Bumble Swipes Left on a Third of Its Workforce

Bumble’s saying, “It’s not you, it’s me,” to 30% of its employees as the struggling dating app looks to cut costs. CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd, who returned to her post in March to lead a turnaround, said Bumble needs a “startup mentality” to start growing again. 

The app’s stock jumped 26% after Bumble announced the layoffs and lifted its revenue guidance for the quarter ending next week. Bumble expects to save $40 million annually from its 240-person layoff, according to its SEC filing.

Match Group is in the same sinking love boat. The parent company of rival dating apps Tinder and Hinge said in May it’ll cut 13% of its workforce, or about 325 people, as it struggles to keep people swiping. 

Losing the Spark

Bumble and Match both reported annual declines in revenue and the number of paying daters using their apps in 2025’s first quarter, even as both focus on features meant to boost in-app spending. 

Both companies offer paid tiers on their apps as well as add-ons (users can pay to have their profiles algorithmically boosted, for example). Lately, Tinder has been testing a feature that’ll allow paid users to filter matches by height. 

But with about 80% of Gen Z and Millennials saying in a Forbes survey that they feel burnout from dating apps, users may be ditching apps altogether for other options:

• Ultrapremium services like Three Day Rule and NYCity Matchmaking that offer matchmaking services for thousands of dollars are winning over app-fatigued daters. 
• Companies that promise to curate in-person meet-ups (mixers, speed-dating events) for singles are cropping up, like We Met IRL. Hinge has noticed the trend and announced a $1 million fund this spring for social clubs in select cities.

Designed to be Redownloaded: Some dating apps are “Designed to be Deleted” (Hinge’s catchphrase), but losing two users every time someone finds their soulmate is a tricky business model. The solution could be to juice more money out of fewer users and create a higher-quality experience to encourage that spending. Bumble’s CEO said that “more profiles does not guarantee better matches,” calling out low-quality and fake profiles. Apps are also creating extra revenue streams by looking outside of love — like Bumble’s friend-finding mode.