Industry

Ever had one of those moments where you realize the only way forward is to build something better yourself? That’s the heart of Swiped, the upcoming Hulu film that follows Whitney Wolfe Herd’s journey from co-founding Tinder to creating Bumble, an app that flipped the online dating script by putting women in control.

In the film, Lily James steps into the role of Whitney, a recent college grad stepping into the high-energy, male-dominated tech world. At first, she’s part of the Tinder team—only to find herself navigating toxic workplace politics and misogyny that no one should have to endure. When those walls close in, Whitney doesn’t just walk away. She reimagines what a dating app could be and launches Bumble, building not just a company but a safer, more empowering space for women. The twist? That bold move eventually makes her the youngest female self-made billionaire.

Dating app Hinge is taking payment processing for its app into its own hands, and out of the control of the App Store.

Hinge CEO Justin McLeod was recently interviewed on the Decoder podcast and said the company would like to introduce the new payment system by the end of the year.

This is big news for dating apps, and for developers in general who have litigated to bypass the monopoly-like hold Apple and Google have on their payment platforms. To make their apps available on the iOS App Store for users to download, Hinge has had to agree to giving a percentage of every purchase made by its users to Apple.

Dating app Bumble announced that it was cutting almost 30 percent of its global workforce, shaking up the company while its userbase continues to decline.

According to its new CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd, who’s back heading up the struggling company she founded, Bumble will be focused on returning to leaner operations to drive growth, according to The Guardian. The company will be cutting 240 roles globally in efforts to turnaround its sinking stock price.

Bumble shares rallied 24 percent during early trading the day after the announcement.

Tinder is testing a new height feature, which sparked controversy among daters after a screenshot from a Reddit forum disclosing the feature was leaked.

According to Tech Crunch, Tinder confirmed that it is testing the height feature, but only among its paying users. In other words, subscribers to Tinder Gold and Tinder Premium who are participating in the test group can now filter their matches according to height preferences. The testing is taking place globally.

According to Tech Crunch, the feature allows paying users to set preferences for height, but the app won’t block or exclude matches who don’t meet the requirements. Instead, the company says the feature will “inform recommendations.”

Tinder CEO Faye Iosotaluno announced in a post on LinkedIn that she will be leaving her role in July after two years as head of the app and eight years working for parent company Match Group.

This is the latest shakeup for Match Group, whose new CEO Spencer Rascoff recently announced that Tinder’s chief technology officer would also be leaving at the end of May, with no replacement named.

Match Group said it would be laying off 13 percent of its workforce in efforts to cut spending, the bulk of which would come from Tinder, according to The New York Post. Tinder has seen a decline in paying users over the last several quarters, and activist investors have been pushing for a turnaround. Hinge is the company’s bright spot, which is steadily growing despite the industry’s general decline.

SmashTogether, a new dating app that was to launch in beta version on May 15, received a cease-and-desist order before the platform went live.

The new dating app was meant to bring together fans of Super Smash Bros, a popular video game, with its name being a cheeky reference to hooking up. SmashTogether doesn’t say who ordered a cease-and-desist, but likely it’s from the Smash Bros. game’s company Nintendo.

The legal news was announced via a Twitter post from SmashTogether, alongside a picture of Yoshi from the video game perched on a wall and looking off into the sunset.