Image: Bumble

Bumble has announced it is partnering with the New York Liberty women’s basketball team for the remainder of the season, building on its multi-year deal with the WNBA.

The partnership is intended to “create local opportunities for Bumble users and Liberty fans to connect over a shared love of women’s basketball,” according to Liberty’s website.  New York Liberty became the first team to get a spot in the WNBA Playoffs, and Bumble is serving as sponsor of home games during the first month of games. The dating app company will be hosting a singles event in the arena for fans and Bumble users.

Bumble is also featuring Liberty players in a new social media campaign, where Bumble users can get dating advice from Liberty players (as well as the team’s mascot).

Dating app Hinge has taken marketing its product to a new level by creating an online zine with stories of six real-life Hinge couples. The anthology series is written by literary stars like Roxanne Gay, John Paul Brammer, R. O. Kwon, Isle McElroy, Oisín McKenna and Brontez Purnell, and is titled “No Ordinary Love.”

According to Marketing Dive, the anthology plays into Hinge’s current marketing campaign of “Designed to be Deleted.” The campaign is meant to encourage people to get off the app and meet each other in real life, and that most love stories aren’t linear and straightforward, and that’s okay.

The anthology is live with a dedicated website (no-ordinary-love.co) and will also exist as an 80-page print zine that will be available in New York and London starting September 9th.

Russia is advising its citizens to log off dating apps for a while after regions of the country were invaded during a surprise incursion by Ukraine.

According to a report from Politico’s European Bureau, the Russian government warned that Ukraine was using information gained from dating apps to plan its attack. Dating apps generally collect sensitive information such as location data as well as personal information like names, birthdates, ages, and more.

Popular U.S.-based apps like Tinder and Bumble had already pulled their platforms out of Russia when the country invaded Ukraine in February 2022, but many dating apps remain in use.

BLK, the dating app for Black singles, has partnered with Michelle Obama’s “When We All Vote” non-profit to encourage young Black singles to vote this coming November.

According to Essence magazine, BLK will launch the #ElectionSZN campaign along with When We All Vote, aimed at boosting voter participation and engagement through multiple offerings, including special features, profile badges, and surveys aimed at getting people engaged for the upcoming election.

This move is significant according to Essence, because the Black community historically has faced many barriers to voting and systemic disenfranchisement. And this year, for the first time, a Black woman will be the Presidential nominee for the Democratic ticket.

Dating app Bumble’s share value dropped 30 percent after the company slashed its annual growth revenue forecast in its second quarter earnings report.

According to Reuters, Bumble also fell below estimates for its second quarter revenue. The dating app company reported revenue of 268.6 million, below analyst expectations of $273 million.

This report worried investors who compared Bumble’s second quarter to rival Match Group’s, which reported relatively better revenue numbers driven by robust growth at Hinge and more stability at Tinder.

Dating app giant Match Group announced its plan to cut six percent of its workforce after numbers for the company’s second quarter fell short of expectations, according to BBC.

Match Group owns the popular dating app Tinder (which has seen a significant decline in downloads), along with Hinge, Plenty of Fish and OkCupid, among others. The company’s second quarter earnings report showed an 8 percent decline among the number of paying Tinder users according to multiple reports. Hinge still remains a bright spot with significant growth.

According to BBC, Match Group said job cuts would largely come from shutting down its live-streaming app Hakuna and removing live-streaming features from some of its dating apps. (Despite the popularity of livestreaming dating apps in China, it hasn’t really taken off in the rest of the world.)