TINvestigation: Is Tinder Indonesia a Dating or Hook-up App?

Some key takeaways

• One in two male Gen Zs residing in Greater Jakarta use a dating app, especially Tinder, for a short-term sexual activity or “hook-up” purpose.

• Millennials are more into hook-up culture in using a dating app compared to Gen Z, according to our TINvestigation data.

• Using a dating app for hook-up is becoming a phenomenon in Indonesia, but it is not a culture yet compared to the Western countries.

The dating culture has evolved through the use of social media. Millennials have created a new dating age with the use of dating apps such as Tinder, Bumble, Coffee Meets Bagel, and a few others.  At first, these dating apps have allowed us to connect with everyone who may just be a fitted suitor, in a much more instant way. However, these days, people use it for other reasons, one not as assuring as a long-term relationship.

Most people don’t even give their relationships titles. Instead, they merely want to date for a short period of time. Not referring to that choice as a bad thing. While dating, a person might learn more about themselves, including their preferences for and dislikes in a partner. From here, different kinds of people can meet others with the same intentions as they do, such as those looking for hookups.

Why Tinder?

Tinder is an app that matches individuals digitally both locally and globally. It was founded back in 2012 and its appearance challenges the conventional dating culture, which usually involves going out and having real-life conversations with strangers. Rather, it provides you with access to a wide range of potential partners that you might not have otherwise had at a bar or club.

Tinder was a pioneer when it first came out in the online dating space, and turns out to be the most widely used dating app right now. In 2023, approximately 6.08 million downloads of Tinder occurred worldwide through the Google Play Store and the App Store. Meanwhile in Indonesia, 63% percent of Indonesians who use dating apps use Tinder (Statista, 2022).

The TINvestigation

TINvestigation (Tinder Investigation) was initiated from a concern over the peculiar attitudes of Tinder users who seem projecting “lustful”  intentions based on social media discourses that raise awareness of the application being used to find “short-term fun.” This investigation was first inspired by word-of-mouth from close friends or acquaintances claiming that their experiences on Tinder were mainly filled with people who had the intention for a one-night engagement. We initiated this investigation to find first-hand information regarding the matter.

To gather the data, the three members of the team set up a “fake profile” on the app to lure male users into being the subjects of the investigation. The team used a fake profile picture, showing a non-Indonesian young lady with an attractive look. The target of the investigation was male users, aged 21-43 years old, residing in JABODETABEK (Greater Jakarta) area.

The data gathering was guided by three basic questions:

1. Is it true that male Tinder users are looking for “hook-ups”?
2. Which generation has more intentions of wanting to “hook-up.”
3. Is “hook-up” culture in Indonesia becoming as heavy as in the West?

The team successfully secured 100 matches within 2 days in November 2023, but only the data from 50 matches were presented in this report. Some of the data needed further verification as the sources were found to be giving fabricated answers. This possibly happened because the members of the team intentionally used flirtatious wordplay to persuade the men to confess to their intentions, which almost all fall into.

The composition of participants in this investigation by generation is presented in the pie chart below.

What is the main intention of Gen Z and Millennials to use Tinder?

The TINvestigation reveals that it is true that Tinder has become the place for male users to find a hook-up, apart from looking for a real date. The data show that half of the Gen-Z participants of the study admitted to using the dating app to get a potential partner for hook-up. The other half said they searched for a “relationship.” The graph below shows the percentage of male users’ intentions on Tinder between Millennials and Generation Z in greater Jakarta.

The investigation also finds that Millennials tend to use the app for “hooking up” intention, rather than finding a long-term relationship.  As seen in the graph above, 55.88 percent of the Millennial participants were on Tinder for the first intention, while 44.12 percent were for the second. Despite the slight difference, the graph shows a significant insight into understanding the behaviors of dating app users in Indonesia.

To get better ideas about the differences between “hook-up” intention and “relationship” intention, we first define both terms. We quoted the definition of “hook-up” from an article published in Forbes.

Hookup culture, characterized by casual, commitment-free sexual encounters, stands on the three-pillared foundation of dating apps, social media, and changing attitudes toward intimacy.

The second term “relationship” refers to a romantic relationship which means “mutual, ongoing, and voluntary interactions between two partners that are characterized by specific expressions of affection and intimacy,” according to an article published in Libre Texts Social Sciences.

When gathering the data, we acted as a normal dating app user by asking “What are you doing here (tinder)” or “What are you looking for in this app?”.  The answers for the “relationship” intention varied ranging from “I’m searching for a life partner,” “a good relationship,” “I’m looking for a serious relationship,” to (looking for) “someone to marry.” We were quite shocked to receive the answers that fall into a “hook-up” intention.

Among the “hook-up” coded answers are quoted below.

“FWB (Friends With Benefits) only”

“Netflix and chill”

“DTF (Down To Fuck) or fuck buddies”

“Sex”

While the two last answers were obvious, the first and second answers were associated with the terms of sexual activities. According to Dictionary.com, Friends with Benefits or better known as FWB refers to “two people who engage in sexual activity without being in a committed relationships.” On the other hands, Netflix and Chills is known as a slang which means watching a Netflix show with the intention of having a sexual activity.

It is obvious that looking for a hookup on a dating app is becoming an apparent phenomenon among young Indonesians. The question is, to what extent this Western-adopted phenomenon has created a new sub-culture in the country with largest Muslim population? We compare our findings to the data from Roast.dating. The result is presented in the chart below.

The chart shows that 54 percent of the male subjects in our investigation have indicated and strongly shown “hook-up” intentions by using Tinder. As for the rest of these 46 percent of the participants uttered of using Tinder for casual to serious relationships. When compared to a statistic report published in Roast.dating, 30 percents of Tinder total users in Western regions show their interest in looking for “hook-ups,” while 70 percent of them stick to casual and romantic dating, as of October 2023.

The chart itself does not indicate that Indonesia has a higher level of hook-up culture than the Western countries do. It also debunks that Tinder becomes a solely virtual space for hook-up culture in the Western world. Obviously, the data is not comparable as we only collect the data from the Greater Jakarta area, involving 50 people only, which is not representative for the whole population.

The summary

As seen from the results of our investigation, the gap remains 50/50 between men who are interested in casual/serious relationships and those who want to hook-up in Tinder. Therefore, Tinder can still serves as a usable platform for users who truly want to find a serious relationship or soul mate, obviously, with personal precautions.  Based on our findings, we suggest that Tinder Indonesia is not simply an infamous “hook-up” app. Rather, it remains a dating app for people to look for a potential companion for a relationship either a casual or serious one.

References

Gerber, P. J. & Murphy, H. (n.d.) Definition and Characteristics of Relationships. LibreTexts Social Sciences. Accessed from https://socialsci.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Communication/Interpersonal_Communication/I.C.A.T_Interpersonal_Communication_Abridged_Textbook_(Gerber_and_Murphy)/08%3A_Interpersonal_Relationships/8.01%3A_Definition_and_Characteristics_of_Relationships

Nurhayati, H. (2022). Indonesia: leading mobile dating apps 2022. Statista. Accesed from https://www.statista.com/statistics/1186376/indonesia-leading-mobile-dating-apps/

Roast (2023, October 19). “Tinder statistics 2023: All you need to know about the dating app!”. ROAST. Accessed from https://roast.dating/blog/tinder-statistics

Travers, M. (2023, October 11). “A Psychologist’s Guide To Finding True Love In ‘Hookup Culture’”. Forbes. Accessed from https://www.forbes.com/sites/traversmark/2023/10/11/a-psychologists-guide-to-finding-true-love-in-hookup-culture/

TINvestigation team

Report, data and visuals by Batch 2025 students of Communications Program, BINUS University International

1. Jayne Josephine 
2. Shalomita Alessia Warganegara
3. Zefanya Avrilliane 

Under supervision of

1. Lily El Ferawati, PhD, the lecturer of Communication Data and Technology, Communications Program, BINUS University International.
2. Nuran Wibisono, Managing Editor for Mild Report, Tirto.id
3. Alfons Hartanto, Researcher, Tirto.id

Report editing by Lily El Ferawati, PhD.

To cite this work, please use this: Josephine, J., Avrilliane, Z., Warganegara, S. A., & Rofil, L. E. F. (2024, August 1). TINvestigation: Is Tinder Indonesia a Dating or Hook-up App? Accessed from https://international.binus.ac.id/communications/student-work/tinvestigation-is-tinder-indonesia-a-dating-or-hook-up-app/