Actually there is a Catch-22 in every dating application/site which makes matching/finding a true companion VERY hard. It is the difference of interests by gender.

I did run a dating site well before the smartphone/Tinder era - however customs did not change since then, only platforms :)

I frequently ran analytics/logs on the site and found the following:

• the “age tree” of women and men on the same site highly contrast each other: the most male users were from the 28–40 yrs old “average Joe” group, whereas it was the opposite for women (women in their 40s were the biggest age group, but women under 25 were also significant)
• there were about 1,3 times more men than women
• about 78 percent of the registered users were active (the rest only registered and never logged in afterwards)
• almost every active user sent at least 5 messages initiating communication
• now the ice cold shower comes: almost 40 percent of males NEVER received a single message even 5 months after registration (despite being active and frequently logging in/sending out pickuplines or any mails). Not even a refusal.
  This was only true for the TWO percent of active women.
• Mutual conversations (exceeding 5 msg exchanges) where women initiated it were realized at only 21 percent of users - and this 21 percent women could engage in a conversation with a mere 6 (SIX) percent of men.

So the big catch is - from this sample (about 7,500 users, about 4245 men) most women were interested in only a narrow SIX percent of men (this is roughly 255 guys) . Of course these few guys could carefully select and only answer to the “best of the best”. Sometimes conversations were forming between average women and best-of-the-best guys also, but they rarely exceed 5 message exchanges.

However guys below level “Ryan Gosling x 2″ had almost no chance at ANY woman.

This is mostly due to the fact, that the most numerous male age group is the “midlife crisis” group, trying to find someone to settle with (the most important factors were to be able to bear children and being not currently in a relationship…thats all).

Women are

a) either young ones in their twenties trying to find someone to settle with, but mostly from their own age group, not a middle-aged average Joe :) or exploit (noooo, no love) a middle-aged or older, but successful, rich man (even if he’s married).

This painfully rules out the majority of male users on the site :(

b) single or divorced ones over 40 with or without children, but most of them definitely NOT wanting any (more) children, and not even planning a marriage. They want someone exciting, entertaining and resourceful (and again mostly not from their age group - either a young rich stallion or an older, but very educated, (almost) aristocratic partner.

This also rules out the majority of male users.

Actually this is a warning sign for the girls too (Tinder has more consistent age dispersion at both genders) - 94 percent of you are NOT princesses (even if your colleagues/classmates/your mum/friends make you think that). Ya all obviously want your Prince Charming, but Prince Charmings will pick Cinderellas.

And if you are not Cinderella, it’s high time you had a coffee with the guy next door. Because you are girls next door too :)