Dating app company Bumble Inc announced a secondary stock offering by majority stockholders Whitney Wolfe Herd, Bumble’s founder and CEO, and Blackstone. The price set for the secondary offering is at $22.80.

The price of Bumble stock fell 7 percent after this announcement, and after news that the previously announced 12.5 million secondary shares the company was originally going to sell went up to 13.75 million shares. Blackstone offloaded about $313 million in their stake in Bumble at the $22.80 share price, below the previous day’s closing price of $24.54. Another $47 million in stock “has been earmarked for over-allocation purposes,” according to Investing.com.

Blackstone offloaded the majority of shares, with Wolfe Herd cashing out just under $2 million in her shares of the company.

Image: Chispa

Chispa, the dating app for Latine singles, has announced the launch of its new Advocacy Council, created to highlight important issues affecting its diverse community.

The company announced the move in a press release, saying that the Council will also be developing “actionable programs to make a positive impact in the community beyond dating.” Chispa is seeking to build a trusted community and to be a “passionate advocate for the wellness and advancement of all Latines,” according to the release.

The Advocacy Council will meet regularly to discuss important issues facing the community, and to help create initiatives around mental health, finances, education, immigration, equality, politics, and other topics.

Image: Tinder

Tinder has unveiled its first global ad campaign called “It Starts with a Swipe,” featuring vibrant and colorful artwork with an 80s pop aesthetic. The campaign celebrates different types of relationships, a pivot away from its “hook up” reputation to show a wider range of possibilities for singles.

According to Tinder’s blog post, the campaign was photographed by French photo-digital artist Pol Kurucz, and is “evocative of modern day fairy tales, featuring different possibilities, in a vibrant, electrified dating journey.”

The campaign was created in partnership with ad agency Mischief, and is directly targeted to younger Gen Z daters, who are looking for a range of relationship possibilities. The company recently surveyed singles on the app and found that globally, 40 percent of Gen Z members are looking for a long-term relationship, and only 14% are looking for a short-term connection.

Match Group announced that it partnered with research firm Ipsos to conduct a comprehensive study of daters in major markets, and found that overall daters feel positive about online dating.

Sixty-six percent of respondents said that online dating results were “as good or better” than meeting offline according to the study's press release, and 60 percent of respondents said that their online dating efforts have resulted in dates or developed into a relationship.

The report also found that people tend to prefer larger platforms with more people, with the idea that they have more choices when it comes to finding the right person. In fact, online dating is gaining more popularity around the world, with almost half (49 percent) of singles saying they have tried dating apps and websites. India and Turkey lead the way in usage, thanks to changing attitudes about dating, as well as parents using technology to find partners for their children, according to Ipsos.

Match Group, parent company of popular dating app Tinder, is in talks to purchase a strategic stake in Shaadi, an India-based online matchmaking service.

The Economic Times first reported that the two companies were in talks, and that Match Group was looking to buy out Shaadi’s institutional stakeholders, but few details have emerged.

According to Ink 42, this latest development comes after Match Group has refocused its efforts and brought on a new executive team to run Tinder, which last year saw its first quarter of revenue decline since the company went public. Match Group has set its sights on the fast-growing Asian market, especially India and its large under-30 market.

Bumble surprised investors and analysts with its latest earnings report, which showed better-than-expected revenue in the last quarter of 2022. Shares of the company’s stock rose about 2 percent as a result.

According to Seeking Alpha, Wall Street analysts had expected fourth quarter revenue to reach only $235.9 million, but the company reported revenue of $241.6 million, up from $207 million in the same quarter the previous year.

Bumble also reported 3.4 million paying users during the fourth quarter of 2022, compared to 3 million in the same quarter of 2021. Total average revenue per paying user was about $23.01 for the fourth quarter of 2022, compared to 22.68 the year before.