FORBES AFRICA – Feb 5 – Whitney Wolfe Herd's dating app Bumble began monetizing via in-app purchases only in August 2016 and crossed $100M in sales in 2017. It has amassed ~22M registered users. (Tinder has 46M), and at ~70% YOY growth, to Tinder's ~10%, it's closing the gap quickly. More than 10% of Bumble's users pay $9.99 for a monthly subscription. At Tinder, just about 5% of users pay for a similar service, according to a report from the investment firm Jefferies. Herd turned down a $450M buyout offer from Match Group in early 2017, according to sources with knowledge of the conversations. And these sources maintain that Match approached the company again later in the year to discuss a valuation well over $1B. Herd wouldn't comment on the attempted buyouts, but selling to Tinder's parent and folding Bumble under the same corporate umbrella would, of course, serve as a poetic coda to the ugliness of 2014.
by Clare O'Connor
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