Latest news with #MatchGroupInc
The Star
2 days ago
- Business
- The Star
Tinder bets on group dating feature to win back Gen Z
Tired of navigating the online dating landscape alone? Now you can swipe right along with friends. Tinder launched a double-dating feature on June 17, allowing users to create joint profiles with friends to match with other pairs. Double Date, as the feature is called, is the refined version of the failed 2016 product Tinder Social, which was discontinued in 2017 over privacy concerns and user confusion about its purpose. To activate Double Date, users select up to three friends to create a pair with. Then they can browse and like other paired users. When both pairs like each other, a group chat opens between all four people to coordinate plans. The feature also allows users to message individuals within a matched pair privately if they want to transition to a one-on-one conversation. Users can maintain multiple pairings with different friends while keeping their individual dating profile separate. The feature was popular with young users when it was tested in Europe and Latin America. Cleo Long, Tinder's head of product marketing, said the feature is meant to help relieve dating stress for younger users. 'This is a social-first experience that's really meant to help relieve some of the pressure that we know a lot of Gen Z experiences with dating by making it more social, more fun, and bringing your friends in to help reinforce that comfort piece,' Long said. Tinder said nearly 90% of people who tried Double Date were under 29, aligning with the company's push to retain Gen Z. The group dynamic appears to resonate with women, who were three times more likely to show interest in paired profiles compared to individual ones during testing. Users in group chats also sent significantly more messages – about 35% more than typical one-on-one conversations. The company said the feature helped bring users to the platform. About 15% of people who accepted Double Date invitations were either completely new to Tinder or returning after a period of inactivity. The positive testing results prompted Tinder to accelerate its US launch ahead of schedule. Tinder is owned by Match Group Inc, the company behind Hinge and OkCupid. It is facing mounting pressure on its business. In the first quarter of 2025, Match Group reported a 5% decline in paying subscribers across all its apps, while Tinder saw a 7% decrease in subscriptions. In response to these shifts, Match made the decision to lay off approximately 325 employees, or 13% of its workforce. These recent losses are part of a broader pattern. Tinder's paying user base has slipped from more than 11 million subscribers in late 2022 to roughly 9.1 million today. The consistent decline has caught the attention of activist investors, including Elliott Investment Management. The mounting pressure led to significant leadership changes within the company. In May, Tinder chief executive Faye Iosotaluno announced she would step down in July after less than two years in the role. Spencer Rascoff, who was appointed Match chief executive in February to tackle the slowdown in user engagement, stepped in to lead Tinder directly. Rascoff has outlined an ambitious technology-focused turnaround plan. In an internal memo viewed by the Wall Street Journal , he called on staff to speed up product changes and use artificial intelligence, emphasising that employees should prioritise user experience over short-term revenue. The company has rolled out AI features that help users create better profiles and prompt them to reconsider potentially inappropriate messages before sending them. Tinder has also launched 'The Game Game', which uses OpenAI's speech-to-speech technology to let users practice flirting with AI-generated personas in over-the-top scenarios designed to reduce dating anxiety through humour. During the company's first quarter earnings call, Rascoff noted that Match's apps have fallen out of favour with younger daters because many saw using them as a 'numbers game'. He believes Double Date can help shift perceptions, calling it less 'hook-uppy' and more about having 'a good time as friends'. Tinder's struggles reflect broader trends in the dating app industry. Dating apps have been losing their appeal amongst singles in recent years, especially Gen Z, the generation born between 1997 and 2012. Only 26% of online dating services users in the US are 18 to 29 years old, while 30 to 49-year-olds comprise 61% of that same user base. Gen Z increasingly prefers meeting potential partners through mutual friends and real-world gatherings. Los Angeles has become a testing ground for dating alternatives that skip swiping entirely. Start-ups like El Segundo-based First Round's on Me encourage immediate in-person meetups, while Venice's Lox Club hosts weekly community events for singles to mingle. Whether Double Date can reverse Tinder's fortunes remains to be seen, but Rascoff is betting that the future of dating lies not in perfecting the swipe, but in reimagining how people connect. Gen Z is 'not a hookup generation', he said. 'They don't drink as much alcohol, they don't have as much sex. We need to adapt our products to accept that reality.' – Los Angeles Times/Tribune News Service
Bloomberg
13-03-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
Tinder Owner's New CEO Signals Urgency to Rebuild User Trust
Match Group Inc. will 'streamline operations,' invest in growth areas and set up a confidential channel for its employees to share ideas with the executive team to improve its dating apps, said the company's newly appointed chief executive officer charged with executing on a turnaround. 'Too often, our apps have felt like a numbers game rather than a place to build real connections, leaving people with the false impression that we prioritize metrics over experience,' CEO Spencer Rascoff wrote in a note to employees that he posted to his LinkedIn profile Thursday. 'That needs to change.'
Yahoo
06-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Here's Why Match Group Inc. (MTCH) Crashed on Wednesday
We recently compiled a list of the . In this article, we are going to take a look at where Match Group Inc. (NASDAQ:MTCH) stands against the other stocks. Wall Street extended its winning streak on Wednesday, with all of its main indices closing in the green territory, as investors seemed to have already factored in the news of tariffs imposition alongside uncertainties surrounding the Artificial Intelligence industry. The Dow Jones gained another 0.71 percent, the S&P 500 grew 0.39 percent, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq increased by 0.19 percent. Ten companies, however, defied a broader market optimism, mostly due to disappointing earnings results. This article details the reasons behind the drop in their share prices and latest earnings performance. To come up with Wednesday's biggest losers, we considered only the stocks with at least $2 billion in market capitalization and $5 million in daily trading volume. A silhouette of an iPhone user scrolling through an online dating app, representing the company's mobile application. Dating apps operator Match Group Inc. saw its share prices on Wednesday tumble by 7.92 percent to finish at $33.58 apiece as investor sentiment was weighed down by the company's pessimistic outlook for 2025. In a statement, Match Group said it sees between 3 to 5 percent lower revenues for the first quarter of the year at between $820 million to $830 million, as well as a decrease of 3 percent for revenues for the full year to settle at $3.37 billion to $3.5 billion versus 2024. Last year, full-year revenues increased by 3 percent to $3.48 billion from $3.37 billion in 2023, while revenues for the fourth quarter alone dipped by 0.7 percent to $860 million from $866 million year-on-year. Match Group is one of the largest online dating app operators which owns brands such as Tinder, Hinge, Match, Meetic, OkCupid, Pairs, PlentyOfFish, Azar, and BLK, among others. Overall MTCH ranks 8th on our list of Wednesday's top losers. While we acknowledge the potential of MTCH as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and doing so within a shorter timeframe. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than MTCH but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock. READ NEXT: 20 Best AI Stocks To Buy Now and Complete List of 59 AI Companies Under $2 Billion in Market Cap. Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
Bloomberg
04-02-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
Match Names Zillow Co-Founder Rascoff as CEO, Replacing Kim
By Updated on Save Match Group Inc. named Zillow Group Inc. co-founder Spencer Rascoff as its new chief executive officer, replacing Bernard Kim who has struggled to end a persistent decline in subscribers to the company's flagship dating app Tinder. The appointment of Rascoff, who joined Match's board last year following discussions with activist investor Elliott Investment Management, is effective immediately, Match said in a statement late Tuesday. Kim, who had served as CEO for less than three years, is also stepping down from the company's board.
