Grindr Shares 2023 Achievements & 2024 Priorities
Grindr has shared its latest Shareholder Letter, which summarises its financial results from 2023 and its plans for the year ahead. The LGBTQ+ dating and social platform reported that its total revenue for 2023 rose by 33% year-over-year.
“Grindr achieved exceptional performance in 2023”, George Arison, CEO of Grindr, shares in the opening line of the company’s recent Letter to Shareholders. He notes certain key achievements, including an 8% increase of Monthly Average Users year-over-year (13.3 million), and an impressive 121 billion chats sent on the platform throughout 2023.
Furthermore, since the LGBTQ+ platform started providing free HIV kits in March of 2023, over 235,000 of these kits have since been distributed to Grindr users.
On the financial side of things, total revenue for the year increased by 33% year-over-year to USD $260 million. This increase in revenue was attributed to the platform’s revised premium offerings, including the ‘Weekly Xtra’ subscription and updated a la carte options.
Grindr broke its own records in 2023 after reaching 937,000 average paying users, a 19% increase year-over-year. Average Direct Revenue per Paying User was $20.05, an increase of 16% year-over-year.
Looking ahead
In this Letter to Shareholders, Arison outlined 3 key priorities for the year ahead.
- Understanding intent & providing a broader functionality
He explained that the platform would be looking at how to better understand user’s intentions for using Grindr, then taking on a “multi-year effort to broaden the functionality”.
While Grindr started off as a casual dating app, its mission is to become a “global destination for the gay community to connect”, and therefore can be used for long-term love, friendship, networking, healthcare, and travel, Arison shared.
By building around its multi-purpose functionality and better understanding user intent, the platform will be able to build features that users are willing to pay for, he explained.
- Improving the brand’s reputation
Another key priority in 2024 is taking back control of Grindr’s brand, Arison highlighted. He identified that existing perceptions of Grindr can be “rooted in societal, cultural and historical prejudice; sensationalism; and shame, reinforced by long-since- resolved issues and inaccuracies about our product”.
Without working on Grindr’s brand image, “this inaccurate brand and product perception can have negative long-term effects on our business by deterring potential users, advertisers, and investors alike”, he said.
Therefore, looking ahead, Grindr will be raising awareness about the impactful work it’s doing in the LGBTQ+ community, tackling inaccuracies, and continuing to support Grindr for Equality (G4E), its public good division.
- Find the right corporate culture
Its third key priority is maintaining a corporate culture that works efficiently and can bring these plans to life. Part of this ongoing task involved leadership and talent hires in 2023, as the company looks to reach a staff size of early 2023 levels.
When it comes to staffing, Arison highlighted that it is using contractors to help with short-term needs and product development objectives related to engineering.
Getting its corporate culture right “is a strategic imperative that will bolster our robust business model, engage our user base more deeply and broadly, and ultimately lead to superior value creation”, he explained.
Download the latest Letter to Shareholders from George Arison’s LinkedIn here.
