What if I told you there was a conglomerate that owned some of your favorite companies?

You may have never heard of InterActiveCorp (IAC), but I can promise that you have heard of many of the companies they own or have owned.

A https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🧵" title="Thread" aria-label="Emoji: Thread"> on IAC and one of it& #39;s most famous companies.

IAC began in 1986 when it was formed as Silver King Broadcasting Co.

After a decade of focus on traditional media, IAC began to perfect its strategy of acquiring companies in markets that were transitioning online: travel, media, search, home services, and dating. https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="✈️" title="Flugzeug" aria-label="Emoji: Flugzeug">https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🚓" title="Polizeiwagen" aria-label="Emoji: Polizeiwagen">https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="📺" title="Fernsehen" aria-label="Emoji: Fernsehen">https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🔎" title="Nach rechts zeigende Lupe" aria-label="Emoji: Nach rechts zeigende Lupe">https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="❤️" title="Rotes Herz" aria-label="Emoji: Rotes Herz">

Here are some of the companies IAC has owned at one point. You may have heard of them:

TicketMaster, USA Network, Expedia, Ask Jeeves, Hinge, TripAdvisor, CollegeHumor, http://Dictionary.com"> http://Dictionary.com , Vimeo, http://Match.com"> http://Match.com , Angie& #39;s List, OkCupid, and Investopedia.

There& #39;s another little company you may have heard of. It was incubated within IAC and it went on to completely change the face of modern dating.

That company is Tinder https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🔥" title="Feuer" aria-label="Emoji: Feuer">

In 2012, Sean Rad was hired by IAC& #39;s startup incubator, Hatch Labs, to run Cardify, a loyalty app.

But, he ended up creating Tinder at a hackathon with Joe Munoz 1 month later. Their key insight: it would be less stressful trying to meet new people if both parties opted in.

The team was still focused on Cardify, but they started devoting more time to Tinder while Cardify languished in Apple& #39;s App Store approval process.

So maybe the approval process does add 30% value (https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="😉" title="Zwinkerndes Gesicht" aria-label="Emoji: Zwinkerndes Gesicht">) - we may never have had modern dating apps as we know them without it.

Tinder officially launched in August 2012 and enjoyed quick traction on college campuses. In 2014, Tinder launched the "swipe" feature it became famous for and created an addictive loop that led its average users to spend over 90 minutes a day in the app.

Tinder has done an incredible job of growing its paying subscribers, which is essentially the lifeblood of IAC: acquire and monetize digital users.

Paying Tinder subscribers by quarter:

Tinder& #39;s parent co, Match Group, was formed as a subsidiary of IAC in 2009 to house all of the IAC& #39;s dating apps including http://Match.com"> http://Match.com , OkCupid, and Hinge.

In July of this year, Match Group finally swiped left on IAC completing the separation of the two companies.

So what is IAC& #39;s secret sauce: as @modestproposal1 summarizes it: "they are maniacally focused and maniacally talented at taking a product and figuring out ways to bring users to it in an economically efficient manner and making a lot of money doing it."

So they& #39;ve built a $10B business around that core expertise: acquiring and monetizing users in a digital environment.

For more on IAC check out @modestproposal1 business breakdown during this week& #39;s episode of Invest Like The Best http://investorfieldguide.com/modest-proposal-better-cheaper-faster-why-companies-that-reduce-friction-win-invest-like-the-best-ep-193/">https://investorfieldguide.com/modest-pr...