Nama : Laila Rizqi Sania

NIM : 18804241031
Kelas : U14
Tugas Harian I : Analisis Diskriminasi Harga

TINDER DIGUGAT KARENA DISKRIMINASI HARGA

Kamis. 1 Februari 2018

Sumber: https://telset.id/196290/tinder-digugat-karena-diskriminasi-harga/

Telset.id, Jakarta – Pengadilan California Amerika-Serikat, akhirnya telah memutuskan

bahwa harga variabel Tinder untuk Tinder Plus dinilai diskriminatif. Pasalnya, aplikasi
kencan online itu memberlakukan harga yang jauh lebih mahal untuk para penggunannya
yang berusia lebih dari 30 tahun.

Banyak yang berpendapat bahwa hal itu adalah sebuah bentuk diskriminatif karena
membuat generalisasi berbasis kelas penghasilan seseorang dan telah diberlakukan
secara sewenang-wenang, seperti dilaporkan Quartz.

Kasus melawan Tinder ini diajukan ke pengadilan pertama kali oleh Allen Candelore, yang
berpendapat bahwa penetapan harga berdasarkan usia merupakan bentuk pelanggaran
Undang-Undang Hak Sipil Unruh California serta Hukum Persaingan Tidak Sehat.
Tinder Plus mengenakan biaya sebesar USD 9,99 per bulan atau sekitar Rp 123 ribu
untuk pengguna yang berusia di bawah 30 tahun, dan USD 19,99 per bulan atau sekitar
Rp 267 ribu untuk pengguna berusia di atas 30 tahun. Hal ini diberlakukan dengan asumsi
bahwa mereka yang berusia lebih muda memiliki lebih sedikit penghasilan.

Sementara pada sidang percobaan di tingkat pengadilan yang lebih rendah, Tinder
sempat membalik hasil sidang dengan mengatakan kebijakan apapun yang diberlakukan
tidak mungkin bisa menyenangkan semua pihak.
Analysis

In this opportunity I would like to analyse price discrimination that Tinder is doing to
their customers. Tinder charge different price for Tinder Plus service to their customers by
their age. Tinder Plus charge USD 9,99 per month to those users who age below thirty,
and charge USD 19,99 to those users who age above thirty. It is enforced with assumption
that those who are younger is have less disposable income.

1. In the article above explains that Tinder do price discrimination on Tinder

Plus sevices

With 30 billion matches to date, Tinder is the world’s most popular app for meeting new
people. Tinder is a location-based social search mobile app and Web application most
often used as a dating service, that allows users to use a swiping motion to like (swipe
right) or dislike (swipe left) other users, and allows users to chat if both parties like each
other (a “match”). Information available to users is based on pictures, a short biography,
and, optionally, a linked Instagram, Facebook or Spotify account. Tinder originally required
access to a Facebook account of the user of Tinder but, as of August 2019, Tinder allows
users to register using a telephone number and without access to a Facebook account.

Tinder is free for anyone to use, but they have their premium subscription that is Tinder
Plus. Tinder Plus has more features than the original or the free one. It has features such
as rewind. Rewind allow you to undo any swipe you’ve done. Ideally, this feature lets you
re-swipe someone you accidentally swiped away forever so there are no missed
connections. But really, you’ll probably use this to go the other way as you ask yourself,
“What was I thinking?”. Another features that Tinder Plus has is passport, with this feature
You can change your location and swipe through people who live in another area. If you
travel a lot this could be useful for setting up dates ahead of time. It can also help you lie
and convince people you live elsewhere if you’re into the whole “terrible person” scene.
Tinder Plus has many more features than those two that explained above.

There are many similar applications like Tinder, such as TanTan, OkCupid, Match, etc.
They have their own features, their own uniqueness, their characteristic, but in general
they provide the same service, that is to meet new people.

So we can see that Tinder is included in monopolistic competition, where there are many
application who provide the same services, to meet new people. Although there are many
similar applications, but each of them have their own uniqueness or differences in the case
of treatment to their consumers, so the difference from each application can be found even
though the provide the same services.

Based on the identification of the type of market, it can be identified the characteristics of
the monopolistic competition market which, for example is a mobile application company
or online dating service provider, it can be identified that in the monopolistic competition
market has the following characteristics:
 a. There are many sellers
In monopolistic competition it can be seen that the market has many
sellers or if it is associated with mobile dating companies / online dating
providers there are a lot of online dating providers in the world, from the
statement it can be seen that the number of mobiledating company
service providers means that there are many sellers who provide the
same services, so that people are free to choose the services available
according to their wishes.

b. There is product differentiation

In various companies that provide online dating services, there are
product differentiations or have the same services but there are
uniqueness in different services, so that the differentiation of service
provision in these online dating companies can be categorized into
monopolistic competition markets.

c. Producen can determine the price of goods sold

In this case the producers in the online dating service provider can freely
determine the price of the services offered.

d. Producer is free to enter or to exit

Based on these characteristics, it can be seen that the market for online
dating service providers is very numerous, and even infrequently, online
daring companies experience bankruptcy and leave the market. This
shows that the online dating service market where producers are free to
go out and enter the marke,t so that if a new producer wants to stay in the
online dating provider market then he must have good financial and good
funding, so he will not go bankrupt.

e. Strict promotions between producers

Promotion is indispensable in the monopolistic competition market, so in this
online dating service provider market, every company must compete to
advertise its services so that the public can understand and know what are
the advantages contained in the services provided by the company, this is
because that if the company does not advertise it will make consumers not
know about the advantages of the company and will be unable to compete
with other companies that offer the same service products

Based on these charcacteristics we can conclude that online dating companies are included
to a monopolistic competition market.
In Tinder case, the company is doing a price discrimination which they charge higher price to
user who age is above thirty, and lower price to those who age is below thirty for a premium
subricription.

2. Which discrimination price that the company do?

Price discrimination is the practice of charging price for the same goods or services.
Price Discrimination occurs when a firm sells a good or service to different buyers at two or
more different prices, for reasons not necessarily associated with cost. Price discrimination
results in greater revenue for the firm.
For example, movie ticket, airline tickets, and professional services all offer different prices
for different customers.

There are three types of price discrimination: first degree price discrimination, second
degree price discrimination, and third degree price discrimination.

1. First-degree Price Discrimination

First-degree price discrimination, alternatively known as perfect price
discrimination, occurs when a firm charges a different price for every unit
consumed by their reservation price.The firm is able to charge the maximum
possible price for each unit which enables the firm to capture all
available consumer surplus for itself.

2. Second-degree Price Discrimination

The seller charges different prices based on either the quality or the
quantity. Like discounts for bulk purchases (quantity) or charging
more for first class seats (quality).

3. Third-degree Price Discrimination

Third-degree price discrimination means charging a different price to different
consumer groups. For example, rail and tube travellers can be subdivided into
commuter and casual travellers, and cinema goers can be subdivide into adults
and children. Splitting the market into peak and off peak use is very common and
occurs with gas, electricity, and telephone supply, as well as gym membership and
parking charges. Third-degree discrimination is the commonest type.

From the explaniton above we can conclude that Tinder is discriminating their consumers
at the third level of price discrimination where the company charging different price to
different consumers for the same service, Tinder Plus. For example of this, Tinder charge
higher price to consumers who age is above thirty than to those consumers who age is
below thirty.

Adults tend to have more disposable income than teenagers, therefore they’re willing to
pay more for a premium subscription and less responsive to price changes.
Teenager have less disposable income and they have more alternative things they could
do. They might to choose to hang out with their friends, and therefore their demand is
more responsive to price changes.

Adults also tend to have difficulty getting lovers than teenagers because teenagers have
more time to go with friends and meet new people. That’s why they are willing to pay more
for services like this and they are more inelastic than teenagers.

The purpose of price discrimination is generally to capture the market's consumer surplus.
This surplus arises because, in a market with a single clearing price, some customers (the
very low price elasticity segment) would have been prepared to pay more than the single
market price. Price discrimination transfers some of this surplus from the consumer to the
producer/marketer. Strictly, a consumer surplus need not exist, for example where some
below-cost selling is beneficial due to fixed costs or economies of scale. An example is a
high-speed internet connection shared by two consumers in a single building; if one is
willing to pay less than half the cost, and the other willing to make up the rest but not to
pay the entire cost, then price discrimination is necessary for the purchase to take place.

It is very useful for the price discriminator to determine the optimum prices in each market
segment. This is done in the next diagram where each segment is considered as a
separate market with its own demand curve. As usual, the profit maximizing output (Qt) is
determined by the intersection of the marginal cost curve (MC) with the marginal revenue
curve for the total market (MRt).

The firm decides what amount of the total output to sell in each market by looking at the
intersection of marginal cost with marginal revenue (profit maximization). This output is
then divided between the two markets, at the equilibrium marginal revenue level.
Therefore, the optimum outputs are Qa and Qb. From the demand curve in each market
we can determine the profit maximizing prices of Pa and Pb.
It is also important to note that the marginal revenue in both markets at the optimal output
levels must be equal, otherwise the firm could profit from transferring output over to
whichever market is offering higher marginal revenue.

In Tinder case inelastic submarket is the cosumers who age is above thirty and elastic
submarket is the consumers who age is below thirty.