WALL STREET JOURNAL – Dec 20 – Match Group CEO Mandy Ginsberg talks about her first year on the job, the Facebook threat and tackling loneliness through technology.
Q: Are you losing a lot of sleep over the Facebook move?
A: There are a lot of other things that make me lose sleep. I worry: "Are we innovating enough? Do we have the right talent?" You can't underestimate Facebook, but I do feel confident that, with Tinder, people who are 21 years old are not going to be like, "Oh, I'm going to get rid of my Tinder app in order to use Facebook."
Q: Who isn't using your apps today, and where do you see the greatest potential?
A: The biggest opportunity is outside of the U.S. and Western Europe.
Q: How have your products changed in the #MeToo era?
A: When I started this year, I thought hard about what else should we do. I kicked off a safety advisory council. Tarana Burke, who founded the #MeToo movement, is on it.
Q: Match Group is ~80%-owned by Barry Diller's IAC. What advice has he given you?
A: He's a very instinctive decision-maker. He likes to get to the heart of a problem, and he pushes individuals and the team to get there. It's more about the dialogue and the discussion.
Q: What's the best career advice you ever received?
A: My mother, growing up, said, "If you want something, open up your mouth and ask."
Q: What will Match look like in 2025?
A: Despite so much technology, people are more disconnected than ever. It's really important that products like ours are all about human connections and connecting people one on one. Video is going to play a role.
by Chip Cutter
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THE VERGE – Jan 22 – Match Group and the media brand Betches are partnering to launch an iOS dating app that allows users to help their friends pick out potential dates. The app is called Ship, and it lets users swipe for their friends and chat about profiles in a group chat within the app. Match supplies the tech expertise for Ship while Betches provides the branding, marketing, and bigger idea. Betches started as a website and is now a viral social media and digital humor company with ~6M Instagram followers and ~3M monthly unique visitors. Match is likely leveraging that built-in group to see if they can serve as a pool of daters from the onset. For now, there isn't a revenue model for Ship, although that'll probably change, assuming it attracts enough people to be successful.
