Finances

Match Group announced in its quarterly earnings call that its star app Tinder will be launching a “high-end” subscription tier this fall. In addition, Tinder will debut a product refresh to cater to the Gen Z dating market.

The company has been testing price points in different markets, including a $500 subscription that was called Tinder Vault, according to CPO Mark Van Ryswyk. In an interview with Fast Company earlier this year, he noted that there’s a market for daters who are willing to pay for good matches, as evidenced by the success of its exclusive dating app The League.

However, the price point was arguably high for an app that will not include human matchmakers, but instead will continue to rely on technology to serve up better matches.

Match Group’s stock rose 21.3 percent during the month of June thanks to analysts’ more positive expectations of a turnaround at Tinder, and CEO Bernard Kim’s large insider buy of the company’s shares.

According to Motley Fool, there is new confidence among analysts in the dating company’s stock, which had been falling in part due to struggles with its flagship dating app Tinder, which led to the company falling short of revenue expectations in the first quarter of 2023.

To respond to concerns of falling subscriptions, the company has been promoting new premium in-app features. It has also invested in a huge marketing campaign for Tinder aimed at Gen Z, its fastest-growing audience. The effort seems to be working, since Gen Z is its fastest-growing audience.

Image: Bumble

After three years heading up Bumble, Inc., President Tariq Shaukat has announced he will be stepping down from his role effective September 1, 2023. He will be moving to an advisory role during the transition period, according to the company.

Shares of Bumble stock fell 6 percent the following day in response to the news, according to Investing.com. (The announcement was made after trading hours.) Shaukat has played an important role in the growth of the company, and is recognized for successfully leading it through its IPO in 2021. He’s also credited with expanding the user base, including in new and developing markets.

Analysts at Evercore ISI reacted to Shaukat’s exit, viewing it as “incrementally negative for the company,” according to Investing.com.

New research shows that the global dating market is still growing, and is expected to surpass US $12.8 billion by the year 2032. Currently, the market is at US $7.3 billion.

Most of the CAGR (compound annual growth rate) will come from the Asia-Pacific market, where there is the largest young population. In fact, this region has 2 billion active internet users, accounting for 49 percent of the total population. India, Japan and China are seeing the most growth, especially with technology advancements and AI-driven matchmaking and dating services attracting younger users.

However in 2022, North America still brought in the most revenue share at 39 percent, followed by Europe at 25 percent, according to Yahoo! Finance.

Bumble beat analysts’ expectations for its first quarter earnings report, with user spending remaining strong despite concerns over inflation and a recession.

According to Reuters, Bumble saw strong user growth during the first quarter of 2023 as more people chose to pay for its features and subscriptions. The news sent the company’s stock up 7 percent in aftermarket trading.

Bumble reported revenue of $242.9 million for the first quarter of 2023, higher than analyst expectations of $241 million, according to Refinitiv data. Total paying users were a bright spot: Bumble reported 3.5 million paying users at the end of Q1, up from 3 million just a year earlier. Total paying users grew 31 percent to 2.3 million for Bumble.

Shares of Match Group stock rose following the company’s second quarter forecasts, despite the decline in earnings for Q1.

Match Group reported EPS (earnings per share) of 42 cents, beating the consensus of 41 cents, per Reuters. It’s also a 5 percent increase from the same period last year. Revenue however was $787.12 million for the quarter, below the expected $793.87 million, and a 2 percent decline from the same time last year according to Yahoo! Finance.

Paying app users decreased by 1.1 percent to 15.87 million, according to Yahoo!, but revenue per payer actually increased to $16.26, up from $16 in the last quarter, a hopeful sign.