Lauren O’Reilly, Director of advertising at OKCupid, claims compared to their present 10 million active users, females looking for females just comprise 7 per cent of the. However the very good news is because the site expanded their sex and orientation choices, they have seen a 7 % increase in feminine LGBTQ users, suggesting that lots of ladies might have believed stifled by the necessity to recognize as one sex or one sex, which may additionally be a concern whenever hoping to get queer ladies for an app that is lesbian-specific.

The number of identities of women-seeking-women not merely causes it to be difficult to subscribe to apps that only have three options (right, lesbian, bisexual) but may also explain why most of the queer ladies we talked to state they would like to fulfill times through friends. “we develop every thing on trust, ” my buddy Valey, 27, whom fulfills other females through buddies IRL, said. Most likely, she states, it is much easier to ask all your buddies what that sweet girl’s situation is whenever all of them understand her and probably have for years. While which is demonstrably exactly the same in right relationship, right people don’t need to find out exactly how someone that is straight, be worried about navigating a relationship with an individual who’s not away, or potentially suffer from somebody with them as a test. Fulfilling somebody during your LGBTQ social networking provides a level of Date Insurance that numerous queer females can not manage to do without.

All of this partner-vetting is not to state all lesbians are serial monogamists. A 2013 research from Liverpool Hope University that studied 126 lesbian and right females aided by the typical chronilogical age of 27 unearthed that lesbians had and desired to have equally as much casual sex as straight ladies. Nevertheless the homosexual ladies we talked to stated they should possess some sorts of link with your partner, even in the event their intention that is only is hook-up (which can be usually is).

“Tinder changed the landscape of internet dating a little, ” my friend Nomi*, 30, who identifies as queer, said. “we utilized years that are OKCupid and it also had been awesome. I experienced some luck that is legit. Nevertheless now on Tinder every person is apparently afraid to be too earnest. Dating apps nowadays make me like to go on to a cave within the hills and alter my title. “

Another buddy of mine, additionally known as Lindsay, 34, whom additionally identifies as queer, echoed comparable sentiments, stating that she hates lesbian app that is dating because it is way too much like Tinder in every the incorrect means. “I want to in fact hear more about the individual than one headline and 10 selfies. ” Her founder Robyn Exton did tell CNN Money back might that the rebranded app would have significantly more text boxes and photos to make certain that people could see “the interesting elements of just just exactly how she lives, ” but a recently available trip through the application suggests that the additional information continues to be pretty seldom filled away.

Therefore, regarding the a huge selection of dating apps which exist, how comen’t here a much better, queer-women-friendly dating app yet? Are lesbians not internet dating because there is no good software, or perhaps is here no good application because lesbians can’t stand dating that is online? Lauren Kay, co-founder for the Dating Ring, states it’s a little bit of a chicken or egg situation.

“Getting financing for the dating application is extremely, quite difficult. Everybody and their cousin has unique dating application, and investors usually are not thinking about this area, ” Kay claims. “also in the event that you had a group working very difficult for per year on building the greatest LGBT software on the market, but even with their work, they just had 1,000 users — then due to this little pool, users most likely would not get great matches, and additionally they’d hate the application rather than refer their buddies, after which it could die. “

Andrew Chen, an advisor/investor for technology startups including Dropbox, penned on their web log that as a whole, it really is difficult for just about any dating application to attract interest from investors. He states that dating apps rely a great deal on people that are nearby, and in case those individuals aren’t here straight away, individuals will keep the software. “People are able to go to fulfill one another, but just plenty, ” Chen writes. “And there has to be the mix that is right of participants (or whatever permutation is practical). ” The odds you’d find the correct permutation in a given area is slim indeed with a 2011 report by the Williams Institute showing that only 3.4 percent of Americans self-identity as lesbian or bisexual women.

Chen adds that “until there is word-of-mouth, and people that are enough produce an excellent experience, the market will draw. ” Therefore lesbians who possess mainly friends that are heterosexual perhaps maybe not learn about the software, and homosexual women that go out along with other homosexual females most likely see individuals they already fully know in the application (aka exes they would instead perhaps perhaps maybe not see again).

Dinesh Moorjani, co-founder of Tinder and CEO of Hatch laboratories https://datingmentor.org/adultspace-review/ Inc. Where Tinder was made, states that another reason lesbian dating apps might have neglected to prosper might be that investors do not observe that 3.4 percent of America as a sizable sufficient market to tackle (never head that homosexual and bi men constitute a comparable proportion for the populace as homosexual and bi ladies, and Grindr has 10 times the users of Her). “Investors may have the present alternatives are enough to deal with the marketplace need, simply because they enable users to toggle between trying to find either gender. It is possible the marketplace size has not been compelling, well documented, or communicated to investors that are prospective business owners, ” he claims, suggesting that investors think Tinder, Hinge, additionally the other straight-focused apps are serving lesbian females adequately.

So just why is not anybody placing more funding and research into this thing that may help millions of potentially US women? Is it the disregarding of lesbians and women that are queer viable customers? Possibly. No matter what explanation, it appears to be like gay and bisexual ladies will have to stay glued to the old standby of looking to bump into somebody at a complete Foods, somehow notifying one another you are queer, after which seven months rescue that is later adopting together. Maybe perhaps Not a bad fallback plan.