β Meet me there
AI Summary
Dating apps are losing users to IRL meetup services like Dinner Table Club, TimeLeft, and Thursday, which organize in-person singles events across major cities. Meanwhile, Meetup.com β the original IRL social platform founded in 2002 β is attempting a comeback under new owner Bending Spoons, which raised organizer fees from $24 to $45/month and paywalled features, yet saw 20% growth in new app registrations last year.
Key Facts
- Dinner Table Club, TimeLeft, and Thursday are capitalizing on dating app fatigue by offering paid IRL singles events as Tinder and Hinge acknowledge declining user satisfaction with purely digital matching.
- Meetup.com, acquired by Bending Spoons in 2024, raised organizer fees 88% (from $24 to $45/month) and paywalled features, yet still recorded 20% growth in new app registrations.
- Investors remain skeptical of IRL event apps scaling to match the $6.2B swiping app industry, citing the difficulty of handling in-person logistics at scale.
Contrarian Angle
Restaurants as Dating Infrastructure
Dinner Table Club charges singles $75β$100 to dine with strangers at local restaurants, with restaurants willingly hosting because the events drive foot traffic on slow nights β creating a no-cost venue model.
Uses restaurant slow nights as free event venues, aligning commercial incentives without a venue cost structure.
More from Morning Brew
β Saving green
Rising gas prices driven by the Iran war are reigniting consumer interest in EVs, with manufacturer incentives filling the void left by the eliminated
βοΈ Out of options
The ongoing Middle East war involving Iran has disrupted global oil supply chains by blocking the Strait of Hormuz, causing severe fuel shortages in S
βοΈ Terminally online
The World Happiness Report found English-speaking countries continuing to drop in happiness rankings, with researchers blaming heavy social media use,