How would you market a new dating site in 2021/22

[Brit in Cambodi]

I may be a decade or two late to the game.

I was flicking through Tinder / Bumble for the first time in years and it struck it me just how much of an amazing platform it would be to harvest personal data / facial recognition data / location data.

My first port of call would probably targeting universities freshers week. Giving out as many free t shirts as I could so I have lots of 18 - 21yearold women out and about wearing my dating site tee. Have a promotion so that If our staff see you out in it you win $20. Maybe hire Instagram influencers in that city to promote said dating site / give out free T shirts to their followers.

My gut says if you use 18 - 25 yearold women to promote a dating site men will flock to it and then older age brackets of women will be attracted to it but the key would be to go from city to city.

What would you do?

I can get T-shirts pennies on the dollar and can get them printed for cheap as well. I wouldn't be looking to make money from the dating site with add ons but from the data itself.

 

[DanielS]

Engage with the followers of the official Instagram accounts for Tinder, Bumble, etc. Go to dating forums (or even incel/feminist forums) and pretend to be a normal guy who found a new dating website. Run Facebook/YouTube advertisements to followers of pick up channels. Plenty of options are available.

 

[Sutra]

Your goal is good but your plan is shit. That's the plan of a college kid tryin to make some money from a side hustle. You're going to throw away your money and time.

Do not go after the larger market like that right off. You're going up against huge players. You need to be smart. The larger goal would be to dominate the market but the first goal posts would be to dominate the niches ascending upward. The execution would be to work your way in with a sliver of the pie, allowing you to expand taking another sliver, repeat, until you have a slice, then leverage that slice to take the the whole pie.

I haven't used a dating app in a while so I don't what is out there these days, however, off the top of my head I'm thinking go after Incels to start. Or some other niche that is "smallish" (don't want too small because there won't be enough customers), under-served, frustrated and lonely. Use a brandable name that doesn't pigeon hole you and easily allows you to expand into other niches/the larger market without brand confusion.

And yes, definitely get the women on board first. If the women are there, the men will come.

 

[LinkMoth]

Sponsor an e-sports team, preferably dominant in a popular game with adults like League of Legends.
Get championship players to put their profiles on the app, and make it part of the contract that they must interact.

E-girls everywhere will be spoofing their IP on android emulators to clout shark their way onto some top tier nerd dick. (They all learned how to do this during the pokemon go era--the spoofing I mean.)

Golden retriever gamer boys hop on to follow the e-girls who are clout chasing. The viral spiral begins.
Suddenly you reach critical mass and you're the new Mark Zuckerberg, have fun testifying to congress in 15 years.