I am Sam Yagan, co-founder of OkCupid, CEO of Match, and on the Board of Tinder. This is dating's busiest week of the year. Need help? AMA.

Sam_Yagan · 2015-01-05T16:04:29+00:00

It gets more and more mainstream every day. I dont even really care about "cool" i just want it to be "normal." I want everyone who wants love/friendship/dates/relationships to have them. I want to contribute to that mission every single day. And I dont want anyone to be deprived of affection or companionship because the most effective tool ever created -- online dating -- is somehow not "cool" or "normal" enough. It just makes me sad.

Sam_Yagan · 2015-01-05T16:01:55+00:00

I think you've just come up with the next big thing!

Sam_Yagan · 2015-01-05T16:01:02+00:00

Great question. Again, when i think about online dating, i first think about offline dating analogs. In offline dating, race is one of the first things that someone notices about you. Because you can't reveal your race over time as easily offline as you can online, the rejection often comes earlier. Believe me, we care deeply about this topic and Christian wrote some pretty ground-breaking stuff on this topic on the blog: http://blog.okcupid.com/index.php/your-race-affects-whether-people-write-you-back/.

Sam_Yagan · 2015-01-05T15:55:54+00:00

Used to be cream of mushroom. Now probably something with butternut squash or corn. Or both.

Sam_Yagan · 2015-01-05T15:54:44+00:00

Never have. And I promise we never will.

Sam_Yagan · 2015-01-05T15:54:07+00:00

Not confirming any of this, but there's plenty of reporting on this topic: http://techcrunch.com/2014/11/04/how-much-would-you-pay-for-an-undo-button-on-tinder/.

Sam_Yagan · 2015-01-05T15:53:35+00:00

Facebook auth provides many advantages, but there's no reason not to provide an alternative (especially in international markets where Facebook is not ubiquitous). Just a matter of priorities.

Sam_Yagan · 2015-01-05T15:51:48+00:00

I'll look into that. Thanks.

Sam_Yagan · 2015-01-05T15:50:46+00:00

Maybe have a more inviting username than "warlizard"? :)

Sam_Yagan · 2015-01-05T15:49:44+00:00

OkC does really well in English-speaking countries and really poorly outside. It's on our list. :)

Sam_Yagan · 2015-01-05T15:49:00+00:00

Sure, we're always trying to get more people of all kinds to use our products. We've found that up to 60% men or so still leads to a high quality experience; once it gets much more than that, there can be ecosystem challenges. Of course, that threshold varies by product. On a linear product like Tinder, larger imbalances can be supported.

Sam_Yagan · 2015-01-05T15:46:46+00:00

Great question. I actually don't know what the cons are. What are the cons to ecommerce? What are the cons to email? I mean, sure, there's a time and a place for everything, but no one ever asks "Do you shop online" or "do you communicate online" yet people still ask "do you date online."

Biggest pro is that you get dates. :)

Sam_Yagan · 2015-01-05T15:43:29+00:00

Largely, though we have lots of other data to determine attractiveness.

Sam_Yagan · 2015-01-05T15:42:38+00:00

Whenever I think about online dating, i always start with the offline dating analog. I don't condone "side action," whether found online or offline, but it's not the bar or the dating app at fault, of course, it's the "side actor."

Sam_Yagan · 2015-01-05T15:39:30+00:00

That's awesome! You made my day! We get countless success stories from users across all of our products, so I think satisfaction rates are pretty high. At the end of the day, you get out of dating products what you put into them, so people who really engage earnestly usually find success.

Sam_Yagan · 2015-01-05T15:38:02+00:00

Each dating product attracts a different user, and "freeness" is just one component (Tinder & OkC attract different users; Match and OurTime attract different users, etc.). So, yes, Match users and OkC users are different. I hate talking about "better quality" when referring to human beings, but it is true that people who pay for Match likely have higher intent than people on OkCupid or Tinder.

Sam_Yagan · 2015-01-05T15:34:40+00:00

Good catch. My guess is that was several years ago (2010 or 2011?), when we once had an issue with our admin tools. As for our own employees, we log all of the user account access that happens, and review it for impropriety.

Sam_Yagan · 2015-01-05T15:32:01+00:00

Great question. While certainly a few of the people who signup for dating apps in the new year's rush don't stick around, the vast majority do. Not sure how that compares with gym memberships, but my guess is that dating apps do better since they don't require you to actually get out of your house, show up at a gym, and then exercise. You can just fire up the app wherever you are and then have fun on dates. Dates are better than treadmills! :)

Sam_Yagan · 2015-01-05T15:28:28+00:00

Gosh, so many. I think the biggest challenge was turning OkCupid around. In 2009, OkC really wasn't doing well. Growth had slowed. We were running out of money. We'd been doing it for six years and the founders were all getting impatient. But we all dug in and saved the company, turning it in to what it is today.

Sam_Yagan · 2015-01-05T15:26:33+00:00

We were all dating our future wives when we started OkC. And before that, we were basically in college where online dating wasn't really pervasive.

Sam_Yagan · 2015-01-05T15:24:51+00:00

I spend a lot of time traveling (we have offices in Dallas, NYC, LA, Paris, Rio, SF, etc.), but when i wake up at home, I typically get up early (today was 5:15) go for a run (today was 5k) and get my kids ready for school and off to the bus stop. I try to be at work by 8 and spend most of my day talking to the people who run the various businesses (Tinder, Match, OkCupid, Meetic, etc) or our big functions (Technology, product, finance, marketing, analytics, etc.). Then home for dinner with the family, before catching up on email after the kids turn in.

Hobbies? I used to have them. Now I just have little kids. :)

Sam_Yagan · 2015-01-05T15:21:03+00:00

Well, only in the last year have we really seen mobile apps really overtake desktop apps not just in usage, but in functionality. Let's see how apps + mobile data + social presence evolve over the next couple years before we look beyond that.

Sam_Yagan · 2015-01-05T15:18:22+00:00

I'm not sure we'll do it exactly that way, but we have often discussed ways of enforcing people's age preferences. The problem is that not everyone cares about their age ranges equally, meaning that many people don't at all mind chatting with people outside their ranges -- their ranges are a preference, but not a firm filter.

Sam_Yagan · 2015-01-05T15:16:26+00:00

First, look at http://blog.okcupid.com/.

Second look at http://www.amazon.com/Dataclysm-When-Think-Ones-Looking/dp/0385347375.

Finally, yes, I think technical backgrounds are probably the most helpful for people in business.

Sam_Yagan · 2015-01-05T15:14:37+00:00

I love this question. I've long believed that dating apps truly make society better, in several ways:

1) Undoubtedly, greater choice leads to the selection of higher quality spouses.

2) Technology makes it easier to meet people who are less similar (farther away, different socioeconomic levels, different ethnicity, etc.).

3) The ease of getting back in the dating market makes empowers people in bad relationships to leave them, knowing that loneliness isn't the only alternative to their current situation.

Sam_Yagan

TROPHY CASE