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.
Category: Outlets – Wall Street Journal
Coronavirus Makes Dating a Lot More Complicated
WALL STREET JOURNAL – Mar 23 – Trying to build a relationship while reducing human contact during the coronavirus pandemic is tricky. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio weighed in to give dating advice earlier this month. "If you're sick, don't go on a date. If the date is sick, don't go on the date," he said. As far as kissing at the end of a date, he called it "wise" to abstain. That was then. Now, much of the country has been ordered to stay inside their homes, and most Americans have cut off in-person contact. This leaves little room for romance. But human nature dictates: the longer people are isolated, the more they crave companionship. "People don't want to feel alone, and they've already watched everything on Netflix," said Adam Cohen-Aslatei, CEO of dating app S'More. The average number of daily users of S'More increased 28% the third week of March and the length of conversations has doubled. Say Allo saw a 350% increase in video-date sessions in the early weeks of March.
Match Group CEO Mandy Ginsberg Steps Down
WALL STREET JOURNAL – Jan 28 – Match Group CEO Mandy Ginsberg (50) is stepping down. President Shar Dubey will be CEO starting March 1. Mandy served at Match Group for 14 years and was CEO since 2017. Match's stock quadrupled during her tenure.
"When I started in 2006, we were just launching the second brand at Match and only 3% of relationships were from dating apps (that number is a whopping 50% today in North America and Western Europe and growing every day across the globe!)."
In October, a tornado left her Dallas home unlivable, and she also has experienced what she called "health hiccups." She opted for a preventive double mastectomy due to high risk of breast cancer. The implants she received are linked to cancer, and so last Friday she underwent another surgery due to a recall of the implants. "I need to take care of myself and so will take some time off this year to do just that."
Co-Parenting Sites Skip Love and Marriage, Go Right to the Baby Carriage
WALL STREET JOURNAL – Jan 7 – Sites like PollenTree.com and Modamily match people who want to have children, but not necessarily romance. "The alarm clock goes off for men as much as it does for women. You'd be surprised by the number of young, professional straight men who want to have kids," said Patrick Harrison, co-founder of PollenTree, the largest of the subscription-based co-parenting sites. (The service also connects people with egg and sperm donors.) He said ~60% of the co-parenting seekers are women. The male clientele is evenly split between single gay men and heterosexual men, both seeking to be co-parents with women. There are also same-sex couples looking to have a mother or father figure in their child's life. The success rate is hard to measure. PollenTree has had ~90K members since its 2012 launch. Mr. Harrison estimates that ~500 babies have been born as a result of co-parenting matches on the site.
Match Group Gets Boost From Wall Street Analysts
WALL STREET JOURNAL – Nov 7 – Match Group offers attractive potential for growth, analysts say. Shares slid late Wednesday after its outlook for the current fiscal quarter left investors disappointed. But after a string of bullish analyst notes, the stock rebounded – finishing Thursday up 4%, compared with the S&P 500, which rose 0.3%. IAC which has an 81% stake in Match, climbed 3.8%. Competitors also took a leg higher: The Meet Group, which owns a live-streaming dating game called NextDate, added 9.4%.
Match Group Q3 Earnings, Shares Plummet Following a Weak Q4 Forecast
WSJ – Nov 6 – In Q3, Match Group's profit rose to $151.5M, from $130M in Q3 '18. The revenue rose 22% YOY to $541.5M, topping analysts' expectations of $540.7M. Yet total operating costs and expenses jumped 20% in the quarter as selling and marketing, product development, amortization and general operating expenses nudged higher. Overall average subscribers rose to 9.6M in the latest quarter, up from 8.1M in the year-ago period. Shares of Match Group dropped 16% after the company's financial targets for the current quarter came in below analysts' estimates. Match Group said it expects total revenue for the Q4 to be $545M – $555M, falling below analysts' estimates of $559M in revenue. Match also projected adjusted EBITDA in the range of $205M to $210M, behind analysts'target of $228M, and also said it expects to spend ~$25M in long-term investments and incremental legal costs in the Q4. Match Group is involved in several legal tussles, most recently with the Federal Trade Commission over claims that it induced nonpaying users to subscribe to its Match.com app based on "fake profiles." Match is also involved in an intellectual-property battle with Bumble, as well as multiple suits against a Tinder co-founder.
HIV Cases Soar in the Philippines, as Dating Apps Spread
“Fraud” Isn’t a Word Investors Want Associated With a Dating Platform
WALL STREET JOURNAL – Oct 4 – The Federal Trade Commission alleges, among other things, that Match induced nonpaying users to subscribe to its Match.com app based on "fake love advertisements" identified as potentially fraudulent. Suits against other dating platforms brought by the FTC over the past several years have resulted in settlements requiring companies to change business practices, enhance security and provide some monetary compensation to deceived consumers. Match's stock, which is up 73% in the year to date, has fallen 12% over the past month. Since the FTC's claims date back two years, it doesn’t appear that this case will resolve itself soon. None of the practices the FTC is alleging remain in place today, according to the company.
IAC Spins a Compelling Prospect
WALL STREET JOURNAL – Sep 26 – IAC is considering spinning off one or both of its biggest assets: Online-dating giant Match Group and ANGI Homeservices, which owns HomeAdvisor and Angie's List. Analysts estimate Match and ANGI combined will comprise 71% of IAC's total revenue in 2019. Investors seem to be puzzled, sending IAC shares down ~14% this month, although some of this weakness was related to the Federal Trade Commission suing Match. Analysts, however, see hidden value in IAC's remaining assets such as Vimeo and Dotdash. The full remaining portfolio could be worth quite a bit if it had the company's complete attention. IAC could generate revenue of $1.5B in 2020, rising to $2B by 2024. Assuming IAC unloads $1B of debt to Match and ANGI, analysts see valuation upside of 9% to 26% from current levels if both assets are spun off.
Dating Apps Are Making Marriages Stronger
WALL STREET JOURNAL – Aug 29 – Researchers from the University of Chicago found that more than a third of U.S. marriages between 2005 and 2012 started online – and that online couples have longer, happier marriages. They also found that more anonymous online communications produced greater self-disclosure. "Humans started down a path to becoming isolated the moment the first person put on the headphones of their Sony Walkman," says Eric Resnick, a professional dating profile ghostwriter in Orlando, Fla., who met his wife online. "We hide in our phones. Online dating sites and apps make it possible to reach out in a way that doesn't make most people uncomfortable." It also helps them open up. "Most online daters have a tendency to discuss the reasons their last relationships have failed without even realizing it," says Mr. Resnick. A 2017 study by researchers at the University of Essex in the U.K. and the University of Vienna in Austria, published in the social-science journal SSRN, found that marriages created online were less likely to break up within the first year than marriages that started offline. The researchers suggested that people who meet online are more likely to be compatible precisely because they're matching with partners they might have otherwise overlooked.