Hinge
Hinge, the dating app that introduces you to friends of friends, says it knows.
Hinge shows you the profiles of single people nearby. If you like someone's profile, swipe right; if you're not interested, swipe left to pass.
Unlike other location-based dating apps like Tinder, Hinge only shows you friends of friends and third-degree connections.
Hinge was founded in 2011, but made a comeback and rebranded as a mobile app in February 2013. Its number of active users has grown by 5x over the past year.
Hinge says it's setting up 35,500 dates per week, and getting 1,500 people into relationships per week. The service has expanded to 29 cities. It's most popular in Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, and Washington, D.C.
"Hinge cuts through the randomness of Tinder," one daily user told The New York Times in March. "I can take some comfort that she knows some of the same people I do." In December, Hinge raised $12 million from venture capitalists, bringing its total amount raised to more than $20 million.
Hinge picked the top 30 men and women in San Francisco on its app using two factors: high "swipe right rates" on their profiles (profile details like appearance, workplace, and education get taken into account) and influence, or how socially connected they are.