Tinder parent Match hopes to court paying users by building early attraction

Swipin’ for a Valentine… Match Group hopes you’ll buy a Hinge Rose to speed up the process. Match is the parent of Tinder, Hinge, OkCupid, Match.com, and other e-romance platforms. It owns the trademark for Swipe Right (literally). Match stock rose yesterday after it reported earnings and announced a $1B share buyback, just in time for V-Day:

• Good on paper: Match’s quarterly revenue grew 10% from a year ago as people splurged on add-ons like unlimited swipes and Tinder Gold subscriptions.

• Romantic rivalry: Hinge’s revenue continued to grow much faster than Tinder’s (though Tinder raked in 4x as much $$).

• Left on read: Paying users fell 5% as fewer folks were willing to spend on price-hiked subs, and Match forecast disappointing revenue for this quarter.

Swipe fatigue sets in… Match and rivals like Bumble and Grindr have been leaning on paid perks to boost spend, but people are starting to cut down on nonessential purchases like Super Likes. Match’s top concern is Tinder — aka the biggest dating platform in the world by number of users. This is the fourth straight quarter that Tinder’s seen a decline in paying users — likely a result of price hikes introduced last year (it even offers a $500/month plan). Now Tinder’s focused on Gen Z marketing:

• Swipe Off challenge: Tinder’s campaign on college campuses awarded the “most engaged” school (Arizona State) with a free concert headlined by Saweetie.

• Rizzed up: Other Gen Z plays include Tinder’s “rizz-first” app redesign, and a campaign with rapper Coi Leray, whom Tinder called a “Gen Z icon.”