SEEKING ALPHA - Feb 15 - The company is too expensive at the moment despite excellent business results. Bumble has the first-mover advantage in addressing a problem that women have in the dating space. In Wolfe's telling, women are taught to let men be the aggressors. The company's value proposition is very compelling to women and it shows in the demographics of the app: there are 30% more women than men on Bumble. In total, as of Sep 30, 2020, the company had 42M monthly active users: 40.7M MAUs coming from Bumble and Badoo (12.3M MAUs from Bumble and 28.4M MAUs from Badoo). Having grown 49% in 2019, to 855,600 in 2019, Bumble's paid users grew a further 30% YOY, for the first nine months of 2020 to 1.1M. Though the number of paid users in Badoo fell by 9% in 2019 to 1.2M, they grew 10% YOY for the first nine months of 2020 to 1.3M. Wolfe has been an excellent capital allocator, growing returns on invested capital (ROIC) from -39.2% in 2018, to 179.7% in 2019 and 178.8% for the trailing twelve months (TTM) period. Unfortunately, Bumble Inc’s P/E multiple is 51, based on our adjusted earnings per share, which is very unattractive.
161 posts categorized "Badoo"
Bumble: a Profit Machine at the Wrong Price
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First Look At Bumble's IPO
SEEKING ALPHA - Jan 20 - Bumble is reportedly seeking a $6-8B valuation. In 2019, Blackstone purchased a majority stake in the company that valued the company at $3B, representing quite a sizable return in a short amount of time. Across its two apps, Bumble and Badoo, the company has 42M monthly active users. Badoo is the fourth-largest (by gross revenue) dating app in the world.
In terms of sizing: Badoo actually has more MAUs than Bumble, with 28.4M as of the end of Sep 2020. This is more than double Bumble's 12.3M MAUs. However, Bumble users are more likely to be premium users; hence, the Bumble brand actually generates ~60% of the combined company's revenue versus ~40% for Badoo. This is why Bumble, despite the smaller user base, is the #2 grossing dating app in the world, behind Tinder. The global online dating market stood at $5.3B in 2020 and is expected to grow 13% YOY to $9.9B by the end of 2025. Despite the rapid and broad adoption of online dating in recent years, only 15% of users are paid subscribers. Given the normalization of paying for multiple services, especially driven by COVID-19, we expect this number to continue trending upward. Bumble's total paid users grew 19% YOY to 2.44M, with the Bumble app indexing at a faster 30% YOY growth rate versus 11% YOY growth for Badoo.
by Gary Alexander
See full article at Seeking Alpha
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Andrey Andreev to Launch Social Network, Stereo
TELEGRAPH.CO.UK - Nov 2 - Andrey Andreev, the billionaire founder of Badoo, will soon launch a new kind of social network based around audio, called Stereo. He is the founder, CEO and primary backer of the app, which will let users engage in voice-based chats or listen in on conversations between friends or celebrities. The app is in beta mode with a team made up of former Badoo staff in the UK and Silicon Valley.
by Matthew Field
See full article at Telegraph.co.uk
This post also appears on Very Social Network
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Top Grossing Dating Apps for August 2020
SENSOR TOWER - Sep 29 - The top grossing dating app worldwide for August 2020 was Tinder with~$83.5M in user spending, which represented 7.8% growth from August 2019. ~43 percent of Tinder's revenue was from the US, followed by 6% from the UK and 6% from Germany. Bumble was #2 with ~$22.7M in gross revenue, up16.8% YOY. The next top grossing app was Pairs, followed by Badoo and MeetMe.
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HotOrNot Shaped the Social Web as We Know It
MASHABLE - Sep 28 - Created in 2000, HOTorNOT became an overnight viral hit by letting people upload pictures of themselves so total strangers could rate their attractiveness on a scale of 1 to 10. Twenty years later, HOTorNOT's DNA is embedded into almost every major platform that defines how we interact online today. "Everything about HOTorNOT was about finding ways to connect people. We really saw ourselves as trying to build the ultimate people router," said one of HOTorNOT's two co-founders, James Hong. "It was a different internet at the time," said Evan Williams, co-founder of Twitter. A good friend of Hong, he called him one of the smartest people he knows in Silicon Valley. "Most people hear HOTorNOT and think of the ranking feature, which is crude and sort of questionable in today's light," he said. "But there was always a deep caring and humaneness in how they did things." HOTorNOT made ~$4M by 2003 (with ~88% of revenue coming from auto-renewing subscriptions). The site's downfall began with the arrival of Web 2.0, when web platforms with "venture money started pouring back into startups again. HOTorNOT couldn't compete with services that were free and relying on cash from investors to pay their bills," Young said. He also cited the loss of their talented and ambitious employees who left to start their own companies, like Crunchyroll. HOTorNOT was sold to Avid Life Media for ~$20M in 2008. In 2012, it was sold to Badoo. Badoo only revived HOTorNOT to turn it into another Tinder app clone launching in 2014.
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MeetMe's Live Video Dating: Dating Online With an Audience
BBC - Sep 2 - On dating app MeetMe, users broadcast live from their phones and then interact with people who tune in. This live vlogging format includes a series of live dating game shows. Livestreamers are paired up to see if there is any chemistry between them. Viewers comment on a "stream" underneath, in real time. MeetMe is part of a suite of dating apps run by The Meet Group. Others include Skout, Tagged (for African-American audience) and Lovoo (an app developed in Germany, which MeetMe bought). Between them they have ~15M users, and on average 180K dating games are played each day, with ~1M people watching the live dates unfold. CEO Geoff Cook describes the platforms as "a public version of speed dating". Plenty of Fish is also currently offering live dating experiences. Badoo has recently experimented with the idea as well.
by Dougal Shaw
See full article at BBC
Mark Brooks: Geoff Cook, CEO of The Meet Group, made a couple of impactful statements in the BBC video interview. Geoff said, "I certainly believe daters no longer have the risk appetite for meeting many different people in person based on something as shallow as a right swipe." This risk, of course, is heightened right now because of covid. However, there's always been additional risks when daters meet in-person for the first time. Especially the risk of disappointment when people have misrepresented themselves in their dating profile and photos. The best thing about video is, video doesn't lie, so when people meet in-person, they're less likely to be disappointed, or catfished. Geoff also stated "...Live-streaming video helps...by really emphasizing personalities" which I think is why this new video dating norm will be here to stay. It's so tough for dating apps to really help people get a sense of chemistry. But with video, users can actually get their first sense of chemistry. That's huge! (Full Disclosure: The Meet Group are a client of Courtland Brooks)
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Top Grossing Dating Apps Worldwide for July 2020
SENSORTOWER - Aug 24 - The top grossing dating app worldwide for July 2020 was Tinder with ~$68.5M in user spending. 40% of Tinder's revenue was from the United States, followed by 6% from Japan and 5% from Great Britain. Bumble was #2 with ~$16.8M in gross revenue. #3 was Pairs, followed by MeetMe and Badoo.
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Bumble Hits 100 Million Users
FAST COMPANY - July 16 - Bumble is also announcing a major reorganization and rebranding that will make the company the new overseer of its sibling dating app, Badoo. Until now, the two apps had been under the umbrella of the holding company MagicLab. But that company is being renamed Bumble. Bumble is bringing on a new president, Tariq Shaukat, previously president of industry products and solutions at Google Cloud. Bumble also announced a new board of directors. Led by chairwoman Ann Mather, the former CFO of Pixar Studios, the Bumble board also includes Pamela Thomas-Graham, the author and former CEO of CNBC; Elisa Steele, the chairwoman of Cornerstone; and Matthew Bromberg, COO of Zynga. Bumble and Badoo have a base of 600M users. CEO Wolfe Herd now oversees ~750 employees in Austin, London, and Moscow.
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Badoo Launches New AI Tool That Detects Explicit Photos
DAILYMAIL.CO.UK - June 30 - Badoo has launched a new safety feature that uses AI to detect unsolicited nudes that get sent through the app. Badoo says its 'private detector' has a 98% accuracy rate when covering up intimate photos. The AI identifies potentially offending photos, automatically blurs them and gives users a warning that they could contain 'inappropriate content'. The feature was introduced to the 'feminist dating app' Bumble last year, which is owned by the same holding company as Badoo.
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Dating Apps in Balkan
BALKAN INSIGHT - June 29 - Like the rest of the world, the Balkans has seen a rise in the use of dating apps during the pandemic, with data showing the length of daily conversations is increasing. While Tinder is the most popular dating app across Europe, in Romania and Bulgaria it is Badoo that is used the most. Created in 2006 by Russian entrepreneur Andrey Andreev, Badoo now has ~450M users globally, with daily messages sent between users exceeding 350M. "Our data shows that more conversations are happening now, with increases of up to 35%," said Tristan Pineiro, Badoo's global head of communications. In other Balkan countries, dating apps are used more sparingly. One such place is North Macedonia, where the use of dating apps like Tinder are still frowned upon. For some, Instagram functions as a dating app instead.
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Badoo Swipes Right on Inaugural Global Agency Partner
PRWEEK - Apr 23 - Badoo has appointed Grayling as its first strategic global communications agency. Grayling will work with Badoo's communications and marketing teams to create campaigns that support its brand mission of 'Date honestly'.
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The Top Dating Industry News for Feb 4th
OPW - Feb 4 - Match Group's new CEO, Andrey Andreev moves on, US Inquiry Over Underage Use, Tinder & GDPR, Grindr hit with a class-action lawsuit.
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MagicLab Billionaire Andreev to Launch New Mobile App Business
FINANCIAL TIMES - Jan 31 - Blackstone's all-cash acquisition of Mr Andreev's stake in MagicLab (Badoo, Bumble) closed this week, valuing the group at around $3bn. Mr Andreev (45) said. "It's given me ability, time and money . . . I don't want to retire." He said that one idea is focused on charity and donations - something he wants to make "more accessible . . . the same as what I did with dating". MagicLab is now led by Whitney Wolfe Herd. Andreev founded Badoo (now 425m+ users) in 2006 as a hybrid of social networking and dating and pioneered the "freemium" business model. A non-compete agreement with Magic Lab means that Mr Andreev will no longer be in the dating business. Twenty former Magic Lab staff have joined him in a new venture, based in Mayfair, that will retain Mr Andreev's longstanding focus on mobile apps and social networking. He plans to hire more soon.
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MagicLab Told to Implement Workplace Reforms After Sexism Allegations
FORTUNE - Jan 30 - MagicLab, the parent company of Bumble and Badoo, should reform its workplace policies following allegations of sexual harassment, a U.K. law firm has found. MagicLab hired Doyle Clayton, a British firm specializing in employment law, to investigate allegations of a misogynistic and hostile work environment for women raised in a July Forbes story. In its statement, Doyle Clayton said there was "a lack of credible evidence in relation to most" of 24 specific allegations Forbes raised in its story, including "the more serious ones." It did, however, find there was evidence to support three allegations, which it described as "minor".
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Video Calling - the Next Big Thing in 2020
MIRROR.CO.UK - Jan 7 - Badoo was the first dating app to test video feature in 2016, which can only be activated once both parties have matched and exchanged one message. The call happens through the app so there's no need to share any personal details like a phone number. Tristan Pineiro, head of communications, claims that the chances of a real life date being a success are higher if you've had a video call before.
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