In early December, Match Group, the owner of more than 40 dating apps and by far the market leader in the world of online dating, held its first investor day since going public in 2015.
The major theme was that the next big shift in the business of romantic connections will be artificial intelligence — something the group is pushing hard. “AI is going to transform the dating experience. It’s going to enable us to make all aspects of the online dating journey better,” proclaimed chief executive Bernard Kim.
Behind those optimistic words, however, were some difficult realities. Although its brands now cater to tens of millions of users globally, Match’s market value — roughly $8bn — is just a fifth of what it was three years ago. Last month, Tinder, Match’s flagship brand and the app that arguably invented the modern dating industry, reported that paid user numbers had dropped on a year-on-year basis for the eighth consecutive quarter.