Comedian Hannibal Buress skewered many popular bits of tech culture at the Webby Awards on Monday — U2 albums on iPhones, Zach Braff’s Kickstarter — but he gave special attention to the world’s favorite dating app.
Tinder won the Webby Award for “breakout of the year.” The Webbys nodded to the app’s major achievements: 50 million monthly users, a unique interface that’s inspired knock-offs and achieved a global presence.
But Buress focused on some — shall we say — less tangible elements.
“Everyone’s talking about Tinder. They’re saying things like, I got chlamydia from a chick off Tinder, or I matched with this girl on Tinder but she turned out to be a bot advertising a TV show about online dating,” Buress said during his opening remarks.
“Tinder proved that the most important quality in another person is not their personality, but their proximity,” he continued.
“The only way you could make Tinder better is if you were allowed to do it in real life. Like if a girl came up to me in a bar and I was like, ‘No — no — no,'” he said, imitating the swiping motions on the dating app. “But unlike Tinder, we’re only celebrating the winners tonight.”
Tinder founders Sean Rad and Jonathan Badeen weren’t laughing. In a backstage interview, they told The Huffington Post that they believe their app is making a real difference and that jokes diminish its accomplishments.
“I think the world has been changed because of Tinder for very positive reasons,” Rad told HuffPost. “The jokes were funny, but I think at the same time they’re just kind of like a thorn in our spine.”
Asked how Tinder has changed the world, Rad pointed to the app’s most basic function: matchmaking.
“There’s been 6 billion matches that have been made,” Rad said. “In each one of those matches, there’s the potential to change someone’s life. Everyone you meet changes your life in some way. We’ve moved the world a little closer together.”
“We’re constantly invited to weddings. I’ve talked to people who’ve met their co-founders, people who have met their entire group of friends when they’ve moved to a new city,” Badeen added.
That all sounds great, but Tinder has faced its share of dark moments. Rad was demoted from CEO to president last year after sexual harassment accusations surfaced at the company. He called the claims inaccurate.
And earlier this year, the app drew some criticism for introducing Tinder Plus, a premium feature that reportedly costs extra for people over 30.
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