College students across the country can use Tinder to find potential dating partners — or to potentially earn a free Gunna and GloRilla concert.
As a new school year begins, so does a new Swipe Off Challenge hosted by Tinder, which is an online dating app that allows users to find matches based on location, preferences, and interests. Users can also create a profile with photos and a short bio and then begin to swipe right to like someone or swipe left to pass.
The challenge rules are to join Tinder U and begin swiping. The college with the most swipe activity, such as “likes,” “super likes,” and “nopes,” wins a free concert with Grammy-nominated artists Gunna and GloRilla.
The challenge is open to Tinder U members, which is a feature on the app for college students 18 to 24 years old that launched in 2018. The feature allows students to enter college-specific details like their graduation year, major, clubs, and Greek life.
The Swipe Off Challenge began on Sept. 4 and will continue until Oct. 2, with the winning college being announced on Oct. 21.
Last year’s winning college was Arizona State University, which won a performance by Saweetie. Past Swipe Off performers include a wide variety of music icons, including Charli XCX and Cardi B.
Hallie Winther, a second-year student at the University of Iowa, said the Swipe Off Challenge seems like a fun and engaging promotion for the app to draw in more users.
“I think it is a really good idea because [Gunna and GloRilla] are both really big right now,” Winther said.
The challenge adds a fun element without causing harm while adding to an already enjoyable app, Winther said.
Winther personally will not be participating in the challenge, but she said she looks forward to watching others participate, as a lot of her friends enjoy being on the dating app and swiping away.
Stephanie Danzi, senior vice president of global marketing at Tinder, spoke to The Daily Iowan about the inspiration behind the challenge and how user engagement has increased.
“Bringing [the challenge] to life was a natural choice for us, given that college life has always been part of our DNA — Tinder was born on college campuses and launched by students at USC,” Danzi said.
Danzi said the challenge was inspired by March Madness, and it used a similar bracket-style elimination format.
Tinder has ambassadors on college campuses around the country, including at the University of Iowa, and they’ve found that people love how easy it is to meet others on Tinder, Danzi said.
“Tinder found that 64 percent of singles enjoy meeting new people at live music events, so this challenge gives college students the chance to win a concert and connect with their matches in real life,” Danzi said.
According to Tinder’s website, Tinder U enrollment has grown by an average of 90 percent each year since 2022, which shows that college students are excited to meet others on their campuses.
As the challenge is underway and set to wrap up in less than a month, Danzi said Tinder is looking forward to hosting the event but knows it won’t be easy.
“In just a few weeks, we pull together a massive concert for a contest that only runs for about four weeks,” Danzi said. “It takes extensive pre-planning and coordination, especially since we won’t know the winning school until the contest wraps up.”
Mary Phillips, a third-year UI student, said the concert is a fun prize, but the challenge itself may cause problems.
“It’d be nice to have a concert, but yet again, the [Swipe Off Challenge] is weird,” Phillips said.
Phillips, who previously used Tinder, believes the concert would cause participants to use the app like a game instead of using it to find meaningful connections.
“It’s already difficult to find someone on the app,” Phillips said.
Even with these concerns, Phillips said she is still looking forward to seeing how the challenge plays out.
Tinder plans to continue hosting the Swipe Off Challenge in the future while creating new features on the app and on Tinder U to engage users.
“We’re really excited to help college students build real-life connections, and we think music is the best way to make that happen since it’s such a natural way for people to bond and build relationships,” Danzi said.