GQ MAGAZINE – Feb 12 – The Russian multimillionaire Andrey Andreev claims to have revolutionized online dating and changed the world a bit. Andrey Andreev created Badoo in 2006. The app has ~370M registered users, 7 times more than Tinder. His fortune is estimated at £700M. Whitney Wolfe has teamed up with Andrey Andreev to launch Bumble, a dating app that lets women initiate the first contact, which is 79% owned by Badoo. "We've been the first in all areas – localization, swipes. We were the first to introduce a messaging service," Andreev explains the success of Badoo which took advantage of the arrival of the first iPhone. "Each month we introduce a striking innovation. We have not realized even 1% of the ideas that we can potentially put in place." CNBC has reported about Andrey's intention to sell Badoo, which could be valued at $1.5B. No, he does not intend to sell.
Category: Bumble
Whitney Wolfe Herd To Speak At SXSW 2018
HI-TECH CRONICLE – Feb 6 – Bumble founder and CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd will speak at SXSW this year. Along with luminaries like Michael Dell and Melinda Gates – both scheduled to appear as keynote speakers during this year's event – and an array of other influencers, Herd will share the secrets of her success.
Billion-Dollar Bumble
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.
Bumble Expanding Its Austin Headquarters
Dating App Bumble Is Opening A Third Space For Mingling
Texas Monthly Editor-In-Chief Wades Into An Ethical Gray Zone With Bumble Deal
Bumble Adds Instagram Option To Users’ Profiles
VENTURE BEAT – Jan 23 – Bumble has integrated Instagram into its users' profiles. They can now opt-in to allow potential matches to scroll through their Instagram feed through the Bumble app. For now, the option is only available on Bumble Date and Bumble BFF, not on Bumble Bizz, which was launched last October. Tinder added the Instagram integration back in April 2015.
Badoo Is Looking For A Buyer
CNBC – Jan 23 – Badoo is seeking a sale that could value the company at $1.5B and reportedly hired J.P. Morgan Chase to help it find a buyer. Possible buyers include Match Group, non-U.S. based strategic buyers, and private equity buyers. Badoo is now owned by Russian entrepreneur Andrey Andreev and is also a majority owner of dating app Bumble (Badoo owned 79 percent of Bumble as of March 2016, according to TechCrunch).
by Alex Sherman & Leslie Picker
See full article at CNBC
America’s Love-hate Relationship With Tinder
RECODE – Jan 6 – Millions of Americans use social media daily. But that doesn't mean they love it. Some of the most-used social media products in the world – Twitter, Snapchat, Facebook and Instagram – are also some of the ones that Americans have strong negative feelings about, according to a recent Harris Poll survey. Tinder was also largely disliked. ~43% of people want it to go away.
by Rani Molla
See full article at Recode
Bumble Is Hiring An Editorial Director To Build Out Its Media Brand
TECH CRUNCH – Jan 10 – Bumble is hiring Clare O'Connor as its first Editorial Director, who will work directly with CEO Wolfe Herd and Bumble's content team to develop editorial content for their new arm called Bumble Media. O'Connor most recently was a staff writer at Forbes where she covered woman entrepreneurs, workplace equality, and diversity in tech and Silicon Valley. Outside of written editorial content Bumble will also invest in original video content spanning a range of format and genres. This video effort will be led by TV producers Erin and Sara Foster, who together are Bumble's Heads of Creative. The video below made by Bumble is a good example of what this may look like.