Tinder boss quits after drive to get more women on app
TINDER’S first female chief executive has left a fortnight after launching a “trust and safety” drive to bring more women on to the dating app.
Renate Nyborg, who has been in the role since last September, was the company’s fifth boss since 2012.
Her departure was announced alongside disappointing results from parent company Match Group.
Match chief executive Bernard Kim said in a letter to shareholders: “Today we’re announcing the departure of Tinder CEO Renate Nyborg, and I have made some changes to the management team and structure that I am confident will help deliver Tinder’s full potential.”
In a post to her Linkedin page, Ms Nyborg, who ran Tinder’s European operations before taking the top job, said she had “loved every moment of the last two years, working with an I.N.C.R.E.D.I.B.L.E. team on the magic of human connection”.
She added that she was “proud of elevating women’s experience... and safety & inclusion as company/growth priorities.”
In a BBC interview in late July, Ms Nyborg, 36, who met her husband on Tinder, said she was focused on improving women’s safety on the app by providing better abuse reporting tools.
A May 2022 profile of Ms Nyborg described her as a “stable, dramafree leader”.
Mr Kim will take up Ms Nyborg’s role while Tinder looks for a new permanent chief executive. He announced a review of the dating app’s plans to get into new technology, including virtual currency.
The departure came as Match reported quarterly financial results that were below analyst expectations.
The company posted revenue for its second quarter of $795m (£652m), up 12pc on the same period last year but below Wall Street estimates of just over $804m (£659m). Shares in Match, which also owns dating services Okcupid, Hinge and Plentyoffish, dropped 20pc in New York.
Mr Kim blamed the ongoing impact of the pandemic for the poor performance. “While people have generally moved past lockdowns and entered a more normal way of life, their willingness to try online dating products for the first time hasn’t yet returned to prepandemic levels,” he said.
“We are still seeing higher engagement from pre-existing users compared to before the pandemic. In order to see new user growth return to pre-pandemic levels, I will be challenging the teams to make bigger strides in product innovation to drive more first time adoption of our products.”