It’s not just Facebook. Tinder has its eyes set on video—and possibly Snapchat—based on its latest acquisition.
The dating app (MTCH) just acquired Wheel, a free social media app advertises itself as a collaborative platform to create “video stories,” which can be spruced up with text and emoji, among other graphics.
The news was first reported by Business Insider, and Tinder confirmed the merger to Coins2Day. Terms of the deal have not been disclosed.
At first glance, the functionality is strikingly similar to Snapchat as well as Instagram (FB), which itself drew criticism for copying features with the debut of Instagram Stories.
But video messages don’t necessarily need to be sent between two users or just shared with followers at-large. Rather, the app encourages more of a crowdsourcing approach, suggesting “anyone can join in” to add creative direction to shared videos. Thus, more of a video version of the game “Telephone”…on a smartphone—or as a Tinder spokesperson described it, a “continuous ‘wheel’ of creative storytelling.”
With Tinder’s now-trademark method of swiping left or right for potential suitors, a continuous wheel could certainly be a new spin for Tinder.
“We are always exploring new ways to innovate while helping our users make connections on Tinder,” said Brian Norgard, head of product and revenue at Tinder, in a statement.
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Launched in 2015 after its co-founders met at the annual South By Southwest tech and entertainment conference in Austin, Wheel had raised at least $1 million in seed funding by June 2016, according to an Entrepreneur feature last year. That pool of VC funding grew to $3.2 million, based on Business Insider’s estimates.
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Now with four employees total, the entire team will be moving to Tinder headquarters in West Hollywood, California. Paul Boukadakis, Wheel’s CEO, will join Tinder as vice president of Special Initiatives, while co-founder Chris Shaheen will step into an unspecified senior role on Tinder’s development team.
Owned by dating services conglomerate Match Group, a free version of Tinder is still available to applicable users, while the paid version Tinder Plus now counts more than 1.6 million subscribers. Tinder says that 26 million matches are made on the platform each day, with more than 20 billion matches made to date.
According to mobile intelligence firm Sensor Tower, Wheel had fewer than 5,000 downloads worldwide on the Apple App Store (AAPL) and Google Play (GOOGL) since its launch, and it was most popular in the U.S. And Australia.
