Tinder

Match Group's New COO: Hesam Hosseini

Match Group has appointed a new COO and new CEO, shaking up the executive team in hopes of a turnaround after several disappointing quarters.

Spencer Rascoff has taken over from Bernard Kim as CEO, and Hesam Hosseini was promoted to Chief Operating Officer, and will take the reins in April. The company also announced Gary Swidler will step down as President but will remain as an advisor through July.

Hosseini served as CEO of Evergreen & Emerging Brands for Match Group, one of the bright stars in recent months for the company. Some of its smaller, more niche apps under his direction have shown growth while the company’s star app Tinder has continued to decline.

Ahead of Valentine’s Day, Tinder has partnered with food brand Knorr to encourage users to highlight cooking skills on their Tinder profiles. A whopping 93 percent of Gen Z Tinder users find a date’s ability to cook attractive.

According to Design Rush, the new campaign encourages Tinder users to “unlock their green flag” by touting their ability to cook in profiles and hopefully sparking conversation. Knorr is also helping Tinder users get inspired by offering recipes and cooking tips on TikTok and Instagram leading up to Valentine’s Day under the campaign hashtag #UnlockYourGreenFlag.

According to the joint press release, Knorr and Tinder conducted a study of users to find that 63 percent are more likely to swipe right on someone with cooking listed as interest. And about 28 percent of singles said they won’t consider dating someone who can’t cook.

Ahead of Valentine’s Day, Tinder has partnered with food brand Knorr to encourage users to highlight cooking skills on their Tinder profiles. A whopping 93 percent of Gen Z Tinder users find a date’s ability to cook attractive.

According to Design Rush, the new campaign encourages Tinder users to “unlock their green flag” by touting their ability to cook in profiles and hopefully sparking conversation. Knorr is also helping Tinder users get inspired by offering recipes and cooking tips on TikTok and Instagram leading up to Valentine’s Day under the campaign hashtag #UnlockYourGreenFlag.

According to the joint press release, Knorr and Tinder conducted a study of users to find that 63 percent are more likely to swipe right on someone with cooking listed as interest. And about 28 percent of singles said they won’t consider dating someone who can’t cook.

Tinder is courting some TikTok influencers, hoping they will lure Gen Z users back to the app.

Tinder paid six influencers to try out the app and post a series of videos about their experiences from September to December, ahead of the new year (which is the busiest season for dating apps). The TikTok stars posted videos about using Tinder and how things went meeting their dates in person under the hashtag #theconnectionexperience.

According to Axios, Tinder's recent brand sentiment study found that people were more willing and interested to try Tinder after watching their favorite TikTok influencers talk about using it.

In time for dating apps’ busiest season, Tinder launched a new ad campaign to persuade young daters that they can find real love on its app.

The ads use humor to show how Tinder can turn negative moments in dating into the start of something special, reminding users that they can find significant relationships on the app. Tinder is moving to dispel stereotypes, including that people use it only for hookups.

The campaign was created by Mischief @ No Fixed Address, the ad agency Tinder partnered with in its previous campaign “It Starts with a Swipe,” according to Tinder’s press release.

Match Group said its plans for the future will be centered around AI, according to remarks company executives made at Investor Day. 

Executives from some of its more popular apps like Hinge, Tinder, OkCupid and more, teased how they were planning to implement AI on their platforms with the goal of transforming the way users interact with them, according to CNN. For example, Justin McLeod, the CEO of Hinge, said that they intend to “fully embrace” AI to personalize matching and to create smarter algorithms, as well as implementing AI coaching for struggling singles.

“While AI is not going to be a panacea when it comes to the very deeply and personal problem of love,” McLeod said at Investor Day, “I can tell you that it is going to transform the dating app experience, taking it from a do-it-yourself platform to an expertly guided journey that leads to far better outcomes and much better value to our daters.”