Success·Gen ZGen Z can’t afford to date—but Grindr CEO says the real blem is how apps have monetized romanceBy Orianna Rosa RoyleBy Orianna Rosa RoyleAssociate Editor, SuccessOrianna Rosa RoyleAssociate Editor, SuccessOrianna Rosa Royle is the Success associate editor at Fortune, overseeing careers, leadership, and company culture coverage.
She was previously the senior reporter at Management Today, Britain's longest-running publication for CEOs.
SEE FULL BIO From ‘throning’ and ‘sprinkle sprinkle’ to no money for dates: Grindr CEO George Arison debunks dating trends, exclusively in FortuneThe Good Brigade—Getty ImagesMarred with job market woes and rising living costs, Gen Zers don’t have the financial stability to date right now—and those who are dating are using their romantic interests as a potential career or wealth boost.
That’s at least, according to dating apps. But Grindr CEO George Arison isn’t buying it.
“We have no challenge with young people on the app, it’s in no way a concern,” Arison told Fortune in an exclusive interview.
“This whole Gen Z doesn’t want to be online is not an issue among gay people. I actually don’t think it’s an issue among straight people either.
What’s an issue is the way the apps have developed.” In the last decade, he explains how dating apps have gone from being free (or practically free) to charging their users for basic services, sending unlimited messages.
“The other ducts have become so impossible to use if you want to use them as a free duct, because they’re just over monetized,” he says.
“Now, if you don’t pay, and you’re male, the apps are basically not usable. And even as a woman, yes, you can do more things in the app without paying, but you’re still very limited,” he adds.
“Grindr never did that… And so we don’t have a blem with Gen Z or late-stage millennials, because the free duct is extremely robust.
That’s the fundamental difference.” It’s not that young people don’t want to spend money on dating.
It’s just why would they spend money on apps, when they can slide into the DM’s of a romantic interest on Instagram (or even LinkedIn) for free?
“People don’t want to spend money when they don’t have to, right? When you’re younger and you don’t have money, obviously it’s even more so,” Arison adds. “It’s not , hey, I don’t see value in it.
I don’t need it because I have alternative ways to get the same outcome.” Gen Z are dating up There’s no shortage of s on TikTok with advice on “dating up”.
Plenty of Fish even declared that Gen Zers are “throning,” essentially only people who are better than you.
Re echoes that young people are dating people “25% more desirable” than they are—and Grindr CEO says it’s nothing new, at least in the LGBTQ+ community.
“In the gay world, it’s completely normal,” he tells Fortune, adding that a ten-year-plus age gap is also much more common.
Arison, says that while a 25-year-old woman walking down the street arm in arm with a 35-year-old man may raise eyebrows, in his world, it’s been the quo “always—not the last 30 years, but in the last two thousand.” “It happens all time, we’ve all had those experiences,” he adds.
“It’s driven by everyone before being in the closet. We kind of had to stick together, because we all knew the rules of the game.
And so we had to help each other because no one was helping us otherwise.” Before becoming Grindr’s CEO or even founding Taxi Magic (which is sold for an undisclosed amount and is now called Curb), Arison says he was a shy graduate from the Soviet Union, trying to figure out his place in the U.S.
as a gay man—he found guidance and support in older gay men. “Grindr did not exist when I was young,” the now 47-year-old recalls.
“I met recently, the former CEO of a duct called Manhunt, (a socialising app for gay, bi, trans, and queer men) and I told him directly, when I college and I got to DC at 22, Manhunt was the primary way in which I figured out what it was to be gay.” “Mannhant was a place where I could meet other gay men, and, they were most ly older than me, and I figured out myself and what it was to have gay life.
And I developed gay friends all through that,” he adds. Back then, the app was a telephone service and then by 2001, it was a website. For context, Grindr launched in 2009.
But even in a world of swipes and instant matches, Arison says that mentorship dynamic remains. “For me, that was way easier than just showing up at a bar and having a conversation with somebody.
So I was very much raised by older gay men to figure out what it was to be gay, because there was no playbook.
So I think it’s a bit it’s always been true, and that’s what happened for me.” Fortune Global Forum returns Oct. 26–27, 2025 in Riyadh.
CEOs and global leaders will gather for a dynamic, invitation-only event shaping the future of . Apply for an invitation.