Jackie Jantos, Hinge CEO: Gen Z struggle to connect

Sean Farrington speaks to Jackie Jantos, CEO of popular mobile dating app Hinge, about finding romance in today’s rapidly-changing digital world.

Launched back in 2013, US-based Hinge has steadily grown to become one of the world’s biggest mobile dating apps. As of 2025, there were 30 million users on the platform looking for romance all over the world - up from half a million just 10 years before.

Hinge encouragingly bills itself as the ‘app to be deleted’, and unlike many competitor apps, its focus is on creating real interactions - for example, encouraging users to like photos or prompts - rather than quickly swiping left or right.

In a crowded industry worth billions of dollars, the app, owned by the American dating giant Match Group, has a difficult balancing act to maintain. It has to innovate to attract new users and make a profit, while also ensuring their users find romance and so do not have to keep using the app.

Thank you to the Big Boss Interview team for their help in making this programme. The Interview brings you conversations with people shaping our world, from all over the world. The best interviews from the BBC, including episodes with music icon Chaka Khan, Anthropic co-founder Jack Clark, and entrepreneur Emma Grede. You can listen on the BBC World Service on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 0800 GMT. Or you can listen to The Interview as a podcast, out three times a week on BBC Sounds or wherever you get your podcasts.

Presenter: Sean Farrington Producer: Jeevan Nerwan and Ben Cooper Editor: Damon Rose

Get in touch with us on email TheInterview@bbc.co.uk and use the hashtag #TheInterviewBBC on social media.

(Image: Jackie Jantos smiles as she looks to the side. She has brown hair and glasses and wears a black jumper. Credit: Stuart C. Wilson/Getty Images)