Image source: Reuters
Match Group, a titan in the online dating industry, recently announced a series of changes to its Tinder management team that accompanied a disappointing second-quarter earnings on Tuesday.
The company also announced a series of changes designed to help the company move forward.
Shareholder letter
Match Group CEO Bernard Kim expressed his frustration with Tinder’s performance in a shareholder letter.
The letter highlighted that the popular dating app has been unable to realize its typical monetization success in the past few quarters.
As a result, it is failing to meet Match Group’s original expectations for revenue growth in the second half of 2022.
Kim ascribed Tinder’s troubles to disappointing execution in various optimizations and new product initiatives.
However, he maintained that the app’s product execution and velocity could still be improved.
Departures & changes
On Tuesday, it was also revealed that Tinder CEO Renate Nyborg was leaving the company despite being in the position for less than a year.
With Nyborg leaving, Tinder will also reorganize its management team including the following:
- Former Match Group chief strategy officer Faye Iosotaluno will become Tinder’s COO
- Newcomer Mark Van Ryswyk will take over as Tinder’s chief product officer, carrying experience as a gaming executive
- 11-year Match Group Veteran and Tinder’s CTO for the last five years Tom Jacques will be the company’s chief technology officer
- CEO of Match Group Americas and 15-year veteran Amarnath Thombre will advise the Tinder management team on product roadmap and growth
Bernard Kim revealed he will oversee the team as Tinder continues its search for a permanent CEO.
Engagements
The numbers indicate that the younger generation of users are not as inclined to use dating apps like Tinder – a culture shift that goes beyond the impact of the pandemic.
The shareholder letter notes that while people have overcome COVID-19 lockdowns and returned to a normal routine of life, they aren’t as willing to dive into online dating apps for the first time compared to pre-pandemic levels.
Rather, Match Group found that the highest engagement on Tinder comes from existing users.
Metaverse
With Tinder set to revamp, plans of a “dating metaverse” have been scaled back.
Match Group had plans to leverage its Hyperconnect acquisition to develop a new form of online dating in a virtual environment.
However, the ideas have been frozen with Match Group planning to address other issues.
“Given uncertainty about the ultimate contours of the metaverse and what will or won’t work, as well as the more challenging operating environment, I’ve instructed the Hyperconnect team to iterate but not invest heavily in the metaverse at this time,” Kim wrote.
“We’ll continue to evaluate this space carefully, and we will consider moving forward at the appropriate time when we have more clarity on the overall opportunity and feel we have a service that is well-positioned to succeed.”
Crypto
Match Group is also tipped to pull the plug on virtual currency, an experimentation with Tinder Coins (which the company would have used for its metaverse plans and long-term roadmap).
“After seeing mixed results from testing Tinder Coins, we’ve decided to take a step back and re-examine that initiative so that it can more effectively contribute to Tinder’s revenue,” said Kim.
“We also intend to do more thinking about virtual goods to ensure that they can be a real driver for Tinder’s next leg of growth and help us unlock the untapped power users on the platform.”
Revenue
Match Group posted its Q2 2022 revenue of $795 million, a 12% year-over-year increase.
However, the numbers were below average Wall Street estimates of $804.22 million.
The company also posted a loss of $31.86 million.
Estimates for the next quarter weren’t as good either as the company forecast flat Q3 growth to $790 million to $800 million in revenue, falling below an $833 million estimate.
Reference:
Tinder to kill virtual currency, metaverse plans amid Match Group earnings loss;Tinder loses its CEO
Opinions expressed by NY Weekly contributors are their own.
