Playing matchmaker is never easy, especially when you have to try and set up millions of adults who don’t know what they want. No one understands the struggle as well as Match Group, owner of the biggest collection of dating apps and services available today. After a 7% decline in shares following a report of a fall in paying customers, Match Group has announced layoffs across its business.
The Match Group job cuts will affect around 13% of its workforce, marking one of the first major changes expected at the company since the company’s new CEO Spencer Rascoff took over leadership of the organization. “We’ve also taken some hard, but appropriate steps today to sharpen our focus, including a planned 13% reduction of our workforce, as well as closing several open roles and further tightening operating expenses,” Rascoff explained during the first quarter earnings call.
Match Group will lay off workers and close open roles as part of its reorganization strategy. (Image: Pexels)
Match Group Layoffs Only the Beginning of the Company’s New Strategy
Match Group, the parent company of many popular dating platforms like Hinge, Tinder, and OkCupid, recently witnessed a decline in engagement across its services. The shift was particularly noticeable because of an observed 5% fall in the number of paying users in its first quarter. There has been an apparent decline in user engagement in the online dating industry which extends being a company-specific challenge to an industry-wide one.
Tinder’s user decline rates are quite substantial. The platform is said to have witnessed eight successive quarters of continued decline among paid users, with the average time spent on the app being cut by half. Rival platform Bumble has also incurred similar problems, with the number of paying users falling by nearly 1% to 2.7 million users with a 7% fall in first-quarter revenue.
Just like the Match Group, Bumble is also exploring how AI can be a critical tool for the platform as it tries to revive interest in its services among young users.
What Do We Know About the Match Group Workforce Reduction Plans
The details on the Match Group layoffs are sparse. According to TechCrunch, the Match Group job cuts will affect approximately 325 employees of its 2,500 workers at the company as of December 2024. Apart from laying off workers, the company will also stop hiring for new open roles for now.
The Tinder parent’s restructuring plans will primarily affect managerial roles with one in five managers affected by the change. The company will also move to centralize key functions and operate as a unit rather than a collection of scattered brands. It’s unclear how this will affect the brand image of each of the platforms and whether they will start to look more homogenous as a result.
The goal of Match Group’s reorganization efforts is to cut costs and save money where possible. The current target is to save $100 million annually and approximately $45 million in 2025.
Little is known about the severance packages and post-layoff support that will be offered to employees during this transition phase. With the focus on customers and the future direction of the company, it is important to ensure the layoffs are conducted in a respectable and organized manner that deals with the employees as fairly as possible.
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