Tinder’s mum or dad firm, Match Group Inc, plans to chop 6% of its world workforce amid a continued hunch in customers paying for its hottest relationship app.
The relationship app big, which additionally owns Hinge, Loads of Fish and OKCupid, has revealed an 8% fall within the variety of paying Tinder customers.
It stated job cuts would largely stem from shutting down its live-streaming app Hakuna and eradicating live-streaming options accessible in a few of its relationship apps.
Match has now reported declines in Tinder subscriber numbers for a number of consecutive quarters – although it stays the world’s hottest relationship app, and the most recent dip was lower than some traders anticipated.
The corporate stated in a letter to shareholders on Tuesday that its newest fall in subscribers was an “enchancment” on a 9% dip within the earlier quarter.
Tinder is more and more being challenged by rival relationship apps akin to Bumble, which reported a rise in its variety of paying customers final quarter.
“Regardless of proudly owning a few of the best-known manufacturers within the relationship market, Match Group has been fighting intense competitors,” stated Russ Mould, funding director at AJ Bell.
“An absence of innovation appears to be a key bugbear and activists are placing strain on the corporate to provide you with some new concepts to drive up person numbers.”
Some Match Group traders have known as on the corporate to enhance its efficiency and ship extra worth for shareholders – for whom the corporate’s inventory worth has been buying and selling down at greater than 60% on its 2021 peak.
Match Group advised shareholders in its letter that Tinder’s progress had beforehand been pushed by its “partaking and enjoyable person expertise” – key to which has been the comfort of swiping left or proper on potential matches.
However it stated that what customers need from relationship apps has since modified.
“Sentiment has shifted as customers search a lower-pressure expertise with larger authenticity that extra simply delivers desired connections,” it stated.
“We anticipate Tinder to start testing new decrease strain types of discovery within the coming quarters, together with extra methods for customers to make use of Tinder with associates.”
Tinder has just lately rolled out new methods for individuals to satisfy individuals on the app – together with letting family and friends members play matchmaker – and synthetic intelligence (AI) options serving to customers choose the perfect photographs to make use of on their profiles.
In the meantime, Mr Mould added that Tinder’s slowed decline in paying customers, together with the expansion of Hinge, introduced a “glimmer of hope” for its mum or dad firm.
The variety of individuals paying for the app – which Match says is “designed to be deleted” – has elevated sharply, with the revenues it generates rising by 48% in comparison with the identical interval in 2023.
Tinder, comparatively, noticed its direct income develop by simply 1% throughout the identical interval.
Match Group’s share worth rose by practically 10% in after-hours buying and selling on Tuesday after reporting its outcomes.
