Online dating giant Match Group recently announced a series of changes to the Tinder management team.

The company also announced a number of changes to move the company forward.

Shareholder letter

Match Group CEO Bernard Kim expressed his dissatisfaction with Tinder’s performance in a letter to shareholders.

The letter reveals that the popular dating app has failed to achieve its usual monetization success over the past few quarters.

As a result, Match Group’s original earnings growth forecast for the second half of 2022 will not materialize.

Kim attributes Tinder’s troubles to some improvements and poor implementation of new product initiatives.

However, he said that the product implementation and application speed could still be improved.

Departure and change

Also on Tuesday, it was announced that Tinder CEO Renate Nyborg will be leaving the company after less than a year with the company.

With Nyborg gone, Tinder will also reorganize its management team, including:

• Former Match Group Chief Strategy Officer Faye Iostaluno becomes COO of Tinder
• Newcomer Mark Van Liswick takes on the role of Tinder’s Chief Product Officer with experience as a gaming CEO
• Tom Jack, an 11-year Match Group veteran and CTO of Tinder, has been the company’s Chief Technology Officer for the past five years.
• Amarnath Thombre, CEO of Match Group Americas and a 15-year veteran, advises Tinder executives on the roadmap and product growth.

Bernard Kim has revealed that he will oversee the team as Tinder continues its search for a permanent CEO.

Engagement

This number suggests younger users are less likely to use dating apps like Tinder. This is a cultural shift beyond the impact of the pandemic.

People are coming out of the COVID-19 lockdown and returning to their normal routines, according to a report, but they’re not as ready to dive into online dating apps for the first time as they were before the pandemic.

Conversely, Match Group found that the most engagement on Tinder came from existing users.

Metaverse

With the revamp of Tinder, the “Metaverse” plan has been reduced.

With the acquisition of Hyperconnect, Match Group plans to develop a new form of online dating in a virtual environment.

However, the idea was shelved as Match Group plans 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 has also been proposed to unlink cryptocurrency as an experiment with Tinder Coins (which the company will use 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 reported revenue of $ 795 million in the second quarter of 2022, up 12% year-over-year.

However, the figure was below the Wall Street average estimate of $ 804.22 million. The company also reported a loss of $ 31.86 million.

The estimates for the next quarter are also not good, as the company expects steady growth in the third quarter from $ 790 million to $ 800 million, which is lower than its estimate of $ 833 million.

Reference:

Tinder to kill virtual currency, metaverse plans amid Match Group earnings loss;Tinder loses its CEO