Online Dating

Bumble’s founder and longtime CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd will step down from the helm, and Lidiane Jones, the CEO of workplace messaging tool Slack will take over in January. Herd will move to Executive Chair of the company.

The news comes as Bumble’s stock price has fallen over 80 percent since it went public two years ago (from $76 to below $14). The dating app is not alone. Match Group is also going through a rough period, thanks to inflation and other economic concerns. Members are dropping their subscriptions and not using paid services on the apps, causing a decline in revenue the last few quarters.

Herd supported Jones in a statement: “This move to Executive Chair gives me the ability to step forward into a new and exciting role, get back to my founder roots and bring immense passion and focus to this next chapter of growth,” According to CNN, Wolfe Herd also added that she and Jones would be “fantastic partners.”

A new survey of Bumble’s Indian users found that 63 percent want a date for Festival Season. Many singles work and live away from their hometowns, and crave companionship at this time of year.

According to Hindustan Times, the study also found that 36 percent of respondents like to enjoy festival season with friends, and 27 percent with their partners.

Festivals occur in India year-round, but perhaps one of the more famous festivals, Diwali, is a five-day festival that takes place in October/ November and represents the start of the Hindu New Year. Specifically, it celebrates Lord Rama and his wife Sita’s return to their kingdom after defeating evil demons, according to Hindu tradition. The festivities are planned around the lunar cycle.  

The stock price for dating app conglomerate Match Group dropped after the company revealed that its Tinder app saw a significant drop in paying users. Shares went down more than 15 percent to $29, the lowest price it has traded for since the company spun off from IAC in July of 2020.

According to Newsweek, Match Group sent a letter to shareholders in early November with the news that Tinder had lost 826,000 paying customers. CEO Bernard Kim said in the letter: "While our collective efforts have put the company on much improved footing, there is still much work to be done.”

Match Group’s reported third quarter earnings were a highlight - they beat analyst estimates ($881.6 million compared to the expected $880.6 million), according to LSEG, formerly Refinitiv.

Dating app company Match Group announced it had settled a lawsuit with Google concerning the tech giant’s payment requirements for its Play Store.

Under the terms of the settlement, $40 million currently in escrow will be returned to Match, according to The Verge. Interestingly, Match Group also agreed to Google’s “user choice billing system,” which still allows for Google to get a cut of all transactions, even if Match users pay via Match Group’s payment systems.

Specifically, the settlement notes that by the end of March 2024, Match’s apps will implement the user choice billing system, which means that when dating app members opt to pay using Match’s payment systems, the company will give Google an 11 percent cut of its subscription fees and a 26 percent cut of all purchases. Or for users that go through Google’s in-app purchase system, Match Group will pay Google its standard fees (15 percent and 30 percent, respectively) for transactions.

The U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee has passed The Online Dating Safety Act. It is now eligible to be brought to a vote on the floor of the House of Representatives, though the timing of the vote remains unclear.

According to The Washington Examiner, the Act would require dating app services to provide a “fraud ban notification” to users who have been in contact with a user who had previously been removed from the platform for fraudulent activity. Additionally, the notification would have to include a statement that the banned member may have been using a false identity or attempting to defraud other users.

Bill H.R. 6125 also requires the notification to include a warning that the user being targeted by the fraudulent actor should not send money or personal information to another member, as well as a link to resources on fraud prevention and tips on how to avoid online fraud, according to The Ripon Advance. The bill stipulates that the dating platforms must provide a customer service number that is attached to the warning so that users have someone to speak with if they have questions or concerns.

Blued, China’s most popular gay dating app, plans to expand in Southeast Asia and in the U.S. while the Chinese government clamps down on LGBTQIA content.

According to Rest of World, Blued’s new parent company New Town wants to make the platform “the world’s largest social network for the LGBTQIA community,” and part of its strategy is to encourage user participation and community interaction, especially outside of China.

New Town’s CEO Li Ping sees enormous potential in the LGBTQIA market, and intends to grow the platform by targeting markets in Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines, Southeast Asia and North America. “The growth of the LGBTQ population in Southeast Asia and North America is particularly evident,” a spokesperson told Rest of World.