The Big Business of Online Dating (Land of the Giants)
b"Today, Nayeema sits down with dating industry veteran Lakshmi Rengarajan and journalist Sangeeta Singh-Kurtz before we play you an episode of the podcast they host \\u2014 Land of the Giants: Dating Games. In conversation, the three explore the business of online dating, the incentive apps have to keep users swiping and the power the people who run and build these dating services have in shaping our love lives.\\nKara and Nayeema will be back on Monday with a fresh episode of On with Kara Swisher.\\xa0Until then, find them on Twitter @karaswisher and @nayeema.\\n__\\nTinder, Hinge, OkCupid, The League. If you\\u2019ve ever wondered why using these different dating apps feels similar, it may be because they\\u2019re all owned by Match Group, the company that helped start online dating in the 90s, and now owns two-thirds of the dating app market. Today, Match is a dating app conglomerate with millions of users and over 45 brands around the world. That\\u2019s billions of dollars worth of swipes and subscriptions. But does paying for what Match Group calls \\u201csuperpowers\\u201d \\u2014 things like Hinge\\u2019s \\u2018roses\\u2019 and Tinder\\u2019s \\u2018super likes\\u2019 \\u2014 get users any closer to connecting with real-life people?\\xa0\\n\\u2022\\tHosted by Sangeeta Singh-Kurtz (@sangeetaskurtz) and Lakshmi Rengarajan (@Shmi_So_Far)\\n\\u2022\\tSubscribe for free. Be the first to hear next week's episode by hitting the plus sign in your favorite podcast app\\n\\u2022\\tFollow @TheCut and @verge on Twitter\\nLearn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices"