Lauren O’Reilly, Director of advertising at OKCupid, claims compared to their present 10 million users that are active females looking for ladies just comprise 7 % of the. Nevertheless the great news is because the site expanded their sex and orientation choices, they will have seen a 7 % increase in feminine LGBTQ users, suggesting that lots of females might have experienced stifled by the requirement to determine as one sex or one sex, which may be a concern whenever looking to get queer ladies for an app that is lesbian-specific.

The number of identities of women-seeking-women not merely causes it to be difficult to subscribe to apps that only have three options (right, lesbian, bisexual) but may possibly also explain why most of the queer ladies we talked to express they choose to satisfy times through buddies. “we develop every thing on trust, ” my pal Valey, 27, whom fulfills other females through buddies IRL, said. In the end, she states, it really is better to ask your entire buddies what that adorable woman’s situation is whenever each of them understand her and probably have for years. While which is clearly exactly the same in right relationship, right people do not have to determine precisely how right somebody is, be worried about navigating a relationship with a person who’s not away, or potentially suffer from some body with them being a test. Fulfilling some body throughout your LGBTQ network that is social a degree of Date Insurance that numerous queer ladies can not manage to do without.

All this work partner-vetting is not to state all lesbians are serial monogamists. A 2013 study from Liverpool Hope University that studied 126 lesbian and right ladies with all the typical chronilogical age of 27 unearthed that lesbians had and desired to have equally as much sex that is casual straight ladies. However the homosexual females we talked to stated they should possess some type of link with your partner, regardless if their only intention is to hook-up (which can be frequently is).

“Tinder changed the landscape of internet dating a little, ” my friend Nomi*, 30, whom identifies as queer, said. “we utilized OKCupid years back also it ended up being awesome. I’d some legit fortune here. The good news is on Tinder every person appears to be scared to be too earnest. Dating apps nowadays make me would you like to relocate to a cave into the hills and alter my title. “

Another buddy of mine, additionally called Lindsay, 34, whom also identifies as queer, echoed comparable sentiments, stating that she hates lesbian dating application Her given that it is way too much like Tinder in every the incorrect methods. “I would like to really hear more info on anyone than one headline and 10 selfies. ” Her creator Robyn Exton did tell CNN Money back might that the app that is rebranded have significantly more text boxes and photos making sure that people could see “the interesting elements of just exactly just exactly how she lives, ” but a recently available trip through the application reveals that the excess information continues to be pretty seldom filled down.

Therefore, of this hundreds of dating apps which exist, how comen’t here a far better, queer-women-friendly dating app yet? Are lesbians not internet dating since there is no good software, or perhaps is there no good application because lesbians can’t stand internet dating? Lauren Kay, co-founder for the Dating Ring, claims it really is a little bit of an egg or chicken situation.

“Getting money for the dating application is quite, very difficult. Everybody else and their sibling has unique dating application, and investors usually are not thinking about this room, ” Kay states. “also then because of that little pool, users most likely would not get great matches, plus they’d hate the application rather than refer people they know, then it might perish. In the event that you had a group working very difficult for per year on building the greatest LGBT application on the market, but even with their work, they just had 1,000 users —”

Andrew Chen, an advisor/investor for technology startups including Dropbox, published on their weblog that generally speaking, it is difficult for just about any app that is dating attract interest from investors. He claims that dating apps rely a great deal on people that are nearby, of course those folks aren’t here instantly, individuals will keep the software. “People are able to happen to be satisfy each other, but just plenty, ” Chen writes. “And there must be the mix that is right of participants (or whatever permutation is practical). ” The odds you’d find the correct permutation in a given area is slim indeed with a 2011 report by the Williams Institute showing that only 3.4 percent of Americans self-identity as lesbian or bisexual women.

Chen adds that “until there is word-of-mouth, and people that are enough create an excellent experience, the market will draw. ” Therefore lesbians who possess mainly heterosexual buddies might maybe maybe maybe not find out about the application, and homosexual women that spend time along with other homosexual ladies most likely see individuals they know already in the application (aka exes they would instead maybe perhaps perhaps maybe not see again).

Dinesh Moorjani, co-founder of Tinder and CEO of Hatch laboratories Inc. Where Tinder was made, claims that another reason lesbian dating apps might have neglected to prosper might be that investors do not observe that 3.4 percent of America as a sizable market that is enough tackle (never head that homosexual and bi men constitute a comparable percentage associated with populace as homosexual and bi ladies, and Grindr has 10 times dating dabble the users of Her). “Investors may have the alternatives that are current enough to deal with industry need, given that they enable users to toggle between trying to find either sex. It is possible the marketplace size was not compelling, well documented, or communicated to potential investors by business owners, ” he claims, suggesting that investors think Tinder, Hinge, in addition to other straight-focused apps are serving lesbian females adequately.

Why is not anyone placing more funding and research into this thing that may potentially assist an incredible number of US women? Could it be the disregarding of lesbians and women that are queer viable customers? Possibly. Regardless of the explanation, it seems like homosexual and bisexual females will have to stay glued to the old standby of looking to bump into somebody at a complete Foods, somehow notifying one another that you are queer, after which seven months later on adopting rescue kittens together. Maybe maybe maybe Not just a bad fallback plan.