---
title: 'Gen Z forgot how to date: Hinge CEO'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=9Z5G_Mttd6M'
video_id: '9Z5G_Mttd6M'
date: 2026-08-01
duration_sec: 521
---

# Gen Z forgot how to date: Hinge CEO

> Source: [Gen Z forgot how to date: Hinge CEO](https://youtube.com/watch?v=9Z5G_Mttd6M)

## Summary

In an interview at Cannes Lions, Hinge CEO Jackie Jantos explains how the dating app differentiates itself by focusing on high-intent users and real-world 'great dates.' She discusses the company's onboarding trade-offs, new Signals feature, and why Gen Z faces a crisis of loneliness when it comes to dating.

### Key Points

- **Hinge's differentiation strategy** [00:01] — Hinge CEO Jackie Jantos discusses how the app stands out in a crowded dating market, positioning itself as 'designed to be deleted' for the highest-intentioned dater.
- **North Star metric: great dates** [00:14] — Hinge's success metric is 'great dates,' measured via a follow-up survey question: 'Did you go on a date?' If the user says yes, that counts as a great date.
- **Onboarding filters with purpose** [00:54] — Hinge intentionally loses about 20% of users during onboarding because it wants a community of purpose. Profiles are built with photos, prompts, voice prompts, and date-idea modules.
- **Profiles encourage interaction over swipes** [01:51] — Users can engage with specific parts of a profile — liking and commenting on content — rather than giving a wholesale yes/no, driving more intentional interactions.
- **Outcome-focused growth** [02:45] — Hinge's singular focus on the user's real-world outcome drives word of mouth; people who meet partners on Hinge become the company's main growth driver, followed by user growth and revenue.
- **Signals rewards effort and thoughtfulness** [03:12] — New Signals feature, built on the insight that women carry disproportionate emotional labor, gives a heart badge to users who face-check, build rich profiles, and review profiles before liking.
- **Innovation comes from generational insight** [04:38] — Hinge adapts by studying next-generation needs, including Gen Z's identity fluidity and growth in LGBTQI+ identification, especially among young women identifying as bisexual.
- **Gen Z's loneliness and dating skills gap** [06:27] — Gen Z grew up during the pandemic, lost key in-person dating years, and now spends 1,000 fewer hours per year with others than people two decades ago, leaving them without confidence to approach strangers.
- **The perfect profile is a rich profile** [07:48] — A great Hinge profile uses all available tools — voice prompts, photos showing interests, and written responses — to give someone a clear imagination of what you're like on a date.

### Conclusion

Hinge's approach centers on intentionally filtering for serious daters, measuring real-world dates instead of app engagement, and designing features that address generational pain points — even while acknowledging that Gen Z may need apps to rebuild the social confidence lost during the pandemic.

## Transcript

people get off the app and into real relationships. Yahoo Finance's Brian Sozzi sat down with Hinge CEO Jackie Jantos at Cannes Lions to discuss how the company's differentiating itself in an increasingly competitive dating
an increasingly competitive dating market. dating app for the highest intentioned dater. So, we you know, you may have heard that we're the dating app designed to be deleted. That's a philosophy for
how we build our product. So, it's literally built to encourage people off the app and into great dates. We measure that. Our North Star metric is great dates and it's a follow-up survey. Did you go on a date? If you say yes, we
date?" And if you say yes, that checks that box. So, that is the role that we play inside of the portfolio. >> What How are you different compared to I guess some of the other apps? >> We're very different. So,
example, when you're onboarding on Hinge, the difference starts right there there looking for an intentional relationship. We lose about 20% of onboarding and we're fine with that because we're building a community of
purpose. And what onboarding is doing is helping you build out a really rich profile. And the profile is what's very different about Hinge. So, we're asking for photographs, we're asking for prompts. These are icebreaker questions.
You can respond to a prompt with a voice voice prompt, you know. We're also putting modulars in there like modules in there like date ideas. Do you want to go on a date? If so, like when and where? And then all of this builds out a
really rich expression of who you are as a profile for someone else to look at. Hinge, I might see >> I don't have a profile. >> Hypothetically speaking. >> He's being very, very clear.
>> Hypothetically speaking, if I'm looking at your profile on Hinge, I'm I'm to see a couple of photos. I might see a voice prompt. So, you've like literally like me heard your voice respond to an icebreaker question. I might see some
written content. And then I It's not a wholesale yes or no. I can engage with pieces of that content. I could like something and provide a comment to it. So, the purpose of Hinge right from the jump is to get people to interact with
each other with more intentionality. >> Is that what is missing on on this app. I haven't used a dating app since maybe I was in early college. And I know it was it was on Match, like not on it. But, um
it was always just a swipe and go meet up somewhere. But, it's I'm listening to you and it sounds like it is a more more of a time investment, but it's more >> You know, I would say the biggest difference about Hinge is for a long
time we've been focusing on the outcome of the human who's using our app. And And so, when you're focused on that outcome quite singularly, you're designing the experience to get to that outcome. You're measuring that outcome.
And word of mouth of people who meet their partners on Hinge is the greatest growth driver to our business. And so, the user growth follows, the revenue singular focus on a high-intent user experience.
>> Um what have been some of the biggest features that you've rolled out this roadmap over the next 18 months, what else do you want to launch? >> Oh my goodness. We are uh we have real product momentum right now. It's been a
category and an exciting moment to be at Hinge. We just rolled out a feature called Signals. This is a feature that was built really on the insight that women in dating and many places in life, if I'm honest, uh feel like they put in
a disproportionate amount of emotional labor and aren't seeing that returned from other people. And so, it's really a feature that celebrates effort and thoughtfulness and badges uh users on Hinge with a signal. And that signal,
uh, is a sort of a heart badge and it lets you know that this is a user who is into Hinge. They have, uh, verified themselves through face check. They have filled out a really rich profile. They have actually looked
through your profile before liking, uh, a a module content. So, it's really something that's delivering against that promise of I'm putting of effort into looking for someone, uh, and I want to know that other people are putting in an
reward them for that. >> Is it super I just a lot of competition in this space. Is it super difficult to innovate? >> No. I think what's challenging is
understanding what are the needs of every next generation. You know, I've spent my career at the intersection of global brands, technology, connection, and culture, you know, and how all those things come together and how you're able
to understand where your audience is going and what their needs are. Dating going and what their needs are. Dating is a an incredibly human category. You know, we're connecting to people in a relationship and here at Can I've had a
number of people come up to me, just to tell me that they met their that. You know, it's it's an overwhelming thing. And I would say that, you know, if you're uh, doing your job, you're sort of looking around the
generation. So, I look at Gen Z, for example, they are, um, have much more past. And by the way, this is will continue with Gen Alpha. If you look at,
for example, the LGBTQI+ spectrum and how people identify, we're seeing more, uh, more, uh, experimentation and, you know, growth there, particularly in the bisexual segment of young women identifying as bisexual. So, innovation
in the category comes from a deep understanding of who your core audience is and what sort of forces and culture they are rejecting and pushing against and using as ways to evolve how they're living and dating and how they want to
against that. >> Uh I imagine you have an amazing, interesting, fascinating, mind-blowing data on your platform. I'm a millennial, an aging millennial, uh but a still good-looking one. But nonetheless, how
how is this next generation dating differently was dating, let's say in high school, I would go to a restaurant, spend 2 hours, again, maybe we don't, whatever it was. Is there still that formality to it?
>> Yeah, you know, I think one thing that is uh acutely different with this generation is they are experiencing a crisis of loneliness. Uh they grew up during a pandemic, their peak dating years in their late teens and early 20s
way you just described. They didn't experience that. They were in lockdown. And those are years for figuring out who you are, what you like, who you want to be with, how to flirt, kind of all of that. So, without that, you know, paired
with the fact that they're spending a thousand less hours in person with others than two decades before them of the same age. That's two plus hours per day spent literally on a phone most likely in isolation. So, the core
ability to walk up to a stranger and say hi, you know, that confidence and that resilience to work your way through that just doesn't really exist. So, it's >> Nobody You just made me realize that nobody taught me how to flirt. I don't
coming up there was no internet like really when I was coming up. I was >> Yeah, well, you probably experimented and tried. And so, you know, so they And you know, what we really see is they are really deeply wanting to be in a
intimate relationship with another person and they really want this. They don't necessarily know their way into it. And so, dating apps provide a really clear avenue for exploration of dating someone.
>> Real quickly, last one. Is there a such thing as a perfect dating profile? And if so, how would I go about making one? >> You know, we have uh a lot of features uh that can help extract from you more information because a great profile is a
rich profile. It leverages all of the tools that we have in the arsenal. You know, you are um filling out a prompt response with your voice. You're adding photographs that show who you are, show interests that you have, you know,
things that you love to do. And basically, a great profile is one that gives someone else a good imagination of who you are and what you're like because be like meeting you on a date. >> Well, look, if I had a Hinge profile, I
I want people to know that, "Hey, I get really cool people such as yourself." Um congrats on this new role. Look forward it. >> Thanks.