As the cost of living increases, people spend less on everything from streaming videos to buying groceries. But many still need to be ready to cut back on dating.
The owner of Tinder says that from July to September, the number of paid subscriptions to the dating app went up by 7% around the world.
Match Group, which owns Hinge and OkCupid, said that total sales went up to $810 million (£704 million) in the last quarter.
But it warned that the slowdown in the world economy was starting to hurt.
In particular, it said that a weaker economy is hurting brands like Plenty of Fish that serve lower-income people. People were starting to buy fewer things inside its apps.
Tinder, saw its sales and user base grow in the three months leading up to September.
The company, which offers a free service, said it had been helped by returning the feature that allows users to swipe right and left from their devices.
Match has about 100 million active users, and Tinder has most of them.
But Tinder users were spending less on one-time features like “Super Likes” and “Boosts,” which make your profile more visible, even though Tinder subscriptions were up.
Match also thinks that Tinder’s sales will stay the same in the last three months of the year.
Revenue and growth
Overall, Match says hundreds of millions of people used its apps. And had 16.5 million paying customers across all its global brands.
That was up from 16.3 million months before July, but most of the growth came from markets other than the US and Europe, where sales were down slightly.
Tinder has had a rough time, and after less than a year as CEO, Renate Nyborg left in August. She was one of several management changes.
Match said it was still looking for a new CEO for the app. It also said that it focused on improving the Tinder experience for women after abusive interactions on the service brought the app into question.
The results from Match come after several tech giants worried about a global economic slowdown.
Last week, both Apple and Amazon said that consumers are cutting back on spending, hurting their sales.
Both said that the rising cost of living was making people less able to buy things.
Also, shares of Meta, which owns Facebook, dropped more than 20% last week after the tech giant reported terrible news.
Shares of Match, which have been doing poorly this year, went up 16% on Tuesday after the company announced its results.
COVID changed how Tinder users view dating
Its CEO has said that Tinder’s “swipe left, swipe right” method of finding matches is no longer enough for singles who are used to lockdown dating.
Jim Lanzone told the BBC that people used to match to meet in person. But that changed when virtual dating became wildly accepted during the lockdowns.
Now, dating app is moving toward “holistic” profiles so that people can learn more about each other online.
Tinder’s data shows that the average number of daily messages sent went up 19%. Compared to before the pandemic, and conversations are 32% longer.
The company says that half of Gen Z users have gone on dates through video chat. And one-third did more virtual activities together.
Users can still swipe right on someone’s profile if they like the way they looks.
