Tinder's new head pushes company to move away from 'hookup' reputation and rebrand for Gen Z users

Spencer Rascoff, the CEO of Tinder parent company Match Group, is promising to change the reputation of Tinder as a casual hookup app into a more serious dating app. 

"Users don't want more matches, they want better ones," Rascoff wrote in the memo viewed by The Wall Street Journal.

Better matches, according to Rascoff, means fundamentally shifting the way that users interact with Tinder. 

"Think of Tinder like a bar where people come together to meet new people," Rascoff said. "We have to innovate to drive more people into our establishment, and that means renovating our bar."

Rascoff is slated to take the top role at Tinder as well, in a leadership shift that shows the company's attempts to meet changing dating trends for a younger generation of users. 

In the dating world, Gen Zers have access to more potential partners than perhaps any other generation before them. Yet, at the same time, this age group, now between 13-28 years old, is getting married years after their Baby Boomer grandparents did, swiping through potential partners, and going out on dates with multiple people only to face higher rates of rejection.