Voice is going mainstream
Hinge and Bumble added voice prompts; Hinge reported over 65% of users trying them, driving materially more matches. Voice-based interfaces were projected to reach 8 billion devices by 2025.
The research that told us not to build it.
WannaMatch was our concept for a voice-first dating app: personality before appearance, connection made by conversation rather than by swipe. Before we wrote a line of code, we sized the market, mapped the competition and modelled what it would take to win. This is that work, and the decision it led to.
The idea
Dating apps had a fatigue problem. Endless swiping, snap judgements on photos, and a growing distrust of who is really on the other side. WannaMatch answered it by turning the model around: two people would meet on a short, anonymous voice call, with names, photos and profiles unlocking only as the conversation earned it. Personality first, appearance later.
The concept leaned on three bets: that voice creates a more honest first impression than a photo grid, that anonymity plus strong safety features would build trust, and that a gamified, gradual reveal would feel fresh next to the swipe apps. On paper it was differentiated and timely. The job of the research was to test whether it was also a business.
A real, growing market
The first question was whether the opportunity was big enough to matter. It was. Online dating was a multi-billion dollar market growing steadily, led by North America and increasingly by mobile.
6.8% CAGR, 2024–2033 · Source: market.us, Online Dating Market report
| Year | Market size (USD billions) |
|---|---|
| 2023 | 9.4 |
| 2024 | 10.0 |
| 2025 | 10.7 |
| 2026 | 11.5 |
| 2027 | 12.2 |
| 2028 | 13.1 |
| 2029 | 13.9 |
| 2030 | 14.9 |
| 2031 | 15.9 |
| 2032 | 17.0 |
| 2033 | 18.1 |
$18.1Bprojected market size by 2033, up from $9.4B in 2023
40%+of the market held by North America, the segment we would have to win
65%of dating apps are deleted within a month, most inside the first week
The trends were on our side
Three shifts in the market pointed towards exactly the product WannaMatch proposed.
Safety is now a deciding factor
Only 48% of US adults considered online dating safe in 2023, down from 53% in 2019, with women most wary. Verification and moderation had become table stakes.
Slow dating is rising
73% of singles said they were open to a long-term relationship and only 10% preferred casual. Relationship-first apps like Hinge were growing revenue and paid users at double-digit rates.
Who it was for
We segmented the market by behaviour and motivation, then built personas for each so product decisions could be argued against a real person, not a guess.
Voice-first connection seekers
People who value personality and conversation over photos, and enjoy discovering compatibility by talking before names or faces are revealed.
Privacy-conscious daters
Users who want anonymity and safety by design, and distrust apps that expose names, photos and personal details up front.
Gamified dating enthusiasts
People drawn to interactive mechanics: timed calls, extending a call when both sides agree, and a profile that unveils gradually.
Relationship-oriented singles
Those looking for something lasting rather than casual, who value compatibility built through conversation.
Niche daters
People tired of mainstream swipe apps and actively seeking a fresh approach to meeting others.
A person, not a segment
Segments are useful; people are persuasive. We built personas for each group so every product decision could be argued against someone real. This was one of them.
J
Jessy
25 · Marketing executive · United Kingdom
“I’m tired of being judged on a photo in half a second. I want to actually talk to someone, without handing over my whole life to an app first.”
What she values
Authenticity, privacy, and emotional connection over convenience.
What frustrates her
Shallow swipe-based chat, and the sense that mainstream apps do too little to protect her.
What she needed
A space to have a real conversation first, and reveal herself on her own terms.
A crowded, well-funded field
We ran full SWOT analyses on ten direct competitors and on the social platforms people use to meet informally. The mainstream apps compete on images and scale; only one small international player, Goodnight, occupied similar voice-first territory. So the concept was genuinely differentiated in the West, but not in a market anyone could call empty.
One number from that analysis mattered more than the rest. Bumble’s cost to acquire a single user was $29.42. In a category where roughly two in three installs are deleted within a month, you pay that price many times over to keep a user, and you compete for attention against companies spending at a scale a new studio cannot.
BumbleTinderHingeGoodnightHilyIris DatingTantanOkCupidMuzzOmi
Ten competitors analysed in full, plus social platforms as indirect competition.
How it would make money
A product only matters if it can pay for itself. We modelled the revenue side too, and a voice-first app actually opened doors the swipe apps cannot.
Freemium tiers
The category baseline: core matching free, with paid tiers for boosts, filters and read receipts, as proven by Tinder Gold and Hinge+.
In-app purchases
Standout likes and virtual gifting, the model behind Hinge Roses, turning intent into per-action revenue on top of subscriptions.
Voice-native premium
The angle only a voice-first app has: paid call extensions and premium rooms. Tantan and Momo already earn over half their revenue from live audio.
Privacy as a product
Over 40% of daters say they would pay for privacy features. Incognito modes, encrypted messaging and verification were a natural paid layer.
Every one of these models depends on the same thing first: users. And that is where the case for WannaMatch broke down.
The decision: we chose not to build it
The product was differentiated and the market was real and growing. But research answers a harder question than “could this exist?” It answers “should we spend the next two years and our own money on it?”
Dating is won on marketing, not just engineering. Growth depends on network effects, which means buying users at high cost until a city reaches critical mass, then defending that position against incumbents with enormous acquisition budgets. The build was well within our ability. The promotion budget to reach critical mass, market by market, against Match Group and Bumble was not something we could justify.
So we recommended against it, to ourselves. The research paid for itself the moment it stopped us spending far more on a product the economics did not support.
What this means for you
This is the discipline we bring to every engagement. We would rather find the flaw in an idea in a research document than in a launch that did not land. When we take on your product, you get the same honesty: a clear-eyed read of the market, the competition and the economics, and a straight answer, even when that answer is to build something smaller, or not to build at all.
It is also why the products we do ship are ones we believe in. The same team that said no to WannaMatch said yes to WannaCall, WannaTrack and PokerPoint.
Have an idea worth pressure-testing?
Bring us the concept. We will tell you honestly whether the market, the competition and the numbers support it, before you commit to building.
Book a free consultation sales@wannaverse.com