Match Group, the parent company of Tinder and Hinge, announced a $100 million investment in Sniffys on Monday. The deal gives Match Group a majority stake and the option to later become sole owner. The announcement is drawing intense reactions from users who are speculating about the company’s direction and the long-term stability of the app.
“Sniffys has long maintained its market position as the little guy serving a niche of the gay community, and some who may not be comfortable with Grindr – where a no-face-pick, no-chat culture prevails – turn to connecting with other like-minded people in a more direct and discreet way,” Zubrick told WIRED.
“This partnership is about supporting it, not redefining it,” Blake Gallagher, founder and CEO of Sniffies, said in a statement. He said the investment will help the platform focus on three key areas that users want: “stronger trust and security, broader network growth, and continuous product improvement.” According to the agreement, Match Group will provide guidance on the right roles, processes and technology to help Sniffies build its trust and security efforts.
But users aren’t buying what Gallagher is selling. The Instagram post announcing the news was flooded with negative reactions, as users expressed concern over the strategic partnership. One expressed, “Please don’t let this become a direct way of sniffing out.” “You’re sold. Simple as that. Where are we going next boys?” Added Mark Sundstrom, a user from Philadelphia. Another wrote, “Partnering with Match seems very civilized and straightforward. The app is being left as is to attract investors, which I am extremely concerned about.” As of Tuesday afternoon, comments on the post were closed.
Although it remains to be seen how Gallagher will position Sniffies in the coming months, users are already saying this is the beginning of the end for the app. “Straight people shouldn’t even know what sniffies are Is For fuck’s sake,” one wrote in the r/askgaybros subreddit. And despite the promises, some say a major corporation like Match isn’t ethically aligned with the indie spirit of Sniffys. On LinkedIn, the top comment under Gallagher’s post questioned the real intention behind Match Group’s investment. “Interesting to see how the relationship with Palantir impacts the development of Sniffys. “Hopefully it won’t become a surveillance application.”
Spencer Rascoff, who became CEO of Match Group in 2025, previously served on the board of Palantir, the defense technology and data mining company that has become the “tech backbone” of the Trump administration.
Sniffys says it will continue to own and control the way it stores, manages and protects its user data. According to the company, it does not plan to make any changes to its data practices as part of the investment.
But the outcry underscores the importance of platforms like Sniffies and what it will mean for a community of people who already feel they have very few quality options for getting what they want online.
“It’s a glitch and obviously expected. It’s definitely an indicator of it growing rapidly, so no shade, but we saw what happened with Grindr,” says Brad Allen, a 34-year-old event producer and creator of Club Quarantine, who joined Sniffies in 2023. “I’m really pushing them to navigate it differently in some way because it’s necessary for the cruising community now. Hopefully the pop-up Candy Crush ads don’t shine too much light in the bushes.”
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