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Revenue growth for dating conglomerate Match Group has fallen in a disappointing second quarter for the company. The market responded and the company’s stock fell more than twenty percent, bringing its stock price down 42 percent of its value since the beginning of the year.

Match Group held its earnings call with investors, reporting revenue of $795 million compared to $804 million that analysts expected. In addition to this, Match Group lowered revenue forecasts for Q3 from $800 to $790 million according to CNBC News, which includes the impact from foreign exchange rates falling compared to the dollar. To complicate things for Match Group, it also means that there would be no growth at all between the quarters.

There were some hopeful signs despite the news. The company pointed out that overall revenue grew twelve percent compared to this time last year. In addition, the number of paid users increased 10 percent to 16.4 million according to the shareholder report, and revenue per paid user rose three percent to $15.86.

Tinder Desk Mode

Image: Tinder

As more people head back into the office after two years of working from home, Tinder has relaunched its popular Desk Mode feature.

Desk Mode is a convenient cover-up if you are browsing profiles on your work computer. When you click on the feature button, a small briefcase icon located in the top left corner of the screen, a decoy “Meeting Notes” screen will pop up on your monitor if your boss happens to walk in and catch you.

If you actually read the screen, Tinder had a little fun with the details. It includes an agenda to “buy drinks” and “order nachos with the works” and ends in a “late night ice cream run.” There’s also a graph showing “swipe stats for selfies” which includes “shirtless selfie” and “pics of my yacht.” Meeting recap notes are listed at the bottom, including “didn’t know the difference between a pale ale and a pilsner.”

Executives at Baihe Jiayuan Network Group, an online dating subsidiary of conglomerate Fosun International, a pharmaceutical giant in China, were arrested on charges of embezzlement.

According to the South China Morning Post, the executives were found missing which led to reports of their “disappearance,” sparking rumors across social media platforms. Fosun’s anti-graft department had discovered evidence during routine online checks of the company that the executives had abused their positions to commit the crime. The department alerted Fosun which reported the executives to Chinese authorities.

The report of the missing executives initially surfaced on Weibo, with a post sharing that the company’s top executives, including its CEO, chief operating officer, and chief financial officer, along with a number of vice presidents, had disappeared according to South China Morning Post. Local news picked up the story, so Baihe Jiayuan released a statement saying the executives were in custody and cooperating with authorities.

Google has brought a lawsuit against Match Group, announcing its intention to remove dating apps like Tinder, OkCupid and Hinge from its Play Store.

The move is part of a countersuit, according to Bloomberg. The dating app conglomerate joined other app developers in bringing a lawsuit against Google’s parent company Alphabet, citing unfair practices in Google’s Play Store, specifically the requirement that developers pay commission for every in-app purchase made by its users. Google settled with the developers to pay them $90 million to compensate for lost revenue over the years.

Match Group has filed lawsuits and complaints against Apple for similar reasons.

Match Group has acquired The League, a dating app known for its exclusivity because you have to apply to join.

The news about the members-only dating app was disclosed by a Tinder spokesperson to Tech Crunch. The League has become popular among ambitious, career-focused people looking for a more exclusive dating app experience, and as a result the app grew a long waiting list with people vying for a place. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Match Group’s new CEO Bernard Kim sent an email to employees, sharing the news: “We have just closed our acquisition of The League, a premium, niche dating app with a curated member base focused on matching career-oriented users looking for a serious relationship,” Kim wrote.

Metaverse dating apps have become popular among singles in China, and now one of the most popular - Soul - intends to go public in the Hong Kong market. It is backed by tech giant Tencent, with Bank of America Merrill Lynch and CICC serving as co-sponsors.

Soul lets users create and use avatars (often resembling Japanese anime) to interact over the app, and rivals TikTok for time spent engaging on the app – an average of about 40 minutes per user, according to South China Morning Post. It currently has over 32 million users.

Downloads and engagement have grown in part due to recurring lockdowns across the country from Covid-19 outbreaks. Between 2019 and 2021, Soul’s monthly active users went from 11.5 million to 31.6 million, according to parent company Soulgate.