By Mark Seavy

Dating apps are revamping and rebranding with an added focus on licensing as they seek to gain favor with Gen Z and Millennial consumers.

There hasn’t been a rapid rise in licensing with the likes of Grindr, Tinder, Bumble, Hinge and others. But it is slowly taking hold through co-branding, sponsorships and other marketing, with an emphasis on limited-edition and seasonal drops rather than year-round promotions. The goal is very much to establish retail distribution, but one that requires initial steps.

For example, Grindr, which has 15 million active monthly users and is a location-based social networking and dating app service for LGBTQ people, launched a licensing program for apparel with Goodie Two Sleeves that has online and in-store sales at more than 670 Spencer’s locations for a collection that includes graphic tees, hoodies and accessories.  And that was in addition to promotions with Madonna that started in April with an in-app takeover featuring exclusive content and limited-edition drops in advance of the release of the popstar’s new Confessions: II on July 3. That led to a Grindr-sponsored 15-minute, six-song set at New York’s Times Square on June 4 as part of a revenue sharing agreement that included internally-sourced apparel.

In the case of Match Group’s Tinder (a location-based dating app that features swiping) and Hinge (an app aimed at those seeking long-term relationships), both have undergone rebrands.

Tinder, which has 60-to-75 million monthly active users, is seeking to reverse a decline in paying subscribers, which numbered around 8.6 million in Q1. That turnaround is slowly taking hold, with a goal of returning it to growth in 2027, Match Group CEO Spencer Rascoff said. As part of a rebranding, Tinder launched a makeup collection in 2024 with e.l.f. Beauty and developed a dating show with ITV Studios, “Double Date Island,” which was announced in June and is set to debut on TikTok this summer as an extension of a feature introduced last year. Hinge, which has about 1.95 million paid subscribers and is on pace to be a billion-dollar brand by 2027, has relied heavily on marketing and less on licensing. And Bumble, which saw paid users drop 21.1% in Q1 to 3.2 million and annual revenue decline 9.9% in 2025 to $965.7 million, is exploring a sale of the company. Bumble was one of the first major dating apps to require women to initiate a connection.

The dating apps are “getting a chance to see whether for licensing these can be 365-day collections or more like several drops per year,” said Travis Matsdorf, a former Mad Engine executive who had worked with Grindr on licensing. “It will likely be scattered until there is expansion into accessories, home goods, print-on-demand and other categories and also it is about what do retailers want.”

Yet while retail demand for licensed goods tied to dating apps remains to be seen, the audience for them in the 18-to-35-year-old group is there. Gen Z has shown less interest in using dating apps than their Millennial counterparts. But in a bid to attract them, Hinge this week introduced a new feature called “Friend’s Take,” allowing friends and family members to leave testimonials on their loved one’s dating profiles. And Match Group invested $100 million in independent developer Sniffies, whose app targets gay males seeking a casual relationship. At the same time, Match Group shut down its own app, Archer, which was aimed at gay men.

Among Gen Z consumers, “they overwhelmingly still want to find love, and they are comfortable using technology as part of the process,” said Max Izenberg, Director of Consumer Research at Match Group. “Their desire for human connectivity remains durable, but what is evolving are their expectations for how they want to connect and when it should happen. We’re trying to evolve our tools to make sure we can support them in the ways that make sense for them how they want to get there on their own terms.”