Tinder

The value for dating app Bumble’s stock has dropped 14 percent after the company lowered revenue forecasts for the fourth quarter, and Gen Z users have increasingly stopped renewing their subscriptions.

Bumble expects Q4 revenue to be between $232 million and $237 million according to Reuters. This is lower than Wall Street projections of $254.5 million, according to Refinitiv data. Still, the company pointed out that paying users for the third quarter increased to 3.3 million from 2.9 million last year, a sign of growth despite the downturn.

According to Motley Fool, on a call with investors, Bumble CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd said that the economic slowdown affected spending for “certain segments of its user base,” notably younger daters, who were not renewing subscriptions at the normal rate. Motley Fool also noted that shares had already fallen 38 percent this year as investors fled dating and tech stocks in general, following a surge of interest and rising subscriptions in dating apps during pandemic lockdowns.

Dating app conglomerate Match Group reported third quarter earnings that beat analyst expectations, with more of its users paying for subscriptions on dating app Tinder. The company’s stock rose 16 percent in response.

Despite the effects of inflation and a slow first half of the year, along with poor execution of some new features and executive team changes made by new CEO Bernard Kim, Match Group turned things around and impressed investors and analysts with better-than-expected revenue gains. Match Group revenue reached $810 million for the quarter ending September 30th, beating analysts’ estimate of $793 million according to Refinitiv data.

Tinder’s revenue grew 6 percent and its paying users jumped 7 percent according to Reuters. Tinder users account for the vast majority of Match Group’s estimated 100 million active users.

Barry Diller, owner of IAC Corporation, has sold off his remaining shares of Match Group for approximately $1.9 billion, according to Global Dating Insights.

The media titan is founder and chairman of InterActiveCorp (IAC), which owned Match Group before it spun off into its own entity. It split from IAC to become a public company in July 2020, which caused a rift with the former owner of its star dating app Tinder, Sean Rad. He and several other Tinder employees sued the company, claiming that their shares were undervalued ahead of the public offering when they were forced out.

Diller’s initial sale of Match stock began in 2021 when he sold his first round despite the company’s impressive growth during the pandemic. But since 2022 began, the stock’s value has fallen 60 percent, in part due to earnings expectations for Tinder falling short the last two quarters. The app’s steady growth is now expected to remain flat through the end of the year.

The share value for dating app conglomerate Match Group was downgraded from buy to hold in mid-September by a Wall Street analyst who projects the company will fall short on revenue goals until the end of the year.

According to Seeking Alpha, Loop Capital Analyst Laura Champine said Tinder remains a “wildcard” on the heels of Renate Nyborg’s exit from the company, the app’s market share losses to Bumble, and “cannibalization” of Tinder by the company’s other star app Hinge. She also lowered her price target from $70 to $60 a share, adding that “we see potential for further misses” going into the next quarter. 

Champine added that CEO Bernard Kim will be able to “bring in exciting talent” from outside the company, which she takes as a promising sign. Still, she said of the company’s star app: "Tinder has not been executing in line with expectations…Match blamed Tinder for its lower outlook overall and said product launches had been poorly executed of late. The brand needs to do a better job attracting new customers," according to Seeking Alpha.

Dating app Tinder and non-profit The Human Rights Campaign just announced a platform partnership to urge US Senators to pass the Respect for Marriage Act, which would repeal the Defense of Marriage Act and require the US government to recognize same-sex marriages.

Tinder users will be directed to a landing page with an email template, according to The Hill, where they can send a message to their respective Senators and urge them to support the bill. Part of the campaign includes highlighting LGBTQ+ couples who met over the app.

According to tilte:The Hill, the bill itself would repeal and replace provisions "that define, for purposes of federal law, marriage as between a man and a woman and spouse as a person of the opposite sex with provisions that recognize any marriage that is valid under state law."

Match Group is making changes to its executive team and pausing its metaverse plans on the heels of a disappointing second quarter earnings report. Its stock fell 20 percent after the earnings call with investors.

According to reports, Tinder CEO Renate Nyborg is exiting after less than a year at the helm of the app. Bernard Kim, the new Match Group CEO following Shar Dubey’s exit two months ago, wrote this as explanation in his letter to shareholders: “Tinder’s current revenue growth expectations for the second half of the year are below our original expectations as a result of disappointing execution. We need to do more to excite our user base.”

Kim also announced a new COO, chief product officer, chief marketing officer, and chief technology officer according to Gizmodo, promoted from other parts of the company.