Match Group’s overall financial report for the second quarter was positive and full of optimism, but one comment about rising COVID-19 rates in Asia has left some investors feeling overly cautious.
Total revenue for the three-month period rose by 27% to $708 million, comfortably beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $690.5 million. The online dating company’s average earnings per share of $0.60 also surpassed expectations by three cents.
The number of paying subscribers across the portfolio hit 15 million for the first time, aided by Tinder edging towards the 10 million premium members milestone on its own.
It was a momentous quarter for Tinder which announced one of the biggest redesigns in its history towards the end of June. A suite of new features were announced, including video profiles, the Hot Takes game, and an Explore page.
Match Group has also revealed that it has been testing in-app virtual currency on Tinder, and the tests are reportedly “performing well”. It’s not yet clear what the currency will be used for, but it is traditionally a popular part of one-to-many livestreams.
On the subject of streaming, Match Group completed the acquisition of Hyperconnect, its first acquisition as an independent entity. The two platforms included in the deal, Azar and Hakuna, have a combined 570,000 paying users and the technology will be used to add new audio and video features to other subsidiaries.
The return to offline dating in North America and Europe has led to an optimistic outlook for Match Group. It’s expecting an approximately 25% year-on-year increase in revenue for the third quarter and the total to reach $3 billion for the full year.
However, in her letter to shareholders, CEO Shar Dubey warned that a slower pandemic recovery in “important markets”, such as India, South Korea and Japan, is slightly holding it back.
This statement gave some investors cold feet, and MTCH stock dropped by 4% in post-market hours.
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