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30 or Older? Sorry, You'll Have to Pay Twice as Much to Use Tinder's New Premium Features. The viral dating app stirs up yet more controversy with its Tinder Plus pricing structure.

By Kim Lachance Shandrow

entrepreneur daily

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Tindr

Tinder just swiped its way right into hot water.

The makers of the popular dating app yesterday rolled out Tinder Plus, a long anticipated paid version that lets users undo accidental left swipes, set their location to anywhere in the world and avoid ads. Of course, there's one catch: users 30 or older will have to pay twice as much to use the premium service as the under-30 set.

Related: Hinge, the Less Random Tinder, Raises $12 Million

In the U.S., the cost to swipers younger than 30 will be $9.99 a month, while older swipers will have to fork over double, at $19.99 a month. In the U.K., older users are even worse off: swipers older than 28 can subscribe to the service for £14.99 (about $23) a month -- almost four times as much as swipers younger than 28 will shell out for the same thing, reports Bloomberg Business.

The West Hollywood, Calif.-based startup -- owned by dating services industry juggernaut IAC/InterActiveCorp, the company behind OKCupid and Match.com -- justified its controversial age-based premium product pricing tier in a statement to Entrepreneur this morning. Essentially, Tinder says it decided to charge younger users less because, well, those users are strapped for cash. And, hey, it's not the only company charging customers based on their ages.

Related: Here's the Major Obstacle Tinder Still Faces

"Over the past few months, we've tested Tinder Plus extensively in several countries," Tinder spokeswoman Rosette Pambakian said. "We've priced Tinder Plus based on a combination of factors, including what we've learned through our testing, and we've found that these price points were adopted very well by certain age demographics. Lots of products offer differentiated price tiers by age, like Spotify does for students, for example. Tinder is no different; during our testing we've learned, not surprisingly, that younger users are just as excited about Tinder Plus, but are more budget constrained, and need a lower price to pull the trigger."

Tinder's brash push to openly target younger users isn't a love match for older daters, who now have another reason to avoid the heady app, other than left swipes.

Related: Tinder Co-Founder Sean Rad on the Hot Dating App's Viral Success

Kim Lachance Shandrow

Former West Coast Editor

Kim Lachance Shandrow is the former West Coast editor at Entrepreneur.com. Previously, she was a commerce columnist at Los Angeles CityBeat, a news producer at MSNBC and KNBC in Los Angeles and a frequent contributor to the Los Angeles Times. She has also written for Government Technology magazine, LA Yoga magazine, the Lowell Sun newspaper, HealthCentral.com, PsychCentral.com and the former U.S. Surgeon General, Dr. C. Everett Coop. Follow her on Twitter at @Lashandrow. You can also follow her on Facebook here

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