Deals, earnings, valuations and investor news from the dating business.
Google has narrowed dating and companionship ad restrictions to 17 countries, according to PPC Land, without naming the countries.
Pure reports 67% year-on-year subscription growth and a roughly equal gender split as it launches a U.S. marketing expansion, but gives no user counts.
Grindr's Q2 2025 revenue rose 27% year-on-year to $104M, but its share price fell sharply as 14.9M monthly active users trailed expectations.
Matrimony.com's Q1 FY26 net profit fell 39.5% year-on-year to Rs 8.4 crore (£830,000), though it rose 15% from the previous quarter.
A shareholder lawsuit alleges Match Group suppressed sexual assault reports, with its Sentinel database logging hundreds weekly by 2022.
Bumble is cutting 350 jobs, 30% of its workforce, and launching a Bumble For Friends app in March after Q4 revenue fell 7.6% to $269.5M.
Amanda Bradford is leaving Match Group after her non-compete expired, two years after Match acquired her app The League in April 2022.
Match Group reported $864M in Q2 revenue as paying users fell 5% to 14.1 million, with Hinge revenue up 25% and Tinder revenue down 4%.
Relate research says 10% of Britons meet partners through dating apps, but Match Group and Bumble face a gender imbalance and user dissatisfaction.
Match Group shares are down roughly 80% since February 2021, and Elliott Management and Starboard Value are pushing an AI-led transformation.
Grindr reports second-quarter results on 7 August, with 14.5 million monthly active users, testing whether its 2025 AI and product launches can drive growth.
Gleeden says 53% of its middle-aged survey respondents want friendship, not affairs, raising questions about its affair-focused subscription model.
Aisle, an Indian dating app, has launched weekly premium subscriptions at ₹99 from July 2025, with no take-up or conversion data disclosed yet.
Bumble shares rose 3% on strong US retail sales data. Its 5th August Q2 earnings will test whether a 30% workforce cut and $40M in savings pay off.
Bumble is testing optional first moves and rolling back its women-make-first rule amid 4% year-over-year revenue growth in Q3 2024.
Match Group has added Qloo's Taste AI to BLK, Chispa, Upward and Yuzu. Qloo claims a 70% increase in likes in initial testing.
Match Group's Hinge IRL and Meetic's Resonance are hackathon prototypes designed to speed up in-person dates, with no confirmed launch dates.
Muzz held its first offline singles event in India, with around 100 participants in Mumbai, using structured activities and QR code profile exchanges.
Match Group says AI usage across its dating platforms rose 300% year-on-year, and 20% of users prompted by AI moderation revise or cancel messages.
Grindr reported 25% revenue growth while Bumble trades at $6, down from a $43 IPO price. CEO George Arison says Grindr stayed product-led.
An estimated 10 million Chinese women now use virtual boyfriend apps instead of dating, a challenge for Match Group and Bumble in China.
Bumble is cutting 30% of its workforce, about 240 employees, to save $40M annually, after a 7.7% year-on-year revenue decline in Q1 2025.
Matchmaker Maclynn reported its strongest sales month in 15 years in January, as Tinder faces eight consecutive quarters of subscriber decline.
Ysos, the dating app spun out of Sexlog, is entering the US with 3 million registered users and says behavioural data from 23 million users improves matching.
Perth matchmaking services charge $3,000 to $8,000 per client, according to ABC, as professionals aged 30-45 quit dating apps.
Pawsome Pair has launched a pet-centric dating platform that will donate 20% of subscription revenue to animal shelters, entering a crowded niche.
Grindr expects 26% revenue growth in 2025, its CFO said, as users spend over 60 minutes daily. Match Group is growing in the low single digits.
Match Group says 30% of Tinder matches now involve LGBTQ+ users, as Tinder, Bumble and Grindr run Pride campaigns to compete for queer users.
Palm Venture Studios has acquired matchmaker Three Day Rule and plans to expand it into relationship wellness and ongoing support services.
AlgoAI Tech has launched a-love, a white-label dating platform for faith groups, universities and brands, with no pricing or clients disclosed.
Dinky One, a dating platform for men concerned about penis size, has joined the Pure Payout affiliate network, which has operated since 2007.
Four dating apps launched in February 2025 promising to fix algorithm opacity with AI, after US user dissatisfaction hit 71% in 2024, per Pew.
Mattr, the London dating app, is raising the final £35,000 of its round from angel investors after failing to win VC backing.
JPMorgan downgraded Bumble to "underweight" with a $5 price target, implying 30% downside, and warns declines could last until 2027.
Hinge is testing chat limits, and Match Group says AI-suggested openers raised matches and contact exchanges by 15% in Q4 2024 tests.
Grindr raised its 2025 revenue guidance to $405M-$415M after Q4 2024, citing stronger-than-expected engagement and conversion.
Tinder plans a global double-dating launch this summer as Spencer Rascoff shifts the app to "meaningful connections" to win back Gen Z.
Tinder is offering 20 users up to £150 each to subsidise the cost of taking a date to a wedding, in a promotion running through 31 May.
Happn has launched a Paris metro ad campaign for its proximity matching, though it has not disclosed campaign spend, revenue or performance figures.
Tinder CEO Faye Iosotaluno will step down in July after 18 months, with Match Group CEO Spencer Rascoff taking direct control of the app.
E.l.f. Beauty has partnered with matchmaker Tawkify on a dating show, but apps still hold 95%+ of the market, so matchmaking remains niche.
Match Group has acquired HER, the dating app for queer women and non-binary people. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Match Group CTO Will Wu is leaving at the end of May, the fourth senior executive exit in approximately 18 months, including the CEO.
Dating safety app Tea has over 500,000 users and $1.6M in annual recurring revenue, according to the company, by offering background checks to women.
Bumble's Q1 revenue fell 7% year-on-year to $247.1M, yet its shares rose 7% as average revenue per paying user rose to $27.86.
Sex-positive dating app BeeDee has acquired UK-based rival Meet Kinksters and launched the combined platform on Apple's App Store for the first time.
Grindr is limiting its AI conversation summary feature to 25% of Unlimited subscribers, about 2.5% of its total subscribers, after halving AI costs.
Match Group is relaunching Pairs in South Korea, where marriages have fallen 40% since 2014, while its Asia revenue fell 6% in Q4 2024.
Sitch, a New York dating startup, raised $2M in pre-seed funding led by a16z's Speedrun and refunds users who are ghosted after paid matches.
Match Group is spending £1 million on a Hinge fund for London meetups. The US version subsidised 3,500 events attended by 125,000 people.
Financial covers the money in online dating: quarterly results from Match Group (MTCH), Bumble (BMBL) and Grindr (GRND), private-company accounts filed at Companies House, mergers and acquisitions, take-privates, funding rounds and investor moves. DII reports figures from the filings themselves, gives each number its period and source, and compares companies on the same basis. Every deal also goes into DII's deals tracker.