Sometime in early February, the ex-Goldman Sachs employee, Brendan Alper launched his app, Hater, for iOS. As the name suggests, this app is similar to other dating apps like Tinder, but the difference is that it matches people based on what they “Hate”. The beta version which was available since December was very well received and the official release of the final version was scheduled for February.

The iOS app made it to the list of top grossing apps in no time with over 50,000 downloads in just a couple of months. Needless to say, it did achieve what it initially aimed for and now is growing at an exponential rate.

So what is there for us to learn from Hater? Well, it teaches us 5 key things to succeed as a dating app:

1. Find the Right Audience.
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There are so many big players in the online dating market today that it’s tough to gain traction in the general marketplace. Hater found its audience in the millennial circles by emphasizing on one particular focus which was “Hate” and it did pretty well in it. Finding your focus, no matter how quirky it may be, is the first step to reach the right audience. With a better focus and more targeted audience, your chances of success increase easily.

2. Choose the Right Business Model. Online dating sites can operate on either an advertising or a subscription based model or even a combination of the two. For the time being, Hater is free to use, however, once it gets a hold of the market, it will incorporate a subscription based model which will be a lot more beneficial for it given its audience. If your app is attracting a small group of people with a much targeted focus (for instance a trek loving audience who meet up for treks) then a subscription based model would be best for you. However, if your market is huge, the advertising could be equally good. If both of these don’t fit your needs, you can always have the Freemium model, free to use but offering a few extra features on paying some money.

3. Using the Right Algorithm.
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Online matchmaking services typically ask users to fill out questionnaires about their lifestyle, hobbies, work, and other interests. Hater uses a simple questionnaire asking whether the users love or hate the series of things it lists. Then based on your level of hatred for a specific thing, it shows you your best matches. While deciding on an algorithm, always think about what values will be the most important to your potential users — and how you should rank their matches. Once you’ve determined this, partner with an experienced dating app development firm to set up your search tool.

4. Luring in your Customers. No one wants to download a dating app that very few people use, so you’ll want to market your app well  and provide added incentives to sign up initial members. Obviously, these campaigns should be catered according to your audience. Hater utilized the technique of a soft launch along with a few simple online marketing tactics to bring in their targeted audience which worked perfectly. Once initial members have signed up, you can analyze and tailor your app features and marketing campaigns even more based on their behavior.

5. Maintain quality control.
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Dating apps must be prepared to cope with sexual harassment and other forms of online abuse, as well as privacy concerns. Even though Hater centers around hate, it doesn’t actually encourage negative behavior. It has a one-strike policy for any anyone who acts in a way the users wouldn’t want to swipe down on. It is always best to set up a system that allows users to flag others for bad behavior, and rescind the membership privileges of abusers.

Hater proves without doubt that a good development strategy will always have a great impact. The only mistake that Hater did was to launch it just on the iOS platform initially and not both on Android and iOS. However, they are quick in their response and are working hard to rectify this. Hater will be soon be released for Android too. If continued this way, it could be that Hater might surpass other dating apps pretty soon.