ARTICLE · 1089091
外刊精读丨约会软件试图让年轻人放下手机
Tinder 和 Bumble 正在从“无限左滑右滑”转向线下活动：匹克球、酒吧派对、问答夜，甚至桑拿和冷水浴。背后是越来越明显的约会软件疲劳，以及持续下滑的付费用户。
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📖 原文
After years of captivating users with endless swipes, dating apps are now trying to get people to put their phones down and find connection in the real world. Tinder, the pioneer of the dating swipe, is now one of the companies leading this expansion of IRL events. In March, the company introduced an Events feature in its app and hosted a pilot event for users in Los Angeles.
Since then, the feature has started to catch on, especially with younger people, said Tinder chief product officer Mark Kantor. The company since March has seen 71% of its Gen Z users in L.A. visit the Events feature on its app. Meanwhile, only 63% of users 25 and older engaged with it. The company has now expanded the feature to 20 cities, mostly in the U.S. but also in Europe. The idea, Kantor told Fortune via email, is to shed the label of "dating event" and instead allow users to meet potential matches while doing something they already love like pickleball, trivia, or sauna and cold plunge sessions.
Another established dating app company, Bumble, said it is also helping extend its reach beyond swipes and messages with events and activations. This year, the company has taken over bars across New York for singles mixers, hosted a rooftop party in Nashville, and held an event with Barstool Sports' Tommy Smokes in Boston. "IRL has been part of Bumble's DNA from the start. We know that one of the biggest points of friction in dating today is the gap between connecting online and actually meeting in person, and we're focused on helping close that gap," a Bumble spokesperson told Fortune in a statement.
Tinder's daily active users were down 4% year over year in the second quarter, which was a slight improvement compared to past quarters. Paying Tinder users fell to 8.5 million as of the second quarter, an 11.5% drop compared to the same period two years earlier. Bumble has experienced a steeper decline, with total paying users falling to 3.2 million in the second quarter from 4.1 million two years earlier, a 24% drop. A study of nearly 9,000 respondents from reverse lookup company Clarity Check in July found that 58% of respondents had deleted a dating app because they found it "emotionally draining."
本文节选自 Fortune（作者 Marco Quiroz-Gutierrez，2026年9月20日）。文中观点及引述归原作者及受访者，译文与解析为原创。
✎ 精读
After years of captivating users with endless swipes, dating apps are now trying to get people to put their phones down and find connection in the real world. Tinder, the pioneer of the dating swipe, is now one of the companies leading this expansion of IRL events. In March, the company introduced an Events feature in its app and hosted a pilot event for users in Los Angeles.
多年来，交友软件一直靠着刷不完的滑动配对来抓住用户，但现在它们开始想办法让人放下手机，去现实世界里找到真正的连接。Tinder作为“滑动配对”这种玩法的开创者，如今成了带头推动线下活动这股风潮的公司之一。今年三月，Tinder在应用里上线了一个“活动”功能，还在洛杉矶为用户办了一场试点活动。
✔ captivating 吸引住、迷住。常用来形容牢牢抓住某人注意力或兴趣的状态，比 attracting 语气更强，带一点让人无法自拔的意味。
✔ put their phones down 放下手机。字面意思，常用来象征性地表示脱离数字设备、回归现实互动，是讨论数字健康话题时的常见说法。
✔ a pilot event 一场试点活动。pilot 作形容词常指在正式全面推广之前，先进行的小规模测试，比如 pilot program（试点项目）。
Since then, the feature has started to catch on, especially with younger people, said Tinder chief product officer Mark Kantor. The company since March has seen 71% of its Gen Z users in L.A. visit the Events feature on its app. Meanwhile, only 63% of users 25 and older engaged with it. The company has now expanded the feature to 20 cities, mostly in the U.S. but also in Europe. The idea, Kantor told Fortune via email, is to shed the label of "dating event" and instead allow users to meet potential matches while doing something they already love like pickleball, trivia, or sauna and cold plunge sessions.
Tinder首席产品官马克·坎特说，自那以后，这个功能开始渐渐流行起来，尤其受年轻用户的欢迎。三月以来，洛杉矶Z世代用户里，有71%点开过应用里的“活动”功能，相比之下，25岁以上用户的这个比例只有63%。Tinder现在已经把这个功能推广到了20个城市，大部分在美国，也有一些在欧洲。坎特通过邮件告诉《财富》杂志，这么做的想法，是想摆脱“相亲活动”这个标签，转而让用户能一边做自己本来就喜欢的事情，比如打匹克球、参加知识问答之夜，或者去桑拿房、冷水浴，一边遇到潜在的对象。
✔ catch on 开始流行起来。常用短语动词，形容某个新事物逐渐被大众接受和采纳，从小范围扩散到更广泛的人群。
✔ shed the label of 摆脱……的标签。shed 本义是（动物）蜕皮、掉毛，引申为主动去掉某种负面或限制性的标签、印象。
✔ cold plunge 冷水浴。近年流行的健康养生活动，指短时间浸泡在冰冷水中以刺激身体恢复、提振精神，常和桑拿搭配进行。
Another established dating app company, Bumble, said it is also helping extend its reach beyond swipes and messages with events and activations. This year, the company has taken over bars across New York for singles mixers, hosted a rooftop party in Nashville, and held an event with Barstool Sports' Tommy Smokes in Boston. "IRL has been part of Bumble's DNA from the start. We know that one of the biggest points of friction in dating today is the gap between connecting online and actually meeting in person, and we're focused on helping close that gap," a Bumble spokesperson told Fortune in a statement.
另一家老牌交友软件公司Bumble表示，自己也在通过举办活动，把业务延伸到滑动配对和发消息之外。今年，这家公司已经包场了纽约多家酒吧办单身派对，在纳什维尔办过屋顶派对，还在波士顿和Barstool体育的主播汤米·斯莫克斯合办过一场活动。Bumble的一位发言人在一份声明中告诉《财富》杂志：“线下活动从一开始就是Bumble基因里的一部分。我们知道，如今约会最大的一个卡点，就是线上建立联系和线下真正见面之间的落差，我们正在专注于弥合这个落差。”
✔ extend its reach 延伸自己的触及范围。常用于商业语境中，描述一家公司扩大业务覆盖面、影响力或用户群体。
✔ taken over 包场、接管。这里指整个场地被这家公司包下来专门用于自己组织的活动，是活动营销里的常见做法。
✔ points of friction 摩擦点、卡点。常用来比喻一个流程或体验中让人感到不顺畅、有阻力的环节，是产品和用户体验讨论中的高频词。
Tinder's daily active users were down 4% year over year in the second quarter, which was a slight improvement compared to past quarters. Paying Tinder users fell to 8.5 million as of the second quarter, an 11.5% drop compared to the same period two years earlier. Bumble has experienced a steeper decline, with total paying users falling to 3.2 million in the second quarter from 4.1 million two years earlier, a 24% drop. A study of nearly 9,000 respondents from reverse lookup company Clarity Check in July found that 58% of respondents had deleted a dating app because they found it "emotionally draining."
Tinder的日活跃用户数，在第二季度同比下降了4%，比起前几个季度已经算略有改善。截至第二季度，Tinder的付费用户降到了850万，比两年前同期下降了11.5%。Bumble的下滑更陡峭：第二季度的总付费用户数，从两年前的410万，降到了320万，跌幅达到24%。反向查询公司Clarity Check今年七月的一项调查，覆盖了近9000名受访者，发现58%的受访者曾经删掉过交友软件，理由是觉得它“在情感上很消耗人”
✔ year over year 同比。财经术语，指与去年同一时期相比的数据变化，是财报和市场分析中最常用的比较基准之一。
✔ a slight improvement 略有改善。常用来形容某项负面指标的下滑幅度，比之前有所收窄，程度上依然是负面的，只是没那么糟。
✔ emotionally draining 在情感上很消耗人。draining 本义是排水、抽干，引申为让人精力和情绪被榨干的感觉，常用于描述令人身心俱疲的体验。
长句拆解
The idea, Kantor told Fortune via email, is to shed the label of "dating event" and instead allow users to meet potential matches while doing something they already love like pickleball, trivia, or sauna and cold plunge sessions.
先抓主干：the idea is to shed the label of "dating event" and instead allow users to meet potential matches，这个想法，是想摆脱“相亲活动”这个标签，转而让用户能遇到潜在的对象。
Kantor told Fortune via email 是插在主语和谓语之间的信息来源说明，交代这句话是坎特通过邮件告诉《财富》杂志的。
while doing something they already love like pickleball, trivia, or sauna and cold plunge sessions 是修饰“遇到潜在对象”这个动作的时间状语，里面并列了三个具体的活动例子：匹克球、知识问答，或者桑拿加冷水浴。
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