Match Group has announced its plans to scale back Tinder’s metaverse dating ambitions, scrapping plans to offer an in-app Tinder Coins currency. Tinder CEO Renate Nyborg, who became the dating app’s first female CEO just last September, is also leaving the position, parent company Match Group’s CEO Bernard Kim announced. Kim himself was named as CEO just two months ago.
Nyborg previously set out ambitious plans for Tinder’s take on the metaverse (or “Tinderverse” as she called it). Tinder acquired a company called Hyperconnect last year, which focuses on video, AI, and augmented reality technology, and Nyborg later cited its avatar-based “Single Town” experience as a way Tinder’s users might one day be able to meet and interact with one another in virtual spaces, TechCrunch reported at the time.
In a shareholder letter, Match Group CEO Bernard Kim expressed frustration with Tinder’s current performance, noting the popular dating app has not been able to realise its typical monetisation success over the past few quarters and is failing to meet the company’s original expectations for revenue growth for the latter half of 2022.
Kim chalked up Tinder’s troubles to “disappointing execution on several optimisations and new product initiatives,” but added that Tinder’s product execution and velocity could still be improved.
Alongside the departure of Nyborg, Tinder will have a reorganised management team that also includes:
- Faye Iosotaluno, formerly Match Group’s chief strategy officer, as Tinder’s COO
- Mark van Ryswyk, as Tinder’s chief product officer. Ryswyk is an experienced gaming executive who joined the company in June.
- Melissa Hobley, formerly OkCupid’s CMO, as Tinder’s chief marketing officer
- Tom Jacques, as Tinder’s chief technology officer. An 11-year Match Group veteran, he has been Tinder’s CTO for the last five years.
- Advisor Amarnath Thombre. The current CEO of Match Group Americas and 15-year Match Group veteran will advise the Tinder management team on product roadmap and growth.
Kim said he will oversee the team while Tinder searches for a permanent CEO.