This app makes dating harder than ever

The practice of dating has evolved a lot and rapidly over the last decade. Gone are the days of personal ads, speed dating, and blind dates (unless you get a specific app for that). With dating apps, singles can choose from a wider pool of potential and get in touch more easily than ever before.

It's an effective way of dating, and whether you like it or not, dating apps are a regular part of the cultural age. Over the past decade, Tinder and its unique hot-or-not technique have been mentioned in stand-up comedy, late-night talk shows, and just about every group of friends on the face of the earth.

Tinder debuted in 2012, and the app's claim to fame was swiping, which made swiping through pictures akin to pressing buttons in a video game. The app also used a short-form approach to scan potential partners, so the days of long profiles were dusted off.

Meanwhile, in 2015, Match Group (MTCH) – Get Free Report went public, and since then Match has been looking for more dating apps to add to its library of services. In 2019, Match Group bought Tinder for a whopping $1.9 billion. It was a great acquisition for the company that launched old-school Match.com in 1993 before dating moved to mobile. Today, the company owns Tinder, Hinge, OkCupid, Plenty of Fish, and more.

However, one dating app that Match has failed to acquire is Bumble (BMBL) - Get Free Report. The app was designed by a former Tinder employee and is known for its messaging system that allows women to be approached first. The dating app went public last February and is even making its own acquisitions.

Now, another household name dating app has joined the New York Stock Exchange — and it's the first of its kind to do so.

Reports in May indicated that popular LGBTQ dating and hookup app Grindr was in talks to separate from its parent company, Tiga Acquisitions Corp. Earlier in the week, West Hollywood app Grindr announced the closing of a business combination with its former parent group. The move was approved on Nov. 15 at a shareholder meeting by renaming Grindr Inc. under the symbol GRND.

Wall Street welcomed the IPO, sending shares up 25% on the first day of trading to close at $36.50.

According to CEO George Arison, “Today is an important milestone not only for the team at Grindr but also for the LGBTQ community we serve. We are entering the public markets with momentum driven by our market leadership, strong financial performance, and significant growth as we increase investment in our core products and services."

And this community is not small either. Last year, Grindr seduced roughly 11 million monthly users.

Arison will continue to serve as the company's CEO following his appointment in September. Grindr's new CEO is one of a handful of openly gay CEOs of a publicly traded company in the US. CFO Vanna Krantzová will remain as CFO of Grindr Inc.

Additionally, the new company's board will also be an incredibly LGBTQ-representative board. And that's all right because Grindr has been a fixture in the gay and queer dating community since its inception. Historically, dating has been a potentially dangerous activity for queer people. Using dating apps, especially queer-centric apps like Grindr, allows you to meet people safely without face-to-face interaction.

As the company grows, they are hiring for various positions. You know, if you know any recently freed Twitter employees who want to program something a little spicier.