Singles are fed up of swiping, and according to the BBC, they are now paying good money to meet strangers in a room with name badges. Market analysts, who have never been on a date but have plenty of opinions about them, describe this as a hedge: a move to spread risk away from a volatile asset, namely the dating app, whose value has been sliding in the eyes of the people holding it. A hedge is simply an investment you make to protect yourself against losses elsewhere.
Consider the numbers. A premium app subscription costs roughly the price of a takeaway each month and yields a steady stream of matches who vanish after two messages. A speed-dating evening costs around 25 pounds and delivers eight face-to-face conversations, each with a guaranteed return of at least one awkward anecdote. Analysts call this a high-yield asset. Your nan would call it a Tuesday.
So what does this mean for you? If you are single, the in-person event is not magic, but it is a more transparent market: you can see what you are buying before you commit. Just do not put your savings into one mixer. Spread your attention across several nights, and treat every candidate like a company whose quarterly results you have not yet seen.
Is it a bubble? Probably not yet. Bubbles need hype, borrowed money and people buying because everyone else is buying. Give it six months and some venture-backed startup will sell curated, algorithm-matched gatherings at four times the price, and then we will know.