Tinder

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.

Match Group has announced it will shut down operations for its apps in Russia by the end of June, including Tinder.

According to Reuters, the move is due to the ongoing human rights violations happening in Ukraine since Russia invaded the country in early 2022.

"We are committed to protecting human rights," Match said in an annual impact report published on Monday. "Our brands are taking steps to restrict access to their services in Russia and will complete their withdrawal from the Russian market by June 30, 2023."

European police agency Europol has said that dating apps were among online platforms being “hijacked” by nefarious actors for human trafficking, who were capitalizing on the unstable environment in the country. This announcement also drew attention to human rights violations happening among Ukrainian refugees, according to Reuters.

Tinder has announced the launch of its new Photo Verification feature, which includes an AI-powered update and video selfie requirement.

According to Tech Crunch, the new Photo Verification is to help users prove they aren’t a bot or catfisher on the dating app by taking video selfies that can be analyzed by AI against their photos. Previously, users were required to take a selfie as instructed by the app to compare against a profile photo, but Tinder is strengthening its process even further by requiring the video selfie, so there is no room for error.

The process for verification requires the user to complete a series of videos responding to questions or prompts, and then the AI tool scans the videos and compares them to the photos the user wants to include in their profile to see if they match. The AI tool uses 3D mapping of facial geometry for both the video and photos, according to Tech Crunch.

One of Germany’s most prominent banks, DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale, has reduced its shares of Match Group by 4.7 percent.

According to BestStocks.com, DekaBank now owns 178,837 shares which amounts to about $7.2 million, compared to the previous quarter in 2022 where it held 187,697 shares worth $11 million.

Match Group’s stock price fell 10.45 percent between March and April according to Investing.com, and has fallen 54.78 percent overall in the last year. In addition, a Goldman Sachs analyst has now adjusted its price target for Match Group stock, lowering it to $58, down from $65 earlier in the year. It still suggests the company’s stock is a buy, according to Market Screener.

Match Group is listed as a “moderate buy” among analysts according to Bloomberg.com, but several shareholders have now filed class-action lawsuits against the company for not being forthcoming about the problems with Tinder’s product rollouts. Tinder brings in the lion’s share of revenue for the company, and for the first time, the app saw a decline in Q4 2022.

Image: Match Group

Match Group has appointed former Plenty of Fish CEO Malgosia Green as CEO of Match Group Asia, who will now be based in Singapore. The company has said it will be targeting the growing Asian market in the coming months as well as focusing on AI development, and a huge step forward is having an executive in the region.

Green was appointed by Match Group CEO Bernard Kim, who has been under fire from shareholders about the fourth quarter revenue decline because of poor product rollouts from Tinder. He has named four main points of growth for the company, one of which is focusing on the Asian market.

In an interview with Fast Company, Green said: “Given the huge potential of the region, and how large it is . . . it made a lot more sense to have someone specifically dedicated to Asia itself, and to be based in the region.”

Tinder has become a pawn in some new intelligence tactics employed by Russian spies. They are using the app to woo German soldiers as informants, so they can obtain intelligence about Ukraine’s war strategy.

According to Insider, German newspaper Welt am Sonntag broke the story, reporting that Russian agents are specifically targeting politicians and members of Germany’s armed forces as sources of information, and they are using dating app Tinder as a tool to reach them.

Germany’s Military Counterintelligence Service (MAD) confirmed at a recent NATO meeting in the country that “members of other intelligence services (e.g. Russia) use social media to specifically establish contacts with members of the Bundeswehr,” or the German armed forces, according to Insider. MAD also confirmed that Tinder was the app most used.