Match Group Appoints New Tinder CEO
Contributed by: kellyseal on Friday, January 19 2024 @ 04:03 pm
Last modified on Monday, January 22 2024 @ 08:30 am
Match Group has promoted Faye Iosotaluno to head up Tinder as its new CEO, replacing Match Group CEO Bernard Kim.
According to Tech Crunch, Iosotaluno has been at Match Group since 2017, and was promoted from Tinder’s chief strategy officer to the company’s chief operating officer in 2022, when former CEO Renate Nyborg left. Kim has been acting CEO of Tinder until a replacement for Nyborg was made.
“Faye’s understanding of the dating category is unparalleled and coupled together with her remarkable leadership capabilities, I know Tinder will continue to lead the category,” said Kim in a statement.
“I believe we’re at a moment of transition for the industry and for Tinder,” Iosotaluno said in a letter to Tinder employees, according to Fast Company[*1] . “When Tinder was founded 11 years ago, it catalyzed a level of growth never before seen in the industry. Someone will do it again soon—and this should be us. It means building the most modern and safest experience that is in the service of our vision, for all genders, ethnicities, geographies, intent, socioeconomic class.”
Kim has been acting CEO for Tinder since Nyborg’s departure as head of the popular dating app company. The app has struggled in recent quarters to meet analyst and revenue expectations, including for the fourth quarter of 2023. But with a new focus on AI, the dating app company seems to have captured investor interest again.
Interestingly, Nyborg is now heading an AI companion startup, with investment from Andrew Ng’s AI Fund, according to Tech Crunch[*2] .
Most recently, Elliott Management, a high-profile investment firm in the tech industry who put money behind Pinterest and Salesforce, has put faith in the dating app industry by investing about $1 billion in Match Group.
Match Group is working on increasing revenue for Tinder, which is the main source of the company’s overall revenue decline in recent quarters. In the fall of 2023, Tinder introduced a VIP-level service for the high price of $499 per month for those wanting to get matched with the “most desirable” profiles. It will also be testing short-term subscriptions in the coming year, a strategy that has worked well for apps like Grindr and Bumble.
Last year, Match Group also settled an antitrust lawsuit with Google regarding its Play Store practices, specifically the amount of commission Google takes for every in-app purchase done through Match Group’s dating apps. The new user choice billing the companies agreed upon (where users can purchase through a third-party app, which means earnings for Tinder and other Match Group properties could see an increase) will go into effect by March 31st of this year, according to Tech Crunch.