Category: Match Group

How Tinder Became the App That Defines Online Dating

Posted on January 9, 2021

Tinder logo classicFINANCIAL TIMES – Jan 8 – In the Q2 of 2020, Tinder reported a record 3B swipes in a single day. Shares in parent company Match, whose subsidiaries also include Hinge and OkCupid, traded at a record high in mid-December as it joined the Nasdaq 100. Rival Bumble has taken the opportunity to reportedly file for an IPO. When Match listed in 2015 it priced its shares at $12 each. They now change hands for $153. Success is down to Tinder's relatively simple set-up. Tinder, which accounts for more than half of Match's 11M subscribers, has a subscription level that allows users to see who likes them. This lure has helped Tinder convert free users to subscribers without spending large sums on marketing. Five years ago, Zoosk revealed that it was spending 84% of revenues on marketing before it pulled plans for an IPO. Tinder spent the equivalent of 20% of revenue on marketing in the most recent quarter.

by Elaine Moore
See full article at Financial Times

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New Brands Hinge and BLK to Steal Swipes From Rival Bumble

Posted on December 17, 2020

Hinge logo 2020TIMES SQUARE INVESTMENT JOURNAL – Dec 17 – Acquired by Match Group in 2018, Hinge reported ~88% increase in revenue YOY in the Q3, along with niche apps like BLK and Chispa that match people based on their cultural backgrounds. In comparison, Tinder grew its revenue by 15%. Hinge brands itself as the anti-Tinder by appealing to daters suffering from swiping fatigue. Hinge's user base has grown from ~35K subscriptions before Match acquired it to 400K subscribers this year. It is estimated it will have ~8M subscribers in 2030 and $2.8B in revenue compared to $60M in 2020. Amid Hinge's boom, Tinder's slowdown indicates it has grown as big as it can. Match needs a different strategy to remain competitive. "The only way now that it can grow is by taking a more niche-oriented route," said Mark Brooks, who consults with online-dating companies on marketing strategies through his agency, Courtland Brooks. Bumble's growing popularity is a threat. With ~100M users globally, Bumble is going public next year, seeking a valuation of $6B. "Bumble is brilliant because what they've done is soaked up the most in-demand women," said Brooks. "The in-demand woman on a Match platform is going to get inundated." Match planned to acquire Bumble for $450M in 2017, but Bumble rejected the offer. Match acquired Hinge instead. It also launched niche dating apps including BLK and Chispa for the Black and Latino communities. "Match has always had a hard time with niches," said Brooks. "They like large scalable dating platforms." Besides BLK and Chispa, Match recently launched other community-based apps in the U.S., including Upward for Christians and acquired marriage-minded service Hawaya for Muslims.

by Harini Chakrapani
See full article at Times Square Investment Journal

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Match Group Placed on Nasdaq-100 Index

Posted on December 15, 2020

Match group logo blue 2019DALLAS BUSINESS JOURNAL – Dec 15 – Match Group is joining the Nasdaq-100 Index, which will become effective prior to market open on Dec. 21. The move puts Match among a list of the 100 largest non-financial companies on the Nasdaq Stock Market. It's an index that acts as a benchmark for financial products such as options, and gets attention in the financial press for market watchers. Shares of the company are up ~35% in the past three months, outpacing the gains of the Nasdaq-100 of ~10%.

by Brian Womack
See full article at Dallas Business Journal

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The Stickiest, Most Addictive, Most Engaging, and Fastest-Growing Social Apps

Posted on December 14, 2020

ANDREESSEN HOROWITZ – Dec 14 – Currently, two of the fastest growing categories across the social app ecosystem are friend discovery and vertical communities (those that enable further engagement around specific subjects or activities). Facebook apps account for more than half of all monthly active users across non-gaming mobile social apps. Even with just 1% share of active users, Tinder claims well over 5M daily active users and brings in ~$1B in revenue for Match Group each year.

The-stickiest-most-addictive-most-engaging-and-fastest-growing-social-apps-vby Bennett Carroccio
See full article at Andreessen Horowitz website

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Why Match Group’s Stock Gained 19.2% in November

Posted on December 8, 2020

Match group logo blue 2019THE MOTLEY FOOL – Dec 8 – The company's stock is up 65% year to date and has scaled new all-time highs as growth has been boosted by the pandemic. Match's Q3 earnings demonstrated the resilience of its dating app business as the company continued to post steady growth. Revenue rose 18% YOY to $640M. Tinder now takes up more than half of the company's total revenue and is the highest-grossing app within the Lifestyle category in ~100 countries.

by Royston Yang
See full article at The Motley Fool

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Match Group and RAINN Enter Into Partnership on Dating Safety

Posted on December 7, 2020

Match group rainn logosPR 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.

See full article at PR Newswire

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Dating App BLK: Black Women Deserve Better

Posted on December 4, 2020

Blk iconPAPER MAGAZINE – Dec 4 – Launched in the summer of 2017, BLK was created by the Match Group with young Black singles specifically in mind. Since then, BLK's been downloaded ~4M times and has become the fastest growing app in the Match Group family, which the app's Head of Marketing and Brand Jonathan Kirkland said "speaks to the fact that BLK was something that the community needed and wanted." Amidst this summer's Black Lives Matter protests, BLK's main focus has shifted from "just dating" to building a community hub where Black singles can connect and feel supported. Kirkland added that one of their biggest goals now is ensuring that BLK continues to be an app where Black women in particular feel safe, respected and desired, before citing a 2014 OkCupid study which found that Black women were liked at far lower rates than women of other races.

by Sandra Song
See full article at Paper Magazine

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TTAB Refuses ‘Political Tinder’ Trademark

Posted on December 2, 2020

Lawsuit pic 2017LAW360 – Dec 1 – Siding with the Match Group, the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board is refusing to let "Political Tinder" be registered as a trademark. The board said the trademark sought by an entity called RLP Ventures LLC would be confusingly similar to Match Group's Tinder. Political Tinder is not a dating app but a website featuring information about political issues.

See full article at Law360

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Match Group Swipes Left on Apple’s Claims of Thriving App Store Competition

Posted on November 19, 2020

Match group logo blue 2019ZDNET – Nov 19 – Apple, Google, Microsoft, Match Group, and even Huawei have weighed in on the ACCC's (The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission) probe into app marketplaces. Apple believes its decision to open the iPhone to third-party development in 2008 created a "new and unique" mobile technology environment, which then resulted in an "explosion" in software development that "significantly benefited" third-party app developers and consumers alike. Its claims were made in a submission to the ACCC. Apple has argued it needs to "compete aggressively", saying it is in competition with the likes of Samsung, Google, Huawei, TCL, and Oppo. But, as highlighted by Match Group in its submission, there are no significant suppliers of mobile app marketplaces in Australia, or globally, other than Apple and Google.

by Asha Barbaschow
See full article at ZDNet

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Apple Halves Its App Store Fee for Smaller Companies

Posted on November 18, 2020

Apple storeNEW YORK TIMES – Nov 19 – Apple, facing growing antitrust scrutiny over what it charges companies for access to its App Store, said it would cut in half the fee it takes from smaller app developers. Developers that brought in $1M or less from their apps in the previous year will pay a 15% commission on those app sales starting next year, down from 30%. The change will affect ~98% of the companies that pay Apple a commission, according to estimates from Sensor Tower, an app analytics firm. But those developers accounted for ~5% of App Store revenues last year. Apple said that it had made the change because 2020 was a difficult year for many small companies. The fee cut probably won't calm the waters between Apple and the larger app developers that have long protested the fee most loudly. Epic Games sued Apple in August. A month later, 13 companies, including Spotify and Match Group, formed the nonprofit Coalition for App Fairness to fight the "app tax." And American and European regulators are investigating Apple for anticompetitive behavior, partly because of its commission.

by Jack Nicas
See full article at New York Times

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