In a reddit AMA on Friday, in between jokes about gay bears and JD Vance’s potential username being CushionCasanova, Grindr CEO George Arison answered a question about the economy. He didn’t hold back.

“Inflation is terrible, and there’s a massive affordability crisis in this country that our government has ignored since at least 2020,” he wrote in the r/wallstreetbets subreddit, where, following the release of the company’s quarterly earnings report, he took questions from users.

It was a startling admission from the man whose company is about to release a subscription offering intended to price out most Grindr users. On November 17, Edge, a “premium tier” with some AI-powered features costing $120 a month, will be available to members worldwide, according to the report. Early access opened today.

The document suggests that Edge will help users find connections “with less effort” and will include a personalized recommendation feature, Insights, to “understand compatibility and the likelihood of a reply,” as well as Reconnect, which “brings past connections back into view.” The app will have an entirely new design, interface, and icon intended to create a vastly different experience for users willing to foot the high price tag.

But even if you can afford it, you may not get in. As with Raya, an invite-only app where some people have been on the wait list for as long as seven years , the company is planning to turn Edge into a digital gated community of sorts: Sign-ups will be limited to 1 percent of global monthly users.

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