a current trip through the software indicates that the excess information continues to be pretty hardly ever filled down.

Therefore, associated with a huge selection of dating apps that you can get, how comen’t here a much better, queer-women-friendly dating app yet? Are lesbians not internet dating because there isn’t any good application, or perhaps is here no good software because lesbians can’t stand dating that is online? Lauren Kay, co-founder for the Dating Ring, states it really is a little bit of an egg or chicken situation.

“Getting money for the dating application is extremely, very difficult. Everybody and their cousin has their dating application, and investors frequently are not enthusiastic about this area, ” Kay claims. “also then because of that tiny pool, users most likely would not get great matches, and so they’d hate the software rather than refer people they know, after which it could perish. In the event that you had a group working very hard for per year on building the greatest LGBT software available to you, but even with all their work, they just had 1,000 users —”

Andrew Chen, an advisor/investor for technology startups including Dropbox, published on their weblog that as a whole, it really is difficult for just about any app that is dating attract interest from investors. He claims that dating apps rely a great deal on folks who are nearby, of course those folks aren’t here instantly, individuals will keep the software. “People are able to happen to be fulfill one another, but just plenty, ” Chen writes. “And there must be the right mixture of male/female participants (or whatever permutation is practical). ” The odds you’d find the correct permutation in a given area is slim indeed with a 2011 report by the Williams Institute showing that only 3.4 percent of Americans self-identity as lesbian or bisexual women.

Chen adds that “until there is word-of-mouth, and enough people to create a good experience, the market will draw. ” Therefore lesbians who possess mainly friends that are heterosexual perhaps maybe not realize about the application, and homosexual women that spend time along with other gay females most likely see individuals they already know just in the application (aka exes they would instead maybe maybe maybe not see ever again).

Dinesh Moorjani, co-founder of Tinder and CEO of Hatch laboratories Inc. Where Tinder is made, claims that another reason lesbian dating apps might have neglected to prosper might be that investors do not observe that 3.4 percent of America as a sizable sufficient market to tackle (never head that homosexual and bi men constitute a comparable percentage for the populace as homosexual and bi ladies, and Grindr has 10 times the users of Her). “Investors may have the present options are adequate to handle the marketplace need, because they enable users to toggle between trying to find either sex. It is possible the marketplace size was not compelling, well documented, or communicated to potential investors by business owners, ” he states, suggesting that investors think Tinder, Hinge, as well as the other straight-focused apps are serving lesbian females adequately.

So just why is not anybody placing more funding and research into this thing which could possibly assist an incredible number of US women? Will it be the disregarding of lesbians and queer females as viable customers? Possibly. Regardless of the explanation, it appears to be like homosexual and bisexual ladies will only have to follow the old standby of hoping to bump into some body at a complete Foods, somehow notifying one another you are queer, after which seven months later on adopting rescue kittens together. Perhaps maybe maybe Not really a bad fallback plan.