Bumble Inc

Image: Bumble

Dating app Bumble is showing users it puts safety first according to its recent ad campaign “The New Rules of the Game,” which won an award from The Drum for Marketing the Americas 2023.

According to The Drum, Bumble wanted the campaign to speak to women, who are often worried about meeting people on a dating app because they are likely to encounter rude or explicit messages or photos when they are searching. The company highlights all the ways Bumble is creating a safe space for singles, where dating can be both safe and fun.

The campaign focused on real and important issues for daters while at the same time making it playful and engaging by doing a series of sports-related ads. In one, a female baseball player is up for bat and waiting for the pitch while the narrator talks about the “Private Detective” feature which keeps photos blurred, unless the user says it’s ok to see. At the end, the batter catches an eggplant and smiles, adding to the humor.

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.

Bumble is expanding its suite of apps with the acquisition of Official, an app that helps people improve their relationships through check-ins and date planning, according to Fast Company.

Networking and friendship building are already part of Bumble’s platform, and Official adds to the mix to encourage couples to better communicate and set intentions in their relationships.

Official will remain a standalone app for now instead of being folded into Bumble’s app, though CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd told Fast Company that there were opportunities for the two platforms to “collaborate.” Couples who met on another app will also be able to sign up for Official, which means joining Bumble’s userbase. With the addition of Official, Bumble is seizing on an opportunity to keep people on its platforms even after they’ve met and formed a relationship.

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Bumble has launched a suite of new self-care badges and prompts in time for Mental Health Awareness Month.

The new Profile Prompts and Interest Badges help people highlight and talk about their mental health and self-care practices, according to the company’s press release. The Profile Prompts are available in Date Mode, and users can select from two: “My mental health game changer was…” and “I’m prioritizing my mental health by…”

The new Interest Badges are intended to highlight what self-care is important to a user, and potentially spark further conversation. These include badges for Therapy, Mindfulness, Deep Chats, Nutrition, Sleeping Well, and Time Offline. These badges can be removed or switched out at any time for other interests, and users can add up to three at a time to their profile, according to Bumble's release.

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.

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Dating app Bumble is dipping into politics again, this time in the U.K. The company has joined forces with Grazia magazine, UN Women UK, and celebrity Amy Hart to encourage legislators to change the proposed Online Safety Bill (OSB), which deals with the issue of cyberflashing.

The proposed bill’s language includes determining whether the cyberflasher (the person sending unsolicited nudes to someone without their knowledge or consent) had harmful intent, which Bumble says would be difficult to prove. Critics say that this also gives a lot of room for the accused to claim they sent these images as a “joke,” according to AOL.com.

In March, Bumble issued a press release acknowledging the milestone that the UK government agreed to make cyberflashing a criminal offense under the OSB. In the same release, they advocated that “to drive societal change, any new law must be based on non-consent.” The company argued that instead of focusing on the intent of the sender, the law should be focused on whether or not the recipient gave prior consent.