- Match Group CEO Spencer Rascoff simply took over in February, however he’s already making main adjustments on the firm and to the manufacturers’ apps. Tinder, specifically, has been a sore spot for a lot of Gen Zers who affiliate it with hookup tradition. Rascoff is working to vary that.
Whereas courting apps have been notoriously fashionable amongst millennials, Gen Zers have been shunning them for extra in-real-life meetups—and since many are fatigued by its tradition. One Gen Zer instructed Fortune the primary phrase that involves thoughts when he thinks of courting apps is “wasteland.”
“I think the user pool on a lot of these apps has declined,” mentioned Max Gomez, a 24-year-old communications skilled. “Gen Z is just simply not using these [apps] as much anymore.”
The proof is within the pudding: A 2024 survey by Forbes discovered greater than 75% of Gen Zers really feel burnt out utilizing courting apps like Hinge, Tinder, and Bumble as a result of they don’t really feel as if they will discover a good reference to somebody, particularly given how a lot time they spend on the apps. These altering attitudes are mirrored in Match Group’s monetary outcomes: Its first-quarter income got here in at $117.6 million, in comparison with $123.2 million in 2024, and paid usership was down 5% from a yr in the past at 14.2 million customers.
However Spencer Rascoff, the newly minted CEO of Match Group that homes Tinder, Match.com, OkCupid, Hinge, and Loads of Fish, is attempting to make these apps extra interesting to Gen Zers. He’s doing that by assembly Gen Zers the place they’re and growing new merchandise they need.
“This generation of Gen Z, 18 to 28—it’s not a hookup generation. They don’t drink as much alcohol, they don’t have as much sex,” Rascoff instructed traders in Could, in response to The Wall Avenue Journal. “We need to adapt our products to accept that reality.”
Rascoff, the cofounder and former CEO of Zillow, took the reins of Match Group in February with an goal of revamping the corporate. In March, he admitted in a letter posted on LinkedIn courting apps simply “feel like a numbers game.”
This leaves “people with the false impression that we prioritize metrics over experience,” Rascoff wrote. “That needs to change.”
In the identical letter, he known as on staff to supply their “unvarnished feedback” on easy methods to enhance merchandise for shoppers.
“We know that listening to users isn’t enough—we need to move with urgency and increased accountability,” Rascoff wrote, including Match Group could be “increasing expectations around in-office collaboration” to make adjustments occur sooner.
In Could, Rascoff introduced he’s chopping 13% of workers, amounting to roughly 325 jobs, in a bid to show the corporate round. Rascoff mentioned this may save the corporate about $100 million.
Tinder, specifically, is struggling. The job cuts affected 18% of Tinder staff, however Rascoff instructed WSJ in a Could interview the layoffs have been made for the sake of reorganizing Match Group and having every particular person worker “have a bigger impact.”
That is particularly necessary to Rascoff’s imaginative and prescient of growing new merchandise for courting apps—and Tinder, particularly, due to its affiliation with hookup tradition.
“Tinder started over 10 years ago, and at the time, it was really innovative,” Rascoff instructed WSJ. “But the product has sort of stood still for quite a long time, and consumer social products like ours, you just can’t do that.”
One new product Tinder has already rolled out in about 15 nations, which can be a worldwide function by the tip of the summer season, lets customers pair up with mates to encourage double courting.
“The high pressure kind of product offering of looking at a photo and judging it—that is cringy for a lot of Gen Z people,” Rascoff mentioned.
The function takes a few of that stress off of Gen Z customers, he added. Customers can merge their profiles with a pal, and that pair can then match with one other pair on the app—say, two guys speaking to 2 women. Then these 4 folks can begin a gaggle chat collectively and make plans to fulfill up in actual life.
“This is the way Gen Z wants to connect,” Rascoff mentioned. “They want to vibe their way through meeting people.”
Match Group has additionally developed AI-powered instruments to assist customers higher articulate themselves—and to stop them from saying one thing probably offensive or off-color to a different consumer. A function known as “are you sure?” makes use of AI to detect messages that could possibly be questionable or distasteful and double-checks with the consumer about their message earlier than sending it.
“Many tens of 1000s of times a day that little speed bump that we introduced improves the way people behave,” Rascoff mentioned. “We have work to do on our end. Society has work to do on their end. Together, we can help cure loneliness.”
This story was initially featured on Fortune.com
