Hinge

The share price of Match Group Inc. dropped after a disappointing third quarter earnings report, signaling that consumer interest in paying for dating app subscriptions continues to wane.

According to Business Insider, Match Group shares dropped more than 18 percent after the company reported that paying users on its most popular app Tinder fell 4 percent in the third quarter from the same time period last year, to $9.9 million. The revenue decline for Tinder has been continuous the past few quarters, and Match Group says it expects this slowdown to continue in the fourth quarter.

Hinge continues to be the star of Match Group’s offerings, growing 36 percent year-over-year, though its userbase is still a fraction of Tinder’s.

Match Group CFO Steven Bailey

Image: Match Group

Match Group has promoted Steven Bailey to the position of CFO, taking over for Gary Swidler as he continues in his role as president of the company.

Bailey is currently senior vice president of financial planning and business operations at Match Group, according to Reuters, and will assume his new position on March 31st. According to Reuters, his appointment signals the company’s commitment to “long-term strategic growth” and “strong cost discipline.”

Match Group’s most popular app Tinder has seen paying users and revenue fall in recent quarters, though Hinge continues to grow. The company has allocated a lot of resources to AI-driven features like photo selection and prompts that provide users help with crafting messages and bios, which seem to be the direction many dating apps are going. In fact, Grindr is testing out a new virtual wingman using generative AI.

The new dating app industry code of conduct established by the Australian government has taken effect as of October 1st, requiring dating apps to adhere to certain standards in an effort to better protect their users.

The new code requires dating apps to make “prominent and transparent” to users how to report someone or file a complaint on their platforms, according to Associated Press. The code also requires dating apps to detect potential incidents of online harm, and that the accounts of offenders are terminated.

A pervasive problem is that users who have been blocked on one platform can join another, so the reporting process is key. Communication Minister Michelle Rowland said in a statement: “If there are grounds to ban a particular individual from utilizing one of those platforms, if they’re banned on one platform, they’re blocked on all platforms,” according to AP.

Popular dating apps like Tinder, Bumble and Grindr are building and testing out virtual wingmen and other AI-driven tools on their platforms to help generate icebreakers and offer instant feedback, according to a new feature in The Financial Times.

Grindr chief product officer AJ Balance told the Financial Times that the gay dating app’s chatbot assistant called Grindr Wingman would help users with their dating “pain points,” like helping them initiate flirty conversation via curated prompts based on user profiles and chat histories.

“It’s that friend in the bar who’s helping you to ask someone out — but in the virtual context,” Balance told FT, saying that using AI in this way could help take the hard work out of online dating.

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.

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.)