OPW – Feb 1 – Shares of Match Group were down ~6% in late trading, and dropped as much as 9%, after the company released its full year and Q4 2016 earning report, and missed analysts expectations. Revenue was $319.7M up 19% YOY. The number of paying subscribers went up 23% YOY to 5.7M. Dating properties generated $295M in revenue. Match Group has signed an agreement to sell all of its Nondating business, which operates under the umbrella of The Princeton Review, to ST Unitas, a global education technology company.
Category: Match Group
Match Group Stock: 2016 In Review
THE MOTLEY FOOL – Jan 15 – In its first full year as a publicly traded company, Match Group surged past expectations, climbing 26%. A number of factors led to its standout performance, including Tinder's growth, strong operating leverage, and consistently beaten earnings estimates. As the chart shows, Match Group stock plummeted sharply to start the year. Its earnings report from February sent the stock down 20% in two days, even as the company beat earnings estimates. The market instead focused on revenue growth, which increased just 12% to $267.5M short of estimates of $272M. Adjusted net income fell 2% as well, causing some investors to question the company's business model. As the market bounced back, so did Match shares, and the company delivered better numbers in its next report as the stock spiked 16%. Revenue growth accelerated to 21%, and average paid member count jumped 36% to 5.1M. Adjusted net income also jumped 30%. The stock peaked in October at over $19 but then plunged on its Q3 earnings report, as investors thought earnings growth would slow in 2017 based on management comments about investments. The stock slipped 12% on the news.
by Jeremy Bowman
See full article at Fox Business
This post also appears on InternetDatingInvestments.
Match Group Has Lots Of Room To Grow
THE MOTLEY FOOL – Jan 3 – Since 2011, the online dating market has grown ~42%, according to Match. In 2011, there were 360M singles online looking for a partner, and at that point, Match had a monthly active user count of 8M, representing ~2% of the market. In 2016, Match has a monthly active user count of 59M and the number of single people online looking for partners has grown to 511M. That gives Match a hand in 11.5% of the online dating market. In the next four years, Match expects the number of single people online to grow another 31%.
The company expects to see big growth in India, Russia, Eastern Europe, South Korea, and Japan. India tops that list with an estimated 197M singles. Tinder recorded 400% growth in India last year. Tinder accounts for 27% of Match Group's total paid member base. During Q3, Tinder accounted for ~66% of the company's total paid member additions by bringing onboard 93k paid members.
by Harsh Chauhan
See full article at The Motley Fool
Tinder Blazes A Trail For Match Growth
THE MOTLEY FOOL – Dec 19 – Match Group CEO, Gregg Blatt, described Tinder as a "rocket." Tinder is now the top grossing "lifestyle" app in 99 countries with~1.5M paid members. Match has made it clear that they are relying on Tinder. Tinder's home US market still has plenty of room to expand. At the time of Match.com's IPO it was stated that Tinder had 50M users. Currently only 3% of these users are paid members, but with paid member count growth rates of 26% in Q3 for the domestic market and 46% internationally, there is plenty of opportunity to monetize the user base. International expansion is high on the agenda for Tinder with the online dating market in Europe and China alone expected to be worth a combined $2.4B by 2021.
by Sarah Priestley
See full article at Madison.com
Sean Rad Steps Down From Tinder CEO Role, And Launches ‘Swipe Ventures’
UK.BUSINESS INSIDER – Dec 9 – It's the second time Rad has stepped down from the top job at the company he cofounded four years ago, but he's not going away. The Tinder CEO position will be filled long-term by Greg Blatt, who is also the CEO of Match Group. Rad will remain the online dating company's chairman and help to guide strategy. He will also lead a new entity within Match, called "Swipe Ventures," which will be focused on buying companies to help Tinder.
Match Group Under Scrutiny
Sam Yagan Sells More Match Group Shares Worth $2.7M
BASEBALL NEWS SOURCE – Nov 30 – Vice Chairman Sam Yagan sold 59k shares of Match Group's stock (worth ~1M) on Nov 23rd and another 149,427 shares (worth ~2.7M) on Nov 22nd. Following the transactions, he now owns 59,646 shares in the company.
by Donnie Miller
The full article was originally published at Baseball News Source, but is no longer available.
This post also appears on InternetDatingInvestments.
Match Group Profit Jumps 60%
MARKETWATCH – Nov 1 – Match Group reported a Q3 profit of $56.4M, compared with a profit of $35.3M in Q3 2015. Dating revenue increased 22% to $287.5M from $235M a year ago. The number of paying members increased by 31% to 5.5M, an all-time high for Match Group, driven by Tinder. "We are ahead of schedule and in very good shape to at least double Tinder's paid-member count this year," said Gary Swidler, Match Group's CFO. Tinder ended Q3 with ~1.5M paid users, up from 800K at the end of 2015.
Match Group On How To Improve Users’ Retention
APP ANNIE – Sep 22 – There's an art to reducing churn, but there's also a science. Here is a Q&A with two experts in user retention at Match Group: Sushil Sharma, SVP of Product, Analytics and Design, and Ram Reddi, Director of Mobile Product.
Q: What can you implement to improving retention?
A: A features that users will love and want to use every day, also push notifications that bring the user back to the app.
Q: What do you A/B test to prevent churn and increase retention?
A: We thoroughly test every major feature and change. We are constantly testing onboarding and checkout flows, app navigation, profile setup, search features and push notifications.
Q: For your app, what is a "loyal" user?
A: A "loyal" user for us, even though short-lived, is one who rates their dating matches, and responds to interest from prospective dates in a timely way.
Q: How do you benchmark your retention and churn rates? Are there specific external tools, resources or methods you use?
A: We use App Annie Intelligence to measure how we stack against our competition in terms of downloads, engagement and new releases. We monitor downloads, engagement and app releases of our competitors on a biweekly basis.
Q: What are some strategies you think we'll see emerging in the next year for keeping retention high?
A: Artificial intelligence and location-aware notifications. Pokémon GO is a good example of a high retention product that has completely brand new hooks.
Ulysses Management Lowers Stake In Match Group By 15%
by Elaine Green
The full article was originally published at Founders Daily, but is no longer available.
This post also appears on InternetDatingInvestments.