Industry

Dating app Grindr launched its initial public offering in mid-November and saw its stock quickly soar thanks to enthusiastic investors, and despite the recent downturn of tech and dating app markets. The stock rose more than 400 percent after it launched.

According to MarketWatch, the stock debuted at $16.90 on Friday November 18th, and hit a high of $71.51 before noon. It then closed out the day at $36.50. The LGBTQ+ dating app merged with Tiga Acquisition Corp, a special purpose acquisition company, and debuted that day on the NYSE under the symbols GRND and GRND.WS. Unfortunately, a week and a half later and now the stock has trading as low as $7.63.

"Today marks an important milestone not only for the team at Grindr, but for the LGBTQ community we serve," said Grindr's chief executive officer, George Arison, in a statement reported by NPR. "We enter the public markets with momentum, carried by our market leadership, strong financial performance and significant growth runway as we step up investment in our core product and services."

Joel Simkhai, founder popular gay dating app Grindr, has launched a new queer dating app called Motto.

In an interview with NBC News, Simkhai said he launched the new app to “course-correct” the current culture of gay dating apps. He noted that many (including Grindr) have contributed to a rise in racial discrimination among gay daters, as well as contributing to feelings of body dissatisfaction and low self-esteem in regard to body image.

Motto provides features to counteract and prevent what Skimkhai called “toxicity” on gay dating apps, including requiring users to post photos with faces instead of the popular “headless torsos” that are prominent on apps like Grindr. He’s also limiting users to perusing 10 profiles per day, so they can take their time instead of endlessly swiping.

In response to increasing scrutiny of its Play Store practices, Google has announced it is opening up its platform to third party payment systems in 35 additional countries.

Currently, Google is the only option for an in-app payment provider on its platform in most countries aside from South Korea, which means it can charge commission (as high as 30 percent) to app developers for every single in-app purchase made by their users. Developers began to fight back, and along with help from European regulators who began to crack down on Apple and Google for their App Store and Play Store practices, they are finding success.

This new initiative has opened up platforms in the US, Brazil and South Africa, in addition to those markets which had already required third party payment system options to be available for developers, such as the EU, Japan, Australia and India.

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.

Image: Bumble

Bumble has open sourced the AI it uses to detect nude photos, giving developers the technology to help combat the sending of unsolicited images over their platforms.

Bumble’s photo blocking feature called Private Detective aims to curb so-called “cyber flashing” that users have long complained about on dating apps, giving the user the option to delete and report the sender without having to view it. The refined version of the same AI is now available on GitHub for commercial use, distribution, and modification, according to Tech Crunch. The idea is to provide the technology to smaller companies who don’t have the time or resources to develop themselves.

In theory, as Tech Crunch points out, this AI could go beyond dating apps to be incorporated into any app or social platform to help shield users from unwanted content and cut down on lewd photos sent over many types of apps.