Elite Dating Apps And Their Effect On America’s Wealth Inequality

Elite dating apps are conspicuously widening the wealth gap in America, and everyone seems to be perfectly fine with it. Apps like the League, Tinder Select and Raya have become a convenient tool for rich singles to hook up with their fellow rich singles, leaving no room for people with measly income to join their privileged dating game.

Bloomberg’s Jeanna Smialek wrote Tuesday about how elite dating apps continue to worsen the wealth inequality in the U.S. due to their rules and regulations that cater only to the rich and the moneyed. One such app that Smialek tackled in her piece is the League, a social and dating mobile application that launched in 2015 and available only in select cities of the country.

The League was intentionally made for those who are looking for love from people belonging to a high socioeconomic status. The app’s algorithm matches singles who are educated and belong to the affluent class in cities like New York and San Francisco. The problem with this type of matchmaking is it fosters wealth inequality by only allowing rich people to date their fellow rich.

Nevertheless, the problem goes unnoticed because users of elite dating apps know what the want and get what they want through the mobile dating service they use. “[Dating apps] help you find exactly what you want. You marry a college professor across town, a lawyer in D.C., rather than someone you work with or someone your brother-in-law matched you up with,” George Mason University economist Tyler Cowen, who is also a columnist for Bloomberg, said.

The League currently has 300,000 active users and a waitlist for an estimated 500,000 people who want to join the app’s elite dating service. The app follows a freemium model, but those who want to have more options or “prospects” can pay $349 per year. Free accounts are only allowed three daily “prospects,” while those who pay for the service get more prospects and other perks.

There are many other elite dating apps aside from the League that also attract numerous users. There’s Tinder Select, the secret, members-only version of Tinder that was launched last year. Unlike the regular Tinder, Tinder Select is an exclusive, invite-only service that’s targeted at CEOs, super models, celebrities and other well-to-do personalities.

The Guardian’s Gavin Hayes calls Tinder Select the world’s biggest dating app entry into the growing market for elitism. Tinder did not disclose the basis of its invitations for Select members. But those who are invited to join the elite dating service aren’t allowed to nominate other people because Tinder is limiting the number of users to maintain the service’s exclusivity.

Raya is also one popular elite dating app. The private, membership based service was launched in March 2015 as an iOS application. Becoming part of Raya entails passing an extensive application process. Thrillist’s Joe McGauley noted in 2016 that the service is partonized by influencers and celebrities like Patrick Schwarzenegger, Elijah Wood, Kelly Osbourne and Trevor Noah.

Other dating apps that perpetuate wealth inequality include Sparkology, Luxy and the Inner Circle. If not wealth, there are also services that are exclusive to the highly intelligent people only. The Mensa Match add-on of the Match platform is exclusive to Mensa members all over the world and is designed to ensure that intellectuals only build bridges with people who can match their mental capacity.

When Mensa Match was launched in 2014, the service’s national director of marketing, John McGill, insisted that the add-on is not at all elitist. “[Mensans] process things much quicker than most other people do. It’s certainly not an elitist thing, they just see things very, very differently and they interact differently,” McGill told Mashable at the time.