MARKETWATCH – May 5 – Shares of Match were up 0.7% in after-hours trading Tuesday after the company matched Q1 revenue expectations and said Tinder subscriber trends were "stabilizing" in April after dropping sequentially in March. Match generated net income of $160.4M, up from $123M in Q1 2019. The EBITDA was $171.5M, above the $155.1M it recorded a year prior. The company posted revenue of $545M, up from $465M in Q1 2019. Tinder subscribers averaged 6M in the quarter, compared with an average of 5.9M in the December quarter. Match saw the average number of daily messages sent across its products rise 27% in April relative to the last week of February. For users under the age of 30, the daily average message count was 35% higher.
Category: Match Group
Facebook Dating to Launch Video Dating
by Sarah Perez
See full article at Tech Crunch
Mark Brooks: The Meet Group got video right before most dating apps in the West. They were inspired by Momo in China for one-to-many video and refined it on MeetMe, then acquired and powered up a number of brands around the world with video, including Skout, Tagged, Lovoo and now more recently Growlr. Their platform also powers POF's video (ref: March, 2020 press release). Full Disclosure: TMG are a client of Courtland Brooks
See the top news on Facebook Dating See the top news on Bumble
See the top news on Match Group See the top news on eHarmony
Q&A With CEO of IAC About How Pandemic Affects Its Businesses
WALL STREET JOURNAL – Apr 14 – From online dating to home-repair help, some of the biggest businesses in IAC's portfolio are built on in-person social interaction.
Q: Which IAC brands are hurting the most from the pandemic?
A: ANGI Homeservices works with 250K small businesses that have ~2M employees – painters, electricians, contractors. When they're not allowed to go into somebody's house, those businesses are hit. We've been trying to navigate the regulatory environment, the federal stimulus aid, to figure out how to make sure these small businesses get access to loans.
Q: How has the way you manage changed during the pandemic?
A: We never used to do a call or a meeting with all the CEOs of IAC companies. We would do a dinner once a quarter. But we now do a weekly CEO call, where everybody cares what the other businesses are doing. It helps them put their own experience in context because everyone's experiencing totally new ground and new trends.
Q: How has Match adjusted its online-dating business model to social distancing?
A: We're prioritizing video. We're now looking at all of our products to see how we can integrate video as quickly as possible. Video has been on our road map at Match several times in the last few years, and it never really stuck. People weren't as tolerant of the imperfections of video. Now it's becoming way more acceptable in dating.
Q: What sort of advice is Barry Diller giving you right now?
A: Barry is an optimist, and optimism is really important right now. He’s patient, and that's been an asset for IAC for a very long time. Being patient doesn't mean to miss a moment, but to understand what the current environment is. And the current environment is something that we'll get through, provided you're financially organized to do that.
Q: What's a big lesson you've learned from the pandemic?
A: You can do all the disaster planning in the world, but you can always be surprised. No matter how good things look, you've got to maintain the strength of the balance sheet and some flexibility. The strength of things like working capital matters a lot in moments like these.
As Match Breaks Away, Investors Shouldn’t Break Up
WALL STREET JOURNAL – Apr 13 – Like many of its Internet peers, shares of Match Group fell precipitously through mid-March as investors feared users would abandon subscriptions in the face of lockdowns. In an investor update on March 31, Match noted results would likely be around the low end of ranges it previously shared. And while the company also said it could be challenging to boost revenue sequentially in the second quarter, it still expects to show YOY growth. Match said the length of conversations on Tinder is up anywhere from 10% to 30% in many countries. Tinder accounted for 56% of Match's revenue in 2019. Relationship-focused app Hinge has seen a 30% increase in messages in March compared with January and February. A recent survey from Jefferies highlighted growth opportunities across Match's portfolio. The survey showed that, while just 13% of dating-app users say they already pay for services that increase their chances of finding a match, 47% said they were likely to pay for those services in the future.
Match Group: More People Are Swiping Right, But New Challenges Have Surfaced
SEEKING ALPHA – Apr 12 – Tinder has recently reported a record high in the number of swipes. On March 29, Tinder witnessed over 3B swipes, which is the highest-ever recorded in a single day. More people swiping, however, does not guarantee earnings growth. As long as mobility is restricted and public gathering spaces remain closed, many dating app users will not be inclined to pay for premium services. Match Group makes money by charging users for subscriptions and displaying advertisements. Match Group CEO Shar Dubey confirmed that there has been an increase in the number of conversations on Tinder. But Match Group is seeing fewer new users joining their products. "In Europe, we've seen new subscriber declines of around 5% in aggregate since the crisis began, but in countries severely impacted by COVID-19, like Italy and Spain, we have seen more significant declines," says Shar Dubey. There's another disadvantage for Match Group. None of the apps offered by the company provide video calling facilities. Plenty of Fish recently announced a partnership with The Meet Group to roll out a live streaming feature. This is a step forward and will likely deliver desired results in the long term by enabling more interactions among users. However, the unavailability of video calling might push users away from dating apps in the short term. The Match Group will most likely report disappointing earnings growth for at least a couple of quarters. Shares might come under pressure as a result.
The Top Dating Industry News for April 7th
OPW – Apr 7 – Virtual Dating on the Rise, GROWLr Live Video, Match Group Q1 Statement, Q1 Global Consumer app Spend.
For the top weekly dating industry news in ~2 minutes subscribe to OPW's Two Minute Tuesdays (TMT) podcast on Breaker , Google Podcasts
, Spotify
, Anchor
, Overcast
, Radio Public
or Apple Podcasts
. Listen to the trailer for the channel.
Tinder Accuses Bumble of ‘Exploiting’ COVID-19 in IP Fight
LAW360 – Apr 3 – Tinder's lawyers are accusing Bumble of "exploiting the country's COVID-19 crisis" to delay an already-contentious intellectual property lawsuit. They claimed Bumble's lawyers were using the logistical problems posed by the coronavirus pandemic – namely, remote depositions – as a back door to postpone a July trial. A federal has agreed to postpone the July trial by two weeks but ordering discovery to continue on an updated schedule. Following that order, an attorney for Bumble strongly disputed Match's accusations. Match sued in March 2018, accusing Bumble of infringing both patents and trademarks by launching a "copycat" dating app with similar layout and "swiping" features to Tinder.
Match Group Warns of Low Q1 Profits
TIPRANKS – Apr 1 – Match Group has issued a statement warning that Q1 results are likely to fall around the low end of the previously estimated range due to the impact of Covid-19. "While we have seen increases in engagement trends among younger users, we are seeing fewer new users joining our products. This impact is most pronounced among users over the age of 30 and varies by region, depending on the level of COVID-19 containment".
Swiping Right on Match Now
SEEKING ALPHA – Mar 24 – People are forced to date online now, especially since they're cooped up in their houses, and this is going to benefit Match in the short term. Over the long run, Match has many growth catalysts like international markets or its other apps that should allow it to continue expanding revenue and margins. Match Group has always been too expensive over the past few months, trading at close to a 50x PE despite just modest growth. Well, now the company has fallen substantially from highs and is trading at just over 30x PE, making it much more attractive to buy. Data shows that Tinder downloads have increased by 13% in the US over the past week, but most other dating apps saw a decline in downloads worldwide. Perhaps people default to downloading Tinder as it is the most popular dating app.
How Coronavirus Is Transforming Online Dating
MIT TECHNOLOGY REVIEW – Mar 25 – Dating apps have struggled; after all, the whole point of dating is to physically meet someone. Match has seen stocks tumble 25%, and had to balance public health with mission statements. "Tinder understands that our members are oftentimes meeting new people in-person, and, given the current environment, we wanted to remind them of the precautions they should take," the company said in a press release, citing the World Health Organization. The firm is now rolling out a feature that lets users match with people outside their immediate geographical area. Whitney Wolfe Herd, the founder of dating app Bumble, was far more explicit in a public letter: "Please date virtually for now." One way to do it is by reinventing the speed date. Dawoon Kang, cofounder of Coffee Meets Bagel, says the app has begun hosting virtual meetups for 10 to 15 members at a time, consisting of a video call moderated by a company representative. A participant who is interested in another can email the representative; if two people feel sparks, the representative connects them.
by Tanya Basu
See full article at MIT Technology Review
See the top news on Tinder See the top news on Match Group
See the top news on Coffee Meets Bagel See the top news on Bumble