Bumble Has C-Suite Shake Up as the Dating App Industry Struggles

The CFO and CMO of Bumble have announced their departures for early 2025, a shakeup for the dating app company.

According to Seeking Alpha, Bumble’s Chief Financial Officer Anu Subramanian will continue in her role until March and Chief Marketing Officer Selby Drummond will leave in January. The company has started a search process to replace Subramanian, who joined the company in 2020 and led it through its initial public offering.

According to Tip Ranks, the moves caused the share price for Bumble to increase, but overall the stock has declined almost 40% just in the last year.

In addition, Neil Shah has been hired for the new position of Chief Business Officer, which includes the execution of Bumble’s new strategic direction. Shah has been an advisor to Bumble according to Seeking Alpha, and served as COO and Head of Business Operations at Slack.

The company went through a major rebrand last year, moving away from its signature feature of women making the first move. Now, women can choose if they want men to make the first move, making it similar to traditional apps.

The marketing campaigns for the transition were a bit bumpy as well, with one ad campaign promoting women taking control of their sex lives in the aftermath of the Dobbs decision as many states were making abortion illegal, and it was perceived as tone-deaf. The company later apologized and removed the ads.

Since then, Bumble has pivoted to focus on connections that aren’t romantic, including its Bumble for Friends service. The company is also focused on developing AI-driven features, including help writing profiles and responding to messages.

The C-Suite shake-up coincides with a new report from Ofcom in the UK, noting that the major dating apps have all seen a decline in users. Since 2023, Tinder has lost almost 600,000 users in the UK, Hinge about 131,000, and Bumble has declined by 368,000 users in the UK. The Ofcom report pointed to a trend in younger Gen Z users adapting new dating habits and turning away from relying on dating apps.

“Some analysts speculate that for younger people, particularly gen Z, the novelty of dating apps is wearing off,” Ofcom wrote in its annual Online Nation report, according to The Guardian.

But young daters aren’t completely rejecting dating apps – they just aren’t relying on them to meet people. Many are turning to social media, running clubs, and other avenues.

Despite the decline, Ofcom also found that dating apps still had the biggest reach among younger age groups. It also noted that niche apps like LGBGTQ+ apps Sniffies and Scruff, were increasing their userbases, and both had entered the top 10 dating apps in the country.