Tinder has matched more than 11 billion potential couples since it was founded in 2013, so the dating app has a tremendous amount of data about what works and what doesn’t.

Tinder’s CEO Sean Rad states:

“one of the most surprising things I have learnt from looking at an aggregate of all the data is how we underestimate how much information humans pick up from a simple photo.”

–   “So what makes the perfect photo?”

Rad was asked on stage at Advertising Week Europe in London on Wednesday by Cosmopolitan UK editor Farrah Storr.

“The data shows this: When your photo expresses something about your interests — like a skier skiing — or something about your personality, you do better”

Rad says.

“You do better as in you get more matches. I always tell people to be yourself.”

This argument shows that Rad encourages people to become their own individuals, and not those that ‘follow the crowd‘. The suggestion that matches purely come from your interests is controversial, as the first thing people see on your profile is your profile image – does this suggest people fall in love purely by the sight of someone else. Tinder is then put in the light of a dating website more for the looks of someone rather than personality based – its the immediate decision for people to either ‘swipe right‘ or ‘swipe left‘.

“The model-y poses never work”

Rad, who uses the app for both work and dating, said. He said also he didn’t understand why people put up photos of themselves with a lot of their friends. Eventually, users swipe through the initial image and work out who people really are. Head-shots apparently don’t work either.

“Shots that display what you look like but the environment you live in, and your interests — they work,”

according to Rad.

Tinder’s algorithm 

Rad reveals that Tinder’s algorithm gives unpopular users “a little boost“. An algorithm can be defined as: a process or set of rules to be followed in calculations or other problem-solving operations: “a process or set of rules to be followed in calculations or other problem-solving operations“. Rad gave away how the Tinder algorithm, which attempts to surface people that users would like to meet in the real world, actually works. There are plenty of eligible singles on Tinder who pick up dozens of matches every time they log in to the app. But some find it a little harder. Those users get an extra “boost” and find themselves presented in front of some of the most popular users on Tinder.

Rad said:

“About 89% of our users, just through normal behavior, find matches and have meaningful connections. But there are a group of users that despite swiping, I think, can’t find a match. We give them a little boost to get extra love and attention and hopefully they end up meeting someone.”

It’s initially the “meeting someone” that is Tinder’s ultimate success metric.

– “Success is ultimately defined by how much real-world interaction we can created”