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Dating app Grindr launched its initial public offering in mid-November and saw its stock quickly soar thanks to enthusiastic investors, and despite the recent downturn of tech and dating app markets. The stock rose more than 400 percent after it launched.

According to MarketWatch, the stock debuted at $16.90 on Friday November 18th, and hit a high of $71.51 before noon. It then closed out the day at $36.50. The LGBTQ+ dating app merged with Tiga Acquisition Corp, a special purpose acquisition company, and debuted that day on the NYSE under the symbols GRND and GRND.WS. Unfortunately, a week and a half later and now the stock has trading as low as $7.63.

"Today marks an important milestone not only for the team at Grindr, but for the LGBTQ community we serve," said Grindr's chief executive officer, George Arison, in a statement reported by NPR. "We enter the public markets with momentum, carried by our market leadership, strong financial performance and significant growth runway as we step up investment in our core product and services."

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.

A new study by Dating.com found that while meeting people through online dating is at an all-time high, people are concerned about the cost of dating in real life.

The company reported that 52 percent of respondents said they are content to hold off scheduling dates to prevent themselves from spending money on clothing, gas, and transportation, let alone the costs of the date like buying drinks, food or an admission ticket to a museum or concert.

"The increase in prices of food, gas, clothing and many other products and services has left singles rethinking their usual dating habits and patterns as they make an effort to save money," Maria Sullivan, Dating Expert and Vice President of Dating.com, said in a press release.

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).

The Right Stuff, a dating app for conservatives that is backed by Peter Thiel, will launch in September of this year.

The announcement came from the company’s social media platforms, with a video promotion starring Ryann McEnany, sister of former Trump press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, touting the app’s features. "The Right Stuff is all about getting into the right dating pool with people who share the same values and beliefs as you," she says in the video. She also notes that the app is “invite only,” aiming to model itself after exclusive dating apps like The League.

Thiel invested $1.5 million in the app, which Axios said is being created by a company run by former Trump political aide John McEntee. Former Trump White House advisor Daniel Huff is a co-founder of the app.