Tinder’s guardian firm, Match Group Inc, plans to chop 6% of its world workforce amid a continued droop in customers paying for its hottest relationship app.
The relationship app large, which additionally owns Hinge, Loads of Fish and OKCupid, has revealed an 8% fall within the variety of paying Tinder customers.
It mentioned job cuts would largely stem from shutting down its live-streaming app Hakuna and eradicating live-streaming options out there 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 less than some investors anticipated.
The corporate mentioned 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 equivalent to Bumble, which reported a rise in its variety of paying customers final quarter.
“Regardless of proudly owning a number of the best-known manufacturers within the relationship market, Match Group has been fighting intense competitors,” mentioned Russ Mould, funding director at AJ Bell.
“An absence of innovation appears to be a key bugbear and activists are placing stress on the corporate to provide you with some new concepts to drive up consumer numbers.”
Some Match Group traders have called on the corporate to enhance its efficiency and ship extra worth for shareholders – for whom the corporate’s inventory value has been buying and selling down at greater than 60% on its 2021 peak.
Match Group informed shareholders in its letter that Tinder’s development had beforehand been pushed by its “partaking and enjoyable consumer expertise” – key to which has been the comfort of swiping left or proper on potential matches.
Nevertheless it mentioned that what customers need from relationship apps has since modified.
“Sentiment has shifted as customers search a lower-pressure expertise with better authenticity that extra simply delivers desired connections,” it mentioned.
“We anticipate Tinder to start testing new decrease stress 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 fulfill individuals on the app – together with letting friends and family members play matchmaker – and synthetic intelligence (AI) options serving to customers choose the most effective photos 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, offered a “glimmer of hope” for its guardian 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 value rose by almost 10% in after-hours buying and selling on Tuesday after reporting its outcomes.
