Match Group Shakeup as Revenue Falls and Tinder CEO Exits

Match Group is making changes to its executive team and pausing its metaverse plans on the heels of a disappointing second quarter earnings report. Its stock fell 20 percent after the earnings call with investors.

According to reports, Tinder CEO Renate Nyborg is exiting after less than a year at the helm of the app. Bernard Kim, the new Match Group CEO following Shar Dubey’s exit two months ago, wrote this as explanation in his letter to shareholders: “Tinder’s current revenue growth expectations for the second half of the year are below our original expectations as a result of disappointing execution. We need to do more to excite our user base.”

Kim also announced a new COO, chief product officer, chief marketing officer, and chief technology officer according to Gizmodo, promoted from other parts of the company.

Match Group is also pausing the development of metaverse dating for its apps. Kim said this about the decision in his letter: “I believe a metaverse dating experience is important to capture the next generation of users, and Hyperconnect [the South Korean social networking platform that Match Group bought a few years before] has been innovating in this area. However, given uncertainty about the ultimate contours of the metaverse and what will or won’t work, as well as the more challenging operating environment, I’ve instructed the Hyperconnect team to iterate but not invest heavily in metaverse at this time.”

He went on to write: “We’ll continue to evaluate this space carefully, and we will consider moving forward at the appropriate time when we have more clarity on the overall opportunity and feel we have a service that is well-positioned to succeed.”

The company is also reevaluating the use of virtual currency like Tinder Coins as a driver of revenue growth. The Coins were intended to engage users to remain active on the app, since they would have the ability to gift other users or by paid features like Super Likes and Boosts.

Kim wrote in the shareholder letter that the company saw “mixed results” from testing Tinder Coins, and that Match Group executives “intend to do more thinking about virtual goods to ensure that they can be a real driver for Tinder’s next leg of growth and help us unlock the untapped power users on the platform.”

Bernard also mentioned dating app Hinge’s growth as the corporation’s “bright spot,” as well as the success of niche dating apps that meet key demographic groups, such as BLK for black singles, Chispa for Latinx daters, and Stir for single parents, which he expects will add $75 million annual revenue for the company in 2022.