Nothing, just The Match Group buying everything as soon as it becomes popular and incentivizing keeping people using the apps over successful long-term matches.
I also think we've lost the ability to do things like man up and ask out the barista knowing full well you're switching coffee shops for at least six months if you read that one wrong... when I was like, 20, I used apps because I didn't feel capable of just... talking to people. The MRA stuff is insane, but there's something to be said for being able to ask for what you want.
If The Match Group is a steady supplier of startup exits in this space, that should incentivise more people to start. So we should see more people trying to resurrect old school OKCupid, not fewer.
Though I suspect the answer isn't that people aren't trying, but that these trials don't succeed enough for OP to notice.
For users, these apps exiting by selling to Match is a bad thing. I’d want an app with a very stubborn founder who hates The Match Group and wants to take them down by making a better product. Anyone starting with an exit in mind has already failed in my book.
Yes, I didn't argue against that!
I said that Match Group reliably buying upstarts would make it easy to found and fund these upstarts.
> Every site requires enough people using it to make it worthwhile.
You can solve user acquisition via VC money; which you could get relatively easily, if Match Group were to reliably buy upstarts.
> Anyone starting with an exit in mind has already failed in my book.
I am trying to work out why we aren't seeing more startups in this space (VC-funded or otherwise). That question is independent of whether we think they are morally worthy.