Tinder Announces New CEO Renate Nyborg
Contributed by: kellyseal on Friday, October 08 2021 @ 08:15 am
Last modified on Friday, October 08 2021 @ 09:36 am
Tinder announced that Renate Nyborg will be taking over as the company’s CEO as Jim Lanzone departs to serve as Yahoo’s new chief executive officer.
The news, announced Friday September 10th, means that Nyborg will be the first female executive to head the popular dating platform. She joined Tinder in 2020 as the general manager of Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
Nyborg’s background is in growing mobile and subscription business, according to the company’s press release[*1] . She previously worked for Headspace, where she built the company’s first international product and marketing divisions.
Previous to that, Nyborg spent over four years leading Apple’s App Store subscription business across Europe, which could be beneficial to Tinder. It was recently announced that Apple would be making concessions to allow more autonomy for companies like Tinder, who are beholden to the App Store to gain subscribers and revenue from iPhone users. Tinder, Spotify and others have been pushing for Apple to allow customers to sign up directly with their apps instead of going through the App Store, making for a more streamlined experience for customer service and also to generate more income. (Apple currently takes as much as 30 percent from most app purchases through its App Store.)
Nyborg also has a personal fondness for Tinder according to NBC News, because it’s where she met her husband. “I swiped right on my husband and it changed my life,” she said in a statement regarding the announcement. “Being CEO of this company is a truly humbling and extraordinary opportunity; to make that happen for the next generation of singles around the world.
Nyborg will step into the new role on September 27th, and will report directly to Match Group CEO Shar Dubey.
Dubey said in a statement: “Running Tinder’s European business, she’s demonstrated true leadership, and is relentlessly focused on accelerating growth and developing experiences based on what our members -- particularly women -- are looking for.”
Tinder has been expanding its user base and its features over the past year, as growth on its app took off in the wake of lockdowns from the pandemic. Now, the platform is focused on younger users, who want more creative ways of interacting instead of just swiping through pictures. Tinder has responded with a number of new features they’ll be rolling out, including Tinder Explore, which is where members can strike up conversations with people who share their same interests before they actually match.
Tinder is also rolling out group video and audio chat, and a second season of its popular in-app interactive series Swipe Night. The company is also ramping up its safety features like background checks and photo verification under the direction of parent company Match Group’s head of safety Tracey Breeden.
For more on this dating service you can read our Tinder review.