Young people and women are abandoning dating apps – These stocks show it ugly

Young people and women are no longer as interested in dating apps as they used to be.

The revenue, number of paying users and operating profit of Tinder, the world’s most popular dating app, decreased in the third quarter of the year from a year ago.

“Tinder has been hugely popular for over a decade, but today it has user concerns and growth issues. It’s clear that we need to rock,” CEO of Tinder Faye Iosotaluno stated in December.

Tinder’s parent company is an American listed company Match Groupwhose share price has fallen sharply. The company’s stock market value is only a fifth of what it was a year ago.

Also the worst competitor Bumblen turnover decreased and the company made an operating loss. The average payment of its paying users decreased from a year ago.

Bumble’s share price slide has been even uglier than Match Group’s. Its share value is only about ten percent of what it was at the beginning of 2021.

Match Group has identified four pain points that users of its products have.

In the company’s capital market day materials, it is stated that users feel that dating apps do not offer compatible partners and do not give a comprehensive picture of what potential partners are really like.

They also do not give users the opportunity to show others who they really are.

In addition, according to users, online dating has become too complicated.

“We know that the ecosystem needs to be cleaned up and that we need to create better user experiences, especially for younger users and women. We are working on it, but change takes time”, CEO of Match Group Bernard Kim stated to investors.

In recent years, there has been a lot of talk, for example, about the ghosting phenomenon that is part of online dating, which means that a messaging or dating partner suddenly stops contacting you without explanation.

Many users are tired of being constantly ghosted.

“Tinder has to be worth people’s time. It shouldn’t feel like a chore. We want to make Tinder a fun experience,” CEO Faye Iosotaluno stated in her investor day presentation.

New features

Tinder is now trying to improve its user experience in many ways. The company has tested, for example, the mandatory addition of face pictures to profiles.

It has also tested a feature called Spotlight Drops, which highlights profiles that share common interests with the user.

Tinder is also trying to attract young users. It has a Tinder U service aimed at university students in the United States, which you can get at the student price. This fall, the company spent money on marketing the service on campuses.

The company has also tried to improve its brand image with the international It Starts with a Swipe advertising campaign. It wants to get rid of the image that the app is mainly used for fun and not for long-term relationships.

More and more apps are sharing the cake

Research company Sensor Towerin according to Tinder still had more than 73 million monthly active users in 2020.

According to Match Group’s investor materials, Tinder now has only 47 million monthly active users.

Bumble’s number of active users has risen from 2020’s figure of just over 12 million users to around 21 million active users per month.

On the other hand, the number of users of the Badoo application, which belongs to the Bumble company, has decreased from around 45 million users in 2020 to 34 million active users per month.

Hinge, which belongs to the Match Group, has approximately 12 million active users per month.

In 2020, the number of users of Grindr, which is aimed at the LGBTQ community, was more than 11 million active users per month. This year, the number has been more than 13 million active users.