In last quarter’s disappointing earnings, Match Group announced it was scaling back Tinder’s metaverse dating ambitions and dropping plans to offer an in-app Tinder Coins currency. Tinder CEO Renate Nyborg, who last September became the dating app’s first female CEO, is also stepping down, according to parent company Match Group CEO Bernard Kim. Kim himself said he was appointed CEO only two months ago.
Nyborg previously had ambitious plans for Tinder’s metaverse (or “Tinderverse,” as she called it). Tinder last year acquired her Hyperconnect company, which focuses on video, AI, and augmented reality technology. Nyborg later cited the avatar-based “Single Town” experience as a way Tinder users could one day meet and interact. in another virtual space TechCrunch reported at the time.
But now, Kim says he’s instructed Hyperconnect to scale back. “Given the final contours of the metaverse and the uncertainty about what will or will not work, and the more difficult operational environment, we have instructed the Hyperconnect team to iterate, but at this time the metaverse We don’t invest a lot in ,” said Kim. “We will continue to carefully evaluate this space to better define the overall opportunity and consider moving forward at the right time when we feel we have a service that is well-positioned to succeed. “
Match Group said its acquisition of Hyperconnect contributed to an operating loss of $10 million in the second quarter of 2022. That’s down from his $210 million operating profit in the same quarter last year.
There was also bad news for its in-app currency, Tinder Coins. was to be able to purchase directly. They are then accepted as payment for Tinder’s premium features such as Super Likes. As of his February of this year, the feature had soft-launched in a handful of markets around the world.
But now Kim says the company is reassessing its plans for Tinder Coins. “After testing the Tinder coin with mixed results, we decided to take a step back and revisit the initiative so that it could contribute more effectively to Tinder’s revenue. said they wanted to roll out this feature broadly.
Overall sales increased, but CNBC Match Group’s quarterly earnings fell short of analyst expectations ($804 million versus $795 million) and reported little to no earnings growth in the third quarter of this year. Last year saw a surge in service activity due to vaccine rollouts, but “we won’t see a similar surge in activity in 2022,” he said. CNBC notes that the stock fell 22% in Tuesday’s long-term trading following the report.
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