Bumble Inc

The Australian government told the dating app industry that they must improve safety standards on their apps or risk being forced to make changes through legislation. Dating app companies were given until June 30th, 2024 to develop a “voluntary code of conduct” to address user concerns about safety.

According to the Associated Press, the government was basing its decision on new research that found three-quarters of dating app users in Australia between 2016 and 2021 had suffered some form of sexual violence. The research was conducted by the Australian Institute of Criminology and published last year.

Communications Minister Michelle Rowland noted that dating apps have become the most popular way to meet people, and therefore must improve when it comes to protecting the people using them. “The government is concerned about rates of sexual harassment, abusive and threatening language, unsolicited sexual images and violence facilitated by these platforms,” she said, according to Associated Press.

Image: hinge

Dating app Hinge recently removed the audio and video calling feature from its app, posting that people were no longer using the feature as much as they had during the pandemic.

Hinge introduced the features early on during lockdowns so that Hinge users could virtually engage rather than risk exposure through in-person meet-ups. However, things have changed since then. According to Fast Company, Hinge noted that people would rather meet in person to see if there’s a connection than do a video date.

While this move might not be a surprise to Hinge users, the company did not announce it to the press. Instead, Hinge only mentioned it in an undated blog post in its Help Center, according to Fast Company.

Dating app Bumble has updated its community guidelines to crack down on bad behaviors like ghosting and doxing, as well as to cut down on bots.

Bumble is coming down hard on the issue of bots by banning actions like “artificially influencing connections, matching, conversations, or engagement through the use of automation or scripting,” according to Tech Crunch. The app has blocked more than 8.2 million fake and spam accounts this year using AI. The problem of bots is an ongoing one for all dating apps, and using AI as a tool to identify and block these accounts benefits users in the long run.

In its guidelines, Bumble added clauses prohibiting adult content on its apps, including language in profiles and attempts to “buy, sell, or promote sexual content” according to Tech Crunch.

Popular dating apps like Tinder, Bumble, Hinge and Grindr are trying new subscription pricing to continue to grow revenue, including premium pricing as well as discounts and short-term subscriptions for young Gen Z daters.

Dating app revenue has stalled in recent quarters, and to increase revenue and paying subscribers these companies are looking at out-of-the-box pricing. Match Group is especially motivated, as it has seen revenue drop the past few months while Bumble and Grindr are still seeing gains. Many are starting to offer premium services to highly motivated and more affluent daters, who are willing to spend $500 a month on a dating app if it means better, more curated matches.

On the other end of the spectrum, these same apps want to attract younger daters, specifically the Gen Z market. Match Group is starting to offer short-term weekly subscriptions for those singles who don’t want to commit, as well as discounted pricing to encourage young daters to pay for subscriptions, instead of just opting for the free service and paying for certain in-app features as needed.

This summer, young daters have been more interested in tossing aside geographical boundaries and looking for love in faraway places. They are also looking for short-term romance that comes to an end after the vacation is over.

According to Mashable, 33 percent of Bumble users are embracing “wanderlove” - the prospect of pursuing love interests outside of where they live. And young singles want to experience adventure and romance in a new place. Travel is the top priority for these daters, and if they can have an “expirationship” - a little bit of romance along with it that can end when they finish their travels, even better.

Part of this growing trend is due to post-pandemic work models, where many people were able to move to where they wanted to live, rather than stay where their workplace is located. Young people with no kids are especially interested in traveling, rather than putting down roots in a specific place.

Shares of Bumble fell 4 percent in early August after the company shared its relatively “lackluster” third-quarter revenue forecast, coupled with a sharper rise in its operating expenses, according to Reuters.

This rise in spending concerned investors, especially after Tinder’s parent company Match Group recently predicted that its third quarter revenue would be higher than analyst expectations, despite its own spend on development and marketing. The company has struggled lately with Tinder, and has been implementing new features to increase in-app revenue and expand its userbase. The company also recently announced it will be launching a high-end service for users who are willing to pay as much as $500 per month.

Bumble meanwhile shared that its operating expenses had jumped 7 percent in the second quarter with additional spend on product development and marketing.