Tinder

Match Group has agreed to pay $441 million in a settlement with some of Tinder’s former employees, shutting down the lengthy trial before closing arguments, according to Reuters.

The plaintiffs included Tinder co-founder Sean Rad among other former employees, and the trial got heated between Rad and former IAC CEO Barry Dillard. Prior to the trial, emails from former Match Group CEO Gregg Blatt were released to the public, showing that he tried to woo talented people into key roles at the company with a higher stock valuation compared to what he told the Tinder employees who had options to exercise.

According to The Daily Mail, emails revealed that Blatt valued the dating app at nearly $12 billion in 2016, more than a year before Match Group valued Tinder at only $3 billion as Sean Rad and other employees were forced to exit the company. Rad and the other plaintiffs who filed the lawsuit claim Blatt purposefully devalued the stock in their negotiations, citing the emails as evidence. 

Dating apps like Tinder, Plenty of Fish and others under the Match Group umbrella are pushing users to call their Senators to pass the Violence Against Women Act. The Act lapsed in 2019 and has not been reauthorized since.

While the bill has already passed the House with a Democratic majority plus 29 Republicans joining to pass it, so far it has languished in the Senate. Match Group decided to take matters into their own hands and push for passage of the bill to protect users of their apps, especially as the company continues to put more safety measures in place to protect users against harassment and violence.

According to The Hill, the bill would provide funding to state and local governments to address domestic abuse, sexual assault, dating violence and stalking which has become even more of a problem with the increased use of dating apps. It would also narrow a loophole to prevent partners and boyfriends convicted of domestic violence or abuse from buying or owning guns. (Currently only spouses and former spouses are prevented from buying a gun if convicted.) A number of Republicans have opposed the bill because they see it as an infringement on gun rights. 

Jaime Freedman - VP of Content Creation

Image: Tinder

Dating app Tinder is focusing its attention on content creation, including virtual experiences, and has named a former NBC-Universal executive to head up its efforts.

According to an exclusive published in Variety, Jaime Freedman will take over as Vice President of Content Creation, following the company’s successful launch of Swipe Night, an in-app series that allows users to view and interact as they watch. Season two just premiered in early November, and Tinder will air new episodes each Sunday. 

Tinder’s goal with expanding its content offerings is to create more virtual experiences. All new content will be added to its Explore section, where currently users can watch the limited series, participate in virtual speed dating rounds, or search and message other users by interest. Tinder has also been testing Single Town, an avatar-based virtual experience where users can meet up at “bars” or other virtual settings and interact in real time over the app. The company intends to add this experience to its Explore section, too.

Dating app conglomerate Match Group has lowered their expected earnings for Q4, according to an earnings call with investors. The company said the adjusted forecast resulted from decreased revenue in Asian markets due to the pandemic. Shares declined 6 percent with the news.

According to Reuters, Match Group adjusted fourth quarter earnings revenue between $810 and $820 million, below analysts’ forecast of $838.5 million per Refinitiv. The company expects revenue for 2021 to be around $3 billion.

In the third quarter, revenue rose 25 percent, but still missed expectations. Match Group added 16.3 million paid users and revenue per person rose 8 percent. Their quarterly earnings came out to $.53 per share, missing the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $.60 per share, and has dropped from earnings of $.55 per share a year ago.

Match Group is taking the dating app experience to the next level by testing a new “metaverse” where users can create avatars that interact with each other over the app.

According to Tech Crunch, news of these plans came during the company’s third quarter earnings call, where despite performing below expectations, executives were upbeat and looking toward the long-term future of its dating apps by harnessing this technology.

Match Group CEO Shar Dubey noted in the call that Hyperconnect, a social discovery platform the company purchased earlier this year, was testing the avatar-based dating experience dubbed “Single Town,” where users interact in real time as they meet in virtual spaces (like a bar) and have live audio conversations. If two users express interest in each other (via their avatars), they can choose to continue their conversations through messaging. Eventually, the company plans to leverage the technology across their dating apps.

This month, Tinder launches the second season of its wildly popular in-app interactive series Swipe Night. The premise is a murder mystery, and participants are expected to guess who did it each week as the clues are revealed. 

The first season brought in over 20 million viewers worldwide for a choose-your-own-adventure style story, where viewers selected what they would do along the way, which led them to different outcomes. This time, according to Tech Crunch, users will watch the same mystery unfold, but they will be able to search rooms and examine objects for clues to draw their own conclusions. 

The series is live on the app from 6pm EST to 12:00am beginning Sunday, November 7th, and Tinder will continue to air new episodes each Sunday at the same time through November 21st, according to the company’s website.