The story
Hot or Not’s 1–10 photo ratings were the crude ancestor of every swipe app — its “Meet Me” feature was matching-by-attractiveness a decade before Tinder. It passed through several owners, ended up a Badoo skin, and quietly faded out. Its DNA, however, is in every dating app you use today.
What it did well
- Invented mechanics the whole industry copied
- Cultural phenomenon of the 2000s
- Simple, addictive loop
Why it faded
- Effectively defunct
- Reduced people to a number
- Ended as a hollow rebrand