Marred with job market woes and rising living costs, Gen Zers don’t have the financial stability to date right now—and those who are dating are using their romantic interests as a potential career or wealth boost. That’s at least, according to dating apps.
But Grindr CEO George Arison isn’t buying it. “We have no challenge with young people on the app, like it’s in no way a concern,” Arison told Fortune in an exclusive interview.
“This whole Gen Z doesn’t want to be online is not an issue among gay people. I actually don’t think it’s an issue among straight people either. What’s an issue is the way the apps have developed.”
In the last decade, he explains how dating apps have gone from being free (or practically free) to charging their users for basic services, like sending unlimited messages.
“The other products have become so impossible to use if you want to use them as a free product, because they’re just over monetized,” he says.
