The dating app scene is lacking some serious UI, UX, features, and especially interactions among its users. The pet-owner scene is in need of social interactions and hyper-localized communities. Pet Dating.

Health, Wealth, & Relationships

The core of all businesses can be categorized into 3 main groups: Health, Wealth, and Relationships(I first heard this from Alex Hormozi, but not sure where the credit is due). If your idea does not fall into these three categories, then there should be a very good reason for you to even consider pursuing the venture. As the title suggests, this project is targeting one of human’s innate desire to cultivate relationships, as the old adage goes: ‘Humans are social creatures’. Or in this case, ‘All creatures are social.’

Quick Overview of the Dating App Industry

Here’s some quick stats about the online dating services industry:

– Global online dating services market valuation: ≈ 11 billion dollars
– CAGR(compound annual growth rate): ≈ 7.3%  
– Global users: over 300 million users
– Top ten downloaded apps:

• Tinder
• Bumble
• Plenty of Fish
• Hinge
• Match.com
• OKCupid
• Grindr
• Badoo 
• MeetMe
• Skout

Unique Opportunities in the Dating App Industry

What is fascinating to me is that the last few apps on the top list have subpar design, functionality, and features and yet they still make it on the list. This presents a unique business opportunity for anyone who would be willing to put in a little more effort even on just the interface to be able to make it in the top ten global list. Absolutely fantastic!

Another important thing worth mentioning is that a majority of the apps listed above are under the umbrella of Match Group Inc(Tinder, Plenty of Fish, Hinge, Match, and OKCupid) with the mother company being IAC. The Meet Group owns both MeetMe and Skout and Bumble Inc owns Bumble and Badoo.

This presents an interesting dynamic where only three large holding companies own the vast majority of all online dating traffic. As a technopreneur, if you do decide to implement an exit strategy, the more companies willing to court you will provide more opportunities and the selling price of your platform will definitely be valued at a more appropriate level. All you have to do is sit back and let them negotiate themselves for a better price!

My Own Personal Hell Experience Using Dating Apps

One could say that the dating app industry started when Tinder launched in 2013. I used it when it first came out and still use it to this day, despite its many flaws and a complete waste of time. I say it’s a waste of time by reflecting on the results of meaningful relationships I have been able to cultivate from it: 0. But the fact of the matter is, everyone knows about Tinder, and it is the first go-to option in every single country. 

Second place would arguably be Bumble, and usually third place is occupied by the local country’s biggest player(TanTan for China, Wippy for South Korea, Hinge for the US).

One could counter that perhaps it was due to my intent of how I used Tinder: I wasn’t actively seeking a serious relationship. Perhaps. But it is a well known fact amongst many users that looking for “real” relationships or even “true love” for that matter, on any dating app, is borderline stupidity. A simple personal comparison of the Tinder couples around you with the number of successful relationships that have led to long-term or marriage to those who haven’t will give you an immediate understanding of what kind of picture I am trying to say.

One important observation to consider is the ease of access to other options. With just one swipe, users can immediately change their potential suitors. Theoretically, users are able to swipe infinitely by continuing to swipe left and increasing their range to find the ‘perfect’ match.

What happens when we are given an infinite amount of choices with almost zero consequences? What happens to a relationship in the end where they had first met in an environment of unlimited choices? 

Quite simple, really. If things don’t work out, both counterparts will never work hard on their relationships because they can always find a “better one” from the original place they had met. It’s analogous to the same logic of the saying “You don’t go to a club or bar to find your life partner.”

When we are given too many options and too much competition, we get paralysis of analysis. Extensive research on choice paralysis has been conducted by numerous retailers and have concluded that 3 options are the best. Any more and our puny brains cannot function properly. 

With too many choices, we also become extremely picky and intolerating; even the smallest thing might trigger our red flag signals. The data also shows that a proportionately small number of ‘alpha’ males will take the majority of all women’s swipes. And the rest of the ‘betas’ are clobbering over each other for the remaining swipes. This could lead to an example case of Sneaky Fucker Theory, but that’s another story for another day. (And what about for the ‘alpha’ and ‘beta’ females? Well, let’s be honest. D*ck is free. If you’re a female on Tinder, you are guaranteed hundreds of likes. What a great boost for morale and self-confidence!)

Another factor is the type of environment that dating apps are facilitating. I use Tinder as an example because it’s the #1 dating app in the world, but it applies to all other dating applications as well. In Tinder’s defense, it has tried to facilitate other preferences for meeting offline throughout the years, but it’s not easy to get away from the original general user usage intention: hooking up.

In recent years it’s released an “Explore” function to help users meet each other for reasons such as ‘let’s be friends’, but looking at the other options ‘looking for love’, ‘free tonight’, and ‘coffee date’, we can clearly see where Tinder is leaning towards in preferences: facilitating hook ups. 

(An honorary mention does go to Bumble for having separate searching parameters of date and bff) But how many of us go on dating apps to find friendship? It’s just not the right place, not the right time, not the right app.

Just a silly notion: what if dating apps only showcased user profiles to users only based on what they were looking for? I know, it’s a stupid thought. I’m sure the guys over at Tinder et al who are getting paid big bucks to optimize the matching algorithms have analytically proved that it probably would affect their bottom line profits big time, else we would already have seen something like this on the market. Oh wait, they do provide that feature as long as you are paying tens of dollars per month. It seems you can buy love. Love does come at a price

Problems in the Online Dating Apps

I am a hardcore sapiosexual. Meaning,  I am sexually attracted to intelligence. It doesn’t matter how amazing your other traits are, if you cannot hold a conversation, or lack background general knowledge, or if I find myself repeatedly explaining my references to you, I immediately lose all attraction for that person. It goes with male friends as well(I am straight, if you couldn’t tell by now). 

So, most of the time on Tinder, I initiate conversations to test the waters. Unfortunately, it seems my standards are too high for me to have a desire to ask someone out on a date. I always ask for a coffee date, not because I’m cheap, but because I need more time to pick their brains again; an endless game of capture the (red) flag(s).  

As you can imagine, I waste so much time just trying to filter potential partners based on my preferences. At this point, I don’t even expect much success and I hardly put in any effort nowadays. But I was still able to make use of such ‘wasted time’ by conducting some questionnaires to my female Tinder users. I have spent months interacting with them and it seems they all have some similar pain points:

1. Too much time is wasted in filtering. 
2. Considerable lack of interactions.
3. A need for connecting besides hooking up.

Adding to the fact that even the most outdated and basic user interface can make it to the top ten global list, if we were to address even one of these pain points, it seems mass adoption for a new dating app would be quite reasonable.. But our creative brains just couldn’t keep still and be satisfied with building just another boring old dating app.

So we decided to add another twist.

Quick Overview of the Pet Industry

Here’s some quick stats on the pet care industry:

– Global pet industry valuation: ≈ 300 billion dollars
– CAGR(compound annual growth rate): ≈ 5.22%  
– Global pet owners: over 1 billion owns a pet
– Some popular pet apps:

• Petamiko
• MyPet Reminders
• Rover
• Pet First Aid
• Bark Happy
• Dogo
• Bring Fido

These apps cover a range of needs for pet owners such as training, health & care, lifestyle, and monitoring. Also, keep in mind that different sources may include or omit various attributes to what is defined as pet care(pet food, veterinary services, medication, insurance, pet services, etc).

Everyone can literally feel the rise of the pet industry. Compare your own local area, society, or country of the general population and their stance towards pets now and ten years ago. A recent example, just last month, the South Korean government passed a legislation to ban the consumption of dog meat to go into effect in 2027.

The explosive amount of cat videos and pet services is enough even for a blind man to see the difference. As we continue to live better lives, so do our pets. As we continue to become a more nuclear family unit, so do our pets. And as we continue to marry less and give birth to less children, we turn to pets for comfort and support. Our pets have replaced our human babies in many houses. Our furry friends are here to stay, and multiply like rabbits.

Problems in the Pet Industry

One of the best showcases of the benefits of pet ownership is the study case of introducing pets to prison inmates in the US. When inmates were given the extra responsibility to look after a furry friend, there was a major significant drop in bad behavior, aggressiveness, and in-fighting among the convicts. At the same time it increased mental health stability, uplighting spirits, and further led to easier society assimilation. With the majority of ex-convicts opting to continue to take care of their prison pets outside of their prison cells.

This probably stems from numerous studies where it has been concluded that humans have a desire to live on when given a task or responsibility. You could say, we basically live for responsibility (I strongly suggest that this is one of the most important things that married couples should focus on to maintain their marriage, not love). Perhaps the absence of social roles and responsibility is one of the reasons why the suicidal rate for retirees are abnormally high in countries that are structured for their citizens to retire early.

The importance of responsibility(challenge) is perfectly portrayed with Calhoun’s Behavioral sink(also referred to as the Mouse Utopia Experiment). With all living and mating conditions met, and no problems, the mice started to lose their desire to live. The mouse population peaked followed by a rapid decline and they dropped like flies

The same depressing act can be observed through retired service dogs. Perhaps responsibility is the most important motivating factor for all living creatures to continue to live on. Our furry friends also have their responsible needs as well. They have an instinctual, natural desire to interact and socialize with us bipeds.

The current issues in the pet market could be summarized as such, a lack of sufficient:
– social interactions 
– local communities
– platforms for SME(small and medium-sized enterprises) to facilitate economic activities to strive and grow.

Now here’s a crazy idea: what if we combined both the social concept of online dating with our love for pets? (By the way, this concept of combining from two different fields or two schools of thought is called cross-pollination. We’ve mentioned this before on our MnM website.)

How’d you Come up with this?

The idea for this app came from my own personal pain paints. I love animals, and I am a die-hard dog person. Having someone always happy to see you and ready to play with you anytime and anywhere is something I never get tired of. I remember a friend once told me, people who love cats want to share love, and those who love dogs want to receive love. I don’t know the validity of that, and I’ll leave it up to you; food for thought.

My family has raised dogs all my life and I couldn’t imagine not living without one. But due to various circumstances, it is sometimes impossible to take care of one. Especially when you’re like me and you’re constantly moving to different cities, countries, and continents every few years. The alternative is either drinking coffee at cat cafes or making friends with people who are walking their dog in my neighborhood. Until recently I started using Tinder to find women who owned dogs and asked them out on walking their dog dates. 
And then it dawned on me: why don’t I just make an app that satisfies both my needs? Light bulb~

Just a Peek, Okay?

The dating app scene is seriously lacking interaction and meaningful connection. The pet owner scene is seriously lacking social interaction and local communities. PeTender is designed to address both issues in the online dating and pet industry at the same time; catching two birds with one stone(一石二鸟).

This is just a tentative introductory piece of content. This is not some wishy-washy, in the sky daydreaming. We’re actually working hard on this in the back. I can’t be giving out too much detail, and my team has forbidden me to release too much information in fear of some stunt like some Samwer brothers type shit. But I have been able to persuade them to release a few frames to tickle your fancy. Stay tuned for more updates.

Sources:
– Yahoo Finance
– Statista
– Bloomberg
– Medium
– Time