Category: Hinge
Match Group and RAINN Enter Into Partnership on Dating Safety
PR NEWSWIRE – Dec 7 – Match Group partners with RAINN, the nation's largest anti-sexual violence organization, to conduct a comprehensive review of sexual misconduct reporting, moderation, and response across Match Group's dating platforms and to work together to improve current safety systems and tools. The initial phase of the review will focus on Tinder, Hinge, and Plenty of Fish. RAINN is a founding member of the Match Group Advisory Council, a group that includes leading experts and advocates involved in the study and prevention of sexual assault, sex trafficking, abuse, harassment, and similar issues. The council is the first of its kind in the industry, and regularly makes recommendations on how to improve safety on Match Group platforms.
Hinge Breaks out of Tinder’s Shadow
COVERING COMPANIES – Nov 16 – In Q3, Match Group posted 88% revenue growth for its non-Tinder dating apps, including Hinge, Pairs, BLK, Chispa, and Hawaya. Hinge also reported an 82% YOY surge in app downloads. Launched in 2012, the same year as Tinder, Hinge branded itself as the anti-Tinder app. Match acquired the startup in 2019. "Match's acquisition was driven by the need to retain users who were looking to move past Tinder's hookup culture, said Mark Brooks, a marketing consultant to online dating companies through his marketing agency Courtland Brooks. "Tinder is a game. What they intend to do with Tinder is soak up as many people as possible," said Brooks. "And then what they intend to do with Hinge is graduate people from Tinder to Hinge." In Q3, Hinge launched paid features: virtual roses, akin to Tinder's Super Like, and writing prompts called Standout to spur conversations between daters. Lauren Cassel, Morgan Stanley's analyst, estimated that Hinge would have 8M subscribers in 2030, contributing $2.8B in revenue compared to the current $60M.
Chipotle Teams up With Hinge
Dating App Usage Is Changing for the Better
Could Hinge Be Match Group’s Next Tinder?
THE MOTLEY FOOL – Nov 10 – Tinder dominates Match's revenue. It has grown from around zero revenue in 2014 to ~$1.4B this year. Match.com and other legacy websites like PlentyofFish make up around a third of sales. The smallest part of Match's current portfolio is the "emerging opportunities." It includes brands like Ablo, Pairs, and Hawaya, but is led by Hinge. Hinge is "designed to be deleted," meaning it targets people in the slightly older millennial cohort looking for long-term relationships. Match doesn't disclose Hinge's nominal revenue numbers. However, the app downloads year-to-date were up 82%. In fact, the company disclosed in its Q2 report that Hinge users have grown more than tenfold since 2017. With ~10M downloads globally, Hinge may be on the verge of what Tinder achieved a few years ago: hitting escape velocity in its target market.
by Brett Schafer
See full article at The Motley Fool
Match Group Q3 Earning Call Highlights
OPW – Nov 6 – Yesterday, the Match Group announced Q3 financial results. Revenue was up 18% YOY ($640M). Operating income was $200M, up 14% YOY.
- Average Match Group subscribers reached 10.8M, up 12% YOY. North American average subscribers grew 9% YOY, and international subscribers grew 16%.
- Tinder's average subscribers increased a little over 900K YOY, 16% growth.
- Tinder's developed markets are performing well, but in India and parts of Latin America and Southeast Asia, the virus is still impacting Tinder users.
- 23% YOY direct revenue growth at the non-Tinder brands in Q3. These brands added ~275K average subscribers YOY.
- Solid live streaming revenue growth at Plenty of Fish.
- Newer brands like Chispa and BLK are contributing significant revenue growth. Hinge has been the standout this year, with 82% year-to-date growth in downloads and outstanding progress on monetization. Collectively, these new and emerging brands, including Pairs, grew 88% in the Q3.
- For Q4, Match Group expects total revenue of $640M to $650M, which would represent 17% to 19% YOY growth.
- Hinge monetization efforts made this year have worked (launch of Standouts and Roses – similar to Super Like on Tinder)
- Tinder Platinum is being tested in 10 markets, plans to roll it globally by the end of the year.
- Match Group launched a new brand Upward which is targeted to the Christian community in the U.S.
Hinge Turns Profitable
SEEKING ALPHA – Oct 28 – Amid the pandemic, Match Group announced that Hinge is now profitable and on track to triple revenue this year. In February of this year, Match Group acquired the remaining 49% of Hinge that it didn't already own. Match had previously purchased a majority stake in the app back in June 2018. Tinder's somewhat sleazy reputation as a "hookup app" allowed other entrants such as Hinge to build brands around the idea of a more relationship-focused service. Rather than retool Tinder to be all things to all people, Match bought Hinge and embraced the idea of market segmentation. Although Match doesn't offer any specific numbers, Morgan Stanley analyst Lauren Cassel estimates that the app has 6M active users and ~400K paying subscribers. Those numbers are dwarfed by Tinder's estimated user base of ~50M active accounts and ~6M paying users, but Hinge's customer base is older, and thus, willingness to pay is higher. Assuming that the 400K paying user figure is accurate, simple arithmetic shows that Hinge could be generating ~$64M annually in sales from subscriptions alone.
Ethnicity Filters on Dating Apps Raise Questions About Romantic Discrimination
by Jacklin Kwan
See full article at Mancunian Matters
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More Singles Are Fast Tracking New Relationships
NEW YORK TIMES – Oct 8 – Americans are dating with an intention that some experts say that they haven't seen before. Many experts, along with daters themselves, say that daters have become more likely to couple up, to lower their standards and to do what they can to find a partner to face whatever comes next. Hinge's surveys indicate that 69% of the app's users are "thinking more about who they're really looking for" and 50% say they are "no longer chasing after people who aren't interested in them." A survey of 2K dating app users Match conducted between July and August, showed that 59% of daters were considering a wider range of people as potential partners and that 55% were fast tracking new relationships more than before the pandemic.
by Jonah Engel Bromwich & Sandra E. Garcia
See full article at New York Times