Industry

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.

Meet Muse Media, the parent company of dating app Snack, a video-based app designed to attract young Gen Z daters, has been sued by a thirty-seven-year-old man for age discrimination.

The plaintiff Geoffrey Taylor argued that he tried to sign up for the app but was denied due to the company’s policy of only allowing singles 35 and under on its app. He received a message referring him to try Tinder or Match, with a message that read: "100% of snack are under 35" and "looks like you're past our sell-by date."

According to Courthouse News, Taylor filed the lawsuit against the Canadian-based company in San Diego citing it violated the Unruh Civil Rights Act, which prohibits businesses from discriminating against customers based on their race, sex, religion and other protected categories. He’s seeking $4,000 in damages per violation and hopes to force Snack to loosen their rules on who can join. His lawsuit demands a jury trial and requests injunctive relief as well.

Match Group has joined Epic Games in expanding their lawsuit against Google and its Play Store, claiming the company paid developers to prevent Play Store competition.

According to a report by Engadget, the companies filed a motion with a federal court in the Northern District of California in October, accusing Google of paying off developers that had the financing and ability to create new Android app stores to compete with Google.

As Tech Crunch pointed out, this would be “a direct violation of U.S. antitrust law known as the Sherman Act,” the amended lawsuit states.

In the original lawsuit, Epic Games and Match Group detailed a program called “Project Hug” that paid game developers hundreds of millions of dollars to keep their games on the Google Play store, notably following the release of Epic Games’ Fortnight in 2018 (where it was made available outside of Google Play, bypassing their fees).