Tinder Dumps CEO and Plans for Virtual ‘Tinder Coins’

Apparently, even Tinder has problems with long-term relationships and commitment. After dropping lackluster financial results that erased a fifth of its market value on Wednesday, Match Group, the flame app’s parent company, announced that it was parting ways with its CEO after less than a year. It also said it would dump plans to launch “Tinder Coins,” a virtual currency that aims to get users to spend real money on the app.

In a letter to shareholders, Match Group CEO Bernard Kim revealed that Tinder CEO Renate Nyborg was leaving the company in a single sentence. Nyborg was the dating app’s first female CEO and previously led Tinder’s efforts in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. She also met her own husband on Tinder. Although Kim did not specify why Nyborg was leaving, he pointed out that Tinder “has not been able to realize the monetization success that we typically deliver” in the past few quarters.

Kim stated that Tinder, Match Group’s most profitable property, was performing below original expectations for the second half of the year.

“Tinder’s current revenue growth expectations for the second half of the year are below our original expectations as a result of disappointing execution,” Kim said. “We need to do more to excite our user base.”

In response to Tinder’s faltering performance, Kim announced changes to the app’s management team, bringing in a new COO, chief product officer, chief marketing officer, and chief technology officer from other parts of the company. The Match Group chief himself is a new hire, joining the company from Zynga in late May.

When it comes to Tinder Coins, Kim said company would “take a step back and re-examine that initiative.” The digital coins were originally conceived as an idea to get users to remain “active” and “up-to-date” on the app, according to Engadget. As a reward, Tinder would gift these users with coins that they could then use to buy paid app features like Super Likes and Boosts. Of course, these coins would also be for sale if you were too lazy to earn them.

Kim also announced a pause on dating in metaverse, previously under development in partnership with a social video technology company Tinder acquired in 2021, Hyperconnect. Match had envisioned dating in the metaverse as singles mingling in a “virtual club” via their avatars.

The Match chief said the company would continue to watch the metaverse space carefully and would consider moving forward at the “appropriate time.”

“I believe a metaverse dating experience is important to capture the next generation of users, and Hyperconnect has been innovating in this area,” Kim said. “However, given uncertainty about the ultimate contours of the metaverse and what will or won’t work, as well as the more challenging operating environment, I’ve instructed the Hyperconnect team to iterate but not invest heavily in the metaverse at this time.”