Tinder Gold Conversion Strategy: Blur-to-Reveal and Paywall UX

The most reliable way to win attention is to leave something open.

The Zeigarnik effect keeps unfinished stories front-of-mind, and that’s exactly what drives habit on primetime TV, upgrades in dating apps, and conversion on short-form video.

How EastEnders Uses Cliffhangers to Keep ~5M Viewers Returning

The BBC soap EastEnders ends episodes right at the moment of maximum uncertainty—often a revelation cut short, a doorbell just as a secret is about to drop, or a character's reaction without the reason why.

The signature drum beat ("doof-doof") hits, the screen cuts to black, and the story is left open.

Despite airing 4 nights a week, the show continues to draw about 5 million viewers per episode.

The pattern is deliberate: create tension → end before resolution → let viewers think about it → bring them back for closure.

By keeping key questions unanswered, the show taps the Zeigarnik effect so that audiences carry those unresolved plots in their heads until the next episode. It's a simple system that compounds loyalty over time.

Designing for the Itch: Why Tinder’s Blurred Likes Drives Paid Resolution

Tinder builds curiosity into its core upgrade path. When someone likes a user, Tinder shows blurred profile images instead of clear faces.

That visual tease signals "something desirable is here," but withholds the answer to "who?" The uncertainty is the point.

The result: around 8% of users upgrade to Gold specifically to unblur and see who liked them—a strong conversion for a plan that's roughly $20/month.

At platform scale, that mechanic contributes to a business reported at roughly $1.2B in annual revenue. The loop is tight and repeatable:

• Tease: reveal that likes exist, but not the identities.

• Reopen the loop: each new like renews the unresolved question.

• Sell the resolution: upgrading provides immediate closure.

It's curiosity as product design—Zeigarnik tension created on purpose, released on purchase.

Phil Agnew's TikTok control experiment: curiosity hooks vs. straight intros

Phil Agnew from the Nudge Podcast ran a controlled TikTok test to isolate the impact of curiosity-driven openings. He spent $400 to promote 2 sets of videos:

• Curiosity hooks in the first ~5 seconds (9 videos). Examples include:

  • "Made a Reddit ad 45% more effective by adding one line of copy—here's how…"

  • "One marketing tip saved Aussies millions in late tax fines… and the tip is simpler than you think."

  • "There's a scientifically proven way to make people love what you create… and it's completely irrational."

• Straight intros without a mystery (7 videos). Example:

  • "Your ideas aren't as unique as you think…"

The primary metric was the share of viewers who became followers. After thousands of impressions and 6,133 new followers, the differences were clear:

• Curiosity-hook viewers were 82% more likely to follow.

• Follower acquisition cost dropped by ~50% for the hook-led videos.

• Roughly 1 in 7 viewers followed from curiosity videos vs. 1 in 13 from straight intros.

• The momentum carried forward, with the account reaching ~11,000 followers, ~23,000 likes, and ~850,000 views as hook-first content compounded reach.

In all 3 cases, the same principle applies. An open loop makes the mind hold on:

• EastEnders ends with the question still hanging.

• Tinder shows the existence of likes but hides the identities by blurring them.

• Phil Agnew's videos promise an answer but delay it just long enough.

That unfinished feeling is the Zeigarnik effect at work. The gap captures attention; the resolution earns the return visit, the upgrade, or the follow.

Top Tweets of the day

1/

Factory AI is a new vibe-coding tool that I see people using. Ben is a vibe-coder and created a decent time-zone app using it.

2/

All big providers are gonna capture the market of wrappers. Hard thing about building your product on a platform is the platform can anyday make you obsolete.

3/

Reddit is king for AI SEO now. Literally #1.

Rabbit Holes

1. Factory CEO on the Future of Software, Humans vs Agents, SaaS, and more! by Matthew Berman

2. AI slideshow, engagement farming 101 by Social Growth Engineers

3. Used nano banana to "clean up" visuals for a document by /r/singularity

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