Bumble to lay off 30% of global workforce
Dating application Bumble will lay off 30 per cent of its global staff, the company said on Wednesday, sending its shares up 12 per cent in premarket trading.
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US Congress battle over state AI regulations heats up ahead of Senate vote
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2 hours ago
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Bumble to lay off 30% of global workforce as dating apps struggle
Bumble said on Wednesday it would lay off nearly a third of its workforce, the latest cuts in a dating app industry striving to develop features that will keep users spending amid economic uncertainty. The company also raised its second-quarter revenue forecast, as a broader effort to revamp the platform starts to take hold. The job cuts will affect 240 roles, or 30 per cent of Bumble's staff. Rival Match also announced a 13 per cent workforce reduction last month. Bumble shares rose 19 per cent on the news, but their market value has shrunk by about a fifth this year to a little over $500 million. Its peak was around $15 billion, when the company went public in 2021, LSEG data shows. The "layoffs reflect Bumble's new strategy of optimizing for user experience rather than revenue or user growth in the short term", and underscores new CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd's desire for a more agile startup structure, said M Science analyst Chandler Willison. Online dating firms have struggled in recent years to retain audiences, especially Gen Z users, leading to management overhauls at Match and Bumble as well as pressure from activist investors. Bumble's Herd returned as CEO earlier this year with the promise of boosting the company's performance by focusing on match-making quality. The company raised its second-quarter revenue forecast to a range of $244 million to $249 million, up from the prior view of $235 million to $243 million. It had also met Wall Street expectations for first-quarter revenue in May, even as it posted a 7 per cent decline. Bumble said it will incur about $13 million to $18 million in layoff-related charges, primarily in the third and fourth quarters of 2025.
Independent Singapore
2 hours ago
- Independent Singapore
Too good to be true? S'porean matches on dating app with man claiming $40K salary, Porsche, and condo, wonders if it's a scam
SINGAPORE: A local Reddit user took to the platform to crowdsource information on the most common scams on dating apps in Singapore, having recently matched with a man who seemed rather sketchy. In their post on r/askSingapore on Monday (June 23), u/Beginning_Medium3551 wrote that they were asking the question 'out of curiosity,' explaining that they're not new to dating apps and have experienced a number of 'scammy experiences, including one that was close to money laundering'. Lately, however, they matched with a man who said his monthly salary was S$40,000, bought his own condo studio, and drives a Porsche. The man also talked often about 'this carbon trading thing'. 'Not sure if this is an impending scam or it's another too-good-to-be-true,' the post author added, asking other Reddit users to weigh in on the most common scams on Bumble, Tinder, Hinge, and other dating apps. In the most upvoted comment, a man noted that a couple of dating apps, namely Bumble and Coffee Meets Bagel, now have Singpass verification. However, he added that Bumble's white tick verification process , which uses photos, may have become compromised, based on a recent experience. After he matched with a woman and exchanged pleasantries with her, she asked for his WhatsApp number. However, a few minutes after he gave it, they were unmatched. While she never messaged him, he wrote, 'Next day, I got a cold call survey on my number. LOL, wondering if they were collecting and selling databases.' Another time, when he matched with a woman with a verified white tick on Bumble, she again asked for his WhatsApp number. 'T his time I just casually deflected to Telegram instead, but 'she' insisted on asking me to download WA. LOL. I left 'her' at read,' he added. Another commenter wrote that they encountered two scams, one where the person they matched with asked them to invest in a cryptocurrency, and another where they were asked to open an online store. Fortunately, they did not fall for either of the ruses, but uninstalled the app afterwards. A commenter wrote, 'A dating app scam I heard about from Indian friends in Singapore involved the OKC app. A woman matched with a man, chatted, and dated for a few months. She met his 'family' once at a hawker centre for dinner. Later, he abruptly ghosted her. 'When she and mutual friends investigated, they discovered his identity was fake, and the 'family' were random people from Malaysia posing as his relatives. Heartbroken, she had developed genuine feelings for him. His true identity remains unknown, and this occurred over a short period in 2019.' 'I matched with a girl on Bumble (she was verified, so it's not reliable) who asked me to text on Telegram and then instantly asked for my Instagram, and then she wanted to 'have some fun' and was asking me to video call. The scam is that they'll record/screenshot you on the call and then threaten to send it to your followers on IG and ask you for money. I knew it was a scam to begin with, so I stalled the scammer for a couple of days, then blocked them. Beware, guys!' wrote another. /TISG Read also: Majority of dating app users in Singapore seek serious relationships but only 1% are satisfied
