I recently tried a dating app called Bumble. In case you haven't heard of it, all you need to know is that it's the exact same as Tinder: A person's pic and basic information shows up fullscreen and you swipe left or right depending on whether you think you like them.
I've observed the following facts.
- All the women I see are real people, which can easily be verified by Googling them. (The reason I bring this up is so the next points can be considered in light of the fact that I don't think I'm being conned by bots.)
- Around 75% of the women I see are attractive and have good jobs, whereas the proportion of women I know in real life in my area who fit that bill is around 20%. (Or maybe the UX Designers at Google who look like Victoria Secret Models don't come outdoors in real life? lol)
- When I first sign up, I quickly get matches. Later on, I get few or none. This is consistent with the experience of other guys who use the app.
That makes it painfully obvious what the algorithm is. When you first sign up, the app doesn't know whether or not you're attractive; so if you're, say, average looking, during that small window of opportunity before the app has figured out that its users aren't attracted to you, some users you're attracted to might actually come across you during their swiping, leading to a match. After that, the app "hides" you and if you keep using the app you will spend hours upon hours of looking at attractive women -- some of whom might actually like you if they came across you on the site -- who you will never match with because they will never see you.
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