Match Group, Inc. Aktie

Welcome to the Match Group Third Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Please note, this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Tanny Shelburne, Senior Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you, operator, and good afternoon, everyone. Today's call will be led by CEO, Spencer Rascoff; and CFO, Steve Bailey. They'll make a few brief remarks, and then we'll open it up for Q&A. Before we start, I need to remind everyone that during this call, we may discuss our outlook and future performance. These forward-looking statements may be preceded by words such as we expect, we believe, we anticipate or similar statements.

These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties, and our actual results could differ materially from the views expressed today. Some of these risks have been set forth in our earnings release and our periodic reports with the SEC. Also during this call, we will discuss certain non-GAAP financial measures. Reconciliations to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures are provided in the published materials on our IR website.

These non-GAAP measures are not intended to be substitutes for our GAAP results.

With that, I'd like to turn the call over to Spencer.

Thanks, Tanny. Good afternoon. Thanks, everyone, for joining us. We're trying something new this quarter. We've posted our full prepared remarks to the Investor Relations website at ir.mtch.com for you to read through. But our plan for today's call is for me and Steve to just spend a few minutes on the key highlights and then devote the majority of our time to answer your questions.

A year ago, the big question you asked us was whether we could turn Tinder around. We knew we had to start by improving user outcomes, meaning we had to build better experiences that resonate with Gen Z, deliver more relevant recommendations and improve trust and safety. And that if we got those foundations right, then better user trends and ultimately, revenue would follow.

Tinder has had multiple consecutive quarters of improvement in the metrics that matter. This quarter, we had our strongest quarterly year-over-year performance in both Sparks, that's 6-way conversations, and Sparks Coverage, the percentage of users getting a Spark since we started tracking those metrics. In September, global daily active users returned to year-over-year growth for the first time in 3.5 years, and we've cut year-over-year declines in monthly active users nearly in half over the last year.

The improvement is broad-based. It spans women and men, age groups and geographies. We're seeing growth again in parts of the business where trends were moving in the wrong direction not that long ago. In October, markets representing nearly 70% of Tinder's DAU and 50% of its revenue had growing or flat DAU year-over-year, with the U.S. crossing into positive territory exiting the month.

So we now have evidence that those changes are working. There's still a lot of work ahead, particularly with the youngest Gen Z users. While we've made substantial progress improving the experience for existing users, the next step is reconsideration. That means giving people a reason to come back or to try Tinder for the first time. And that's what our Better with Friends Roadmap is designed to do. We're giving people more social and lower pressure ways to meet often with friends and in real life because that's what users want. Events is the feature I'm most enthusiastic about, but they're all geared towards creating more opportunities for people to form meaningful connections in real life.

We're building with our mission always in focus to make Tinder the most fun way to spark something new with someone new. We live and breathe this daily. Tinder employees can recite this clearly, and it's what keeps us working hard. Turning to Hinge. The business continues to deliver strong user growth and double-digit revenue growth year-over-year. We see clear opportunities ahead, too. Even in core markets where we've operated the longest, Hinge has room to reach more people beyond urban metro markets and grow with older daters.

We're targeting these opportunities deliberately with more relevant marketing. The early results are strong as registration trends across all genders and age groups improved as we exited Q3, and we think Q4 U.S. new registrations will be up year-over-year. Hinge's 2027 product roadmap is the strongest we've had in the last several years.

The depth of thinking about intention daters from what they need to what helps them get out on great dates is evident and gives me so much confidence in where Hinge is headed. At E&E, we put a more focused strategy in place, prioritizing a smaller set of brands and taking learnings from Tinder and Hinge to improve user outcomes. We are still early in this work, and it will take time to see the impact. At Match Group, we're approaching 2027 with a stronger foundation built through a lot of hard work and a clear path to durable growth.

With that, I'll turn it to Steve.

Thanks, Spencer. We're happy with the Q3 results and with the momentum in the business as we close out the year and turn our focus to 2027. We expect to finish the year slightly above the midpoint of our full year revenue guidance range and meaningfully exceed the full year adjusted EBITDA margin target we set back in February. We also expect to exceed the high end of our free cash flow guidance set back in February, and we remain committed to deploying 100% of free cash flow towards buybacks, dividends and net settling of employee equity awards over time, recognizing that the pace of capital return may vary from quarter to quarter.

Year-to-date, we've generated $832 million in free cash flow and deployed $591 million towards buybacks, dividends and net settling of employee equity awards, and we've reduced our diluted shares outstanding by 4% year-over-year through October and by 10% since January of 2025. Here's how we're thinking about the financial performance and expectations at each of our business units.

At Tinder, we expect to achieve our goal of improving year-over-year MAU and payer trends throughout the year, and we expect further improvement in both of these metrics as well as an improvement in direct revenue trends in Q4. That means that's meaningful progress towards returning Tinder to sustainable growth. As we said last quarter, we continue to expect Tinder's full year 2026 direct revenue performance to be better than we expected in February, declining at low single-digit rates year-over-year as a result of both smaller-than-expected impact from user experience tests and stronger underlying trends.

As we begin to shift our focus to 2027, while there's still more work to do, we're feeling great about the momentum, and we're confident we can deliver full year 2027 Tinder direct revenue year-over-year growth, along with year-over-year payer growth by Q4 and flat MAU year-over-year by the end of Q4. At Hinge, performance continues to be strong, and we expect to be within the 2026 full year guidance range we provided in February.

Our expectation for $1 billion in full year revenue in '27 hasn't changed. E&E continues to face headwinds from Azar's app redesign necessitated by the App Store ban earlier this year and weakness at other E&E brands, but we expect the strategy changes Spencer just outlined to slow revenue declines over time with the goal of returning to growth. But this will take time, and we expect E&E year-over-year revenue declines to only modestly improve in '27 compared to 2026.

Turning to Match Group profitability. We've done a good job this year executing on the Tinder turnaround while staying financially disciplined. We intend to take that same approach in 2027 as we balance making the right investments in our business to maximize long-term shareholder value with delivering near-term adjusted EBITDA and free cash flow. which we're giving back to shareholders through buybacks and the dividend.

We'll give detailed adjusted EBITDA guidance and a full year margin target on the call in February, but here's how we're thinking about 2027 profitability sitting here today. First, we expect to remain very disciplined on headcount and OpEx, including AI costs. Second, we now expect IP fees to be a 1 point margin headwind in 2027 based on current App Store policies and expiration of our Google partnership agreement, which I'll talk more about in a minute.

And third, we're still evaluating the appropriate level and allocation of marketing spend across the portfolio using our PRISM framework. As a reminder, PRISM is our standardized marketing measurement framework that we recently introduced at Match Group. It gives us a consistent, rigorous quantitative assessment of marketing effectiveness that we use to inform investment decisions across the company.

2027 will be the first time we're incorporating it into our annual planning process. Now let me give you a little more color on IP fees. First, an update on Apple. In the U.S., we continue to pay 0% in IP fees on alternative payments on iOS, and we don't expect changes to this fee structure until there's a decision in the Epic versus Apple case. In the EU, Apple actually raised fees on in-app purchases effective October 1, and the fees we pay increased from the low 20% to 26%.

At the same time, Apple will begin allowing alternative payments, which we plan to test, but there are a number of restrictions and the economics are far less favorable than they are in the U.S. We expect the increased in-app purchase fees to cost us an additional $20 million in 2027. Now on Google.

In 2024, we entered into a partnership arrangement with Google that provided value exchange across our broad relationship that has effectively offset the additional fees we incurred when we adopted Google's billing options at that time. As we previously disclosed at the announcement of that deal and in subsequent filings, that partnership is set to expire in the first quarter of 2027, and we expect PlayStore fees to meaningfully increase beginning in Q2 of next year.

Our expectation when we entered into the agreement was that legal and regulatory pressure would reduce Google's in-app purchase fees by the time our agreement ended. However, Google's new global fee structure announced in March provides a little benefit to us. Taking into account both the Apple changes and the Google partnership agreement expiration and making no assumptions on future fee changes, we expect IP fees to result in a 1 point headwind to adjusted EBITDA margin in 2027.

While we're looking for ways to mitigate the impact, we also need to ensure we're making the right investments in the business to drive long-term shareholder value. We'll make that determination as part of our annual planning process, and we'll give you more details on 2027 revenue and margin expectations next quarter.

With that, let's open it up to Q&A.

[Operator Instructions] The first question comes from Robert Coolbrith with Evercore ISI.

Just wondering if you can maybe talk us through the path to positive DAU that you had in the quarter or had in September. Maybe if you could sort of disaggregate that across retention improvement or if there's just been just a case of stacking those retention gains that you've had in successful quarters across more cohorts? And then any early indications of improving levels of consideration or reconsideration?

Yes. Thanks, Robert, and thanks for your recent research note. Look, it was a big milestone this quarter. Turning DAU positive in September year-over-year for the first time in 3.5 years felt great. There was -- there were a lot of high 5s and just excitement around achieving that milestone. And then just a couple of weeks later, at the end of October, U.S. DAU turning positive year-over-year was also just felt great.

Those are the DAU trends. MAU improving from negative 10% to negative 5.5% over the last few quarters also speaks to the quality of the improvements in the product and also improvements in MAU -- similar improvements in MAU across our top 5 revenue markets. The reason why I'm confident about the sustainability of the turnaround is how broad-based the improvements have been.

So really any way you cut it by age, by gender, by geography, we're seeing improvements across really every which way you look at it. So for example, looking at it by gender, our female MAU is improving at an even faster rate than male MAU in every region and every age group. Female MAU declines narrowed by 8 points year-over-year and 2 points quarter-over-quarter.

So this is not a turnaround that's just focused on male users. Quite the contrary, it's actually, we're improving among female users even more quickly. Looking at it by age, again, this is not a turnaround focused on just adding easier-to-acquire older users. Our under 30 MAU trends have improved even more than our over 30 MAU trends, and we're improving across every single age group.

So that's the exciting news about the MAU turnaround. I think kind of the question behind your question, perhaps, is why is DAU growing faster than MAU. And the answer to that is we have made so many product improvements that help the existing experience basically improve our users' current experience, but we still have more work to do to drive reconsideration.

And that's where the Better with Friends social RoaDmap comes into play. We had a hit in DoubleDate. We layered on another hit with events. We're in the process of building a third hit with groups. And when you take those 3 things together and you do brand studies and ask users about their perception of Tinder, you start to see really good promising results about people changing their perception of what Tinder is. So we still have work to do. It's not -- it's definitely too soon to declare victory, but I really am proud of and impressed by where we're at today. Steve, anything to add or...?

You've covered it.

The next question is from Shweta Khajuria with Wolfe Research.

Spencer, could I please ask a follow-up to what you were just talking about in terms of the delta between DAU growth and MAU growth. So there is this idea of perception and bringing people back into the ecosystem, and that's why the delta. So how long do you think that lag -- how long do you think it takes for that lag to narrow?

In other words, for that perception to change, bring those people back and turning around MAU growth? And then the second question I have is around next year, Steve, you spoke about Tinder expectations. To the degree that you can speak to other segments, Hinge and E&E, that would be very helpful or just at a platform level, the puts and takes for both revenue and EBITDA. Understood. You're not guiding just yet in terms of EBITDA, where would the levers be coming from to offset the headwind? And how should we be thinking about overall top line growth?

Let me take -- we'll take this in a couple of pieces. Let me talk a little bit more about the Tinder sort of metrics improvements and Spencer jump in as you wish. The way to think about DAU outpacing MAU, here's kind of where things stand. Of course, we're very excited that DAU crossed over to positive growth. we're just as excited about MAU improving. So we got about 1 point improvement on MAU from Q2 to Q3 with MAU down 6%, which is better than the 7% it was down the quarter before.

We also saw an improvement in payers, which we're very excited about. So the payers were down negative 5% in Q2. They were down negative 4% in Q3. So progress there as well. Revenue, we like to look at FX neutral, was down 2%. That was the same as Q2. And I'll just stress that these metrics aren't going to move completely in lockstep every quarter. But if you take a step back and look at the revenue FX-neutral trends, you've got a diagram in the prepared release, you can see progress over the last few quarters from down 5% in Q4 last year to down 2% now.

And then what I think is also encouraging is we expect all those metrics to improve in Q4. So we expect payers to get better in Q4. We expect MAU to get better in Q4, and we expect that FX-neutral direct revenue to get better as well. So we are starting to see it flow through more than just DAU, but to these other core metrics as well.

Did you want to add anything to that?

No, that's good.

And then when we -- let's talk about 2027 a bit. We're not going to give, as you sort of alluded to, full year revenue guidance or EBITDA guidance until February, which is sort of our normal course. I tried to give some color on how we were thinking about things. The only thing I would add is, yes, like if we break it down, you look at Tinder, we're feeling really good, right? We've got a -- we're making progress. I just told you we expect further progress in Q4, and we're really setting ourselves up well to meet the goals I laid out in terms of payers, revenue and MAU improvement next year.

Could it be sooner? Maybe. It's hard to pinpoint exactly, but I think we're on a really good trajectory at Tinder. When you look at Hinge, that achieving the $1 billion in revenue, which we still feel very good about, I think about it this way. Revenue growth was about 19% in Q3. We expect it to be about the same, maybe a little bit better in Q4. So think of 19%, 19.5%.

And then we've got to keep the growth rate at about that same level next year. And if we do that, we'll hit the $1 billion. So we think we've got the right road map and strategy in place to do it. That's going to come from improving core trends and expansion. We talked about expanding into Japan in the prepared remarks, too. And so I'm feeling good about the trajectory there, too. And then E&E, what we said was modest improvement from the declines we're seeing this year. That's really in recognition of -- Spencer talked about putting the right strategy in place, but it's going to take some time to get that business back to growth.

And we don't -- so we think only modest improvement, but still negative at E&E next year. In terms of profitability, the way I would think about it is we've got the 1 point IP fee headwind. We said we'd be really controlled in terms of headcount and AI costs. The really big consideration is really around marketing spend. What is the right level of marketing spend, particularly at Tinder and Hinge in 2027 to maximize long-term returns and shareholder value. And so we need to balance that against hitting short-term margin targets. And that's what we'll do. We'll think very hard about. We'll do it in a very quantitative way through the PRISM framework, and we'll give you a lot more details on all that in February.

The next question is from Jason Helfstein with Oppenheimer.

Just some more color on the givebacks. I think it sounds like the full year givebacks for Tinder are going to come in below expectations. Why have they not been necessary this year relative to your plan? And any more color there?

Yes. Jason, thanks for the question. We've been fortunate to discover that when we launch improvements to the user experience, the accompanying MAU retention mitigates revenue loss. For example, we changed our recommendation algorithms to maximize user outcomes, and we nervously wondered if it would hurt revenue. And what we found was that the benefits of improving user retention outweighed the detriment of prioritizing user outcomes over revenue. That might not always be the case, but that's what we mostly saw in 2026.

Yes. Let me just add a finer point to that, too. That's all exactly right. And what it means financially is that we thought at the beginning of the year, we need -- we would need $60 million in user givebacks in '26. What we're now saying is that we only ended up using $25 million. If you do the math, that's about 2 points of revenue at Tinder, and that's what's driving about 2 points of that improvement versus expectations we had set back in February.

There's about another point of improvement in there in terms of what we think we'll actually finish the year at for Tinder full year revenue relative to what we said in February. That other point is improving trends. So I want to be really clear about that. Really, what we're seeing at Tinder is 2 things: the need for less user givebacks and also improving trends. So that sets us up really well for continued improvement in '27.

The next question is from Bryan Smilek with JPMorgan.

Spencer, as you enter Tinder's resurgence phase, can you just help us think about the allocation of marketing spend by channel to reignite the consideration set? I think in the prepared remarks, you had mentioned Gen Z marketing around creator and social content and event partners. So just curious, anything that you can share on the LTV curves of those channels.

Sure. So thanks, Bryan. We made a lot of changes to how we allocate and how we invest our marketing in 2026. Firstly, we shifted a lot of our spend towards down funnel user acquisition instead of up-funnel brand building. Secondly, we pointed much more of our marketing spend towards actual features rather than sort of high-level positioning about Tinder or the category.

And we saw both of those changes drive really improved results in '26. The second one, I think, is particularly important and reminds us how product and marketing work hand in hand. So for example, when we market on Instagram that Tinder has events in your city, and we look at the cost per registration or cost per reactivation for those types of marketing creatives and compare it with a year or 2 ago when we were buying the same channel, but promoting use Tinder because Tinder is a dating app, it's really night and day in terms of the lift that we get and in most cases, the efficacy of how far the dollar goes when we're focusing on product innovation rather than not.

As Steve alluded to, we also now have a framework where for really the first time ever going into an annual planning process, we have a cross-brand rubric and analytic framework to decide what the right marketing spend and right marketing allocation should be between business units and brands within business units. And so we're deep in the midst of that right now as we finalize our 2027 plans.

So I don't have any more detail to report, but we're just in a much smarter place here as we speak to you in fall of 2026 than we were in fall 2025, coming off the heels of a really effective '26 for marketing and also the development of these new frameworks to assess marketing efficacy.

The next question is from Nathan Feather with Morgan Stanley.

I guess as you think about DAU turning positive, the focus on MAUs, what are kind of the 1 to 2 key gating factors to returning to flat MAU growth from here? How do you think about the main levers you can pull to really drive that reconsideration of the brand as you continue to push the products out?

Yes. Thanks, Nathan. The biggest lever is convincing people who are not already on Tinder or who maybe used Tinder 2, 4, 5, 10 years ago to give it another shot. And this Better -- with Friends road map is the best idea that we have to execute on that.

So as I said, DoubleDate is a winner. We've delivered 30 million matches on DoubleDate so far, which just speaks to the scale and product market fit that DoubleDate has. We just launched Groups in the U.S. and a couple of weeks earlier in a couple of other countries, just to give you some insight into groups. Women are twice as likely to like a group profile as they are to like a single male profile.

That's -- again, that speaks to the product market fit that we think Groups will have within our product. 15% of our users in Norway, age 18 to 22 are already in a group. The reason I mentioned Norway is that was the first country that we launched in. So it's been up for a couple of extra weeks. So we think Groups has the potential to start -- to be another hit and to change the way people perceive Tinder. And then finally, events, which we've been very vocal about the potential that we think events has, events has absolutely started to change perception of Tinder.

When we look at our measures of brand health, questions that we ask users like does Tinder have people that you want to meet on it? Is Tinder an app that with your kind of people? Is Tinder just for hookups or for things more than that? All those measures of brand health have improved over the summer and into the fall as we've rolled out events into more and more markets. So I'm happy to talk more about events if there are other questions about it. But those are the types of initiatives that we're focused on in order to drive reconsideration, which is what will take us these last couple of points from negative 5.5% MAU to eventual MAU growth.

The next question is from James Heaney with Jefferies.

You mentioned in the letter an increased focus on Tinder revenue initiatives in 2027. Curious what kinds of options you'd be looking to explore and how you think you can improve monetization without disrupting the user engagement momentum that you have?

Yes. Thanks. Good question. When I took over Tinder, I started by focusing on the user experience. We had this theory, which has proven to be true that if you improve the user experience, then the audience metrics will improve and then other good things will flow from that. We moved very quickly. We changed a lot of the user experience. And today, Tinder works better than it did before. We're now turning our attention towards revenue, and we're really looking at everything.

We understand what we have currently and what we can learn from other brands, and we're approaching it from pretty much a blank slate in terms of the starting point. It's a bit early to say where that will go, but I can assure you we're bringing the same level of focus, energy, vigor, urgency, innovation to monetization that in '27 that we brought to the user experience in '26. And it's -- we have a lot of ideas that we're not ready to talk about yet, but I'm optimistic that '27 will be a year of a lot of monetization and innovation.

The next question is from Youssef Scully with Truist Securities.

Maybe a quick question for Steve. Can you just quantify the marketing spend that was pushed into Q4 for Q3, the reasons for it? And would you have been able to grow a little faster had you actually met that marketing spend in intra-quarter?

Yes. In terms of quantity, we pushed about $8 million or so of marketing spend from Q3 to Q4. I think we came in about $12 million better than we expected, but $8 million of that was marketing spend. It's a couple of reasons. One is just timing of campaigns -- and two is we're going to stay financially disciplined, right? So in any given quarter, if we're not seeing the returns that we expect the marketing spend, we're not going to go spend those dollars just to fill the budget, right?

And so I like to see us underspend for those reasons because it means we can deploy them in a different quarter at higher ROI. So it's really a combination of those 2 things. How much revenue we would have generated had we not done that's a little bit of a hypothetical that I'm not going to do at the moment. But I mean, what I would say is, and I'll repeat it again, which I think is an important fact, we're going out and saying we expect MAU payers and revenue direct revenue. So while direct revenue didn't improve in Q3, we do expect it to improve in Q4 from a year-over-year growth perspective relative to Q3. So with the marketing spend in Q4 and everything else we have going, we expect to see improvement across all those metrics next quarter.

The next question is from Benjamin Black with Deutsche Bank.

So the recommendation system looks to be at least a big part of the foundation of Tinder's turnaround. So how much better can matching outcomes become as the system moves towards more real-time personalization? And what advantages does the Tinder scale really have and the data that you guys have, how much of an advantage is that for you guys? And then secondly, I'd be interested in hearing the learnings from misconnections. I think in the letter, you mentioned the 4x improvement in likes from women. And it seems a bit of a game changer to me. So what are some of the hurdles to sort of broadening out in misconnections?

Yes. Thanks, Benjamin. Q unification and our REX improvements have been really critical to our improving business results in 2026. We're -- we just rolled out C unification to other user types. I think we just rolled it out to women seeking men and women seeking anyone or other different LGBTQ audiences, but we still have more to go.

Real-time REX, we've said we intend to launch by the end of the year. We're very confident in the potential that, that will bring, but it's also unproven. So I think that event that we did, the CEO Connection event where I spoke with Vinay and Mark, our CTO and Head of Product at Tinder, about REX. I think Vinay said something like he thinks it's the second or third inning or maybe you said the third or fourth inning maybe in terms of Rs to try to size the amount of potential improvements that still lay ahead. I think that's probably about right.

So already huge improvements, but more to come. On mix connections, this is a feature that we're testing in Canada right now. If you have location services turned on, then once a week, we give you specific drops that say, here's somebody that you cross paths with in the week in a given neighborhood or in a given coffee shop, et cetera. And users love it.

The serendipity and kind of excitement is really meaningful, especially for Gen Z users, the nostalgia, the sense of a meat cute, which is what our users are really looking for. And the digital bridge between an app and an IRL experience is really powerful. We are now working to improve it. we'll be assessing when and whether to roll it out more broadly. There's still a lot of work to do to improve the product. But so far, so good in what we've launched so far.

The next question comes from Alec Brondolo with Wells Fargo.

Maybe 2 for me. First, how do you choose the new focus brands for E&E? And does refocusing on a smaller number of brands create an incremental headwind to that business beyond Azarre in '27? And then secondly, on Hinge, the new subscriptions you're launching in the fourth quarter, giving users more choice and control, is there any incremental detail you could provide around the value proposition? What is the opportunity here on paid conversion?

Yes, I'll take the E&E question and then, Steve, you can answer the Hinge question. So in deciding which brands to prioritize with E&E, we looked at the white space that the different brands are going after and also the size and in order to prioritize. So for example, Upward and BLK and Her all are going after white space in their respective user segments, where we think there's a real right to win, a reason to exist, a category white space that is not fully won by a Hinge or a Match or Tinder or any stand-alone competitor.

And then brands like Match, which are kind of more general population, we think there's a reason for them to exist in the 50-plus age segment and just the brand awareness and brand power of the term match and just the size and scale of that really represents something that is worthy of prioritization. The other non focused brands like an OkCupid, like a Plenty of Fish, like Salons, these are brands that are still being worked on, but only synergistically across the portfolio.

So for example, we have a dedicated team that is improving profile creation and a dedicated team that is improving photo selection and a team that's building chat and a team that's building recommendations algorithm. When each of those teams launch a feature -- a set of features, it goes out across the whole portfolio. So something like OkCupid is not -- it's not like left to its own devices. It's still being improved upon by these shared teams that are building E&E-Y technologies. So that's how we prioritize the different brands. And Steve, do you want to take the Hinge question?

Yes. I think -- look, we're pretty excited about the lower-priced subscription tier in test right now. It's designed for women, in particular, but also for price-sensitive users. Remember that Hinge is one of the highest-priced products we have. The revenue per payer, for example, at Hinge is almost twice that of Tinder around $30. It's also has one of the lower payer penetrations. Its payer penetration is only slightly more than half that of Tinder.

So we think it makes sense to offer a lower-priced offering in what is otherwise a higher-priced product to get more payer conversion from more price-sensitive users. In terms of what it includes, think of it -- I'm not going to get into every specific feature, but it -- the broad brush strokes are additional filters and custom location boundaries, features that women find valuable. And what we've seen in test is it has improved conversion for both men and women, but women's conversion has been up more than men. And the other interesting thing here is that, remember, Hinge's gender balance between men and women is far better than most other apps.

So -- and women pay at far lower rates. That's true for Hinge, and that's true for everybody. And so if we can get this feature right and a feature set that really resonates with women, that will be really potentially powerful from a monetization perspective for Hinge in particular, with a large women user base and really good gender balance. So we're going to keep testing and tweaking, but the early reads are good. And then we expect to roll it out more in Q4. So stay tuned.

The next question is from Jamesmichael with Citi.

Two here, please. First, Tinder payer penetration increased sequentially and year-over-year and MAUs are still declining faster than payers. So how much additional payer conversion runway remains as we work to inflect back to MAU growth?

And how do you think about the balance of conversion gains versus audience growth into 2027? And then as a quick follow-up, Hinge's opportunity in core markets, I think you noted an uptick in U.S. marketing contributing to the improving registration trends. Could you talk a little bit about the opportunity to drive MAU growth and reconsideration in mature Hinge geographies?

Yes. On the Tinder payer penetration, you're right, Payer penetration was up again. That's something we've consistently seen is that the improvement in MAU is flowing through to improvement in payers, which is great. In terms of how much more room to go, while payer penetration at Tinder is higher than Hinge, which I just mentioned, it's still relatively low.

It's in the low 20%. So we're always looking to optimize not only for the payer experience, but the free experience, too. But in terms of the ability to drive further incremental payer conversion, I think there's lots of room. I think as we look ahead, what we're doing is we're not optimizing around short-term revenue growth. We're really taking a look -- Spencer got into this earlier, but finding ways to add value to the experience both for free and paid users. And if we can add value, then I see no reason why we can't increase monetization and payer conversion at Tinder going forward.

And I'll take the Hinge MAU and TAM question. So in the U.S., Hinge is most highly penetrated on the coast and in the 20 to 30 age group. If you look at smaller cities outside of the coast and age 30 to 40, there's ample room for Hinge to grow. We think at least another 1 million monthly active users in the U.S. as we focus more on those other user segments and geographies. We've already started implementing that playbook with different marketing tactics and messages in order to focus on those secondary cities and slightly older age users. And we think that, that playbook also is extendable to other core markets outside the U.S., like the U.K., Australia and Canada.

The next question is from Eric Sheridan with Goldman Sachs.

I mean first one would be following up on, I think Benjamin asked earlier about the broader AI strategy. The flip side of that coin would be, how are you thinking about managing token costs or input costs within your broader cost structure as you continue to move from testing to scaling some of your AI initiatives? That would be one. And in the shareholder letter, you also talked about finding ways to drive tech platform efficiencies through elements of shared technology platforms or cross-pollinating.

So the second part would be, how should we be thinking about some of the efficiency dynamics that can be gained through some of those initiatives as we move out of '26 and into '27?

Yes. Let me take the AI token costs. I think we've done a really good job here. The costs are definitely going up. We've -- but let me give you some more details around how we're managing it. We started probably with a budget this year of about $5 million for AI cost, but we had pretty low usage. We basically had engineers using AI and nobody else, and it was spotty at that. We sort of early in the year, May time frame, we really wanted to push AI adoption and become a truly AI native company. We thought it was important for the overall long-term success of the business.

And so we gave all our employees tools like Claud, tools like OpenAI, enterprise search tools like Clean and gave them the training, gave them the tokens to go use these tools and our cost probably went from $5 million to about $10 million, a little more than $10 million. the way we do it was unplanned doubling of costs, but we think worthwhile, and we're getting really good efficiency gains out of it. The way we offset those costs was by controlling headcount. So not reducing the employee base, but hiring less, slowing headcount growth and saying, let's do more with less through the use of AI, and that's been really effective.

Right now, I would say we're maturing as a company in terms of AI token usage, and we're really in that sort of efficiency phase. We've got an AI gateway that controls what models we're defaulting to and what models engineers can use. We're doing all sorts of things like making the most expensive models only available by request. We have speed bumps or soft caps engineers get about $1,000 a month and non-engineers get about $250. Once you hit that cap, that doesn't mean you can stop -- you have to stop your work. It means you have to go to your manager and say, look at the work I'm producing.

And if it makes sense, you can keep going. And so we've given all the managers really great visualization into the spend within their departments, basically real-time token spending. And I think we've done an incredible job as a company overall in this regard. We do expect costs to go up a little again next year, but the hope is through these efficiency gains, we're now starting to look at open weight models, we'll be able to keep them under control. And then in terms of in the product and in the features themselves, and feel free to jump in, Spencer, there are more features that are using AI tokens and AI costs. And do you want to cover how we're thinking about that?

Yes. Well, let me answer it from a shared tech platform standpoint and efficiencies across the company. So I'll give you 4 quick examples. We've integrated our trust and safety tooling so that features like Facecheck are now built centrally across all brands. Another example of a shared service is Tinder's events product.

So the module tap 2 on Tinder, where you can see who's going to an event and you can see the different types of events and this whole product road map around events now powers not just Tinder, but also BLK and likely in the future, other Match Group brands. So those are 2 examples of things that we're building centrally across multiple brands. Then 2 other potential examples that we're working towards is Tinder has built an AI prototyping tool where any employee at Tinder can enter a prompt to visualize a new feature to Tinder, and it will instantly build a prototype of it and also build code for that prototype new feature. And that's something that has really changed the software development life cycle at Tinder, made us more design forward, just brought a higher pace of innovation, and that's something that we're looking to extend to some of our other brands, including E&E.

And then a fourth example is Tinder has a homegrown customer relationship management platform that manages all of Tinder's push notifications, text messages and e-mails. And it's really best-in-class better than what companies pay millions or tens of millions of dollars a year to SaaS providers for that type of technology, and we're considering extending that to some of our other brands. So those are just a couple of examples, Eric, of how we're building centralized technology and extending it across the whole company.

The next question is from John Blackledge with TD Cowen.

For Hinge's newer markets outside of the U.S., is user growth and payer conversion following similar growth curves to Hinge's more mature markets? And then just another one on Hinge. On the RPP, should we expect that trend that we saw in 3Q to continue as you roll out the new lower-priced subtier?

Yes. Let me start and feel free to jump in, Spencer. On the MAU growth, yes, it's an important point to make. Global MAU growth came in at around 12%. What we saw sort of under the covers is actually core MAU improved a bit, which is great to see. Spencer talked a little bit about that. And growth in Europe slowed a little bit, still phenomenally high growth. But to your point, there's a growth curve as these countries scale, we expect their growth to slow over time. And so that's really what you saw in the headline number was core getting a little bit better, Europe slowing down a bit and us netting out to about 12% growth. That's right around what we expected. puts us right in track not only for MAU, but also for revenue for the full year 2026. So we feel good about the way those curves are playing out. It's just what we expected. We're entering LatAm. That's growing faster but still small. And we've relaunched in India, where we have a pretty big MAU base today.

And then what we're doing is we're laying the foundation for expansion into Japan in '27. I wouldn't expect a lot of revenue from Japan in '27 or users, but it's an important -- first of all, it's one of our top -- it's probably the top 5 largest markets from a TAM perspective, from a revenue perspective in the category. So an important one for Hinge to enter. And I think we'll be -- we think there's a nice white space for it between Pairs, which is a little bit more marriage focused and Tinder, which is more casual. All our research says it should do very well there, and I think it will be a growth driver for 2028 and beyond. So that's -- those are some of the Hinge growth curves. What was the second part of the question?

I don't -- what was your second question, sorry?

The RPP was down a little bit in 3Q. Yes, going forward.

Yes, that's -- yes, thanks for pointing that out. So yes, what you're seeing is we saw an acceleration in payers, and we saw RPP down a little bit year-over-year in Q3. That is price optimizations, a new model we rolled out at Hinge, that was playing the biggest effect. To a lesser effect is the new lower-priced tier that can have a bigger effect down the road.

And then you normally sort of underneath all that, we naturally get some RPP pressure because the growth in these expansion markets is still so much higher than the core markets and the RPP on average is lower there than in a market like the U.S. On the price optimization models, let me just give you a little bit more detail there. What that is, is a propensity to subscribe model. Most brands have it. It's something Tinder has been doing for years. I'd say most brands in the category do this. Hinge is just maturing in its monetization capabilities and so is now rolling this out where what it's doing is it's looking for those that haven't subscribed after a certain number of days and are unlikely to subscribe ever.

Again, Hinge is a high-priced product. We talked about that and giving a targeted lower price to those users and driving payer conversion. That's driving up -- that's accelerating payer growth and being offset by some RPP degradation. I'd expect that to actually increase a bit in Q4 just because this pricing model was rolled out sort of mid-Q3 and will be a full quarter in Q4. But it's generating net positive revenue -- it's another lever for offering a paid experience to more price-sensitive users. And third, and I think this is overlooked sometimes, payers help the ecosystem, too.

So there's indirect benefits of higher paid conversion. Payers retain longer, they respond to likes better. They are more likely to buy ALC features. So there's a lot of reasons why having a little bit higher payer penetration at Hinge still won't be even close to the levels of Tinder makes a lot of sense, but that's what's causing a little noise in those metrics. And I'd expect that to continue in Q4.

The last question will be from Andrew Marok with Raymond James.

And maybe one more on that Hinge and the international business. So you called out in the shareholder letter, and I think you answered a bit of this in the last question about the momentum in Europe and the newly launched LatAm markets. So I guess what kind of common threads are you seeing between these disparate geos? And on Japan, specifically, what is kind of giving you the confidence that there is a space in the market, which has kind of been a tricky market for everyone in the past?

Yes. Thanks, Andrew. What we're seeing as the common thread in the different markets is that Hinge's slow and steady approach of customizing the product, customizing the marketing for the individual geography is working. So for example, in India, having different -- slightly different set of features like screenshot banning, waitlist for men and a couple of other unique trust and safety features like ID verification and others are particularly useful.

So we're taking a deliberate approach to Japan, learning from, gosh, probably 10 years of pairs of success in the matrimony space. We've done a huge amount of original research in Japan to identify that there is white space between the Matrimony apps and the more casual apps like Tinder. So we think there's an opportunity for Hinge to succeed without cannibalizing pairs in Tinder. And we're going to customize the Hinge product and marketing in order to achieve product market fit there just as we have in Brazil and Mexico and India over the last year or so. I think, operator, are there any other questions? Or is that the last question?

That was the last question, sir.

Okay. All right. So I'll just wrap up here. As a reminder for anyone who joined late, we posted the full prepared remarks to the Investor Relations website for you to read through, so you can find the full script there. Hopefully, you like this new more efficient approach. I just want to close by taking stock of my first 7 quarters as CEO here. When I joined 21 months ago, Tinder users and revenue were declining and there was skepticism that Tinder could be saved at all.

Today, we put points on the board and mostly put that question to rest. Several quarters of improving user trends at Tinder top to bottom from Sparks to Spark coverage to DAU to MAU an improvement in payers and revenue when adjusting for FX. So we've demonstrated that this turnaround is real and sustainable. We also took Hinge from $150-ish million in quarterly revenue back in Q1 2025 when I started to over $220 million in quarterly revenue in Q2 of '26.

We purchased her. We purchased about half of SNFs. We significantly improved employee engagement. We drove massive productivity improvements from AI. So we got a lot done in a pretty short period of time. Meanwhile, we bought back $1.2 billion of stock and paid $369 million of dividends and reduced diluted share count by 10% year-over-year as of yesterday. I'm very proud of what we've accomplished in these last 21 months, and I'm even more optimistic about where we'll be 21 months from now.

We'll talk to you in early February at Q4 earnings, and I hope to see many of you at our second Tinder Sparks event on February 23 in New York. Until then, thanks, everybody. Bye-bye.

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.

Excellent. Let's get started. I'm Jamesmichael Sherman-Lewis. I'm on the Internet team here at Citi. Joining us is Stephen Bailey, Chief Financial Officer of Match Group. Stephen, thank you so much for being here.

Before we get started, I'll read the safe harbor. During this presentation, Match may discuss their outlook and future performance. These forward-looking statements may be preceded by words such as we expect, we believe, we anticipate or similar events. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties, and actual results could differ materially from the views expressed today. Some of these risks have been set forth in periodic reports filed with the SEC.

Also today, we may discuss certain non-GAAP financial measures. Reconciliations to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures are provided in the published materials on their IR website. These non-GAAP measures are not intended to be a substitute GAAP results.

With that out of the way, Steve, let's start with Tinder. Sales declined 4% in 2Q, improved to roughly down 2% -- 2.5% in July and approaching positive growth in early August. As we sit here today, as Tinder crossed into that positive territory inflection yet? And how would you rank order the largest drivers of improvement as we're moving through the quarter?

In August, we're getting close, closer by the minute. In August, it was down minus 1%. So better than July, better than Q2, so we're headed in the right direction. And then September looked a little bit better so far, too. So we're getting there and we should get there soon. Really, the biggest factors are the algos, which we've talked a lot about. It's a culmination, we've done a lot. So it's all the product changes. But if you had to oil it down to the one, it would be the algos. In particular, we released a new unification algorithm, the version 2 of that algorithm mid-July. That's had a pronounced effect on sparks and sparks coverage. All of which have been better in August and that's leading to the improvement in DAU.

On the algo and the connection with improving the retention and the frequent usage, how do you think about leading indicators of Sparks versus DAUs versus MAUs and the connection underlying those? And as we scale Tinder back towards growth in 2027, do you think there's a possibility that some of these metrics could maybe converge together.

I do think the DAU and MAU metrics will ultimately converge. What you're seeing now is -- there's really 2 drivers of MAU. There's users, new users and then there's [indiscernible], right? And the product of those 2 things is effectively MAU. And so why you're seeing DAU outpace MAU today as -- we made more progress on the product side, on the engagement side. Users are staying longer and they're using the app more frequently throughout the month because they're getting more value out of the experience. That's what's improving DAU at a little faster clip than MAU.

The big push over the next couple of quarters is around reconsideration and perception change and getting that other part of the formula, the user growth part of the formula headed in the right direction. So that's how we get MAU from the minus 7% we were at in Q2 up to flat. And I think over time, throughout '27, those 2 metrics will emerge.

Makes sense. I mean marketing should obviously help. But the biggest driver kind of as we see it is the algo improvement. So just circling back to that for just a minute. The architecture changes, the more unified recommendation stack as we put it. what does the new architecture enable Tinder to do that it couldn't previously? And how do you think about potential next-gen recommendation systems from here?

There's really 2 parts of it. One is technical, which is just the approach the algorithms. If Spencer talked about it this way. I think it's a good way to lay it out is before the old architecture was to stack the cards. There's about 15 stacks of cards, independent stacks of cards, cards being profiles and each stack was optimized towards one objective. So it might be the revenue stack optimized to generate revenue or generating matches or generating a boost for the new user experience and then we basically decide which of the 15 stocks we would show you first. And when you get through that 1 stack, and then we decide what next stack -- how do you go through. Now it's 1 unified stacks, 1 stack of cards, not 15, and that technically has just worked better and been more efficient and effective.

The second part is really not technical. It's more strategy driven, right? And that is all around optimizing this new unified ago towards Sparks and towards meaningful connections. Whereas before, it was, again, a number of different constraints, revenue or matches or what have you. And that's been a huge unlock. I think that's probably been the most profitable thing. And one of the things I'm sure you'll -- we'll get a question on it is around the sort of user giveback budgets. One of the reasons we created that budget, we were a little concerned that we end up spending $60 million in revenue -- on the ended up being less is because we removed the revenue stack altogether, we thought that would have a pretty detrimental impact on the business.

It turned out not so much just because this unified stack as a whole, just outperformed those individual stacks even when we deprioritize the revenue.

Makes a lot of sense. This unified stack that was still fully on Tinder. Are we close to a point where we're leveraging, call it, more cross-portfolio signals across your brands to really like maybe unify and upgrade that recommendation stack more broadly?

Yes. We do have a team. We have a central AI team that's working on more longer-term horizon efforts that are centered around some of the things you just mentioned, really leveraging the size and the scale of our business and more unified sort of data stack way that we can apply AI and machine learning too, it's a little bit more longer term. I think the next big unlock for Tinder specifically, when it comes to algorithm is more real-time algorithm up. So later this year, probably towards the end of the year, later in Q4. We're going to roll out real-time matching or real-time algo updates. Today, it takes about 4 hours for the algorithm to change your to adjust your changing behavior and your behavior on the app, that's far behind, I would say, the sort of benchmark today for like a social media app. We've all used TikTok, Instagram, where it feels like it's being updated in real time. Right, within a session, we're going to get from about 4 hours to a few minutes by the end of the year. I think that will be the next big unlock for to on the algo side.

That's exciting. As we think about kind of these next unlocks and the cadence of improvements, the initial algo changes, I think, were targeted towards women, but we saw not just the women's [indiscernible] increased by 6%, but also men's [indiscernible] increased by 5%. So could you talk a little bit about the next iteration of extending these recommendation capabilities towards straight man and LGBTQ users, how should we think about this network effect -- it's really compounding? .

Yes. I think it's hard to extrapolate it out with precision because like you said, improving the experience for women also improve the experience for men. So there's -- it's a double-sided network ecosystem. A little bit hard to predict the actual impacts. What I can say is we expect very much so that it will be a positive, right? It was a big win for women. It should be a bit a meaningful win for men. It should be a meaningful win for LGBTQ+. How many points of Spark's improvement will that create? It's a little tough to say. But it's in test now, and we plan to roll out globally by Q4. So we'll see pretty soon.

Good to hear. Can we move on to maybe tender monetization? Tender payers down 5% Q2, but payer penetration was up globally and I think your top markets, what underpins your confidence in improving Tinder-pay trends in the back half and how much of this strength could really be driven by these improving audience trends that we talked about versus payer conversion?

What gives me confidence is it can really come from 2 places. One is improving user trends, improving MAU trends; and 2 is monetization optimizations that we've been doing this year. We've actually -- we don't talk about it as much, but we've had a lot of success optimizing on the monetization side. And so we've got a lot of sort of irons in the fire. Both on the monetization road map and on the product road map, events, misconnections. We're going to start testing groups these algo changes. So I think it's a collection of all those things that give me confidence that we can keep moving the payer metric in the right direction. I don't think it's going to be a step function change next quarter or the quarter after. Remember, we're saying we want to get back to payer grow the end of next year by Q4 of next year, but I do think it will improve to some degree.

On improving these payer trends and kind of balancing the free experience with the paid experience, -- how do you think about -- let me frame it this way. How are your products and Algo teams now working maybe more closely with your revenue optimization teams to balance the growth of the users versus the payers?

Yes. I think one interesting thing that happened is the fact that we created this user giveback budget, the $60 million of impact budget, it was a big number. Part of that was by design and part of it -- it wasn't just external, but it was also internal because we needed to shift the culture away from one that was just very myopically focused on revenue. And so we get in these situations where the product teams were sort of culturally sensitized to revenue. And if there was any drop in revenue at all, any of these tests, they would help to test off.

So -- we decided to put this budget out there to give them the freedom to sort of innovate. It's okay if there's a small heads of revenue, we can manage it if it's long-term beneficial to the users. It's okay to have a test budget and to sort of stir things up a little bit in a smaller geography or in a maybe test because that's how you sort of unlock real innovation. And so that's worked. The culture has shifted I think the sort of the revenue shackles are off a bit. And obviously, what we found is it hasn't had as big an impact to revenue as we expected, but it's created a more innovative sort of work environment.

And that itself has created a place where instead of the monetization team and the product innovation teams being in opposition of one another often kind of arguing whether this feature should get rolled out or not, it's helping users, but it's hurting revenue, where should we land. Everybody is aligned now on we've got the room to innovate and iterate. And the other thing that was beneficial is we're all working towards one key KPI, which is Sparks, which is user outcomes, and that's sort of always the tiebreaker, if you will. So the culture around setting this budget and the setting of a key metric around Sparks, it's really galvanized the teams, okay, this is what we're shooting for, has made it much easier for the teams to work together. So I think they're working better than they have together in a long time.

Good to hear. On improving this experience for existing users, I guess, we've talked about the next phase being maybe driving reconsideration amongst lapsed users and to your point, the marketing efforts that are potentially to come. If we could talk a little bit about those marketing dollars that are coming -- lower funnel channels, I think are now 50% of your marketing spend. How do you think about whether it's intensity or maybe the ROI on those marketing dollars going forward? And are there any maybe historical markers in Tinder's history as to maybe the density -- the magnitude of those dollars.

Yes. Well, a few things. One, a bit of what we saw in 2026 is a catch-up for maybe a little bit of underinvestment in years past. Part of that was sort of managing margins Part of it was that the product just wasn't evolving very much. There wasn't a whole lot to talk about. And a lot of the marketing went towards a brand narrative, a broader brush strokes, brand narrative, sport something new or meet somebody new and it didn't really perform well. So we didn't -- we weren't spending at the same clip.

Now what you've seen is the products evolve, there's a lot of new features to talk about. We've shifted to more down funnel marketing like you mentioned, and it's the sort of ROI has improved, which is unlock more spend for us. The metrics we're really looking at are driving registrations and reactivations. Marketing is doing a better job driving registrations reactivations that it has in the past and those new users are retaining at healthy rates, similar rates to the organic users we see. So we know that this is sustainable financially. And then we want to get the message out because we've got a lot of new features and a key part of the strategy from here is changing reconsideration and perception. So particularly around events and a big push into social. We think marketing plays a key role in amplifying that message, and it's what's needed to get us from down 7% or so in MAU to flat. That's sort of the next leg in the funnel.

How do you think about -- some events is really interesting to me, kind of bridging that digital to in-person dating experience. A lot of great early KPIs. I think you've talked about the 70% of eligible 18- to 24-year-olds engaging with the events tab already. As we think about events expanding towards the 75 cities by the end of the year, how do you think about kind of the broader opportunity set here, how much you might spend but also maybe economics for events?

Yes. Look, we've done this in a pretty smart way. I think, a pretty scalable way. We've partnered with existing [indiscernible] providers. We're not curating these events on our own. We're not putting a lot of money into creating the events. The events are there -- we're partnering with events aggregators or events companies that already have the events and are looking to fill seats and we've got the users to do that. So most of the dollars, we've got a couple of development teams working on it. So there's a sort of a trade-off there that could be working on other things, but we think events is the right place to have them. We've got a small events sourcing team, and it's less than 10 people, so it's relatively manageable and will scale up quite well.

And then most of the spend is on the marketing side, the co-promotion and marketing the events themselves. We're -- and as we sort of just mentioned, this is not about getting as many of our users to go to an event as possible per set. Obviously, you want users to get to events, but it's a bigger strategy than that. It's changing perception and reconsideration for all users. And what will likely happen is a small percentage of users will actually go to events, but a lot of them will think about Tinder through a different light because it has events. And we've seen that with, like you said, 70% of Gen Z are interacting with the Events page. They're coming back week after week. That shows there's interest. A smaller percent are actually going to the events, I think that will go up over time, but they like the idea. This is what they want. And so I think it's a powerful message for changing reconsideration.

And then the economics, the unit economics are pretty good and scalable. I think the economics for the user are very good, right? Because one issue that I think the company and the industry faces is that just while the $20 a month you pay to be on the app is not really all that much money if you're meeting new people. The $200 you got to spend on a dinner in New York is a lot of money. I think that is a constraint for GenZ. Events offers a better value prop to users. 30% of the events are free. Those that cost money cost about $30 a month versus the dinner in New York, that's far more expensive. You're meeting not just one person and hoping it turns out, well, you're meeting lots of people and having a good time kind of no matter how it turns how you're often bringing a friend with you, which lowers the pressure. But I think it's exactly what users are looking for and helps bridge the sort of economic gap for the user themselves. So those are all reasons why we're really excited about the events be in the broader social push overall.

Let me turn to Hinge. So Hinge MAU is up 13%, payers up 17% last quarter. As we approach this kind of $1 billion revenue target and both of your core markets mature, but your newer international markets continue to emerge. How do we think about the growth algorithm, whether that's audience growth, payer penetration, some pricing potentially? And how do you think about that mix changing maybe this year and into next year? That's a loaded question.

Well, there's a few good ones in there. Let's take the sort of payer RPP mix first. What we've seen over the last few years is heavier growth on the payer side than the RPP side, I think that will continue for the foreseeable future, including in 2027. There's a couple of reasons for that. One is the international markets where the expansion markets are growing faster than the core markets, and they're usually a lower-priced market. And the outset so that puts a little pressure on RPP and drives more conversion and payer growth. I expect that dynamic to continue. And then the second reason is this lower price tier that we can talk about, which we're testing, that will affect all markets, but core, in particular, that will drive more payer conversion than RPP. And so I think that, that mix will be kind of similar in '27 than it was in '26, which is sort of the mix we want.

In terms of growth and the mix between international and core markets, one way to think about it is this year, obviously, the growth rates are much higher in expansion markets and core markets where they're a little bit more flat but the quantum of revenue being generated by core markets versus international expansion markets is similar like in a dollar term, I think that will probably continue in '27 as well. So I don't think the sort of algorithm is going to change all that much.

In the core markets, if we want to just stay there for 1 second and talk about growth within core, revenue growth is still quite strong. User growth has flattened out a little bit. We spent a lot of time looking at this. We think there's a lot of opportunity to continue to grow in core markets. One is on the monetization side. They monetize -- Hinge monetize at lower rates than Tinder in core markets. The RPP is higher than Tinder, but the payer penetration is much lower. So there's room to grow that payer penetration rate in core markets for sure.

And then two, Hinge is more scaled and maturing in certain markets to some extent. But if you look at it, let's just take the U.S. It's mature in liberal coastal cities. It's mature in New York. It's mature in San Francisco, it's mature in LA. If you sort of dig in -- there's a lot of room for growth still in those middle American markets, other markets, maybe more conservative parts of the country they under-index versus Tinder greatly. And so I think there's a big opportunity to just have a Hinge appeal to a broader swath of the U.S. than just the markets that they really kind of got started in -- so that gives us confidence.

And then if you break it down by age, for example, there's still a lot of opportunity in a little bit older segments. They've done very well with GenZ but as you get into the mid-30s into the 40s, there's still a big opportunity there, where an app like Hinge that's higher intent can appeal to that population, too. So I think between going after those underpenetrated demographics and geographies plus opportunities [indiscernible] side, we'll see a pretty strong quarter with '27 as well.

Yes, makes a lot of sense. Touching on the monetization just a little bit more. I know you referenced the lower priced subscriptions. Can you walk us through just a little bit more of the rationale behind that decision? And what early learnings from that, could you potentially apply to Tinder as well?

There's a few things we looked out and thought about. One, most large-scale dating apps have a 3 price tier system, right? Tinder that's the case for tender. That's the case for Bumble, Hinge rate [indiscernible], too. Makes sense to add a third, like there's a precedent there. Hinge is also higher priced than those other apps. And so there -- the fact that they are a higher price point, which makes sense for a more higher intention dating app leaves more room for a lower-priced tier than maybe you would see it like a Tinder, which that third tier they added was actually a higher price tier at a lower price tier. So that's part of it.

And then two, what I think is really interesting is the tier there is going to be focused on women in particular that's a huge on top opportunity for the category as a whole. The category has done very well, finding ways to add value for men. See who likes you, unlimited like, those are men value prop features. Not so much what we were looking for. So it will be a really interesting you asked what we learned from this test. I think that will be where a lot of the learnings come from. Can we create features that women value? Is that an unlocked increased payer penetration across the business of the category as a whole.

Perfect. I would like to take a minute to open it up to the audience for any questions. Otherwise, I can keep going. All right. No problem. Let's move on to the app store economics. So alternative payment savings expected to now reach $130 million that's up $20 million. Could you break down the -- what has driven the additional upside and expected IEEP savings this year? And given the changes in the landscape, any update on where things stand with the Apple versus the Google App stores?

This is moving quickly. So I do -- I spend a lot of time tracking this very closely. So let me give you an update because there have been a few changes since even the earnings call about a month ago. Let's just kind of go platform by platform. Google, no change since the last earnings call. They basically rolled out their own global fee structure. It's not subject to court approval in the U.S. anymore. Unfortunately, for us and other developers, it doesn't offer much incentive or ability to offer alternative payments, the economics -- some very economical for us to do it. When we run the numbers and look at it, we will offer that to customers, but it's maybe about a $5 million benefit, we think, to the bottom line relative to the world we've been working in within for Google over the past couple of years. So a little bit disappointing, quite frankly. But at least we've got some certainty about where that's headed.

Now could it change -- could the DMA come out in Europe and say, this is not good enough, Google, you have to do better, of course. But for now, they've rolled out a global policy that goes into effect kind of between the end of this year and into next year across the globe. And it's basically one consistent policy. Apple has taken a different approach. They have a jurisdiction by jurisdiction fee structure that's quite hard for developers to follow, but there has been a little bit of new news there since earnings. Two things. One, as it relates to the Apple versus Apple court case that's ongoing in the U.S. they proposed to the courts a 15% fee on alternative payments, which is less than the 30% fee you pay for in-App purchases, but or more than the 0% we're paying today aside from the credit card fees. It's now in the court's hands. The court needs to decide what they think an appropriate fee is. They can agree with Apple, they can say, no, we think it's a different fee. And so we just hope to see how that plays out.

And we expect the court to sort of say something later this year or early next year. And until that, it's 0%, we'll continue to take advantage of it, but we'll see [indiscernible] Then in Europe, that happened in mid-August, they made that announcement. And then in August, a few days later, they made an announcement on European fee structure where, I don't know, somewhat ironically, they increased the fees for in-app purchases in Europe by 3 or 4 points. So that's a bad guy for us relative to the fee structure we had before, but they did offer more optionality around alternative payments.

The economics aren't great, but they are better than -- a similar 15% fee for link out web purchases. So now it's on us to try to optimize around alternative payments in Europe, which we haven't done in the past, try to reduce the impact of the higher fees on net purchases, and we'll sort of have to see how that plays out. But if we stood there and do nothing, it would be a negative to us for 2027. So those are some of the things going on. But the big one, which is Apple Appstore fees in the U.S. still it's a percent on alternative payments, and that won't change until the court rules, we think sometime later this year or early next year.

Must be challenging to navigate that environment. I'm sure the less time on alternative payment.

Ultimately, what we want is user choice, right? We want users to be able to choose between different forms of payment and we want economics that make sense for developers like us. And we hope that the courts and the regulators get...

Perfect. Let's move to E&E maybe briefly. E&E direct revenue down 17%, continued pressure obviously from [indiscernible]. As you continue to kind of evolve the portfolio mix with our time, BLK upward, but also bringing on incremental investments. Do you think about E&E more broadly over time is maybe a growth opportunity or really a free cash flow and profit driver?

Yes. I think the reality is it's hard to talk about E&E as one monolith. It's true that most apps are now on 1 platform, which I think is a big unlock going forward. But different brands within that sort of portfolio within a portfolio are in different stages of the life cycle and deserve different levels of investment. And so really, what we've been doing is looking at brand by brand, what makes sense. Spencer really leaned in here. We've defined what our priority brands are, those that deserve investment and in marketing and in development and in head count and those that should share from the gain from the shared platform capabilities, right? If we get a win on the shared platform, all brands benefit from that but maybe don't get as much brand-specific investment and some of the other ones with a bigger competitive moat or with a better opportunity to get back to growth.

And so we've done that. I think that's been a helpful exercise. And the other thing we've done is for those priority brands like the match.com, like the BLK, like the upwards, we're crystallizing their brand positioning. What customer does match.com? Who is the target customer? How are they positioned? And what should that message be? And how should the product serve them. And we're also bringing in some of the same philosophy we had at Tinder around driving meaningful connections and sparks and a real focus on the user to the E&E portfolio. So I think the strategy will benefit those brands over time. I think certain brands within the portfolio will get back to growth going back to your question.

I think the collection of brands as a whole at E&E will probably still decline in '27 as a whole. But again, I think there are certain apps all could certainly get back to growth. Paris could be growing and certain apps within that traditional any bucket back to growth, too. Could you elaborate quickly on the brand through prioritizing specific kinds of demographics or geographies, user cohort. It's brands that we feel have a competitive moat, have staying power, have brand equity and so I mentioned most of the match.com upward, BLK, the leagues -- or payers.

And then we'll spend a little bit less time and effort on brands like okay, keep it, for example, -- not that we won't invest in them, build, like I said, gain in the any rollout of improvements we make across the shared platform, but we're just going to invest a little bit less in marketing. And then brand-specific resources. Same holds true for a brand like PlentyofFish. So I think trying to spread our time, management capacity and investment across, all these brands in the portfolio equally was the wrong strategy. So we've kind of crystallized where we want to focus, which I think is the right call.

Makes sense. Anybody else in the audience have a question?

You've got a new CEO, Jackie Jantos at Hinge. I suppose what are sort of strategic priorities? What are the areas and parts of the markets are getting and focusing at the moment.

Yes, a few things. One, she is new to CEO, although it's been a little while now, but she's not new to the company, and she's been there for a long time and worked very closely with Justin, who was the founder and it was a well-orchestrated and plan through succession, and I think it went very well. She's got a marketing background, she's for some of the biggest brands in the world. and I think brings a real strategic eye to the consumer, which I appreciated. The strategy has not changed from what it was before her taking the reins at the highest level. It's a real focus on being true to the ethos of Hinge, which is the app design to be the leader. It's staying true to a brand, that's for high-intent users, prioritizing product innovation and investment.

I think of late, we've been talking a lot more about how do we get the category back to growth. Hinge is the brand is 1 of the brands to do it. It's a brand that resonates really well with GenZ, and it gives a lot of users what they're looking for in terms of a product experience. So we're talking more about how do we not only win back lapsed users, but how do we really get new users to enter the category and at what role can Hinge lie. And one area, for example, that we're focusing a lot on is trust and safety. It's always been important, but it's one of the biggest barriers to entry. And what role can Hinge play and really leveling up trust and safety to break down some of those category barriers to get single to try dating app for the first time. So that's some of the areas of focus.

We're spending a lot of time. She's spending a lot of time focused on the core markets. We understand that the Hinge equation for long-term growth is both continued growth in the core markets and geographic expansion. And so I mentioned a lot of things we're thinking about on the core market side, but is very involved in all that.

And then I think the second or the last thing that we've been focused on and she's been focused on as the CEO is where does Hinge to go next? What does the next geographic market look like? Is there an opportunity to expand into Asia? What country will we go into? What time line would there be and how do we make we do it right? How do we make sure that product is customized or localized to meet the sort of expectations of users in India or Japan and really that methodical approach to geographic expansion that worked in Europe. How do we use that same playbook to win over Latin America and Asia over the next couple of years because that's how we get Hinge not only to the $1 billion, but beyond that.

Last 20 seconds maybe, capital allocation. Getting in the back half. But as you return tender to growth, does that change your capital allocation strategy?

No, it doesn't. I think what we've been really good at is cutting costs in nonstrategic areas. We did the reduction in force in the reorg that I think has not only reduced cost, but set up innovation -- we've saved a lot of money in alternative payments. We'll continue to sort of juggle the changing landscape there and do the best we can to save as much as possible and then reinvest that organically to make sure Tinder and Hinge are getting the investments they need that while giving 100% of free cash flow back to investors through buybacks from the dividend, we'll do more than $1 billion this year, and we plan to give 100% back, maybe not in any 1 quarter, but certainly over time. So I think it's a powerful combination, buybacks, reducing shares outstanding, while turning around Tinder. I'd call it the coiled spring before.

I think as we get the other end of this, it will be really a powerful value creation formula for investors over time.

Perfect. We'll end on that coiled spring. Thank you very much for being here today.

Thank you. I appreciate it.

I think in the interest of time, we're going to get going. It's my pleasure to have Match Group back at the conference this year. Spencer Rascoff, CEO. I'm going to dust off my law degree and read the safe harbor. During this presentation and during the question-and-answer session, we may discuss our outlook and future performance. These forward-looking statements may be preceded by words such as we expect, we believe, we anticipate or similar statements. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties, and our actual results could differ materially from the views expressed today.

Some of these risks have been set forth in our periodic reports filed with the SEC. Also today, we may discuss certain non-GAAP financial measures. Reconciliations to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures are provided in the published materials on the company's IR website. These non-GAAP measures are not intended to be a substitute for the company's GAAP results.

Okay. So you've been in the CEO role over the last couple of years since coming back into that role inside the company from your Board seat with the company before being an operating role. Before we take a step forward, let's take a step back and just reflect a little bit on all the things that have been put in place and the journey you've been on over the last 2 years. Or just under 2 years.

Yes. I was on the Board for about a year before I became CEO 18 months ago. Being on the board is helpful. It gave me a running start, and let me have some relationships formed, but you never really know until you get into the company and you roll up your sleeves and I quickly learned a lot. I'm very proud of what we've accomplished in the first 18 months. I feel like we've changed the company culture pretty significantly. We have built a much more of a consumer-oriented culture where people really focus on user efficacy and the quality of the user experience. We have personas built out for every one of our apps now.

And so you'll hear employees talking about Jasmine, the Joyful Butterfly and Abby, the Anxious Romantic and all these different personas across our different brands and thinking through what they need from the product. So that probably sounds like a small thing, but it's a big thing in terms of shifting the way employees think and what they prioritize. And then we created a much greater culture of innovation and of improving the quality of the products starting with just using our products more. And this is -- there are a couple of oddities about our category that make online dating quite different from other companies that you might be here to listen to. But one of them is that it can be difficult for employees to use the product. And imagine if you're an employee at Instagram and you don't use the product, you're an employee at Snapchat, is a product or Zillow is a product.

I mean here, a lot of our employees, including me are married, and a lot of us don't use the product day-to-day, unless you really force yourself to. And if a company -- if we make it a job requirement, which we have and you make it front and center to get employees actually utilizing our own apps, then it brings -- it unleashes all sorts of observations that people now have about how we can improve the product, but if you're not using them, then that doesn't come through. So we accomplished a lot in a short period of time. I'm happy to go into different detail in different areas, but it's been a busy 18 months.

Okay. Maybe starting big picture first. We continue to get a lot of questions from investors on where the dating opportunity online still sits today. Obviously, we went through a COVID period. We went through a post-COVID period. I think investors still try to question what the market opportunity is here. Has there been an evolution in your view of the market opportunity? Or has it been relatively stable, but there's been dynamics of volatility around it.

Well, there are about 250 million people worldwide who are single and dating and don't use dating apps. So there are a lot of potential people out there that could use dating apps, but several of our apps, notably Tinder, the #1 dating app in 166 countries and our #1 app had really lost product market fit, which is a funny thing to say because it's still the #1 app. It's a little bit weird to say that it lost product market fit. But it hadn't innovated in about 10 years, and users changed and user expectations changed. So to answer your question, the size of the prize has always been massive. I feel more confident than before that we can go after it because of the way we've changed the product to regain product market fit. I'll give you a couple of quick examples.

If you talk to Gen Z 18- to 28-year-olds, they will tell you that dating is stressful, dating feels like a job interview, a one-on-one date feels very like stressful. They don't -- like they're not ready for it. They don't want it. And part of it is because of COVID because they lost a couple of years of social and emotional development. Part of it is because of the Me Too Movement, which changed the way men and women relate to each other and men or some men are afraid to ask women out or come off as potentially aggressive inadvertently. So there are a lot of societal reasons for it. But nonetheless, where we are is that it can be stressful to engage in online dating.

What we have done with Tinder is we have created social features, starting with Double Date, extending to group dates, which we're testing right now and events, which we've rolled out to 25 cities on its way to more than 75 cities, all of which lower the pressure. They take us a little bit away from dating and kind of dating adjacent into the meet new people safely for fun category. And if you can be in that space, which is a little less stressful than we think you can earn your way back into product market fit and go after a lot of that TAM.

Okay. So talk to us a little bit about the journey that Tinder has been on because the KPIs for Tinder have now shown market improvement over the more recent periods and you've been on quite a recovery turnaround journey with respect to Tinder. What have been the signals you picked up on that have started to build the momentum? And how are you thinking about investing behind those signals for that transformation?

So we are a much more consumer-oriented company, as I mentioned. One of the biggest consumer innovations that we have brought to Tinder is improving our recommendation algorithm. And if you think of a dating app, the beating heart of a dating app is the Recs algo, figuring out whom to show to whom, that's kind of the whole thing, right? I mean that's like ultimately, what we do is we show people -- we show people to one another, and so the Recs algo that powers that is critically important. Just as TikTok's Recs algo is critically important, Instagram's Recs algo, YouTube's Recs algo, Spotify's Recs algo, even Zillow's Recs algo, I mean that's really, really important to any of these services, but most important in dating apps. We have significantly improved our recommendation algorithm.

And I've talked a little bit about this last week, we did an investor event called the CEO Connection, which is on our IR website where my CTO and my Chief Product Officer and I discussed in detail the improvements that we made to the recommendations. So I won't go through them all right here. But suffice it to say, we have significantly improved recommendations. The other significant set of improvements have been these social features, like double date and events, all of which have improved what we call Sparks and Sparks coverage. Spark is a conversation that goes back and forth 6 or more times. And I'm just pulling out some of my data. So I get all of my metrics right. So our daily active users, for example, which is a metric that we look at. It's a measure of how many people are coming to the app at any given day.

For Q2, those were down 4% year-over-year. For July, daily active users were down 2.5% year-over-year. And in August, it was down about 1% year-over-year, and it's trending better than that in the first week of September. So that's daily active users. And then Sparks, which is a chat that goes back and forth 6 or more times, in Q2, those were down 4% year-over-year. In July, they were down 1% year-over-year. And in August, Sparks were actually up 2% year-over-year. And then last metric, I'll give Eric real quick is Sparks coverage. So that's what percent of the users of Tinder are getting to a Spark in that period of time. And in Q2, it was up 2% and in July, it was up 5% year-over-year, and in August, it's up 6% year-over-year.

So these changes like recommendation improvements and events and social features are having the intended effect. It is improving results and improving audience growth.

No, that's really helpful framing. I want to stick with events because I think that was sort of the theme coming out of the last earnings call that struck me as quite interesting, right? You're trialing and testing this in Los Angeles. Seems like you're getting very good signal back on what events can do for the platform. How do we think about what you learned and how do we think about how it could be scaled going forward?

Yes. So events are very important. They're very important way for us to drive reconsiderations. So to get people who may be used Tinder 5 or 10 years ago or maybe have a preconceived notion of Tinder, maybe they probably heard of Tinder, but they think it's a hookup app and events causes them to reconsider Tinder and say, "Oh, hold on, maybe I should give this a shot." The -- we decided to go down this direction in January. We launched in Los Angeles in March. By the summer, we were in 25 cities. We said we'll be in 75 cities by the end of the year. About 70% of 18- to 24-year-olds in L.A., are engaging with the events tab, they're looking at events and about half of them are coming back weekly to look at more events. So people are very interested in going to events.

Even if they find online dating stressful, they are still wanting human connection, and they want to do that in person. So they're going to our cold plunge events and karaoke and book clubs and run clubs and hiking events and all of these are bookable on Tinder. To answer your question about scalability, we are not organizing these events. We are aggregating them through partnership. So we have partnerships with national, local, regional, global event operators and other sources of events, and then we're also working with individual entrepreneurs that put on these events, and we're curating them so that in all of these cities, you can see fun things to do. We've also built digital layer on top of the event. So if you go to Tinder right now and tap on the second tab and then you go to the drop down, you can select whichever city you want.

I was just looking at San Francisco moments ago. And you can see 5, 10, 15 upcoming events in San Francisco. And if you tap on any of them, you can see the people going to that event from Tinder. And you can look at their profiles and see their photos and their interest and information about them. After the event, you can message with them, which is a really important use case for people who are nervous about getting somebody's number. Maybe they met at the event, and they talked, but he felt it was too forward to ask for a number, maybe she wasn't -- was too nervous to share it with him. But then afterwards, they can digitally connect and message through Tinder. And that's another really important way to lower the pressure for Gen Z so they can connect on their own terms.

So I'm very optimistic about the alibi that it provides to people who say, "Oh, I'm not a Tinder person or I'm not a dating app person and its ability to drive consideration and reconsideration for people and these are the types of features that we need if we want to really turn around MAU and revenue."

Okay. Let's pivot to Hinge, which has continued to see solid, steady momentum on the operating side. What do you see as the market opportunity that sits for Hinge, both in English-speaking language markets and non-English-speaking language markets when you think about the global opportunity for Hinge?

Well, Hinge serves a different segment than Tinder. Internally, the analogy that we use is it's a difference between going to a concert and going to a music festival. If you go to a concert, that's like Hinge, you have tickets to a particular show, you're going to see this artist at this date and time. You probably review the set list ahead of time, which is what most Gen Z people do. So they know every song that's going to be played in the order, you know what you're looking for, you're going to Hinge to go find the one. And if you go to a music festival, like Coachella or electronic music festival or any festival, you're going to vibe your way through it. You might have some inkling that you're going to go see a couple of songs from this act or that act, but you're going to sort of feel your way through it and you're not really sure.

It's kind of the serendipity is the point. It's the adventure and the uncertainty of how this path will unfold, and that's the Tinder experience. You might find the one, plenty of people find their spouse on Tinder. You might find fun, you might explore your own sexuality. You might have a fun night out, you might meet people at an event, who knows. You can vibe your way through it. So that's an interesting Tinder and Hinge in terms of how the positioning and the feature set. Hinge ought to eventually have the revenue potential of that segment of people trying to find the one should actually, in my view, exceed the revenue potential of the people just looking for fun and casual exploration.

For the same reason, frankly, that concerts are bigger than festivals because there are more people that know exactly what they're looking for. And if you're looking for the one you should be willing to pay more for it because it's a pretty important use case you're trying to find the one. That's obviously not where these businesses are at in terms of their evolution. Hinge is a $700-odd million on a path to $1 billion next year, Tinder is in the $2-ish billion range. But I think the potential for Hinge is very, very significant, probably bigger because of the customer segment that it goes after.

Okay. So when measured against the customer segment, and the revenue opportunity, how do you think about product innovation at Hinge. You talked a bit about where you're going or the journey you've been on with Tinder, talk to us a little bit about Hinge.

So Hinge's product innovation is focused on improving the efficacy of getting people out on great dates through this very intentional use case. So for example, there is a lot of friction around profile creation because it's high stakes. If you are creating -- think about how high stakes it is to create your LinkedIn profile, if you're looking for a job, and now think about how high stakes it is to create your Hinge profile if you're looking for your spouse. I mean it's like this is pretty important and stressful. So trying to figure out what to say, like when it says, what are you interested in? It's like, I don't know, like it's stressful, right? So Hinge is -- a lot of Hinge's road map is about improving profile creation using AI. So making it easier to select the right photos, making it easier to answer these prompts.

A lot of Hinge's product road map is also about improving the quality of chat because once people get matched with each other, now what do I say? And that also can be stressful. So Hinge has a date ideas feature where they're suggesting things to do or places to go. Hinge has conversation starters like lots of features around trying to improve the liquidity in the chat section. Hinge also is building social features from a different lens, like when I say social features at Tinder I already described what some of them are Hinge's social features are about letting your friend improve your profile. So there's a feature called Friend's Take, for example, which is sort of like LinkedIn testimonials, where a boss or a colleague can write on your LinkedIn information about you here, a friend can write information about you or upload a video or photo or a voice note on your Hinge profile.

So these are the types of things that Hinge is doing, which is exactly what you'd expect, a brand that's going after the very intentional use case, what you think their product roadmap will be focused on.

Okay. Another topic I wanted to touch upon was earlier this year, you announced the minority stake investment into Sniffies. Talk to us a little bit about the genesis of that investment and how you think that fits into your broader sort of brand and go-to-market strategy longer term?

Yes, absolutely. So again, look, I'm pretty easy to decipher. I basically operate on 2 things. The first is what do consumers want? Like how can we delight the consumer and what will make the stock price higher in 3 years? Those are -- if you ever want to know what is -- what am I going to do? How am I going to answer this question, how am I going to think about experts, why? Those are the 2 things that I apply to every decision. So the Sniffies investment, where we bought about half the company, and we have the right to buy the rest is a perfect example. I started looking at the LGBTQ space. I saw how strong Tinder is and Hinge are in the gay male space.

I looked at Grindr's market position and success. We did a lot of consumer research about the gay male use case and what they like about Grindr, what they don't like about other services. And Sniffies immediately stood out as the company that has enormous product market fit, is founder-led, understands their users better than anyone understands that has an innovative product road map. And needed to become part of the Match Group portfolio and we'll absolutely make the stock price higher in 3 years. So fortunately, our Board supported my decision to go after it. I think there's a ton of potential available in Sniffies and we're working with them to improve their trust and safety. They're not even in the app store.

So Sniffies is the #2 dating platform, and they are not even an app, they're just a mobile web. And so we're, of course, working to get them into the app stores, and we think there's huge potential as they do that and potentially as they expand globally. So I'm very excited about Sniffies. And if you -- I encourage you to ask any gay male in your network about Sniffies. I think you'll be really surprised by how strong the brand affinity is for it. It's not -- it's like unlike anything I've ever seen before in terms of the brand love that its users have for it.

Okay. I wanted to turn to the marketing side because, obviously, we have a multi-brand approach as a company. How do you think about absolute levels of marketing, the scope for ROI on marketing and the competition for marketing dollars across your brand portfolio?

So it's very complicated for a couple of reasons. One is we have a diverse portfolio with 25 brands. But the more important reason why it's complicated is this category has some similarities to social networking or network effect businesses that make it different from e-commerce or other ad-supported -- other types of businesses. So what I mean by that is there's this concept of network LTV that we now focus on quite a bit at Match Group, which is to say, if we acquire a certain user that's not a payer, you might think, "Oh, there's no value because if you're Spotify or you're Netflix or you're a B2B SaaS company, you think about LTV and CAC to LTV based on what the revenue is of an acquired user. But actually, certain users are highly valuable to us even if they don't pay because they make the ecosystem much better, and they help get other people to retain and pay.

So that is an important insight, which kind of people sort of knew if you walked around the halls at Match Group before I got here, people would sort of say, like, well, women are more valuable actually even if they don't pay, but we had never calculated that. And that certainly wasn't factored into how we allocate our $600 million of marketing spend. It is now. We hired the former Head of Marketing and Performance Marketing at Zillow Group, who I've worked with in the past. They built out attribution models across all our different brands, including network LTV. Then we hired different former Head of Performance Marketing Group from Zillow, who spent all performance marketing across all brands there, and now she's doing it for us.

So we're just now starting to execute on this much up-level sophistication about marketing spend. which we were never operating with before. So it's a little early to declare victory or point to results, but we're in a much better place than we ever have been before on this front.

Okay. Moving beyond from marketing what do you see as some of the key strategic investments and growth you need to make inside the company in the next 12, 18 months?

We need -- well, to continue to up-level our trust and safety. One of the reasons why the category has headwinds is because people believe that they can't trust the profiles that they see. So for example, we now have Face Check on Tinder and Hinge. Face check is a short video selfie, which proves that you're a human and you are who you say you are and the photos match yourself. So it would significantly, I think around 60% reduction, if I remember correctly, in people's interaction with bad accounts and spam and bots. So basically, it significantly up-levels the authenticity of profiles. We don't yet have that on our E&E apps and those are apps like Match.com or Plenty of Fish or OkCupid, these are like really big in the category and they're bellwethers and people they impact category perception even more than their revenue would indicate because people look at them like the category.

And so they have sort of outsized influence on category perception. So your question was what are big investments we need to make. We need to improve trust and safety, including at the E&E brands. We need to continue improving Tinder's recommendation algorithm. One of the things I talked about at this CEO Connection event last week was we'll be making Tinder recommendations real time. So right now, it takes 4 hours for the signal that you send to Tinder on people, if you swipe left on certain types of people, the algorithm doesn't actually adjust to get rid of those types of people for more than 4 hours. If you are swiping right, on certain types of people, you would think you would see more of those people, you actually don't, not for 4 hours. That will change by the end of the year. It will become real time. That's a significant change with a lot of potential.

And then Tinder events, I think, is the other one to watch. Like can that actually change perception and cause people to reconsider Tinder? And will that result in MAU and revenue improvements.

Okay. And then within the broader investment theme, you've talked a fair bit on earnings calls about AI reducing friction in the dating process. Where does that broadly fit into your investment philosophy generally putting AI at the front of the way in which consumers experience your product.

So AI has been very impactful in the product itself. But to be honest, it's been even more impactful on our internal productivity, which, I guess, indirectly improves the product itself. But -- and again, we talked about this a little bit at this CEO event where the CEO Connection event where the CTO elaborated talking about how features that used to take us 6 months are now taking us 1 month or it used to take us 1 month, it will take 3 days. I mean, we're seeing that all over the place where more than 90% of our code now is AI assisted 100% of our engineers and almost all of our employees are using AI assistance.

We're very big customers of all the hyperscalers and also using Chinese open-weight models as well to mitigate cost. So just employees have superpowers now in a way that they didn't -- even a year ago, it's pretty extraordinary. I mean every single employee has changed the way they do their work.

Okay. Understood. You've talked a lot today about investing in the business. You've also talked about investing in other companies and like Sniffies we talked about, and you've been a company that has returned capital to shareholders. Talk to us a little bit about the priorities for capital allocation inside the company. How might they change as the company becomes more anchored around growth if some of this comes to the good over the next 6 to 12 months?

Yes. It's a good question. We've always -- not always, but for the last couple of years, we've been returning 100% of free cash flow to shareholders through dividends and buybacks. I haven't changed that approach. We are in this kind of transition, where we've been a -- not just low growth, but no growth, a negative growth revenue business. And aiming, I aspire to chart a path here, chart a course, to be a revenue grower with the goal of getting re-rated as more of a growth stock and having different comps and multiple expansion based on that. I'm doing that within the constraints of maintaining margin commitments and capital return commitments that we've been -- that we've made for the last couple of years, that makes it a little bit harder but I don't think impossible.

And so we've been maintaining that posture, and that will continue for the foreseeable future. But again, I already gave you the cheat-sheet. If I think it will make the stock price higher 3 years from now, then I'm willing to revisit that and really any other assumption. But for now, I think the best path to make the stock higher 3 years from now is to maintain that capital return commitment while also improving product and user outcomes.

Okay. I always like to -- we only have a few minutes left, but I always like to end on looking out over the next 12 to 18 months, when you think about the industry you operate in, the brands and the company you run day-to-day, what do you think of the things that investors generally are not thinking about that they should be thinking about? What are some of the elements of how the landscape might change and evolve in the years ahead. How do you think about all.

So my conversations with investors have changed a lot in the 18 months since I've been here. And starting about 3 to 6 months ago, they became -- they got to the following. They got to the -- okay, Spencer, I agree. I will posit, I will stipulate that you've improved user outcomes, you've improved the products, users are having better results. Maybe I'll even underwrite and stipulate that you can get MAU to flat or increasing on Tinder by regaining product market fit, but now show me the money. When will revenue follow, when will cash flow follow like what is the time line in which we'll start to see financial benefit from all of the groundwork that you've laid, which I will now accept as fact, which I take that as good.

Like for the first 6 or 12 months, they were just skeptically doubting that we could get to here. And now I've kind of got them all at that line. And now of course, trying to get them over the line. But at least we got them up to the line. And most of them are saying, and you talk to them every day, probably as much as I do, maybe even more, many of them say to me, I'd rather be 1 or 2 quarters late than 2 or 3 quarters early. And so I'll kind of wait to see more financial results from what you've been talking about. So that's kind of where people are. So your question is like where do I hope they'll be in a year or 2? Obviously, I hope they'll be over that line. I think we have to put more points on the board on getting towards flat MAU. I think we put more points on the board on improving revenue. And I get that, and we're up for the challenge, but that's where I hope we'll be in a year or so.

Okay. Maybe last one I'll squeeze in. With that as a backdrop, what do you see as the thing that excites you the most that can incite growth in the company. I've known you a long time. The way you talked about events on the last earnings call felt very much like a catalyst if you had seen signal that could potentially build and scale. I don't want to put words in your mouth, but what are you most excited about executing again?

No. I mean that's definitely it. And the reason is, I think it has the potential to really change the perception of the category. So like at Zillow, for example, we planted a lot of seeds with rentals and mortgages, which took years to pay off, but I was always confident that the TAM was big enough and that those were worthwhile investments. But they didn't really change the perception of Zillow or like Spotify moving into podcasts or Netflix moving into Originals. I guess, Netflix maybe into Originals is maybe a good example where it does really change your perception of Netflix and no longer is Netflix just buying kind of old mediocre content, they're actually creating prestige content. So it will change the value prop that Netflix provides to me and my brain and I'm willing to pay $20, $30, $40 a month instead of $5 or $10 a month. So actually, that's a pretty good comp.

I think Airbnb moving into experiences is a pretty good comp because it really changes your perception. For me, for example, and maybe for many of you, I was never -- I never thought of myself as an Airbnb person. I'm more of a -- especially when I'm traveling with my wife or family, I'm more of a nice hotel sort of person. And the idea of renting someone's house, or spare room, you're not really sure what you're going to get, like I was not "not an Airbnb person." And then I entered the category through experiences. I booked a tour guide at the Eiffel tower. I booked a whiskey tasting in Tokyo. I actually entered Airbnb through experiences. And then I gained confidence in Airbnb and then I rented -- started renting kind of luxury houses. And now I am actually an Airbnb person.

So it did -- it expanded the TAM but it also, more importantly, changed the perception overall and then enter people into the category. Another good comp is what Uber did with trust and safety. Like 5 years ago, it was like you're nervous like am I getting into the backseat of the stranger's car? Do I want my wife to do that? Do I want my kids to do that? God no. But now Uber has taken some -- putting so much work towards trust and safety that you think to yourself what Uber is safe or it's certainly safer than taxi, so it's okay for me or my spouse or my kid. So there are a couple of these examples where companies can like really find a step change. I do think that if we're successful with events, we can reposition Tinder. It's not the hookup app. It's not even a dating app, it's the fun night out app. It's the safe way to meet new people. It's the way to find your meet-cute at a karaoke event or at a run club while also having this other related products where you can swipe and meet new people through a one-on-one experience.

So that's why I think it has a lot of potential, and I'm kind of comping it in my mind to some of those other transformative things. It's not just like a nice add-on ancillary business. It actually has the potential to recast the core.

Okay. Well, look, I always appreciate the opportunity to have a conversation. Please join me in thanking Match for being part of the conference.

Thank you.

Hi, everyone. Thanks for joining us today for the CEO Connection this quarter. Before we get started, I want to note that today's discussion may include some forward-looking statements, and the risks related to those are listed here and also in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

So today, we're going to go inside Tinder's product and engineering teams to discuss something that you've heard us discuss quite a bit, which is our product velocity. It's a very important part of the Tinder story and something that investors are keenly focused on, and I get asked about a lot for good reason. So today, I'm joined by Mark Kantor. Mark is our Chief Product Officer at Tinder. He leads our cross-functional teams of designers and product managers who help determine what we build into our product. Mark has more than 20 years of experience as a product builder and an entrepreneur and founder, including roles at Zynga and his own startups.

Also with us is Vinay Kuruvila, CTO of Tinder. Vinay leads engineering, AI and product innovation at Tinder and also leads our central AI teams at Match Group. Vinay has 20 years of engineering and product leadership experience at companies like Amazon, Venmo and Brightwheel. Before we get into that discussion, we're going to start with a quick look at how much the Tinder experience has evolved over just the past 18 months.

Many of you probably aren't active Tinder users. So we want to bring the product to you by highlighting where it was, where it is today and just how much has changed in a relatively short period of time. Let's take a look.

[Presentation]

It's pretty cool to see, a lot of blood, sweat and tears into 18 months. Hopefully, the video gives you a more tangible sense of what we mean when we talk about product velocity. I've been a tech executive for 28 years and I have never seen a company change its core products so much in such a short period of time. What you just saw is the output, which I'm very proud of, and it's impacting our users and our business results every day. What I want to spend today focusing on is how we get it done.

So Mark, I'm going to start with you. We just showed how different Tinder looks today than 18 months ago. Let's start with the obvious question. What's changed? And why are we able to move at this pace today?

As we just saw in that video, nearly every part of Tinder has improved. But not only does it look different and it feels better, but more importantly, it actually works better for our users. We've had major strides in trust and safety, bringing down the prevalence of bots and bad actors by more than 60%. We've greatly improved recommendations, driving better outcomes and Sparks for our users, and we built new ways to connect like Double Date and events.

And there are a few things that are really driving that change. The first is the org. The org has changed dramatically. We have smaller, more autonomous teams making much faster decisions. We've really sharpened our understanding of who we're building for and the problems we're solving with the use of new personas and a lot more time and focus directly talking to our users.

And then lastly, we have reoriented the entire team around one North Star metric, Sparks, which is our term for a multiway 6-way conversation that really aligns everyone around driving better outcomes. And the result of that is not only a product that works better, but a team that moves a lot faster.

Yes, we just finished a 3-day off-site with product and engineering and marketing leadership from around the world coming together here in L.A. It was amazing how often personas and Sparks came up. But in every conversation, people were talking about the personas of these, the archetypes of whom we're building for, and then Sparks, obviously, is the KPI that we focus on.

So Vinay, take us under the hood from an engineering standpoint, how does Tinder actually build differently today?

Yes. So Tinder's entire operating model around how we build has completely changed. We've got fewer linear handoffs, really tight collaboration in product design, engineering, faster experimentation and iteration. Our engineering team is actually shipping at a velocity that is twice as high as it was a year ago. And faster shipping matters because it creates faster feedback loops where we can build, test, learn from our users and improve based on the data and the metrics that we're seeing.

Now we've made a number of investments in our technology stack. And we -- for instance, we've re-architected parts of our code base, which had a lot of technical debt and was slowing us down, like our chat system. We've invested in our infrastructure. So teams like our recommendations team and our machine learning team can move a lot faster. And we've invested in our experimentation platform so that running and reading the results of experiments can be very cheap and fast.

Vinay, you mentioned tech debt, and this is a term that I know investors are familiar with because other public companies talk about it from time to time. What is our philosophy for paying down tech debt and maintaining pace of innovation even as we're kind of retrofitting old parts of the product?

It's a great question. Yes, our philosophy has been to incrementally eliminate the tech debt and looking at the areas of the code base where the teams are getting slowed down the most as well as the components in the product where we have the most potential to improve user outcomes. And so chat was a great example, right? Our chat team was really getting slowed down because of tech debt in the code base. And there was so much potential to modernize chat, add a lot of new features. And so we rewrote and re-architected our chat system. And we did it in a way so that every other part of our ecosystem could move forward while we were re-architecting our chat system. So we're going to continue to do that. Our next step could be onboarding, but that's our approach to tech debt.

So one for both of you. How does AI fit into all this from a product ideation standpoint and then from an engineering standpoint?

AI plays a critical role both within the product, how it benefits our users, but also how we build those products. Within the product, we use it to reduce friction during onboarding, helping people make better profiles, selecting better photos. We use it to improve trust and safety through features like Are You Sure? and Does This Bother You? in chat as well as Face Check. And we use it to improve our recommendations. But we also use it in terms of how we actually build better. And we've seen that AI essentially accelerates the entire product development life cycle from research and ideation, rapid prototyping to development.

And it essentially compresses the work that used to take months now into weeks and sometimes from weeks into days. And the result of that is it essentially has let our teams have far more high-quality shots on goal. We could take an example of events, which we're all very excited about. This was an idea of Spencer back in January. We had our first meeting in January. We had rapid prototypes days later. And then in March, we launched our first MVP publicly to the people of L.A.

Just 8 weeks later...

Which is amazing to go from first meeting in January to public launch just a couple of months later.

And, Vinay, how does AI impact your world?

Yes. And like Mark said, this is all possible. This pace is all possible because every engineer is using AI coding tools every day. Nearly every aspect of our product development life cycle has been completely rebuilt with AI at the center. Over 90% of all the new code at Tinder is AI-generated. And we've built agents that now write our tests and verify our code. We have agents that can fix simpler bugs with human verification and oversight. And so we're prototyping and developing much faster because AI is compressing the entire software development life cycle.

So sometimes people use the term AI slop to sort of derisively note like low-quality product coming from AI. So how do we guard against that? Mark, are the robots just coming up with all of our ideas? Vinay, is the AI just writing bad code that makes things worse? How do we guard against quality issues?

We have a policy in place where every engineer has to carefully review the code that AI has generated, right? In fact, it's reviewed not just by one engineer, but two engineers, right? And then we spend a lot of time codifying what it means to write high-quality code within our code base so that agents have like really clear instructions and they're producing high-quality code and not AI slop.

We're also spending a lot of time on verification and testing, which are again done by AI agents, so we know that the features we produce are high quality and don't have bugs in them.

I think on the product design side, we've got a very talented team that I'd say our ideas to date are coming from them. But really also from talking to our users, we collect a lot of user feedback, a lot of research, and we've used AI to help us synthesize that big corpus of data into really actionable insights.

So we're definitely changing the way we work because of AI. Has it also changed our talent recruitment, retention and engagement strategy? Are we looking for 100% of things from people?

100%. Yes, we're leaning very heavily into early-career, AI-fluent talent. We're very deliberate about evaluating AI fluency in our interview loop is something we take very, very seriously. We ask every engineering interview candidate to solve multiple tasks with AI. And then we talk to them about exactly how they use AI to solve those problems. And we're having a lot of success with the strategy, right? And we're pairing this early-career, AI-fluent talent with some of our very deep domain experts and recommendations and machine learning, and that combination is proving to be very powerful.

Have you changed what you're looking for in a designer and a product manager?

Yes. I think I'm really looking for curiosity, hustle and initiative. With these tools now, there is no reason for people not to be at home, prototyping and building their own things. So the first thing I ask is like, what are your personal projects? I think if they don't have anything, then it probably means they're not going to be that creative here. So I really want to see what it is that gets them excited and make sure that they're able to do it.

It's interesting how the world has changed. I mean, it used to be like that litmus test of what are you tinkering with on your own nights and weekends. Like, now that's a positive sign of somebody that's intellectually curious and pushing the envelope of how they can use AI to solve problems that they're fascinated with it. It used to be, like, hold on, why are you distracted on other things?

That might be the most important question now.

Yes. Yes, totally, what are you playing with? What are you tinkering? How you're learning? So Vinay, some of the most important changes that we made in the product have been around recommendations, which I usually describe as the beating heart of any dating app. Trying to figure out whom to show to whom, like ultimately, that's the core thing about a dating app. So what inning are we in our recommendation improvements? And what have we changed with recs?

Great question. We're still in the very early innings on recommendations, maybe the third inning. And today, every major release that we do still moves our core very substantially, right? And that's what early innings looks like. As you can see on this chart, we've made a series of major recommendation updates over the past 18 months and Sparks, which is, as Mark said, these 6-way high-quality conversations, they moved meaningfully higher as the system has evolved.

Queue Unification V2, which is this big launch that we did in July, produced a single unified, coherent recommendation system that optimizes for one clear objective, which is Sparks, right, and Sparks coverage. And when these very mature systems get tuned, right, the gains are very incremental. But the fact that we're seeing these step function changes every time we do a major release shows that we're still in the early innings.

So this term Queue Unification is something we kind of throw around internally. So let me make sure that I'm understanding it and also take a pass at explaining it to viewers. The way I think about it is we have maybe 10 or 15 different decks of cards. And maybe one deck of cards is sort of optimized to maximize revenue to the company. Another is optimized for the new user experience and another is optimized for, I don't know, retention of an existing payer, et cetera.

And when the user comes in, let's say, Mark comes into Tinder, and we're trying to decide what recommendations to show him, we decide, based on what we know about him as a user, which deck do we want to pick up. And we pick up this deck and we start showing him card 1, card 2, card 3. Queue Unification is basically taking all of those decks that are currently independent and combining them and reordering the sort of that much larger deck of cards based on what will maximize Mark's chance of not just matching. So not just saying, yes, I like this person, and she says, yes, I like Mark, but actually post-match them arriving at Sparks, a 6-way chat. Have I described Queue Unification perfectly?

Yes. I think you're spot on, right? So previously, every deck of cards had its own objective. As you said, right, one deck of cards was to maximize revenue for users that may be were at risk of churning and then one deck of cards was to help get new users a bit of a boost in the system so that they're retained. And now we don't have all these 15 decks. We have a single deck of cards and the only objective that our machine learning algorithms optimize on is Sparks, right? And so that has been a complete game changer for us. It's really driven Sparks significantly higher for straight women. And we've got many other, I would say, segments of our ecosystem, which is not yet rolled out, and we're still continuing to roll it out.

Now the other aspect of our current system is that once you pick up the deck, whether it was 1 of the 15 or now the combined unified set of cards, right now, when Mark says swipe right on this person, swipe left on this person, right on this person, the sequence of decks -- of cards in the deck does not currently change real time. Can you describe this, Vinay?

Yes, absolutely. So today, in the Tinder ecosystem, right, if your swiping behavior changes, if you're looking for something different today versus what you were looking for last week, it can take up to 4 hours for the system to update and to start to reflect that change in preference, whereas real-time adaptive recs, which is something we're working on.

It's going to launch in late Q4. It's going to start having the system react in seconds to those changes in behavior. And we think that's going to be a big step change in outcomes for our users.

And this is, of course, what we see in other services. If you're on LinkedIn and you're watching a video about a particular topic, you'll start getting more videos about that topic. If you are on TikTok, Instagram, even Spotify, if you're skipping certain types of songs, the recommendation algorithm changes real time and you sort of feel it as a user. So that's coming in.

Absolutely.

So what's -- there have been people working on these problems for 15 years or so, kind of the whole history of Tinder. What is it about this moment in time in 2026 that's created this unlock, these step changes that are available to us? Why now?

So previously, we were optimizing for likes, for revenue and the big shift that's happened over the past 18 months is we've started to optimize for Sparks and user outcomes, and we 100% believe and we know that Sparks and user outcomes translates into MAU growth. In fact, we believe that there is even one step further we can go, which is targeting not just conversations or 6-way conversations, but really high-quality conversations can drive even better MAU growth.

In fact, this year, we have a user giveback budget in place. That our teams can make changes that maybe drive engagement at the expense of revenue. In practice, we've seen that most of the changes that we make that drive engagement also drive revenue. So in practice, we've seen, we don't really need to use that user giveback budget. But the fact that we have that budget in place sets the right culture for our team so that they know they need to optimize for user outcomes.

It's -- I mean, investors hear us talk about this user giveback thing all the time. So it's great to hear how it actually goes from like the Board to the investor community to where the real work gets done with engineers actually making changes to the recommendation algorithm and the freedom and latitude that -- and therefore, innovation and positive results that have come from it.

Okay. So Mark, users are, of course, getting more sophisticated, and they're starting to understand all these different algorithms. I mean, even the way users think about these LLM models now, like I'll hear random people, not even engineers, just people, people saying, like, "Oh, are you using Sonnet, or are you using Opus, are you using Fable?" These different AI models. So it seems like people's sophistication about the way they interact with technology has increased. How are we taking that insight and bringing it into how we talk about our recommendations with users?

Yes. So we learn a lot about what a user wants based on their swipe behavior and other things they do in the app. And previously, that was all kind of hidden to the user. But what we've realized is that we want to expose that. So we're working on different ways of presenting that information, telling them, "Hey, this is what we think you like based on your behavior." If we've got it right, great, let us know, and we'll keep on doing more of what we're doing. But if there's changes you'd like to make, let us know and we'll adjust very quickly.

So we're trying to give you more transparency and control over the products themselves. So this obvious pushback to this product velocity initiative is just shipping more isn't always necessarily better. So how do we make sure that we're solving the right problems, not just shipping more stuff?

Yes, that's a great question. Velocity, it's not just about shipping the most stuff. It's about shipping the right stuff. And the way that we make sure that we're doing that is to make sure that we start with a real consumer need grounded in research and a ton of direct member feedback. We take all of that information and then we're very liberal with what we prototype. We try a lot of things internally. We see what feels good. When we see something that we think has a high likelihood of improving the outcomes for our users, we'll then test it publicly.

And then if we see that it drives Sparks, that's when we decide to scale. If we launch something and it's not actually driving these positive outcomes, we don't move forward with it. We also regularly do an assessment of everything in the product, and we ask ourselves, is this feature driving the impact that we thought it would? If it doesn't, we take it out.

Everything we saw in that video earlier today really solves a very clear human need, whether that's better discovery, helping people express themselves more authentically, lowering the pressure with every connection. And we also just have this tremendous design team that really works tirelessly to make sure that all of the work that the product and engineering team is doing fits together nicely.

What stood out to me in the video is how much more social Tinder is becoming. Can you elaborate a little bit on that strategy?

We have spoken to thousands of our members and thousands of singles off the app, and we're asking them what do they want, right? And I think the thing that comes up time and time again is they want to bring their friends into the experience. They believe -- we believe that friends will lower the pressure, improve safety and really make everything more fun. And we have a lot of evidence that supports this.

We launched Double Date last year. And in the U.S., more than 1 in 5 singles between 18 to 22 on Tinder has a Double Date pair. And when we talk to them, we hear they're talking, they're having more great conversations. The conversation tone and vibe is more fun. When they meet, they feel safer. It's lower pressure. There's lower expectations. And they've even come to us and said, hey, look, it's fun to Double Date with one friend.

We actually are a Double Date pair. But let's add more people. So a little bit of a sneak peek that we can maybe talk about in future events is that we're working on group hangouts now that supports more people. We also have our events feature that we've talked a lot about and a great learning there is that people bring their friends to those events, right? Very rarely does somebody come alone. So we're continuing to layer social into that experience, too.

The whole point of this is that we're trying to talk to our users, understand what it is they want and then give it to them. And I think by doing things like building Double Date, testing groups, building events, we're giving people new ways to connect that will drive reconsideration and bring new people into Tinder.

Tinder is better with friends. All right. So last one, beyond more real-world connections and recommendation improvements, what are the other big things that you are both focused on? I will start with you, Mark.

I think one of the big pushes right now is really making sure that our matches become Sparks, right? The fun doesn't -- the fun really begins after the match. People come to Tinder because they want to have great conversations, and ultimately, a great time together in real life. I think really, this post-match experience has been pretty underserved in years past. So we're really excited to have, as Vinay said earlier, completely rewritten our chat infrastructure, which is letting us now build on top of it, these great experiences to help spark conversations, help people plan meet-ups, we've got a lot of momentum going here, and I know that as people use the app over the next couple of weeks, over the next couple of months, they're going to see a huge difference.

Vinay, what are you focused on?

So historically, a lot of our brands at Match Group have operated very independently. And I'm excited that we're starting to take more of a one Match Group approach to a lot of our tech services. The central Match Group AI team pursues longer horizon bets like conversational and agentic AI that all brands benefit from. And the infrastructure that we're using, the GPUs, the machine-learning platform is increasingly shared across our brands. So our AI investments are reflected across the whole portfolio.

And when we build trust and safety features, we build it once and we deploy it everywhere across all our brands, so things like age assurance, verification, AI moderation. They serve every brand and the learnings that we get from Tinder scale across the whole portfolio. And of course, Tinder's AI, dev tooling and agent platform will soon be used by other brands at Match Group as well.

Yes. I mean, again, we just had this product leadership off-site with leaders from around the world. And it was just amazing seeing so many people working on so many similar problems like we had people from our Tokyo office at Pairs and our Paris office who work on Meetic and our Vancouver office who work on recommendations and our L.A. office, who are working on Tinder. And they're all focused on a lot of the same problems. How do you improve trust and safety? How do you improve recommendations? How do you let people show up more authentically? How do you bring more friends into the dating experience?

So getting more knowledge sharing and then, in some cases, more than knowledge sharing, actual shared technologies has been a big priority of mine, and it's great to actually see it starting to have an impact.

That's all the time we have for today. I hope the product video helped bring to light just how much Tinder has changed. And more importantly, I hope our discussion helped explain how we're making it happen. We are now understanding consumers better than ever. We're building faster and more thoughtfully. We're using technologies like AI to accelerate that. And I'm going to let Mark and Vinay get back to building. So back to work guys.

Thank you.

Thanks, everybody.

Welcome to the Match Group Second Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Please note, this conference is being recorded.

I would now like to turn the conference over to Tanny Shelburne, Senior Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you, operator, and good afternoon, everyone. Today's call will be led by CEO, Spencer Rascoff; and CFO, Steven Bailey. We'll make a few brief remarks, and then we'll open it up for questions.

Before we start, I need to remind everyone that during this call, we may discuss our outlook and future performance. These forward-looking statements may be preceded by words such as we expect, we believe, we anticipate or similar statements. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties, and our actual results could differ materially from the views expressed today. Some of these risks have been set forth in our earnings release and our periodic reports with the SEC.

Also during this call, we'll discuss certain non-GAAP financial measures. Reconciliations to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures are provided in the published materials on our IR website. These non-GAAP measures are not intended to be substitutes for our GAAP results.

With that, I'd like to turn the call over to Spencer.

Good afternoon, and thanks for joining us. This was a strong quarter for Match Group and an important one for Tinder. Over the past year, our priority at Tinder has been making the product work better for users. That includes improving our recommendations algorithms, introducing lower pressure ways to connect like Double Date and Modes and up-leveling trust and safety. Monthly active users, or MAU, declines have narrowed significantly since we began this work, supported by a better product experience that is improving user outcomes and increasing engagement. Daily active users, or DAU trends have also improved meaningfully, and we expect them to turn positive year-over-year any day now.

This is a huge milestone for us. It will be the first time that Tinder has had positive year-over-year usage in more than 3 years. To reach our ultimate goal of returning to MAU growth, we need to drive more reconsideration through product innovation and marketing. That means giving the millions of singles who have used Tinder before and those who have never tried more reasons to download the app. Tinder's second half road map is geared to do exactly that.

Meanwhile, Hinge continues to deliver strong growth with meaningful runway across product innovation, international expansion and monetization. And at E&E, which now stands for Everyone, Everywhere, we are sharpening the strategy and applying more of Match Group's shared capabilities. We delivered these improvements while maintaining strong financial performance, with total revenue down just 1% and adjusted EBITDA growing 14% year-over-year. And we've continued to return meaningful capital to shareholders at the same time.

Before I joined, Tinder was not shipping features quickly enough to keep pace with evolving user expectations. That has changed. AI has accelerated execution across product development life cycles, enabling us to move faster and execute against an ambitious second half road map designed around how Gen Z wants to connect.

Our internal research shows that nearly half of singles aged 18 to 29 want to share in-person experiences with people who could become closer connections. Yet for a generation that grew up online, making that transition into real life can still feel hard. That is why we are doubling down on more social, lower pressure ways for users to connect in real life.

Our Events feature is an important component of that strategy. It gives users a dedicated place inside Tinder to discover local activities, see who else is interested before attending and continue connecting afterward. We began piloting Events in Los Angeles in March. And since then, more than 60 events have brought Tinder users together in person. We see the value of Events extending far beyond those who attend. Bringing more real-world connection into the experience can help shift perception of Tinder and the category more broadly, giving singles a reason to reconsider and try the app.

Early signals support that potential. Roughly 3 in 5 people who do not use Tinder today say Events would make them more likely to do so, and a similar share say it would make connecting feel easier. Over half also describe the experience as something uniquely Tinder. During the Los Angeles pilot, 71% of eligible users aged 18 to 24 engaged with the in-app Events tab, and more than half of users who visited the tab returned the following week. Based on that success, Events is now live in 9 additional cities across the U.S. and Europe, with plans to reach 26 cities by the end of September.

Today, we are scaling events through a low-cost model built primarily around partnerships with leading event providers. Missed Connections brings the in-app and real-world experiences together by surfacing a weekly curated set of profiles in a dedicated tab based on who users crossed paths with in the prior week. It's now testing in Canada and Australia and creating a more serendipitous way to discover someone new while continuing to prioritize user safety and privacy. AI helped this team move from idea to final product in just a few weeks, compressing what would typically be a multi-month development process.

We're also expanding how users discover people inside Tinder. In Canada, we are testing a new text-based search feature to help users find people they are interested in more efficiently. Early adoption is promising, with approximately 10% of exposed users submitting a search and tens of thousands of searches generated in the first few weeks.

At the same time, we continue to improve our recommendations algorithms. Earlier this year, updates to our algorithm for straight women drove significant gains in Sparks and Spark Coverage. In mid-July, we rolled out an updated version that is delivering further engagement improvements, and we're now extending these updates to straight men and LGBTQ+ users, where we expect to see similar benefits over time. We are also testing more ambitious changes to our core discovery section and profile quality, including a reimagined user experience with more contextual, individually engaging profile elements and AI-powered profile building.

Together, these changes are supported by Tinder's first full rebrand in nearly a decade. Now live globally, the more modern Tinder identity includes a new logo, color palette, wordmark, typography and visual identity. This gives Tinder a fresh new look, and early results have been positive, with nearly all engagement metrics improving post rollout.

Tinder's richer product road map is creating a steady cadence of new marketing moments, giving users more reason to reconsider the app as it evolves. In the U.S., recent Music Mode and Astrology Mode campaigns have helped improve new registrations among women. We have also shifted our strategy more towards lower funnel channels, which now represent roughly half of our total spend, up from 30% last year. And we believe that shift is helping trends among women. In the second half, we plan to build on that momentum with targeted marketing around Events, Modes and Search.

Employee engagement at Tinder is higher than it's been in years, reinforcing a belief I've held throughout my career: Great people, properly motivated, build great products, and that's exactly what we are seeing at Tinder. In Q2, improvements to the Tinder experience continued to translate into stronger engagement, particularly in key markets and demos, and those trends strengthened further in July.

DAU declined 4% year-over-year in Q2, its best result in the past 10 quarters, and a significant improvement from declines of roughly 10% less than a year ago, while global user retention increased 1% year-over-year. In July, DAU improved for the fifth consecutive month to down nearly 2.5% year-over-year. Together, these metrics show that as the experience improves, users are more likely to return, whether the next day to continue a conversation or the next month to make a new connection.

Sparks and Spark Coverage remain important indicators of whether Tinder is helping users form meaningful connections. In Q2, both metrics were broadly stable versus Q1, globally and among women. Sparks declined 4% year-over-year in Q2, while Spark Coverage grew 2% year-over-year as we began to comp over product improvements from last year. The stability in Q2 shows the product improvements we've made are having a lasting impact. Following the mid-July rollout of the latest version of Tinder's recommendation algorithms, Sparks and Spark Coverage have moved substantially higher through month end.

We also saw improvement in MAU. MAU declined 7% year-over-year in Q2, 1 point better than the 8% decline in Q1, with the biggest gains in our most important markets and user demos. Year-over-year MAU trends improved across each of Tinder's top 5 revenue countries. In the U.S., its largest market, declines slowed by approximately 2.5 points in Q2 compared to Q1. We saw similar progress among women, where MAU improved across all major geographic regions and age groups, with global MAU among women down 8% year-over-year, 3 points better than the 11% year-over-year decline in Q1.

As MAU improves, we're seeing that directly translate into improved year-over-year direct revenue and payer trends over time. Payer penetration, the percentage of MAU paying for subscription or a la carte feature, was up year-over-year in Q2, both globally and across Tinder's top 5 revenue countries in aggregate. And direct revenue per MAU was up 6% year-over-year globally. While we don't expect these metrics to always move in lockstep every quarter, given that we have some user experience tests and monetization initiatives can have short-term impacts to payers or revenue, the longer-term trend is clear and gives us confidence that continued MAU improvement should support better payer and revenue results over time.

Turning to Hinge. Hinge continues to be the best example in our portfolio of product-led growth at scale. Hinge has strong product market fit with intention to daters, and its designed to be deleted promise is clear. The team is disciplined about building against one objective: helping users get out on great dates.

Global MAU grew 13% year-over-year in Q2, driven by strong growth in its expansion markets. In core markets where Hinge remains a top downloaded app and has achieved significant scale, MAU remained relatively flat year-over-year, while revenue continued to grow double digits in aggregate. The team is focused on further strengthening its position in core markets through product innovation and brand storytelling that supports the evolving needs of Gen Z daters.

In the U.S., the Can't Believe We Met on Hinge brand marketing campaign speaks to the vulnerable emotion behind dating, where the process can feel frustrating, but the desire for a meaningful relationship remains strong. Early results are encouraging, driving a positive lift in overall registrations and in particular, among young women as well as a measurable impact on brand sentiment.

Hinge is still expected to reach $1 billion in revenue in 2027, and we see 3 primary drivers of that growth: product innovation, international expansion and monetization runway. First, product innovation. Hinge continues to improve its core user experience across the dating journey, from self-expression and discovery, to early engagement on the app, to ultimately meeting in person.

Friend's Take, which officially launched in mid-July, brings the people who know you best into an individual's dating experience. Friends and family can contribute text, voice, video and photo reflections to a user's profile that help create a richer, more authentic picture of who someone is. The team is improving its recommendation algorithms with a particular focus on the women's experience and testing features like Your Type Lately in select markets, which lets daters describe what they're looking for in their own words, from hobbies to personal values.

Gen Z daters learn more about what they're looking for as they date. This approach clarifies who a user is drawn to right now and adjusts recommendations for that user. For returning users, prefilled basics lets people who deleted their accounts pick up where they left off instead of starting from scratch. It is a simple change that reduces friction for intention daters to reenter the ecosystem and start having relevant experiences and success more quickly.

AI is also becoming more important to building the Hinge experience. The team is building its first reinforcement learning model to better understand when a user may need help and what kind of help would be most useful, whether it's a nudge, a tip or other prompt at the right moment. Over time, we see a path for this to become a broader personalization layer across Hinge.

And finally, Signals makes effort and follow-through more visible, recognizing and rewarding daters who demonstrate thoughtful participation, which is particularly important for women. The Signals badge also creates a new surface area for value creation, allowing subscribers to filter on only those users with a badge. Signals is driving meaningful outcomes for users, including more conversations while incentivizing better behavior like sending likes with comments. Signals also led to a 15% increase in selfie verification for existing users in tests.

Second, international expansion. Hinge grew direct revenue 86% year-over-year across its European expansion markets and maintained the #1 downloaded position in aggregate across those markets in Q2. Hinge also entered 6 new European countries during Q2. Beyond Europe, we continue to see meaningful runway in Latin America, where Hinge has entered 4 new countries, building on the momentum in Brazil and Mexico. India is also an important expansion market for Hinge, supported by already strong organic growth and representing the brand's first meaningful push into Asia.

Third, monetization. We see significant runway for future monetization through both further payer penetration and monetization optimizations over time at Hinge. We also plan to begin testing an additional subscription tier in Q3. The goal for Hinge is to create offerings that are new, differentiated and highly relevant to women that are worth paying for.

Stepping back, Hinge is already a strong business, but the long-term opportunity remains large. The team is executing, and they are doing it in a way that stays anchored in what makes Hinge distinct, helping intentioned daters get off the app and on to great dates.

Turning to E&E, which now stands for Everyone, Everywhere. Over the past quarter, we completed a deep review of E&E and have established a clear direction for the portfolio. E&E, which now includes our 2 Asia-based businesses, Pairs and Azar, serves distinct audiences across community, geography, identity, lifestyle and life stage. With the major platform migrations now complete, the portfolio has a stronger foundation to execute from.

Moving forward, E&E has sharper brand-by-brand priorities, with a greater emphasis on user outcomes and ecosystem health. We are making more deliberate investment choices and aligning resources behind the brands and capabilities with the strongest long-term potential. E&E brands are benefiting from shared Match Group capabilities, including trust and safety, recommendation algorithms, cross-sell, centralized marketing, consumer research and more.

Under this One MG approach, we are building shared capabilities that can support multiple brands over time. For example, we expect Tinder Events to power in-app events on BLK in Q4, with the potential to extend the capability to other E&E brands in ways tailored to their audiences. We're also integrating analytics and performance marketing while increasing collaboration in recommendations and trust and safety. There is still work ahead, but the early progress we see gives us confidence that E&E is moving in the right direction. We look forward to sharing more in the coming quarters.

Turning to final thoughts. I'll leave you with this. Our mission is rooted in a simple truth: Humans need humans. At a time when technology often pulls people further into their screens, we are building products that help people form meaningful connections in the real world. Our progress this quarter demonstrates our sustainable growth flywheel is working. Product innovation, increasingly powered by AI and One MG, is delivering better user outcomes. Those outcomes strengthen engagement, retention and ecosystem health, which supports audience growth, and over time, stronger financial performance. Our job now is to keep every part of that flywheel turning faster and better convert experiences into sustainable growth. That's how revitalize becomes resurgence.

With that, I'll turn it over to Steve.

Thanks, Spencer. We're pleased with our Q2 results. Revenue was in line with our expectations, and adjusted EBITDA exceeded our expectations. As a reminder, we reorganized the business into 3 segments: Tinder, Hinge and E&E, which now includes our Azar and Pairs businesses. Historical periods have been recast in the supplemental materials available on our IR website. Unless otherwise noted, all amounts are on an as-reported basis, and comparisons will be discussed on a year-over-year basis. More details can be found in the financial table below.

In Q2, Match Group's total revenue was $853 million, down 1%, down 2% on a foreign exchange-neutral basis. FX was $2 million worse than we expected at the time of our last earnings call. Pairs declined 6% to $13.3 million, while RPP increased 6% to $21.13. Indirect revenue was $13 million, down 28%, reflecting lower spend from our top advertisers compared to a strong Q2 last year as well as some reallocation of spend during the World Cup.

In Q2, Match Group's adjusted EBITDA was $331 million, up 14%, representing an adjusted EBITDA margin of 39%. Tinder direct revenue in Q2 was $457 million, down 1% and down 2% FXM. Q2 direct revenue includes an approximately $8 million negative impact from user experience tests and product changes in the quarter. Payers declined 5% to 8.5 million, consistent with our expectations. RPP increased 4% to $17.90. Adjusted EBITDA in the quarter was $233 million, down 5%, representing an adjusted EBITDA margin of 50%.

Hinge direct revenue in Q2 was $204 million, up 22% and up 20% FXM. Payers increased 17% to 2 million, and RPP increased 4% to $33.11. Adjusted EBITDA was $79 million, up 48%, representing an adjusted EBITDA margin of 39%.

E&E direct revenue in Q2 was $179 million, down 17% and down 17% FXM. Payers declined 21% to 2.7 million, while RPP increased 4% to $22.24. The revenue impact from Azar's app redesign was approximately $5 million better than we anticipated at the time of our last earnings call. Adjusted EBITDA was $54 million, up 69%, representing an adjusted EBITDA margin of 30%.

Including stock-based compensation expense, total operating expenses in Q2 were down 9%. Cost of revenue decreased 16% and represented 24% of total revenue, down 4 points as a percentage of total revenue, primarily driven by alternative payment savings. Selling and marketing costs increased $10 million or 7%, up 1 point as a percentage of total revenue to 19% as a result of increased marketing spend at Tinder and Hinge, partially offset by reduced marketing spend at E&E.

General and administrative costs decreased 22%, down 3 points as a percentage of total revenue to 12%, driven by lower headcount-related costs, including SBC and lower legal expenses. Product development costs were flat year-over-year and as a percent of total revenue at 13%. Depreciation and amortization decreased by $5 million to $24 million.

Our trailing 12-month gross leverage was 2.7x, and net leverage was 2.2x at the end of Q2. We ended the quarter with $584 million of cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments on hand and used $424 million of cash to pay off the exchangeable notes that matured in June. Year-to-date through Q2, we generated operating cash flow of $564 million and free cash flow of $527 million. We repurchased 7.3 million shares at an average price of $34 per share for a total of $245 million, paid $91 million in dividends and deployed $92 million of cash towards net settlement of employee equity awards, equating to 81% of free cash flow.

Between July 1 and July 31, 2026, we repurchased an additional 430,000 shares at an average price of $38 per share for a total of $16 million. As of July 31, 2026, we reduced diluted shares outstanding by 5% year-over-year. Our capital allocation strategy remains unchanged, prioritizing investment in the business to drive growth, returning capital to shareholders through buybacks and the dividend and selective M&A.

Now for Q3 guidance. We expect Q3 total revenue for Match Group of $885 million to $895 million, down 2% to 3% year-over-year. This range assumes a 1-point headwind from FX. FX-neutral, we expect total revenue to be down 1% to 2% year-over-year. Q3 total revenue guidance assumes a $10 million negative impact from Tinder's user experience test and product changes and a $15 million negative impact from lower Azar direct revenue as a result of the required app redesign. We expect indirect revenue to be approximately $15 million in the quarter. We expect Match Group adjusted EBITDA of $330 million to $335 million, representing a 10% increase and adjusted EBITDA margin of 37% at the midpoint of the ranges.

Moving to full year 2026 guidance. We expect Match Group total revenue to be near the midpoint of the guidance range provided in February on an as-reported basis and at or above the midpoint FXN. We now expect FX to be an approximately 0.5 point tailwind to full year total revenue, 0.5 point worse than we expected when we provided our guidance in February. We continue to expect full year indirect revenue to decline in the mid-teens percent. We expect adjusted EBITDA to be at or above the high end of our guidance range provided in February and adjusted EBITDA margin to exceed our 37.5% target, benefiting from better Tinder direct revenue trends, alternative payment optimizations and cost discipline across the company, partially offset by incremental marketing spend at Tinder and Hinge in Q3 and Q4.

At Tinder, we expect direct revenue to decline in the low single-digit percent, an improvement from our full year guidance provided in February. We expect Tinder user experience test and product changes to be a $30 million to $40 million negative impact to direct revenue, less than the $60 million impact we included in our initial guidance. At Hinge, we expect direct revenue to be in line with our full year guidance provided in February. At E&E, our full year guidance in February, inclusive of Azar and Pairs, would have been direct revenue declines in the low double digits and adjusted EBITDA margin in the mid- to high 20%. We now expect E&E direct revenue to decline in the mid-teens percent, primarily due to the Azar app redesign and adjusted EBITDA margin to be in the high 20%.

We expect free cash flow to be at the high end of our guidance range provided in February. We expect SBC expense to be $230 million to $240 million for the full year, a $20 million improvement at the midpoint of the range versus our initial guidance, reflecting continued discipline on headcount-related costs.

With that, let's turn it over to Q&A.

[Operator Instructions] Our first question today is from James Heaney with Jefferies.

Curious, what you think is driving DAUs for Tinder to turn positive sometime in the next few days? I know you have a lot of initiatives in place, but curious if there's anything in particular? And also interested in why the DAU improvement is more pronounced than what you're seeing in terms of MAUs?

Thanks for the question, James. So the big picture on turning around Tinder is three steps. The first is improving the product so that our existing users have a better experience. The second is relaunching the brand with a redesign, which we've just done. And the third is to use Events and other features to drive new users who either aren't using Tinder or perhaps have never used Tinder.

So what we've done so far has really improved the product itself, and that's why DAU is improving so quickly because we're getting a higher level of engagement from our existing users. To try to select what it is that's specifically driving product improvements is difficult because we've done so much. We've done Double Date, Astrology, Music Mode, Events, Video Speed Date. We're about to launch a Groups feature. We've improved recommendations. We've got better notifications and SMS messaging. We have Face Check. We did a rebrand. We now have Search. We redesigned Chat. We redesigned the Likes You tab. We've built new profiles and photo upload. We basically changed every single thing about the Tinder app in the last 12 months, all to great effect.

If I had to choose one, which is difficult, the one I would choose would be the recommendation algorithm improvements, where we are showing more people, the people that would be good matches for them, and that is driving better user retention. I'll give you some data, some of which I shared in the prepared remarks, some of which is kind of breaking news, I'll give you some info here.

So matches are up 14% year-over-year. And last quarter, matches were up 7% year-over-year. Unique people with Sparks in Q2 were down 4% year-over-year. In July, they were down only 1% year-over-year. And today, in August, it's trending better than the July numbers. Spark coverage was up 2% year-over-year in Q2. In July, it was up 5% year-over-year. And today, in August, it's trending better than the July numbers. And DAU, as you mentioned, was down 4% year-over-year in Q2. In July, it was down 2.5% year-over-year. And today, in August, it's almost positive. So we continue to gain momentum even day by day.

To your question about why is DAU ahead of MAU, that comes to the point around driving reconsideration for people who either aren't Tinder users today or maybe have never been Tinder users. And the big initiative there is Events. So we fired the starting gun on Events in January. In March, we were in 1 city. In July, we were in 5 cities. Today, we're in 10 cities, including in Europe. In September, we'll be in 26 cities. By the end of the year, we'll be in 75 cities. So the product and engineering team and the event operations team are moving very, very quickly, launching event partnerships in new parts of the world and also building products and features to support it, like letting users see mini profiles of who will be attending events, letting people message one another after the event.

In terms of our optimism for why we think this will drive engagement among new users, well, our research says that 60% of non-Tinder users say they're more likely to use Tinder because of Events. And as I already shared in the prepared remarks, 71% of 18- to 24-year-olds engaged with the Events tab, and more than half of those that engage with the Events tab come back the following week to engage further with it. So we have a lot of qualitative research and also quantitative research to give us confidence that this will be a powerful way to drive reconsideration and change perception of Tinder for new users and lapsed users. Next question, please.

The next question is from Shweta Khajuria with Wolfe Research.

I have one, it's a little bit of a follow-up. So payer penetration improved year-over-year, and payer growth is down year-over-year. So I guess, could you please talk to that gap and how you see that gap narrowing to turn that around into positive growth? And then on DAU turning almost positive, how are you thinking about the lag between DAU to MAU to payer? Anything on that in terms of timing of that, that would be great.

Thanks for the question. Let me take the payer penetration one. Yes, look, there's a couple of things we said. One, payer penetration was up year-over-year in Q2 globally. That's true. And also direct revenue per MAU, which takes into consideration payer penetration and RPP, was up 6% year-over-year in Q2 at Tinder as well.

Yes, payers are still down, but they're declining at less than the rate of MAU. That's why payer penetration is up. And that's a trend we've seen for some time now. Those two metrics tend to follow together, which is great. The payers declines are less than MAU. It's been that way for quite some time now. They won't move in lockstep every quarter. I don't think we should expect that.

And really why that is, is because we're doing -- we've talked a lot about user experience tests and product initiatives that can have impact to payers. And also, sometimes monetization initiatives can have impact to payers, but are clearly the right thing to do for long-term revenue. So there can be some disconnect in any particular quarter, but the long-term trend is very consistent. As MAU improves, payers have improved the trend. And in fact, for the last couple of years, payer declines have been less than MAU declines, and that points to the fact that payer penetration is up. So that's how I would think about it.

In terms of the expectation going forward, I do expect payer declines to lessen a little bit in the back half of the year in Q3 and Q4 from where they are today at minus 5%. So that's what we're counting on. That's what's included in the guidance.

The next question is from Benjamin Black with Deutsche Bank.

Spencer, I think you spoke about testing a reimagined user experience with more contextual and individually engaging profile elements. Could you dig into that a little bit more? And perhaps more broadly, how do you think about the Tinder user experience evolving over the next 12 to 18 months?

And then, Steve, I guess, for you, [ your low ] expectations for the giveback for the year. Could you just talk about the genesis of that decision? And how should we think about the reallocation of those savings potentially?

Yes. Thanks for the question. It was a bit of a mouthful, the way I described changes to the user experience, it's because we're testing so many different things. So I'll describe it this way. The Tinder historical product experience for how you browse and assess potential compatibility with people has historically been quite simplistic, which is a feature and a bug, meaning that it's historically been a quick assessment of a photo-centric presentation of somebody. You're looking at a photo and you're saying, quickly, is this person to fit for me? Yes, no. If yes, swipe right, if no, swipe left.

We've been slowly changing that product orientation to present more of the whole self into the evaluation of whether there's compatibility. Why? Because we think that's where consumer tastes are. We think that consumers want to assess the overall person's compatibility, including the way they answer prompts with [ pros ]. They want to consider things other than just the appearance of the photo.

But to make that change requires a very -- a lot of complexity. You have to, first of all, change the profile creation so that people are encouraged to enter qualitative information and answer questions with text. You have to help them with photo selection so that it's easier for them to add more photos so the profiles are more complete. You have to test the different displays of the profiles and make sure that you're balancing user improvements with monetization.

So this is work in progress. We've made a lot of progress already, but we're continuing to experiment with different ways to give people a better sense of potential compatibility that slow things down and are more attuned to changing consumer taste, but we have to balance that with monetization at the same time. Steve, the second?

Yes. Let me take the users. Let me just start at the beginning so we're all on the same page. We originally said $60 million for the full year in user experience tests. That's a negative impact to full year revenue. That's what we sort of included in our guide.

Then last quarter, we said we had expected $45 million in the second half of the year. And now we're saying that's only going to be $30 million to $40 million for the full year. So the $60 million for the full year has come down to $30 million to $40 million for the full year. The way that breaks out -- you guys can do this math, but let me just help you. It was $5 million in Q1 of user experience-related revenue declines. Q2 was $8 million. Q3, we're guiding to $10 million, which means Q4 will come in, we think we expect between $7 million and $17 million. That's how it breaks out by quarter.

Why is it less than what we originally expected? As you know, we were coming in less than expected for the first couple of quarters of the year. So that's part of it, but we had kept that $45 million in the second half when we talked 3 months ago. The biggest reason for that was we were a little bit unsure of how the rebrand in particular would play out and what impact that might have on revenue and engagement metrics. Often, rebrands can have revenue impacts just because we're changing so much about the UI and sometimes, UX.

That, thankfully, did not happen. We saw no revenue impacts. We saw positive -- largely positive impact to user engagement. So that's what's given us the confidence to take down the full year expectation at this point. Why we have a range of possible outcomes for Q4 between $7 million and $17 million, that's obviously related to the testing we're planning to do between now and the end of the year.

If you -- I think the biggest swing factor there is what Spencer just talked about. It's the reimagined profile and browse experience. We want to give the teams room to test and be creative and really think about different ways to improve the product. So I think that, coupled with obviously -- with some continued [ REX ] testing, those are the things that will -- depending on how they roll out are tested and what impact they might have, that will determine where we come in out for Q4. So hopefully, that brings some clarity to user experience test budget.

The next question is from Nathan Feather with Morgan Stanley.

First, on the Events feature, really interesting addition. Given the local nature there, how do you scale that up so that you can reach a meaningful portion of the base? And just any way to frame of those 75 cities you're entering, what portion of your user base in those cities or in those metro areas? And then also, sorry if I missed it in the letter, but what was the July MAU growth?

Okay. Yes. So thanks, Nathan. On Events, most of the events are coming into the platform through partnerships, some with national, some with regional partners, some with local partners. So we have an event sourcing team that's building out those partnerships that allows us to scale to expand to many cities.

What we've seen so far in the first couple of cities is that even more important than the number of the people -- the number of people that actually attend the events or the percent of our DAU or MAU in a given city that attend the events is the amplification of these events on social media. That's actually what gives people the kind of permission in their own minds to start changing brand perception about Tinder. They see people using the Tinder app or talking about Tinder on social and attending an event and say to themselves, wow, I didn't know that Tinder had events. I didn't -- this is a new way to meet people fun and safely with friends. And it changes perception even if they are not actually attending the event themselves. So we feel like this can start to bend the curve on perception and reconsideration even if it only touches a relatively small percentage of total users in a given city.

Yes. We did not give a July MAU stat. We talked about DAU. One of the reasons we do that is just because there's a -- we have to go through a defrauding process, and it's really not the best idea to give MAU just a couple of days outside of a month. So that's one of the reasons we didn't give it, but we did give DAU. So hopefully that -- and some of the other engagement metrics. So hopefully, that helps give a sense of how Q3 is off to a good start.

The next question is from Jason Helfstein with Oppenheimer.

So Spencer, I really appreciate the detailed Tinder metrics clearly showing you improved the product. Maybe any comments about pricing? Do you need to reevaluate how you price the service? Anything you can share? And then to the extent you scale Events in a big way, how do you think about that impacting margins, Steve, over time?

Yes. Let me take the Event cost first. So Jason, there are really three components to execute on this Events initiative. The first is the cost associated with the product and engineering team, which is a couple of pods that are building the feature set for Events. That is not an incremental cost because those are products and engineering folks that would otherwise be working on other initiatives, whether it's Music Mode, Astrology Mode, Face Check, all the other work that we do day-to-day. So that's not incremental.

The second cost is the marketing and advertising associated with telling the world that we have events. That also is not incremental because if we weren't promoting Tinder Events, we would be promoting Astrology or Music or Face Check or some other initiative. And then there's -- number three is the event sourcing team, which is still quite small, fewer than 10 people in scale. This team is also very AI native across both marketing, product engineering and also event sourcing. So we're doing it extremely efficiently. So we don't see this as materially changing the profitability profile of Tinder.

In addition, we're building all of this in a multi-tenant way, meaning Tinder Events is going to power initially BLK, and then over time, other Match Group apps. With different events, of course, but the event sourcing team will globally source events overall at the Match Group level, and then our different apps will select the events that are appropriate for their audiences. So the cost of the product engineering and the cost of the event sourcing team are amortized across multiple Match Group apps.

Just a broader question around Tinder pricing and...

Right. Yes, on Tinder pricing. So we have some new surface areas, Jason, that we can potentially consider monetizing now, including Events, including Search and some other new areas that our product innovation have brought us towards. We haven't yet -- we're just starting to have those conversations. We haven't yet developed a point of view on how we should be thinking about monetization with some of these new surface areas. Hinge building a new pricing tier in late 2026 at a lower price point is going to give us a lot of insight, which we'll learn from as we decide how best to approach monetization for Tinder in 2027.

The next question is from Robert Coolbrith with Evercore ISI.

I just wanted to ask on the mobile direct billing opportunity. I know there are some changes there a few weeks back with respect to Google Play, both on policy and pricing. I guess, there's a sense out that there may be a platform level fee to pay to Apple as well. So just wondering if you may provide any update on how you're thinking about those cost savings?

And then second, I wanted to ask about the issue of reconsideration. Maybe a couple of questions related to that. Have you continued to monitor contact exchange in markets where you have access to that data to make sure that Sparks sort of properly correlate to contact exchange, people going on dates? Just wondering if that's continuing to trend in the right direction, if you're monitoring it.

And then secondarily, related to reconsideration or consideration, what do you think is potentially the biggest lever you can pull or -- we continue to see think pieces out there from -- at the Atlantic, I think there was one this week about people's hesitance to get out there and date. Just wondering about what do you think you can do to drive reconsideration of the category and Tinder in particular?

Yes. Let me take the IP piece and give you an update on everything going on there. So let me start with Apple. Apple, there's not any real new news to update you on, but it's still moving through the courts. The Epic versus Apple case, of course, it's both in the District Court and the Supreme Court now. We expect to know more later this year, early next year on those cases.

And until then, still 0% commissions on alternative payments. We still continue to optimize and do a really good job there. We now think it will contribute about $130 million of savings to 2026. That's about $20 million better than we expected at the beginning of the year. So that's been a big win for us.

And then on Google, you're right, there is a little bit of new news there. They had put out a new global fee structure back in March, but it was blocked by the courts from going into effect in the U.S. That's no longer the case, and they're going to move forward with that fee structure, and it will go into effect -- it's already in effect in certain parts of Europe. It will go into effect in the U.S. on March 1, and then it goes into effect across other geographies in the world sort of through the rest of 2026 and into 2027.

That fee structure does reduce commission rates a little bit on in-app purchases for ALC-type purchases, but only for new installs. It reduces the fees from like 30% to 25% there. That helps us a little bit, but not a lot. The bigger consideration is there's really no economic benefit in this fee structure for alternative payments. Once you consider the payment processing fees, you have to pay the credit card companies, it really doesn't make a lot of sense to do it.

And so unfortunately, the net of all this is a very small benefit to us in '27. We estimate it to be maybe $5 million. It's a disappointing outcome, to be honest, for us and I think many other developers. It could change from other legal or regulatory reasons. But for now, that's where things stand and what we're planning against. I hope that provides some clarity.

On the question of reconsideration and category headwinds and Gen Z adoption, I'd say the following. The product road map that we've been following at Tinder and at Hinge is all about regaining and improving product market fit with young users. So for example, Double Date on Tinder, users under the age of 30 are 70% more likely to use Double Date than users over the age of 30. So that just speaks to the level of interest in social features and bringing your friends into dating.

That's -- Tinder has -- like that user insight exists at the Match Group level, and then Tinder has acted on it by building Double Date. And Hinge has acted on it by building Friend's Take, which is very consistent with the different brand positioning of these two apps, but they're both taking this consumer insight that young daters want to bring their friends into dating and make it a more social experience.

Events also speaks to the increase in cost and stress and safety concerns around dating, which is one of the things that holds the category back. So if you go on a one-on-one date, it's $20 to $100 to spend 1 or 2 or 3 hours to assess compatibility with one person. Events on Tinder, however, are a much more scaled way to have fun with your friends, meet a larger group of new people to assess potential compatibility, have a fun night out.

And 30% of our events on Tinder are free. Of the paid events, our average cost is $30. And even that is kind of overstated because many of our events have Tinder benefits for Tinder attendees. So it's a much better value as a way to meet new people and also just have a good time, very consistent with how Gen Z approaches social and dating and the intersection of the two. Next question, please.

And the final question today comes from Youssef Squali with Truist.

Maybe a couple. So could you guys talk about Hinge's organic growth on a like-for-like basis? I know that you've expanded them into a bunch of markets. There are more markets coming. Are there any other material markets or regions where you'd like to still take it and extend that growth? And I have a quick follow-up after that.

Let me just -- I now recall, the prior questioner asked about contact exchange, and I just want to cover off on that. The answer is yes, we are still monitoring contact exchange in addition to Sparks and Spark Coverage. We just think that Sparks and Spark Coverage are a better metric because for a variety of reasons that notably, it's difficult to know whether contacts have been exchanged, and there are certain geographies where we can't infer that because of different privacy issues. So we prefer looking at Sparks. But yes, we are also tracking contact exchange, and it continues to correlate. Steve, question on Hinge?

Yes, I can talk a little bit about Hinge growth. So -- and feel free to jump in, Spencer, if you want. But globally, MAU growth has been great, up 13% in Q2. Revenue growth continues to be very strong, 22% in Q2. The European expansion markets are driving a lot of that. Revenue grew there by 86%. We entered 6 new countries in Europe and 4 in LatAm. This is what you're speaking to. Core market growth has remained relatively flat, which we also discussed about in the prepared remarks. But revenue growth there continues to be very strong.

So that's the way I would think about it is relatively flat user growth in core markets, but still double-digit revenue and then still very strong growth in the international expansion markets. And look, what Hinge has been able to prove is that every market it enters, it's resonating with singles.

And so there's lots of parts of the world we haven't entered. Asia would be the next big one from a TAM perspective. They are moving into India, where they've had really strong organic growth. They're going to put some marketing spend behind that now. And then there's other parts of Asia that would be a natural next step. But that's how I think about user and revenue growth across the various geographies.

That's helpful. And lastly, how do you guys see this the trend for payer decline in E&E? I know it's a catch-all. But as we look at the second half of the year, maybe you can just highlight areas or the brands that are kind of -- that you believe are ultimately going to maybe outperform relative to some of the ones that are underperforming?

Yes. Let me just start with -- obviously, we just resegmented the company. So now E&E, so we're clear, also includes Azar and Pairs. And one of the biggest areas of pressure we're facing with E&E is Azar. If you recall, we got removed from the App Store back in late March, had to redesign the whole app. The team did a fantastic job there. We're now back in the App Store, but at a much lower revenue base.

So we've called out that, that's about a $15 million negative impact to Match Group revenue each quarter, and that, we expect again in Q3. So that's also affecting Pairs as well. Spencer, do you want to talk about some of the brands within E&E, or anything to add?

Yes, absolutely. So we've just done a kind of brand review. You probably saw we shut down Archer when we made the investment in Sniffies. We're focused now on a smaller number of brands within E&E, and we're surging our product and engineering resources on a couple of those brands, including Match and OurTime and BLK and [ Upward ], just a couple of the examples of the brands that we're particularly focused on. We -- some of those expand us to new TAM like OurTime and [ Upward ] and BLK. Some of them are very large, like Match or also Pairs and Azar are in that focused brand category.

So we're redoing the product road maps. We're reorienting our marketing spend across those brands that we think are really important. We're bringing a One MG mindset to it, where we're now through the replatforming, so new initiatives like a new profile experience or a new photo upload or modernizing recommendations, these are all things that now we're building once and deploying everywhere across all of our E&E brands at the same time. Soon, we'll be deploying Face Check, which will improve trust and safety across all of E&E. We've integrated performance marketing or I guess we're in the midst of integrating performance marketing across all the E&E brands.

We're about to rebuild our CRM, notifications and e-mail across all the E&E brands. So it's very early in the E&E focused turnaround. We're following the Tinder playbook and -- but we're just getting started, and I'll update you all more in the coming quarters.

Thank you. I think that's the last question. So I'll just wrap up. I'd say we feel great about how 2026 is shaping up. Tinder is ahead of expectations. Hinge is tracking in line, and E&E has headwinds from Azar, but as we just said, we're battling through those. We're also confident in Tinder's path through the end of next year, and we expect MAU to be flat by the end of Q4 of next year.

So I guess I would conclude by just saying, I guess, also on Tinder, that payers should return to growth by Q4 of next year and full year revenue of 2027 for Tinder should be up over 2026. We're doing all of this, this product-led turnaround while also delivering profitability and capital returns. EBITDA -- adjusted EBITDA is going to be at or above the high end of guidance, and we're going to continue returning 100% of free cash flow to shareholders through buybacks and dividends.

So that results in attractive free cash flow per share because of the share count reduction and the free cash flow growth. And we're doing all this while turning around a couple of really important products around the world. Thanks, everyone, for your interest this quarter. We look forward to talking to you all soon. Bye-bye.

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.

Hi, everyone. Welcome to our first ever CEO Connection event. This is a new series where we'll dive into a topic of particular interest. We're excited to have you here on webcast and live stream. On earnings calls, obviously, we spend most of our time focusing on financial performance and operating metrics. So this event gives us a chance to go deeper on the consumer insights that inform how we think about the category and our product strategy.

We get asked versions of the same question all the time, which is, has Gen Z basically abandoned dating apps? Our answer to that is no, not at all. They still want connection, but their needs around what that connection looks like have evolved. So today, we'll help frame an understanding around Gen Z.

This is not a product presentation like our Sparks event, and it's not a quarterly earnings update. It's a discussion on the future of human connection and what we're learning from younger generations, how expectations are evolving and how those insights inform how we build products across the company.

Today's discussion may include forward-looking statements. Some of those risks related to that are listed here and in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Before we get into the research, I want to introduce today's speakers. I have with me 2 of the world's foremost experts on Gen Z and on consumer insights. I'm joined by Emily Dods, who leads Global Brand Strategy at Tinder. Before coming to Tinder, Emily spent over a decade in creative advertising, where she helped brands bridge the gap between culture and data. She helped brands like Meta and AT&T connect with impact to their consumers.

And also here with me is Max Izenberg. Hello, Max. Welcome. Max leads consumer research across Match Group. He has a PhD in public policy with over a decade of peer-reviewed published research on risk perception, vulnerability and public safety. These are 2 of the people closest to how young daters are thinking, behaving and talking about relationships. They spend all their time on research, interviews, focus groups, doing original consumer work behind these insights. So my role today is to just sort of provide a canvas and highlight what their insights are and lead the discussion and then moderate Q&A. Max?

Hi, all. So Spencer noticed today is about understanding how Gen Z is thinking about relationships and connection. We'll first start with an overview of how we're listening to Gen Z across Match Group and the ways that we're collecting insights regularly. Then we'll spend a minute walking through what we're seeing in the data. Emily will walk through the 4 evolving expectations that we're seeing among Gen Z for how they want to connect. We'll connect then those insights with the product evolution that we're seeing with Tinder and Hinge in particular. And then finally, we'll look ahead at a sneak preview of the emerging insights we're seeing amongst older Gen Alpha, and then we'll open it up for Q&A.

Great. So let's start with the broader context. And before we fully get started, I want to share with you all how we collect insights that we'll be sharing today and across the Match Group to inform marketing and product development. So one of our advantages at Match Group is the amount of time we spend listening to our consumers. We are always on in conversations in so many different ways with Gen Z.

Our insights do not come from a single survey. They come through a vast array of different methodologies. This can include focus groups of various different sizes, traditional survey research techniques, ethnographies, in-person observations, intercepts. We meet them where they're at. We're not just saying who's in L.A. come to us for convenience. We go where it's often very difficult to talk to them in college campuses, in the third spaces where they like to hang out, coffee shops, social listening plays a massive role.

So we're trying to be everywhere and really take advantage of the breadth of insights that we're seeing as the multiple different ways in which people prefer to communicate and gathering our insights to paint a more holistic understanding of Gen Z attitudes and behaviors. So we're studying not just what people do, but how they feel about their own identity, ways of connection and journey of self-exploration. And that gives us an always-on window into how young theaters are evolving.

You see here that we say that we have a community-based research panel that's been going on for several years now, which we call Z Labs, which gives us immediate access to talking to various Gen Z cohorts across all our brands. Our research is also not limited to the U.S., but we have researchers across several continents and are regularly doing research in over a dozen countries at any given time.

So this -- all these different ways of collecting insights, this gives us a way to separate the short-term noise that we're seeing from deeper, more foundational behavioral shifts. So now who is Gen Z? The reason why we're all here. First and foremost, Gen Z is not a monolith. Within Gen Z, there is a lot of variation, as you can say, with any generational cohort.

From our research, we make sure that we encompass a wide range of different identities, whether it's sexual identity and sexual expression, race or ethnic identity, urbanicity, religiosity or the role of religion that plays into people's lives. The intent is not to reduce or flatten this experience by any means. However, it's important to acknowledge that there are some shared truth, which shapes people's experiences across any particular generational cohort.

For all intents and purposes here, we're going to define Gen Z as between 16 and 29 years old. And within this generational cohort, one thing that fundamentally changes them is that they are -- identifies them is that they are digital by default. They have grown up specifically consuming different forms of Internet media, whether it's through social media or community groups. This specifically was shaped through the pandemic.

These formative years during the global pandemic created limited face-to-face interaction. There was also a lot of economic instability, heightened political polarization, rapid social change, all of which has huge implications on the way they see the world, their psychological outlook and their preferences for socialization.

Gen Z are also incredibly emotionally literate. We hear this all the time with research that therapy language, understanding their boundaries, exploring their identity and how they show up in terms of like preparing for themselves and what their priorities are. This is so fundamental for the ways that they think about connecting and the ways that they walk and approach the world. We also see this specifically amongst Gen Z women.

They find that going to therapy is really important for finding a partner and that this language of establishing boundaries and even the diagnostic terms are really fluent in their lexicon, and it really speaks worlds to how readiness and emotional and psychological safety is so important when they're thinking about building new connections.

There's also a phenomenon which we refer to as milestone drift. Many researchers, external to Match Group have talked about this phenomenon in different ways is that there are these key milestones that are oftentimes prized in American society that are so emblematic of freedom and independence. So for example, getting your driver's license, moving out of your parent's house, these are still, by and large, very important to Gen Z. But what we're seeing is that they want to achieve these milestones on their own terms, perhaps in a different way and perhaps it's not linear on a different time line.

They're also craving real-life connection. So perhaps despite or because of the pandemic, they're growing up online and they hold a lot of nostalgia for a time or counterfactual that they never really knew existed. And so they are placing a high premium on these in-person connections that whether it's starting a connection offline or just having some role, they do recognize the importance of a face-to-face interaction to complement the digital experiences, which they also value and are so integrated into their lives.

Is that -- I'm going to interrupt. Is that because they're using their phones and their computers all day at work. And so then they want to put that down to connect in person? Or is it because they know that, that digital layer is sort of bad for them on some level. And so this is like eat your vegetables and they know they need to. Like where does that come from?

Yes, all of the above. It's functional. It's like I want to put my phone down, I need to take a break. I want to prioritize, preserve my time and manage my emotions and see that there is so much value to getting to meet other people. There's also -- yes, you can feel free to continue as well.

No. I mean a great example is thinking of when COVID and lockdown and the pandemic hit them in their formative years. For younger Gen Z, that's a bit older middle school, younger, lowerclassman in high school. And then for older Gen Z, it's older high school, lower cost than college. And when that is taken away from you in a really formative time, it becomes ever more present and important as you age because you recognize, oh, this does feel different, you crave it. You know you feel different after the fact. So they seek it out ever more presently.

Absolutely.

Great segue.

Perfect. So again, as mentioned earlier, Gen Z has grown up as truly the first digitally native generation. Other generations, of course, have leveraged technology in many different ways. We had Match.com. But what is different is that this has fully been native to them.

One of the reasons that they do look to put their phone down is because they've never had this counterfactual and they're wondering what would this experience be like if I didn't leverage technology as the first starting point or if it had a different role, and I'm wondering different ways to use technology in the process of making new connections, which is very exciting.

And so the Internet doesn't have just influence how they communicate, but it fully transforms and shapes the lens in which they view the world and decide to communicate, whether it's through symbols like emojis or memes. This is absolutely like a core and fundamental part of how they communicate. So the digital world is kind of defined in 3 ways and influences them. One is uncertainty is the norm.

During this era of the pandemic, which defined them, there was, as mentioned previously, a lot of financial pressure, the perceptions around the macroeconomic certainty or uncertainty that is going on and the implications on their personal lives, political instability. And so for them, uncertainty is the norm. Many Gen Z are telling us consistently that they don't know what the future is going to look like.

Sure, some of this is a part of life stage that they're placing more value on the present, but specifically for Gen Z, because they have been so inundated with its information about this uncertainty, they're not really sure who to trust besides theirselves, and that's why they place a high value on their own readiness before making the next steps and being cautious around decisions.

Just on the point about communicating through memes, I was -- for those that work on Wall Street that are watching this that maybe it's not normal in a presentation to see a meme. I remember only a couple of years ago, the first time I was in a business meeting and there was a slide deck and there was a meme in it.

And I remember thinking that's so unprofessional, like that's so weird to see some GIF in a -- and now it's like constant, right? Like every meeting I'm in, every slide basically is a meme. And I know that hasn't made its way to certain circles out in the general business community, including probably some people watching this. But like that's just the way they communicate and I mean even in the workplace.

Yes. So much can be said with a simple GIF or memes, great.

Right. Exactly. Another influence is that information for Gen Z is everywhere and it encompasses everything. So social media has really enabled Gen Z to fully absorb and also create a wide range of information, opinions, take from the world's biggest problems to problems that might not seem as big, but also still massively impactful saying how you expect your boy to show up or who pays for the first date. This also at times can create a sort of emotional whiplash. So one time, in 1 second, you're looking at a quick reel that gives you anger, another one that gives you joy.

Another element is that this is something we constantly hear from research is the feeling of being under surveillance and hyper scrutiny. Whether or not it's online of saying, I feel hesitant to share my opinion or I'm really cautious about what I'm going to share this photo of myself, so I'm going to focus a lot on curating, to being in a classroom and saying, yes, I'm around a lot of people, but I'm just worried that someone might film me giving the wrong answer to the professor or that saying, "Oh, I do want to text this person I want to be friends with," but what if they screenshot it and what if this might damage my reputation.

It might get canceled...

Exactly.

This is a big problem in academia.

Absolutely.

So students not expressing their opinion in the classroom because they're afraid they get canceled.

Totally. Yes. This is a big fear. And of course, it has implications on self-presentation and curation, both of yourself and the information that you're receiving.

Absolutely.

And another misconception that we regularly hear is that , oh, Gen Z are not open to romance, they're kind of done with dating or it's not a priority. We very much disagree unequivocally, we hear time and time again in the research that Gen Z daters absolutely do believe in human connection, but they're just defining how and when they want to get there on their own terms.

We conducted a study with the Kinsey Institute at the end of last year. And one of the key findings was that 4 and 5 Gen Z singles believe that they will find true love. And this is amazing. This is a significant majority. And what was really telling is that it was actually statistically significantly higher than total 18-plus singles. So not only do they want it, they might want it more than we look at the total single population. And so they overwhelmingly still want to find love and they're comfortable using technology as part of this process.

So if there's anything to take away that the desire for human connection absolutely remains durable. But what's evolving are their expectations for how they want to connect, when it should happen. And we're trying to evolve our tools to make sure we can support them in the ways that make sense for them and how they want to.

Love is not lost.

Definitely not lost.

Love hasn't...

Yes, very much alive. And Max has done a really fantastic job of laying out the broader context that are shaping Gen Z -- but we want to get a little bit more specific of what we at Match Group are looking at when we think about Gen Z. And there are really 4 core expectations shaping how they connect that we're going to dive into today.

The first one is agency, right? The insistence that connection must be on their own terms and on their own time lines. And another important one is realness. As a generation that we've talked about who's grown up online in the public eye, they're looking for authenticity, for humanness, for realness across everything that they do. And that leads really nicely into momentum.

Momentum is where function and emotion really meet. It's the functional desire for lower friction, but also the need for the emotional experience to be valid, to feel true and to feel like it's moving forward. And then, of course, we'll dive into trust -- this is so important that the emotional and physical safety feels present and true so that you can be your authentic self and show up with that realness that they're craving. And so held together, these 4 pillars, these themes really describe how the expectations around Gen Z are shaping and changing and evolving when it comes to connection.

Going to dive deeper into all of them. But first, we're going to dive into agency because relationship and connection, as Max was just saying, still really matters for Gen Z. They want connection, but they're demanding it fit their lives and not the other way around, which is why we see that 44% of under 30s want to spend time on my friends, instead of love or about 1 in 4 of under 30s list getting into a relationship as a primary goal for next year. So we see that they want it. But what we do see that's a little different with Gen Z is that the hierarchy of priority falls in a different order than it does in other generations.

So things like identity exploration, preparedness, friendship and community, career and personal growth are supplanting the dating sometimes here and there. And increasingly, people want connection to fit their lives rather than organizing their lives around connection. So that's an important thing that we're paying attention to is that the agency and desire and the time lines are a little bit different for Gen Z.

I want to interrupt you and ask about identity exploration. One, the percent of Gen Z that identify as seeking potential partners of either gender is fascinating and very different from prior generations. Can one or both of you talk to that and why you think that is?

Yes.

Yes. Do you want to go...

I mean we do see in the data, that especially with younger Gen Z 18 to 24, a higher instance of exploring it and figuring it out and diving a little bit deeper. And tools like that we provide actually help them explore that and poke around because it is more socially acceptable to be a bit more open to be a bit more exploratory. And this generation takes advantage of that, which is really exciting, I think, if you have new builds.

Yes, exactly. And I think it just builds on a longer trajectory of just being more openness to, for example, if we're talking about sexual identity, clear representation of the media and all these cultural artifacts help them feel more comfortable. And it's just wonderful to hear in schools all across the country that many just feel open to even questioning masculinity norms, not even just necessarily sexual identity.

And so this ties into the earlier insight on mental wellness and that for many Gen Z, there is great space and digital communities play a big role in making them feel comfortable for people like them to even question, not necessarily like change their sexual identity or explore, but just being open to the idea that things might be fluid. I'm just learning and I'm in this process of self-discovery.

And so alongside agency, which is definitely something that is more of an internal driver when you think about the human experience. We -- our next one that we want to explore is both internal and external, and that's around authenticity and realness. And one thing we hear consistently from all of the young people that we speak to is they want their experiences and their connections and their interactions to feel more genuine, to feel more real.

And with this, they want this authenticity, but there's also this pressure of perfectionism, judgment and, of course, rejection that goes alongside of this because this pressure to be perfect online is making this authentic connection that they crave a little bit harder and a lot more vulnerable. So this fear of rejection in particular, is one that we pay a lot of attention to in this category because there's this concern about how they're being perceived.

And this makes dating feel really high stakes and super high pressure because when you've grown up in a world that's online that anything can be snapped at a fingertips moment. And in these spaces, these social spaces that reward reactions and judgments and teardowns, showing up authentically becomes a really high-stakes act of vulnerability in your day-to-day.

So as a result, it's not so surprising when 81% of Gen Z want to move more slowly when getting to know someone more romantically. They want to really understand the playing board before they dive in and get vulnerable. And so there's also the fact that 1.7 -- Gen Z is 1.7x more likely than total singles to be fearful of the dating process because of others' opinions, because of that prospect of judgment.

And this reality is really why we so often hear from users that they want lower pressure, higher context opportunities to get to know themselves and to know other people because this desire for self-expression is one that opens you up for vulnerability, but also opens you up for better connection in the long run.

So we're going to talk in a moment about the implications on our product road map and sort of what we're doing about all this. But let me be devil's advocate here for a second. You're saying young people get stressed out about potential rejection because there's this need to be performative and perfect.

But dating apps sort of are all about putting yourself out there and subjecting yourself to rejection because your profile is being shown and most people are choosing no, they don't want to interact with you. So how can dating apps have product market fit then if this generation is so worried about rejection, the whole premises? Kind of rejection oriented?

Yes. I mean dating has always had rejection as a key piece of it, whether it's on the dating app or not, right? You put yourself out there to see if someone wants it and you get your answer based off of that other person. But ways to combat this is to offer Gen Z the signals in the context that they've grown up with and that they crave things like more detail like your astrology sign or your favorite music mode or campaign there, offers these signals that they're accustomed to and being more fluent in those in the experience allows them to better find a match more quickly and more efficiently and hopefully reduce that friction.

Awesome. So showing up authentically, as we said, takes effort, it takes energy and it takes time, which brings us to our next pillar, which is momentum. And for Gen Z, momentum is really twofold, right? It's this perspective of efficacy and function as well as the emotional piece of it. Functionally, people want to see results and actions as a result of their effort, right? That is just a human desire, I would say.

And so for Gen Z, particularly in this category, it's about quality over quantity. And at the same time, it's also about that feeling like you're moving forward that even though a match or a date isn't like your person, isn't your end game that you feel like you've taken -- you've learned and earned something out of it, that you've got momentum that you're moving forward, which is why I love this quote that I will read to you from a young female nonuser actually and saying that I'm really intentional with how I use dating apps.

Even if I get a lot of likes, I only respond to people who feel like they could genuinely go somewhere. I want to make sure we're actually compatible before I invest time on more -- on meeting up in person. So in this language, there's so much here, right? You've got that functional language of investing time, but there's also that emotion because this is a vulnerable space to be in of are we compatible? Do I feel like this is going to work.

So that's why momentum is something that we pay a lot of attention to and not only the experience, but in the actions that we build that they hopefully take because when it comes to this experience, Gen Z wants to see and feel the fruits of their efforts and their labors. They're not necessarily asking for more interactions, but definitely asking for better ones or ones that make sense to them no matter what.

So the goal of what we do everything here at Match Group is to move from Match to Spark to real-world interaction with less effort, wasted effort. So when we talk about momentum, we're really talking about relevance. It's quality. It's helping connections actually go somewhere. And that is a huge key piece of this experience and the emotion that sort of lays the backdrop across a bit?

If you take the really long term, say, 10-year view, is it fair to say that 10 or maybe 15 years ago, there was more novelty to online dating and the bar has been raised kind of the user expectation around product efficacy is a lot higher today because the entertainment value or the novelty has faded and now it's all about does this thing actually get me out on dates?

I mean, absolutely, like we think about the context in which we show up a lot, right? On someone's phone home screen, we're alongside things like Amazon, Uber, food order apps. So there's this expectation that in that experience, you're going to get what you ask for, you're going to get what you decide. And so those context, they're part of the groundwater. It's important that we keep that in mind that the efficacy is a piece of it and. Also just take care of the beautifully vulnerable spaces that we're operating in, too.

Right. Yes. I mean, the -- when you describe it like that and you think about the other apps where you get basically instant satisfaction, like we already have a lot of challenges in this category because the best possible case is you open the app, you got to match and you get it into a conversation right away.

But even still, there's friction to get to an in-person date that's going to take a couple of days -- like there's lot of friction.

Totally. People have lives, too.

Right. So it just increases the burden on us to improve efficacy of product with things like better recommendation algorithms or better ways to start conversations inside of chat or a more performing app or all these features that we focus on are more important than ever.

Absolutely.

Exactly. And to Emily's point, agency remains essential. People want to move at different time lines. Not everybody is on the same time line and might want to feel comfortable scheduling a date or even exchanging contact information after a week or 2 when others are prefer to do it immediately and assess compatibility and vibes more in person.

Yes, absolutely. And this is a perfect segue because none of this works without trust. Trust is the starting point for us at Match Group, but more importantly, for Gen Z, trust isn't just table stakes, right? It's the foundation for showing up as their real selves, both emotionally and physically. There's that physical safety piece of it, too.

And it's shaped everything Gen Z has navigated outside of our ecosystems, too. As you were so wonderfully stating at the top that this generation has come to be and come of age amid real uncertainty, whether it's economic pressure, political instability, rapid social change, global pandemics, it's -- this context really, really matters, and it shapes them at a very formative time of their lives.

So when the world outside feels really unpredictable and unsteady, the stakes of personal vulnerability really change. So when you think about sharing who you are risking that rejection that we were just speaking about, trusting a stranger that feels really, really high in this seemingly unstable and uncertain world.

So with this context as a backdrop, it makes sense that when we speak to these young people that around 1 in 3, 18- to 29-year-old singles have concerns about sharing their info on dating apps, right, putting themselves out there in those ways or that 35% of 18- to 29-year-old women note that they fear feeling about being misled by someone's intentions on the app or even their identity during the dating process, right?

You need to pay attention to these signals to feel comfortable. So trust and safety aren't separate from the dating backdrop. They're really truly tied to it and lay such a key piece of the foundation of showing up in order to connect and find romance. And yes, this generation can be cautious about identity, about intentions, about information that they're sharing and promoting. And as users don't feel safe or comfortable, they won't engage meaningfully. So it's a really, really important piece of the puzzle that we pay a lot of attention to.

The intersection of kind of physical safety and emotional safety is interesting and what popped into my head when you were talking Emily. I'm an alumni interviewer for my college, and I've interviewed 5 to 10 high school seniors for the last 25 years. And so I've got a pretty good longitudinal interaction. And I noticed about 5 years ago, maybe 7 years ago, these high school seniors started bringing their parents or they would say, my parent is waiting in the car outside.

And at first, that was a little surprising. That's sort of one of the tests of this is to see if they have their act together as a high school senior and they can be self-motivated and organized and I was like, I didn't think that much of it. And then in the last couple of years, increasingly, the parent is in the Starbucks with them at another table or nearby or even if I do it in my office, they ask if they can wait in the lobby. And so it's that intersection of physical safety because they know they're meeting a stranger and they want to make sure that they're safe, but also emotional safety, they know there's someone nearby that's there for them. So it's really changed in those 25 years.

No, it's a great example, and it's that crossover that makes you be you, right? So that they can hopefully energy and go to the full of their dreams.

So taking all these insights together, these are not just interesting observations, although many of them are, they really are baked into our product strategy. I think Max did a great job describing at the beginning, just how global and deeply embedded this research is.

But if research doesn't also make its way into the product and our marketing, then it's only academically interesting, it's not actually applied. So we've done a really good job of making sure that we apply these types of insights into our product development. And I'm not sure that was always the case in years past. I think one of the reasons that Match Group kind of lost its way there for a couple of years and maybe missed some of these changing consumer attitudes as Gen Z aged into our category was because we didn't -- either we didn't have the network of consumer insights and/or it wasn't well baked into the product development and marketing.

But I feel like today, we're in a much, much better place on both those fronts. So just to take through some of the products, Tinder's role is not to become Hinge. Tinder is all about possibility and discovery and lower pressure connections. So the Tinder road map that leverages these types of insights has been focused on building features like Events and Double Date, which help make dating more social and less isolated.

Astrology Mode, which gives users this lighter weight way to start a conversation and express their personality. Are you sure? And does this bother you? Which create more respectful interactions. We're really encouraged by a lot of these features and how they're doing. Hinge is approaching the same generation, but from a more -- a different relationship mindset. So the way Hinge focuses on these types of things -- if we can go to the next slide, please.

For example, is by focusing on fewer but more meaningful interactions. So Hinge features like Friends Take or Date Ideas or Signals, which is a badge that indicates whether you're there on Hinge with true intentionality or Match Note. These are all features that ladder up to helping people show that they're there with care and context. So Tinder is about lowering the stakes for discovery. So it's a more chill, relaxed environment. And Hinge is about raising the bar for intentional dating.

We think these 2 brands coexist really well. And even though they're both going after to a large extent, people in the same age demographic, we think they serve different consumer needs. The metaphor that I like to use that we've talked a lot about is the difference between a music festival and a music concert. So if you have tickets to a music concert, you know you're going to see, Ariana Grande, Sabina Carpenter or Taylor Swift, Olivia Rodrigo, whoever, now you know my musical taste.

You've got tickets for that show at a particular point in time, you know what you're going to get. In fact, I just took 5 Gen Z friends of my kids to a concert, and they were looking at the set list ahead of time, and which just posted online. I was like, don't you want the serendipity of not knowing what songs are going to -- I would never have looked at the set list when I was their age, like, no, I want to know what I'm going to get. I'm going there with intentionality. So that's a concert. That's like Hinge.

Going to a festival like a BottleRock or a Governors Ball or Coachella, that's about kind of vibing your way through the experience and the serendipity of maybe I'll watch 4 or 5 songs. And if I'm enjoying it, I'll stay for the whole set or maybe I'll leave and I'll go to this other set that's playing at the same time or I'll go check out some of the experiential brand activations and sort of vibe my way through that. And the journey is the destination in the case of the festival.

And so young people love concerts, they love festivals, but they play different roles, and that's how we think about Hinge relative to Tinder.

So I think -- next slide, please. Max, over to you for some thoughts on the next generation.

Thanks. I do love that metaphor.

My favorite.

So the category's next generation of Gen Alpha is already forming. They're coming into their own identity, and we're seeing a lot of their social and emotional behaviors. First and foremost, Gen Alpha are very young, ages 2 to 15 years old. And so for the purposes of this, when we're talking about our research of Gen Alpha, we're really referring to older Gen Alpha and some research that we conducted amongst 14- and 15-year-olds with parental consent.

And we did this research to validate that the work that we're doing right now for Gen Z and younger Gen Z for Tinder and Hinge in our products across the portfolio will resonate once Gen Alpha turn 18 are ready to start dating on our products. But from the preliminary research, which should absolutely be treated as an early signal and not at all forecast, we remain quite optimistic of some of the preliminary findings.

So for example, older Gen Alpha are less pandemic defined. They're more optimistic and even in some ways, enthusiastic about adulthood. They talk about their really thoughtful relationship that they have with technology and their phones and social media. 3 and 4 of Gen Alpha are open to dating throughout their high school experiences. So again, these are really promising signals. And what's behind it, we think are like many different underlying factors, one of which is that their parents are mostly millennials and millennials who have seen this transition and understand the counterfactual of what a life like and social interactions were pre-pandemic.

Another one is that in many jurisdictions across the country, schools, particularly public schools have implemented phone bands. And this, in particular, we've heard from these older Gen Alpha have really changed the way in which they're connecting in lunch rooms and playground, even at recess in times and what they expect and how they use their time during their extracurriculars and at home, and it really differently changes the ways in which they engage with social media and consume different forms of media.

Yes. I see this in my own situation. I have a 21-year-old who is Gen Z, and she had phones in school and missed critical years of high school and the beginning of college because of COVID. And so she is very similar to the way you're describing Gen Z, which is kind of reticent to put yourself out there.

And then I've got a 15-year-old who has no phones in school because the ban happened since then. She has positive recollections of the pandemic because that was like a fun time when I got to be at home, but it didn't kind of affect the way she forms human connection.

And she and her friends are super social. They do date, they hook up. They do like big group hangs in people's houses, like it's very, very social. It's very different between the Gen Alpha and the Gen Z. So is it fair to say -- maybe -- I mean, am I generalizing? Or is Gen Alpha a likely reversion to the mean, where from a dating app standpoint, it will, we think, look more like past generations or not sure yet? Or what do you think?

It's a little early to say because of signals. However, both might be true. We do see some -- they have some shared DNA with younger Gen Z, right? Like they have -- are also digitally native. They are very fluent with some of these mental health language as well as using these different tools for connecting online. So that is very comfortable and native to them.

At the same time, these are promising signals that potentially a lot of these milestones might go back to what they were in older generational cohorts because they were less defined by the pandemic because the face-to-face interaction that they're having is still happening in their critical times of cognitive development and social development.

So too early to see, but optimistic.

Asking the right question.

You mentioned -- or we discussed a little bit about different trends regarding sexuality and sexual preference. Another thing that occurs to me that's different than millennials is Gen Z and Gen Alpha potentially is relationship with alcohol. What -- tell us more about that and what impact you think that has on these generations?

Yes. So there's a lot of mixed information about alcohol consumption. Generally, it does appear in many ways for Gen Z to be down compared to generational cohorts. But it's not just overall consumption. It's more interesting to look at what types of alcohol are being consumed because in some ways, in some particular brands, we do see a growth. But that absolutely does impact behaviors. To your point exactly on like the festivals versus concerts, we are seeing Gen Z, again, also the mental health language, prioritizing wellness in different ways.

And one of that does mean reducing the amount of alcohol consumption. This is not a generalization. We still know that there is a lot of alcohol consumption occurring amongst Gen Z who are over 21 on college campuses and other places. But yes, to a large extent, it is impacting social behaviors and what the nightlife scene looks like. I mean, look around in L.A. as well and you...

We see the Tinder events in L.A., the dry ones are very popular.

Exactly...

It's more about self-improvement or learning or personal growth. Pottery class is as popular or more popular than the Happy Hour.

I think we're going to turn to questions.

So a number of -- we've got a lot of great questions here. Some have come in from some Wall Street analysts and some of them have included their names. I'll include their names for attribution. Some of the questions have come in anonymously, but I'll just jump in here. So Cory Carpenter from JPMorgan asks, how do younger Gen Z and older Gen Z behave? And are there major differences between older and younger Gen Z?

Yes. I mean, absolutely. So we define older Gen Z as 25 to 29. And what really defines them is life stage. We take a really close look at life stage across Gen Z because as we stated, Gen Z is not a monolith. They have a lot of nuance in detail. But what we do see with older Gen Z is because of they're older, they're more comfortable in these app spaces and leveraging dating apps in order to go on dates to find those connections, because they're less socially embedded in their networks like from university or early school places like younger Gen Z is.

Younger Gen Z, which is 18 to 24, they really find that they're socially embedded more so as mentioned, because they're in those university spaces, those early schooling...

Easier to meet new people...

It's easier to meet people by opportunity, and they are comfortable with that as we were just discussing with sort of some of the -- how COVID sort of impacted their formative developmental years. But what is really notable that across both cohorts regardless of life stage is they actually both rank #1 intent is serious relationships that they want something longer term.

But the way that they approach that and access that is different based off of the life stage that they're currently active in. And of course, that varies across life stage 2. You've got some people that may be 28 just had it broke up a very serious relationship, they might be seeking and sourcing relationships differently than someone they're seeing age who hasn't had that longer term or something more serious is a relationship breakup like that.

Totally. And I'm thinking of a conversation we had recently with like a younger Gen Z woman of 23. I believe she's in Raleigh and she says, "Oh, yes, I absolutely want a serious relationship, but I'm really going to put into high gear when I'm much older. Okay. When is that 25? It's like when the next life stage is. So to Emily's point, readiness and life stage play a massive role. But again, there is still this fundamental desire for a meaningful connection as the goal. It's just how and when they want to approach it, it looks a bit different.

Okay. This user or this listener asks, do you think Gen Z will age into more traditional dating behaviors? Or are they permanently changing the category?

I believe they will. I believe that traditional milestones will prevail and that we're seeing this again to Emily's point on the importance of life stage and readiness that, yes, we're seeing that as they're getting older, they are going into these more traditional milestones, whether it's about connection or more broadly, trends that we're seeing around moving out of the parent's home, finding a certain sense of economic or financial stability.

Yes. When I was running Zillow for a long time, we did a lot of research on this question around homeownership because as homes became less affordable and as the sharing economy grew and people were not buying cars, they were using ridesharing or they were not buying their own music, they were using streaming or not buying their own DVDs, they were watching streaming. TV and film, there was this question of are people just not going to want to own homes anymore and they're going to -- it's going to become kind of a renter nation.

And we did tons of tons of consumer research on it. And the answer was no, people still want to own homes. They're just going to do it later. Exactly. So the median age for a first-time homebuyer now is 40, and it used to be 30 about a decade ago. So they still want to own homes. It's still very, very high on their aspiration list, and they're still going to. They're just doing it later in life. So it sounds like you think something similar is applying to this category?

Absolutely. And that's why we spoke to agency. It's the time line that's shifted a little bit and how they want to get there. It's not always linear. But as stated, #1 intent is a serious relationship, they still want it. It's just a matter of the journey of getting there and when they hit that milestone.

So why -- I have a question, which wasn't submitted, but it's -- I feel like it's sort of the elephant in the room. Why do they not -- why does Gen Z not want meaningless hookups, the way millennials did when they were 18 to 25 and hookups were like, okay, and now there's a stigma against shallow, meaningless hookups. It sounds like -- all the research we've shared is that they don't want that. They want more intentionality.

What's wrong with hookups? And why doesn't Gen Z like them?

I would argue that not all millennials wanted meaningless hookups at the time, but it's more so that it was accepted as a social norm as one of the process to finding a meaningful relationship. There was a lot of social pressure and that this is one of the ways to demonstrate interest and single interest.

Gen Z, as mentioned with the prioritization and understanding of readiness and mental health said this isn't the only way to get there. There are other ways to demonstrate interest and more authentic connections that are not solely rooted on sexuality of ways to [indiscernible] and find companionship and express values. So the norms are changing, more so of express desires, the way that they see companionship. This translates to sexual behaviors, but the fundamental desire for human connection is ultimately the same.

Yes, absolutely. And it brings to mind this discussion that we had around vices and alcohol, right? There is this desire in an unstable environment of control and controlling the things that you can. And I think that's why we see a lot of reduction in some of these mind-altering vices that changes. And that goes similarly with sexual -- like actually engaging in sex. You reduce control, you reduce risk of cancellation of doing something wrong.

And so I think in that subsegment of Gen Z is also probably an emotional response to why there's some of that reduction in sex.

Jason Helfstein from Oppenheimer asks, Gen Z appears to lack certain social norms that would facilitate successful dating. As such, even successful matches don't seem to convert to dates or first dates don't convert to second dates. Do you feel this is something Match Group needs to address or correct to make Tinder or Hinge successful over the long term?

I think the way we view it is that Gen Z has their own set of social norms and a lot of those exist digitally. As you were just mentioning with memes and GIFs showing up in the workspace, that is a fluency and a way and a social norm to communicate. You don't send someone a text to explain how you're feeling, you send them your favorite meme or your favorite sticker or your favorite emoji, which is a beautifully artful way to communicate your emotions, but that is the baseline social norm.

And so the way that we use that and translate that for our products and our purposes is giving and offering higher context ways to communicate, right? It's offering things like a music mode or an astrology mode on Tinder to really showcase those signals and that juicy context and details that they're craving so that those social norms can be embedded in that experience and used to find a higher quality, better match in that way.

On the research side, this is why it's important to triangulate different sources of evidence. There are so many different ways to define and interpret those norms. So for example, if you do a survey, and we do surveys like this all the time, where we say, what was your most recent date? Why does a date to Gen Z is so different from all generations?

So for the social norms of millennials, many might think of, oh, one-on-one, could be, let's get a drink at the bar, but for Gen Z, this might be the third or fourth day already. And so what might be, in some ways, traditionally constructed in a survey as a date, they're already there. And this is why Tinder is building things like Events or Double Date to reshape and meet them where they are.

Or in Double Date now where on Tinder, you can indicate your date ideas.

Exactly.

And many of the things listed there of date ideas, people of my generation wouldn't think of as a date.

Exactly.

And I was talking to a Gen Alpha person the other day, actually, and I used the term date and they kind of looked at me kind of weird and she said, "Well, it's not really a date. It's more of a low-key kickback." That's how she was describing what she and 2, 3 girls 2, 3 guys were doing. It wasn't a date. I would call that like a triple date. And that is like, oh, that's very intense.

Millennials were just hanging out.

Exactly.

Yes. Totally.

Okay. Benjamin Black from Deutsche Bank asks, within dating, authenticity is clearly very important, particularly for Gen Z. How do you preserve authenticity in a world of AI where prompts and profiles are increasingly leveraged AI editing tools and AI recommendations.

Why don't we -- Max, why don't you start with describing sort of Gen Z's perception vis-a-vis AI? And then I'll have Emily talk about how we bring it into the product.

Sure. So first of all, to a very large extent, Gen Z are already using AI in many different ways, whether it's at work, whether it's through school to help them with assignments or summarize large swaths of information. Many Gen Z are very comfortable, and they tell us and we see that they are using AI essentially in their daily lives. It looks a bit different when it comes to meaningful connections. And many Gen Z tell us that when it comes to building products or even if it's other things, not just dating apps, the internal tooling doesn't really matter. It's more important that they're getting the outcomes of the things they want.

And when it comes to our apps, it's that AI should help connect people better in the real world. They just want better dating outcomes. They want to be able to connect and make new friends in different ways and how they get there is not as important to them, more so is just getting to that destination in the way that fits for them.

Yes, absolutely. I mean, I think the way that we think about AI, particularly with our products, as you mentioned, it's about connecting people better, more quickly to the real world. And within that, as we were just talking about agency, we want to make sure the user is always in the driver's seat and that their choice isn't reduced, but their momentum is increased.

And AI really provides the depth and scale that allows us to do that. And one way we see that across really wonderfully is AI prompts recommendations. It's that partner and that friend in the journey with you, like just like you would text your girlfriend like, "Oh my gosh, this is what they said, this is what I'm thinking of responding, what do you think using AI as a partner in that process" because that increases your agency, makes you feel more confident and hopefully helps you land that conversation a little bit more strongly. Or I think another really wonderful way that we've been implementing AI is in that trust and safety space because, again, it gives you that depth and that scale to make sure we're considering all of the angles in this increasingly dynamic technological world that we're navigating.

So what I'm hearing is we want to make sure that AI brings people closer together, doesn't stand in between them.

Yes.

And we want to make sure that it increases authenticity, not creating superficiality. So for example, in chat, if a chat kind of slows down and people aren't flirting or talking anymore, we might use AI to make a suggestion to one of them of, hey, on her profile, she talked about these interests, they're similar to yours. Why don't you bring -- why don't you start a conversation about that. But we wouldn't likely draft that exact copy for the user because that would be crossing a line towards inauthenticity?

Yes, the user needs to be in the driver's seat. It's ultimately them that pen it and click send, but we love the partnership and the tooling to help them get to that best version of themselves. It's about amplifying them rather than replacing them.

Yes, it might be tempting to draft it for the user so they can just hit submit. But then on the receiving end, that receiver will also get offered that, and then they'll know that probably it was an inauthentic overture from the other person and then it breaks down.

And to the earlier point on scrutiny, Gen Z are always oftentimes questioning whether things are AI. And like anybody across any generational cohort, there are both positives and negatives of what we think might be AI generated, but there is the skepticism. So again, to Emily's point, preserving the sense of authenticity and ensuring agency is really crucial for the user experience across our products.

Yes. And I guess another example will be on photos. So we do provide an AI ability to improve the lighting or the clarity of a photo, but we don't let you change the background of the photo. So a picture of you in front of -- on a couch, it's not going to picture you on a couch. We're not going to put you at the beach or in front of the Eiffel Tower or the Statue of Liberty implying that you've been to those places, that would be an inauthentic use of AI.

Exactly.

Nathan Feather from Morgan Stanley asks, with the goal of quality over quantity, how do you get users to slow down when using the product to try and encourage a more thorough analysis of any individual profile? How do you make sure to highlight the potential most relevant profiles such that they aren't skipped?

So Emily, why don't you talk about some of the ways that we're trying to improve profile quality and people's review of profile?

I mean there's a lot of ways to do this. And again, this brings up the pillar of momentum, right? We want people to feel like they're moving forward with efficacy, but there's also the right level of speed. We don't want things to be too quickly, because you might miss something, you might be making rash decisions versus being intentional and thoughtful about it.

And again, one way that I know we're doing this at Tinder is by increasing those signals. -- on profiles and apps in that way. So again, music mode when you're looking at, oh, Max and I both like this one artist, this one song, that slows things down for you. That lets you have a bit of a signal of what Max is like in real life. You can imagine driving in Max's car and us playing this song and connecting over that, right? That slows people down to pay a little bit more attention to the profile, the bio, the details therein in order to increase that efficacy and give momentum forward at the right pace.

Yes. Another example is we now -- on Tinder, we put prompt content, so that's written words, prose, into the photo carousel. So instead of just looking at photos in the photo carousel, we're kind of intermingling responses to prompts like what do you like to do on a Sunday or what's your relationship with your friends like into the photo carousel, which definitely slows you down because now all of a sudden you have to read words instead of looking at a photo, but it gives people kind of a more considered experience when assessing potential compatibility.

Absolutely.

Okay. I think -- actually, it's important also to remember that this overall topic of getting people to slow down, consider an authentic profile, this is really more of a match group initiative across brand. So obviously, Hinge does this very well already with a contextual like feature where when you are looking at a profile on Hinge, you're indicating interest in a particular element of the profile rather than just saying I'm interested in this person, you're saying I'm interested in this thing about this person.

Upward, our brand that focuses on people with traditional values has a feature called Chivalry Mode, where if you have our photo verified and you have a more complete profile and you respond to as a good actor in messaging, then you are allowed to participate in Chivalry Mode. And there, it's kind of a different experience that's more highly considered and a slower profile.

So we're taking these types of learnings across lots of our brands. Actually, Chispa, also our brand for Hispanic daters is doing is testing something similar now where it's kind of a more considered profile rather than a quick twitch photo evaluation. So these insights that we develop at the Match Group level or even at the Tinder level, we scale them across all of our brands.

Okay. Last question here from Andrew Marok from Raymond James. Andrew asks. With the shift in behaviors from millennials to Gen Z, how does that impact how to think about future generational differences? Are they assured? And what are some of the signs that you monitor for cohort shifts? How has this shift affected how the voices of different ages are heard internally?

Would it make sense to staff product orgs with employees, primarily in the core age range as well as young users and new grads in order to catch emerging shifts before they fully take hold?

Max, I'll let you take the beginning of this. I think we've already talked a little bit about how do we make sure that we're bringing insights from all ages and then maybe Emily or I will close with how we bring that into the actual room for decision-making.

Yes. So we have a lot of internal leading and lagging indicators when it comes to cultural signals. And these generational desires and changes in mindsets are sometimes very slow moving and sometimes very fast. And you can't anticipate everything that's going to be completely changing the way a whole set of society thinks.

Like it could be one social media post that fundamentally reframes the narrative around the way that people approach dating, for example, or connection. So we collect all these signals. We try to map it to the underlying cultural shift that we talked about, for example, pandemic, the macroeconomic and environmental perceptions and how that impacts long-term thinking and companionship. With these smaller cultural signals. And we also leverage historical data to look at what we have learned from the transition from millennials to present. So it's a mix. We don't have a crystal ball. There are a lot of brilliant people that we collaborate with the science of trying to understand and interpret these waves for building products.

But the best tool that we have are listening to Gen Z and understanding their desires and how they're engaging with cultural media, social content and all these different forms to make sure that the way our product develops is moving in their direction and we'll continue to do so with future generational cohorts.

Absolutely.

Yes. I mean this is definitely a benefit of Match Group's scale. There's no doubt in my mind that we have a larger team and we have more resources focused on consumer insights with respect to human connection globally across all age cohorts, than any competitor by far. So it's definitely a strength of ours. In terms of bringing these insights into the room, your teams are in the rooms when we're making these decisions on product and marketing.

We have also significantly increased our presence of younger employees. So yesterday, I spoke to our intern class of 30, our largest ever intern class. It's incredibly important that we have summer interns who are college students that are in the -- hanging out with the employees in the kitchen, doing work, contributing to decisions and helping bring those insights directly into the company. We have custom GPTs, which have been really useful. So for each of our key personas, we have AI incarnations of them that employees, including me, use constantly to talk to all these different users to get like instantaneous feedback on all of this through AI.

So there are lots of ways, including just hiring more young people who are in our primary age cohort that we bring these insights into the room. So thank you very much for joining us today for this first ever CEO connection. I hope that you walked away with a better understanding of Gen Z and how their expectations around connection are evolving and how we're thinking about the future of our category. I want to thank Emily and Max for sharing their information and thank those who submitted such thoughtful questions.

We'll continue this conversation at our Q2 earnings call. In the meantime, I share regular updates on these types of topics on my Socials, on LinkedIn, Instagram and other social channels. And I'd love to continue the conversation. So thanks for joining us today. Thank you both very much.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay. Good morning, everyone. And we're pleased to have Steven Bailey, CFO of Match Group here at the conference. Thanks for coming. We appreciate it.

Yes.

Just going to kick it off with Tinder. You guys called out improving in engagement metrics in 1Q, including improving declines in the Sparks metric. What do you think are the best kind of leading indicators that you're seeing at Tinder that's kind of moving more towards even a stable or potentially reaccelerating trajectory? And yes, we'll start there.

Skipping the safe harbor whole thing. Normally you do. Do you want to do that or not do that? I'll keep going. Maybe we can do it at the end. Sorry, we'll -- no problem.

So yes, so look, I think -- here's the way I'm thinking about it. One is it's not just one metric. It's actually the thesis being proven out. So it's the fact that leading indicators are improving, so that Sparks and Sparks Coverage, which is a 6-way conversation, a meaningful connection. That was always what we thought would move first. And then we said, well, the thesis was that would lead to more lagging indicators or more core user metrics improving. And so we've seen that happen now. MAUs improved from minus 10% to minus 7%. So that's proving out the thesis that the leading indicators, which is improved product experience are going to translate into more core user metrics improving. Retention has also improved. So that's a core user metric.

And then we said that, that would ultimately lead to the core financial metrics improving too, what investors ultimately care about. And so we've seen that actually start to happen, too. Payers is a great example of that. Payers improved from minus 8% in Q4 to minus 5%. So that's a pretty marked improvement in Q1. So to me, it's actually the most important thing is that the thesis is starting to be proven out that fix the product, you'll see that first in metrics like Sparks, that will lead to improving user trends. We're seeing that in MAU and retention. That will lead to better financial results. We're already starting to see that in Payers and revenue too, where our Tinder revenue is coming better than expected lately, too. So it's more that the sequencing is playing out like we had hoped. That's what I'm most excited about.

And I think it might have been March where it was the first month of new user registration growth since 2024. What demos are maybe driving that new user trend? And what do you view as the biggest driver of these gains?

Yes. That was incredibly exciting to see. First of all, registrations up 1% year-over-year. It's been many, many years since that's happened. So that's another -- a step function change in the right direction. So that's new users downloading the app for the first time using Tinder. And what's really exciting to see is that it's pretty broad-based.

I was looking at it just the other day, and it's really across almost, I would say, most cohorts. So it's both men, it's both women. It's largely speaking, both older cohorts and younger users, and it's both international and the U.S. It's not every cohort, but it's pretty broad-based, which is fantastic to see. And it's really coming from a combination of, I would say, 3 things. One, and probably the most impactful has been the shift in strategy of the marketing, which is more lower funnel now versus more brand perception shifting spend. It's still a combination of both, but we've shifted more heavily to down funnel. That's probably had the biggest impact.

More spend just in general, right? Tinder, we spent up about $50 million year-over-year. So that's helping. And then features like Double Date, really resonating with Gen Z. It's helping that word-of-mouth flywheel that's so important to the overall equation, too. So it's really those 3 things leading to better rate trends, which is fantastic to see.

Yes. That stood out to me like huge of this last quarter. Maybe on the product road map, you've mentioned a few, and we're getting towards the midpoint of the year. But I think as we get towards the back half of the year, what on the product road map is exciting? Or would you call out as something to look for?

I don't want to spill the beans on a super exciting new product road map things in the back half of the year, I'll let Spencer do that. I can talk more broadly, though. I think what I'm most excited about is there's going to be -- there's clearly -- our company, I think, broadly speaking, across the category, a push to more IRL. I think that's going to be a big theme. And we've started to trial it in L.A. It's going very well. We could talk more about that if you want. But there's -- we're going to amp up the IRL connections on Tinder, which is what Gen Z wants.

And then sort of a related theme, is more group-type features. So Double Date has just been hugely successful. 1 in 4 Gen Z women in the U.S. are using it. That's when you pair up with a partner and you swipe on other pairs and you go out on a double date. That's exactly what they're looking for. It's fun. It's lightweight. It's lower pressure. It's perceived to be safer. I think we're going to branch out into even more group type features, think beyond just a pair, that's a big opportunity for us too.

Yes. Maybe just on the IRL or in real life. So at the product event in March, you guys talked about these events and catering to the younger users that I think you just mentioned. How are these efforts going? And then like do we view this as driving significant revenue over a long period of time? Or is it part of like kind of the marketing and branding funnel for Tinder?

I think it's more the latter. It's not -- I don't think it's a big revenue growth driver, at least for now. That's not the focus. It's really changing perception for Tinder away from -- this is hookup app and I'm tired of swipe fatigue too, this is a new people app where I'm finding and making meaningful connections in real life. That we're trying to shift the sort of perception in that direction. And it's what Gen Z wants. They want more in-real-life connections. And Tinder is the largest platform in the world that can make those connections happen. And so that's how I see it.

How is it going? Extremely well. That's why I'm saying in the back half of the year, I think you'll see a lot more of it because we piloted it in L.A. with 20 events so far. I think we're going to do 30. We'll have 30 done soon, and the feedback has just been incredible. The attendance is, I think, at about 85% attendance, which is great. So that's been the problem in the past. We've tried this at like Match.com a long time ago. And the issue was like there was always like, yes, yes, yes, I'd love to go to event. But then when it came the day to actually go, people wouldn't show up, right? There's a lot of anxiety.

I think the Gen Z generation is different. It's because they've lowered the pressure of that. They want lower pressure connections. They don't need to find the love of their life at this event, right? They want to go meet new people and see where it goes. And so I think they think about events like through a different lens than prior generations. And so 20 events, really strong attendance. We surveyed everybody after the event and say, how you liked it? The feedback has been incredibly strong. We've been surveying just our broader users in L.A. about just the offering of events. And the results are great. It's something like 50% of Gen Z in L.A. is saying they're interested in going to event, which is great. So the interest is there. I think it's 40% of Gen Z in L.A. on Tinder are saying events are a really cool feature on Tinder. So the demand is definitely there, and I see us rolling it out much more broadly.

And do you have a team dedicated to this in L.A.? Or is it just...

Yes. We have a small team. We have a small team that we borrowed from other parts of the company. What we're going to do is we're not going to curate the events, right? We're going to do this in a scalable way. We want to be the technology platform that makes these connections happen, not an events business. So we're really partnering with other events businesses that already have the event set up and they're curating the event. We're sponsoring it. That's sort of the model we're using. So it actually doesn't take a lot of people to do it. And the cost has been relatively reasonable too. Actually, most of the expense has just been in marketing the event and kind of like what you said, using it as a marketing tool for the broader Tinder product experience more generally.

And we could expect maybe because it seems like it's been initially a pretty good success like maybe we would see it in other markets or something down the road?

Yes. I hope -- I think we'll talk more about it in the next earnings call, but I think we've got pretty big plans in this area.

That's great.

I think it's going to be a big unlock for how do we win over Gen Z., events is definitely part of that.

Right. That's great. Sticking with Tinder. How much progress do you think you've guys made in improving the recommendation algorithm over the last year or so? And do you see like an opportunity to drive further engagement and user experience improvements from recommendation changes?

A couple of things. One, recommendations, I would say, has been the biggest win of the year. Like, if you look at the metrics we just talked about Sparks and retention and what's driving it, I would say the algo changes is about 2/3 of that. And so that's been the biggest win. Combined with features like Double Date that's changing perception, that's sort of been -- and marketing, that's been a winning formula. But if you just look at pure A/B test, what's driving the metrics, it's retention. And it's coming from better matches and the algos. So that's great to see.

And so we get the question a lot, well, okay, was that low-hanging fruit and sort of it's over now, and now you got to come up with something new. And the answer is really no, honestly, I just asked the team and they confirmed for me, we're doing 6 algo tests right now live. So like the core algo changes are not done. We'll keep testing and keep optimizing. What other people also don't realize is it's not just 1 algo. It's many algos across the app for different parts of the experience. And so there's a lot there that can be optimized. But effectively, what we've done so far is really change the weighting of the algorithms, right? We've talked a lot about this from, likes, generating as many likes as possible to generate revenue to more keying off of user outcomes in Sparks, meaningful connections. It might be less likes, but more meaningful connections.

That's basically the work we've done so far. And what's been great to see is not only is it improving metrics like retention, but it's not having the revenue hit that we anticipated, right, less of a revenue hit than we anticipated. So that's great. Where we go from here is continued optimization, 6 tests live right now. And then I think the other big unlock that we have -- it's really super early days, is feeding these algos more data and insights so they get better. The trick -- the challenge with Tinder was always there's not a lot of data to go off of, right? Like compared to a Hinge, the profile is much lighter. That's by design, right? And so the algos are working off of a sliver of information about you and your profile and your interactions on the app, right?

But we're testing a lot of really interesting AI-driven features. For example, we talked a lot about some of the camera roll features we're doing. So there's an ongoing test right now that looks like with your permission, your camera roll, most people have got thousands of photos on their camera roll. Not only can we say these are the best photos for you, which people struggle with, and this is the right order to put them in. But here is what we -- here's insights about you that we've cleaned from your photos, you like to cook, you like to travel, and we're going to start helping people not only fill up their profile better, which is another struggle, but also think about feeding all that information like the metadata on the photos into the algos, can create much better, much better connections and so are much better matches.

So I think that's the other big lens of this is how do we get -- how do we get data to feed the algorithms still in a light fun way. With Chemistry, we've tested some of that, where it's like a back-and-forth Q&A. Let me learn a little bit about you, let me feed it into the algos. That's still a huge opportunity.

And AI has been a pretty big catalyst...

Yes. I think AI does a great job of 2 things. One, basically inference, like inferring something about you, that's not explicit, right? The old algos is very like rules based. What are you looking for? What are your rule breakers? And it doesn't infer anything. But now even in that short snippet of your profile, without you explicitly saying it, AI is better at inferring kind of what you like, what you dislike. And then two, it's what I said is, it's very good at gleaning information about users in a lightweight way. Like everybody is interacting with ChatGPT and everything else. You can have a conversation where it collects data, but it's not taxing on you as a user, whereas in the past, it was like fill out this huge profile to gather data. So I think that's the other place that AI does a really good job in.

And I have like just faster, like speed, too. Does it -- like does it help with -- from an efficiency perspective relative to if you're tuning up algorithms in the past, like when you weren't deploying AI. I'm just...

It does. It iterate on it faster and it can learn more about you more quickly, you're right. And we've got something in test right now, which is a feature in Tinder where we actually explicitly tell the user, "hey, look, take your time, go through some of these profiles, swipe right or swipe left because we're learning about you by doing that, especially for women who tend to not swipe right very often. We're asking them to take action so that AI can quickly lean insight into what they like and what they don't like, which is getting you better matches more quickly. It used to take a few days to figure it out. Now it takes a single session. So you're right.

Maybe just -- maybe 1 more on Tinder. And I think you touched on it, but I think it was probably one of the biggest issues for the platform was just the younger users, Gen Z. And maybe you've already touched on it, but do you think the perception of Tinder with that cohort has changed over the past year or so with all of the things that you guys are doing and is there more kind of room to go there with -- again, with that younger cohort?

It is changing, but the job is not done. Clearly, we have a -- we've got further to go. How we know it's changing? Well, first of all, let me take a step back. The first thing is, does Gen Z want to meet new people? Like that's the first question to ask. And so we've asked that in surveys in many different ways. And effectively, the survey results say, 80% of Gen Z -- our survey results say 80% of Gen Z want to get into meaningful connections. So the want is there. They just want to do it in a different way. And I think the sort of headline is lower the pressure a lot from where it used to be.

And so they want to get connection. They want to do a different way, and we're trying to build the products to do that. And I think what we're seeing, I'll just give you a couple of stats that we're building our confidence in it's working is I mentioned this earlier, Double Date is a feature where 25% of Gen Z women in the U.S. are using it. And they're using it at far higher rates than millennials or older cohorts of users. The other, I think, probably best stat metric that we've given so far is retention of U.S. Gen Z women or how long they're staying on the app, when we talk about good churn and bad churn, right? Good churn is you met someone you left the app. We want that all day long, because that means you come back when you're single again and you tell your friends and we get the word of mouth.

What we're trying to do is reduce bad churn, right? Bad churn is, I'm not meeting new people on this app, so I'm not going to use it anymore. And we've started to see that. U.S. women Gen Z retention is up 3 points year-over-year. That's year-over-year improvement in retention, and it continues to improve. So that's telling us that what we're doing is working. It's really 2 things we're doing. One is the app is more effective. It just works better, right? That's the algos. And two, we're starting to change perception with features like Double Date and with features like IRL. So I do think it's starting to work. We used to talk a lot about Tinder perception as well. We track this metric if you remember. It was like it's Tinder hookup app. And we use that to measure brand marketing efficacy.

And so I just looked at that the other day, that's continued to meaningfully decline. And so I do think perception is changing. And we're starting to get Gen Z to reconsider Tinder. The other good, I guess, good stat is at the survey result is that about half of Gen Z women say Double Date is a defining feature of Tinder. So these features are starting to work. But it's going to take a little bit more time to really get back to growth. I think we're on the right path.

That's great. Let's go to -- pivot over to a platform that's growing very nicely, Hinge. You recently maintained the $1 billion revenue guide for 2027. Maybe just talk about like product-led growth drivers there as we get through this year and into next year? What's kind of working? And what are the biggest growth drivers?

Yes. I mean phenomenal growth, 28% revenue growth in Q1. They're on track to deliver the full year expectations we put out earlier in the year and on the path to $1 billion in 2027 with expanding margins. So incredibly strong results there.

There's a few things. One, I think the growth is coming from a number of areas. One is there's a long runway on monetization in core markets. They still monetize far lower than Tinder. That's a misconception. I think there's some confusion because if you just look at the external results, we break it down with RPP and payers and at face value, you look at Hinge, it's like, well, RPP is double what Tinder is. So that monetization opportunity is not there. That's not really the right way to look at it. You really have to look at it from like a revenue per MAU perspective, which bakes in payer penetration and RPP.

And if you look at it that way, and the other benefit I have in looking at the internal data is, I can sort of look at it apples-to-apples, right? And I can control for the geo mix of those 2 businesses. So Tinder's RPP and payer penetration gets weighted down because it's so global and these other international markets monetizes less than the U.S., where Hinge's more concentrating in those core markets that tend to monetize higher. So basically, if you control for all that, there's still a long runway to go for monetization improvement by Hinge in core markets. So I think that's going to drive some growth.

Europe is also still pretty early days from a monetization perspective, and growing extremely strong. I don't know if we've said this -- I don't think we said this in earnings, but if you just look at revenue growth in European expansion markets, it's 100% year-over-year the last 3 quarters, which is massive growth. And still a long runway to go if you look at it relative to Tinder. And then third is -- and I think probably most importantly, at this point in its growth trajectory is it continues to resonate in every new market it enters. So it's the #2 or #3 dating app in Mexico and a couple of other countries in South America where it just entered in Brazil. And so that's just another continent that it's resonating in. And so it's building our confidence in its ability to just be a global brand, right?

And so then the question becomes, okay, well, when is it -- so it probably is going to resonate in Asia, too. It resonated in Europe. It resonated in South America. It's resonated in core English-speaking markets, it's probably going to work in Asia, too. And that's a huge market that's just completely untapped. I mean, Japan is one of the biggest markets in the world just from a dollar perspective.

And so we're, to be honest, talking more and more now about, okay, we're going to get -- we're sort of -- we're going to get to the $1 billion through basically momentum. I mean we got to keep executing. So, how do we get to the $2 billion? That's kind of where the lens have shifted, which I think is because we see, okay, this could be a global brand. So that's super exciting.

And then the last thing I would just say about Hinge that I think is important is we've -- in a way, we kind of learned from the Tinder mistakes a little bit. And they are myopically focused on product innovation. And so they're not letting their foot off the gas on, okay, we've got the user growth, so let's shift all the focus to monetization. It's a really balanced road map between monetization and true product innovation, which is necessary to keep -- to get back to category growth, right? And so you see that in this last quarter where we rolled out 3 super interesting new product features. There's a friends product -- feature friends take that brings your friends into the experience and helps them give insights about you and the profile. There's a feature called signals that we're working on, that adds basically, you could earn a badge through good behavior. That is a feature that really will resonate with women.

So we're really innovating on the product, too, I think at a really good pace to help -- so that's just -- that is the way to long-term sustainable growth. Product -- continued product innovation and investment combined with monetization and the global appeal, I think there's a long runway to go there.

That's awesome. How do we think like -- so if Tinder trends continue and things continue to improve and then Hinge has a lot of runway and great growth right now. Like over a 3- to 5-year period, how do the -- how do you see the brands coexisting within Match?

Yes. I always harp back to the gem, which we rolled out a few quarters ago, which I think is a simple way to think about it, where our brands fit on sort of 3 axes: Focus, fun and familiarity. And focus is Hinge, fun is Tinder, familiarity is a lot of the E&E brands that we talk about that are a little bit more demographically focused. And there's really a place for all of them. And we're going to ensure that remains the case.

A good example is IRL is applicable to both Hinge and Tinder, right? And they both have a Gen Z user base. But it's going to look -- it's looked very different. How that sort of manifests itself in the app looks very different, right? So there's an IRL experience, which is the third product feature that Hinge just rolled out, that basically gets you out on a date right away. It gets you in IRL with a connection. And the way -- but the way it does it is very different than the Tinder events product strategy we just talked about. It's more a drop-down, you match with someone, you get to say, do you want to go straight to a date? Where would you like to go coffee, dinner, whatever, pick a time, okay, let's meet. And let's get rid of the back and forth chatting and let's just go out on a date. That's IRL for Hinge.

That's way different than the IRL for Tinder, which is let's go to an event and sort of just hang and see what happens. And so we'll keep those paths pretty separate and distinct. And the last -- the couple of other points I would make is it's a multi-app category, right? Users are using 3 to 4 apps at a time. So there's no reason why someone can't be on Tinder and Hinge. That's actually what happens quite frequently. And we think there's a huge opportunity around cross-sell and bundling and just making better use of our portfolio of brands. It's a strategic advantage we have. We haven't done a lot on. So we do have an internal project called Mercury, which is cross sell. It's generating $20 million, $30 million a year in revenue already, which is you're on BLK, and we show you an ad for Tinder and we say, would you like to join Tinder too and it's one click profile transfer.

So I think that's the path forward is keeping these apps unique and distinct and then offering -- and then providing offerings that only we can around bundling and cross-sell that a lot of our competitors can't.

Okay. We -- I have time for a couple more questions here, so I'm going to try to go quick because I have a lot more to get through, but...

I'll try to give quicker answers too.

No, no, no, that's great. The Sniffies, just staying with like the brands. You invested in Sniffies. How should we think about it? Can you just remind people roughly, minority stake?

Yes. I'll give you the 1-minute answer. $100 million of investment, large minority stake, off balance sheet, not consolidated, #2 player in the non-heterosexual male category, which is the largest demographic segment in the category. Just look at Grindr and the market cap and how well they've done. We think there's a path to make it #1. And that's why we've invested in it. We're going to help support it with trust and safety. We're going to work together to get back in the App Store with a safe for work product. And we're super excited. It has great brand resonance, huge following, 3 million MAU, founders are great. And we're going to do it in a way where we're playing the supporting role, but we're not going to sort of mess up what all the great things they've done as being like independent founder-led business.

So that's the strategy. I think it's super exciting. We're shutting down Archer that was a bet we made, just hasn't found the product market fit that we wanted, and so this is a better bet for us.

Okay. I want to hit margin and capital allocation. On the margin, 200 bps of margin expansion guide at the midpoint. Just talk about just the drivers for margin, and then I'll finish with capital allocation?

Thank you. I think capital allocation is an underappreciated part of the story. Margin in 1 minute is, first of all, you're giving us -- first of all, there's a lot of onetime costs in 2025. So you really have -- which we've been explicit about. We're extremely clean with our EBITDA definition more so than most companies, so we try to call it out. But if you sort of strip all those onetime costs out, margins are basically flat year-over-year, 37.5%-ish. That's by design.

We could have expanded margins further through IP fee savings through the headcount reductions we've made, but we plow it back into growth, which has been a great strategy for us. We've effectively created $100 million of headcount-related savings, $125 million-ish in IP fee-related savings, $225 million that we plowed back into Tinder and Hinge product and marketing. Where it goes from here, is it's mostly structural too. It's not -- but I think ultimately, my goal is to get growth back. I'm thinking about long-term adjusted EBITDA, not necessarily margins for the sake of margins. And the way -- I always say that the best way -- the easiest way to generate margin expansion is revenue growth, right? It's just because of the operating leverage in the business.

So if we can get Tinder and the brands back to better growth, which we think we can over the next couple of years, that will give us lots of optionality to expand margins further.

That's great. Let's close with capital allocation. I mean, Match is an incredible free cash flow generator. You guys have been super disciplined with capital allocation in recent years. So just -- yes, just a couple -- like a minute on how you see capital allocation?

Yes. I mean we think of it as like the coiled spring analogy, right? What we're -- we're coiling the spring up by working hard to turn around Tinder and get free cash flows back to growth. They've been about flat for the last few years, right, which is still $1.1 billion of free cash flow. And we're buying back shares all along. And so we've reduced share count outstanding. We think we'll reduce it 5% to 7% over each year over the next few years, like a CAGR sort of rate. And when we get through the end of this, the share count is a lot lower, the cash flow starts to grow, and it's a coiled spring that just generates fantastic free cash flow per share and returns. And free cash flow per share was up in the 20% year-over-year growth last year. It will be in the high teens this year. It's just phenomenal. I think people don't appreciate it. It's a big part of the overall turnaround story.

Right. That's great. All right. So I think we're out of time. Thank you so much.

Thank you.

All right. I think we'll get started. Good afternoon, everyone. Cory Carpenter, Internet analyst at JPMorgan. Pleased to have Steve Bailey, CFO of Match Group. Thanks for joining.

Happy to be here.

So starting with safe -- Match's safe harbor. During this presentation and during the question-and-answer session, we may discuss our outlook and future performance. These forward-looking statements may be preceded by words such as we expect, we believe, we anticipate or similar statements. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties, and our actual results could differ materially from the views expressed today. Some of these risks have been set forth in our periodic reports filed with the SEC.

Also today, we may discuss certain non-GAAP financial measures. Reconciliations to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures are provided in the published materials on our IR website. These non-GAAP measures are not intended to be a substitute for our GAAP results.

Are you timing me? Okay. So let's see, go into questions. So let's start, look, I mean, I think it's no secret that dating industry has been challenged in recent years. So what's your view on the state of the industry? What would you tell investors who may still be skeptical on the growth outlook for it?

Yes. It has been challenging as a category as a whole. It's not unique to Match or unique to Tinder. It's a category problem. And I think it's a product problem, that. Really, what's happened is the needs and tastes and wants of Gen Z, which is sort of a new generation of daters, is different than what it was with millennials. And as we look back, I don't think we evolved the products fast enough, particularly Tinder, to meet those changing needs. We kind of fell asleep at the wheel a little bit, and now we're playing catch up.

The good thing is what we know from all our research is Gen Z wants meaningful connections. They want to meet new people. They just want to do it differently. They want it to be lower pressure more than anything. They want to sort of vibe their way through it. They don't want it to be a job interview. What Tinder was, novel, cool part of the zeitgeist for millennials, it's not the same for Gen Z. And we sort of lean -- level up our game, and that's what we're hard at work doing.

So even at Match, through, I think, 5 CEOs...

Six.

Six CEOs. So a number of turnaround efforts at Tinder. What feels different this time around that gives you the confidence that you're really turning the corner?

I would say two things. One is leadership. I mean, it starts at the top. And yes, I've been through -- Spencer is my sixth CEO. They all have their strengths and weaknesses. But I think Spencer, more than anything, is by far the most experienced. He's the first, I think -- the first real public company experienced CEO. He ran Zillow for 10 years. He's also a founder, right? He founded Zillow, he founded Hotwire. He's got -- so he's got a lot of sort of chops, street cred and a lot of experiences to build up over time.

And what -- how that shines through is a level of decisiveness. And he brings certain principles that he's came in day 1 with that he's now executing, like a focus on user outcomes, for example. His whole -- the whole notion of it starts with building the right team, that ends with the stock price, not the other way around. And so because he came in with effectively a mental framework for how to run a tech company, he's just been able to move very fast with a lot of confidence. So that's different -- clearly different than before.

And then the second thing is the strategy. And so our focus away from purely revenue and profit and EBITDA, which we're very good at, Tinder is very good at monetization, more towards user outcomes and user experience, I think, gives me confidence that we're building this turnaround from the ground up. And so that means it has staying power.

Okay. So we'll spend a good chunk of time here on Tinder. I think first, high level, you framed the Tinder turnaround as a 3-step process: Reset, Revitalize, Resurgence. Could you elaborate on these 3 phases and where you're at in the process?

Yes. I think Reset is people and culture, and that was the focus of 2025. We did a little bit more of it in Q1. We merged Match Group Asia with E&E, but that's largely behind us. And so to my earlier point, in Spencer's framework, it starts with the right people, the right team, and I think we're largely there.

The Revitalization phase is what we're clearly in the middle of now, which is all around product innovation. So now that we've got the right people, the right team, we've restructured the management layers, we've built a culture of urgency and accountability. Now we're building products, particularly at Tinder and at Hinge.

And so what we think is through product innovation, that will get us to the Resurgence phase, which is back to growth at Tinder and for the company as a whole in 2027. So what we've said is revenue growth and payer growth by Q4 of 2027, that's the goal we've set. And I think we're on a pretty good path to get there.

Okay. So a few quarters ago, you started giving stats showing Sparks metrics improving. I'll let you explain what that is. But you built on that this quarter with registrations and retention both returning to growth for the first time in a couple of years. So what's driving these improvements? And how do you think about the sustainability?

Yes. So Sparks are a 6-way conversation. That's our proxy for a meaningful connection. That's the focus of Tinder and the company. No longer is it a focus of just getting people likes that we can monetize. It's actually getting users into real meaningful connections, which is why they're on the app in the first place.

So that's the focus and everybody asked for. And we needed one internally too, like a metric that we can track progress against, and that's where we came up with Sparks and Sparks Coverage. And for the last few quarters, that's been improving, which is great to see. You're right, Sparks Coverage, which is of the users we have, how many of them are getting into meaningful connections, that was up about 6% in Q1 year-over-year. And even Sparks itself, which is the volume of 6-way conversations we have, which is basically a function of MAU times the coverage, is nearing flat year-over-year. It was down 1% in Q1. So we're making a lot of progress on the early indicators.

And then the question was really, well, will that sort of carry through to the more core financial metrics that investors really care about. And I think the answer to that is yes. The metrics, you mentioned a couple, retention, which is a really hard metric to move for our business and most sort of consumer tech businesses, is up 1% year-over-year globally. It's up 3% year-over-year for young females in the U.S., which is our core demographic we're going after.

And so what that's saying is the thesis is proving out that more Sparks and better outcomes for our users is leading to better user retention, lower what we call bad churn, less people leaving because they're not finding success in the app. And actually, it's -- and what that's leading to, combined with improving registration trends, is, while not yet positive, improving MAU trends too and payer trends as well.

So the thesis is holding out. It's bearing fruit. And I think we're probably a little bit ahead of where we thought we'd be, but we're clearly not at the finish line yet.

Okay. So you -- Tinder hosted their first ever product event a few months ago. I was there. Very nice.

Thanks for coming.

Where -- and you announced a number of new features there. Kind of which of the product launches have been the most impactful thus far? And what can you tell us about the product road map in the second half of the year?

Yes. Actually, the single most impactful change we made was with algorithms, so more on the back end. And what that meant was largely moving away from algorithms that optimize for likes distribution to moving towards algorithms that operate -- optimized for outcomes for Sparks. And we've seen a lot of success with that. I would say that, that's 2/3 of the benefit we've seen is really in the area of algorithms, which I think does bode well for the sustainability of the turnaround in that, that's so core and fundamental to the product. It's not a fancy bell or whistle that gains some excitement and then fizzles out. It's the core crux of the product experience.

When you combine that with a new marketing strategy, which is a focus on further down the funnel, not just brand marketing and new innovative features like Double Date, for example, that's really resonating with Gen Z. 1 in 4 Gen Z females in the U.S. is using Double Date, which is, for those of you who don't know, pairing up with a friend, swiping other pairs and going out on double date -- we did? The combination of those things is leading to sustainability of the turnaround.

Okay. So I told you this. My goal of today is for everyone to walk out understanding the giveback concept. So we get -- okay. We've got a lot of questions on this. So you've talked about the concept of a $60 million user giveback budget for this year because you didn't use as much as you thought you would use in the first half of the year. Could you just clarify exactly what this is and why you did not end up utilizing those givebacks in the first quarter?

Right. So at the beginning of the year, as part of the strategy around optimizing for user outcomes, we realized that some of the changes we were going to need to make to the product could have a short-term negative impact to revenue. So for example, the algorithm discussion -- the example I just gave. If we were concerned that if we change the algorithms that were effectively optimized to maximize revenue through likes distribution towards one that optimized for outcomes towards Sparks, we would lose revenue in the short term.

But we were prepared to do that because we knew monetizing a declining user base is not a winning strategy. Turning around users, getting it back to growth is a more sustainable strategy for long-term revenue and profitability. So that's why that was the reason behind setting up the $60 million giveback budget.

Now what we found is we started testing these things, most of the tests -- a lot of the tests is centered around algorithms -- that the outcome of that was not as bad as we expected. I'll give you just an example. We tested 2 big algorithm changes. First of all, we have multiple algorithms, not just one. We've tested 2 big algorithm changes. One kind of played out like we expected. It drove higher -- more Sparks and better Sparks Coverage, but it cost around $15 million in annualized revenue, negative revenue impact. That's kind of what we thought would happen.

But there was another algorithm change that we made that drove -- improved Sparks and Sparks Coverage, but actually also added $30 million of annualized revenue, right, which was unexpected. So when you net all these tests together, what we were left with was rolling out tests that improved user outcomes and actually added to revenue, not detracted from revenue. Now that's why we didn't use as much of the budget as we expected in the first half of the year.

So what we've done is while it's been lower than expected in the first half of the year, we're saying we expect that to increase in the second half. So we have $45 million budgeted for user givebacks in the second half of the year. And the reason for that disconnect is because what we plan to test in the back half of the year is not the same thing as what we test in the first half of the year. It won't be centered as much around algorithms. It will be centered around other feature and UX changes that we want to test. And because we're unsure of the impacts of those tests, we're keeping that budget there.

And we -- there are a few that we're ideating on that are pretty bold tests. And we don't want to constrain the product team from making really bold product tests that improve outcomes and improve the user experience because they're worried about hitting the revenue guidance. So we've left the $45 million cushion in place to see how that plays out. But if the past couple of quarters is a predictor of the future quarters, there's a chance we could come under in the back half, too.

Makes sense to me. If anyone still needs a clarification, feel free to raise your hand.

Thumbs up, thumbs down.

All right. So this is probably building on that question. But the guide you gave, it assumes the $45 million in givebacks in the back half of the year. It also assumes that Tinder -- you don't guide formally to Tinder payers, but you're roughly saying Tinder payers kind of stay around the negative 5% in the back half of the year. So why would we -- I think the question we get is if payers improved from down 8% to down 5%, why would we not see continued improvement in that metric?

And that's because of the user givebacks. Because of the back-weighted nature of the user givebacks, if we end up utilizing that $45 million, which again, on the P&L shows up as $45 million less revenue, which flows through after IP fees down to EBITDA, right? And it also shows up in the payer number. Because that's where -- that's -- it's not really a pricing or RPP thing, it's more a payer thing. We're giving a better experience for the collective user base, most of which are free, and for the ecosystem as a whole, but it could be -- but it could cost us some revenue and payers in the short term.

And so if you did the -- think about it as the impact to payers is proportional to the impact to revenue. And so if you think about the $45 million as a percentage of the second half revenue for Tinder and take that as a percentage, think about it similarly on the payer side. And so if you play that math out, basically, what's happening is the improvement in MAU and overall business trends that has been leading to improved payer trends will continue, but could be offset by the user givebacks. And that's what's netting us out to about down 5% each quarter. If the user givebacks don't happen, then we should continue to progress more towards flat by the end of the year. Still probably down, but meaningfully better than the negative 5% we are at today.

Makes sense. Okay. We'll move on. So let's talk about AI a bit. I think first, from a product perspective, how is AI impacting the Tinder user experience? And what role do you see it playing in dating more broadly?

I think it has broad applications. The few places that it's showing up in Tinder is, one, algos, which we've talked a lot about. It's just so much better than the old rules-based algorithms. It can use more unstructured data, more nuanced data.

The word is probably inference. It could infer things about you that the old rules-based algorithms could not. So we found a lot of success there at Tinder and at Hinge. And I think it's still early days. And the -- like I said before, the crux of the product experience is the algorithms. So that's one.

The other one is more forward-facing features. And Chemistry is a good example. Still pretty early, but that is a curated drop or match, highly curated match that's completely different than the core swiping experience. So think of it as AI gets to know you a little bit better through a like sort of lightweight back and forth. And it can, therefore, because it knows more about you, it can give you a better match. And that's something that is resonating with Gen Z, too. They don't want to just go on the app and swipe. So that's another area.

And then the third area will be trust and safety. There's a lot of really cool applications with AI around trust and safety like Are You Sure? Does This Bother You? These are nudges within the app that help improve the trust and safety experience across the app.

And then just from a cost perspective, a lot of conversations this week around token costs and all of that. So how do you expect AI to impact headcount and expenses across the company?

Yes. We're embarking on a huge AI enablement push. We've got our AI Day internally this week. We gave -- we announced a week ago now that every employee in the company would get access to cutting-edge AI tools. So we think this is a big opportunity.

And the way we're effectively paying for it is by slowing down hiring. I think you see that across the tech industry. Folks are taking 1 of 2 paths. I mean I think for everybody, the AI costs are coming in higher than they expected. You hear that time and time again. We did not budget for what could be $5 million to $10 million in tooling costs for our business on an annualized basis, which is meaningful. That was not in the budget.

But we see the benefit of it. So the way we're paying for it is effectively slowing down hiring. Companies are either slowing down hiring or they're reducing the size of their headcount. We're not -- we're doing -- we're slowing down hiring instead. We had gone through a big RIF last year. We feel pretty good about where our headcount is. And so that's effectively how we're paying for it. The reason is twofold. One is not only because we need to sort of find a way to pay for these tools, but also because we want to see the needs of the organization, what roles we need, what roles we don't need as we infuse AI through all the departments in the company.

So sticking with expenses, you outlined a few areas of cost savings at earnings a few weeks ago. You have -- app store fees are a good tailwind for you this year, assuming they don't change again. Maybe could you talk about your -- the big expense initiatives that you're doing this year? And I think more broadly, like how much more -- you're pretty profitable, 40-ish percent margin. So how much more opportunity do you see on the expense side?

Yes. I think there's 2 pockets that I'm focused on right now. We generate about $100 million in savings on the headcount side. We've generated over $100 million in savings on the IP fee side. So I feel good about -- I think that's pretty optimized. And we fed that back into the business for further investment in growth instead of dropping it down to the bottom line, but it gives us a lot of flexibility.

The areas we've spent a little less time in, one is cloud costs. So we've got an initiative particularly at Tinder to reduce cloud costs through dev optimizations. That was a code base that was built up over 10 years, really hadn't been a focus. So it's not going to be as big as IP fee savings. Our cloud costs are, round numbers, call it, $100 million per year, but I think we can chip away at that. We've got a plan to do it. And the teams are executing against some goals there.

And then the second probably bigger one is really around marketing. And so we talked about in the last call a couple of weeks ago that we merged the performance marketing team into one team that sits across all brands of the company. We spend $600 million a year in marketing, rough numbers. It's been done in a somewhat siloed way. So now we've got a whole new approach to marketing, which we call Prism, which is a framework we use that shows marketing ROI on an apples-to-apples basis across all our brands. And then we've also now merged the teams into one performance marketing team that I think will unlock a bunch of efficiencies.

The way I think about it is, can we optimize the $600 million by 10%, right, given the fact that it was kind of run by -- in a siloed way before? Probably. So that's $60 million. Now you can drop that down to the bottom line or you can keep spending the $600 million, but get 10% more for it, 10% more regs, 10% more payers, 10% more revenue. We'll probably go that direction because we think marketing is working for Tinder, but I think that's a big area of optimization for us.

Okay. So moving to your other brands. So Hinge continues to track towards your $1 billion revenue target for next year. Where do you still see the most opportunity for growth at Hinge?

I think there's really 2 big -- there's 3 big pockets of growth. One is monetization in core markets. They're still undermonetized relative to Tinder if you look at it on an apples-to-apples basis. I know folks get confused, like the RPP of Hinge is so much higher than the RPP of Tinder. You're only looking at one side of the equation really. It's really RPP and payer penetration that matter, both of them matter.

And if you just look at revenue per MAU, for example, which nets the two together and control for the geography mix and the gender mix, there's still runway for Hinge to monetize better in core markets. I think bringing a better value proposition to females is another big lever for them in core markets where females are undermonetized. That's a category-wide thing that they have some really interesting plans to address.

Then the second is just more room for growth in the existing expansion markets. Europe is still -- while they've been there for 2 years, it's still a pretty small percentage of total revenue. And if you just look at it in proportion to the U.S., we've got other benchmarks. Like Tinder, for example, there's still a long runway to go there. I think that will come naturally through just sheer momentum. I mean, the revenue was up 100% in the last few quarters there year-over-year in Europe for Hinge.

And then the third is expanding to new markets. And so I think what I'm excited to see is not that South America is a massive market from a revenue perspective, but what it's showing is the continued global appeal of Hinge as a product. And what that tells me is it builds my confidence in can we take it to Asia? Can we take it to bigger countries like Japan where there is a lot -- really high TAM and revenue base? I think the answer is clearly yes there, and that will provide a long runway, too. We don't need a Japan to get to $1 billion, but we need a Japan to get well beyond $1 billion. And I think we're all really confident in the progress we're making there.

So I think one question we've started to get now that Tinder is stabilizing is, do you have any concern that a Tinder resurgence could perhaps come partly at the expense of Hinge?

No. I mean, what we've seen is cannibalization has not been an issue. It's, again, a category issue. When we enter new markets with Hinge, like when we entered Mexico and Brazil, we looked at it really closely to see is Hinge's early success there taking away from Tinder? And the answer was clearly no. Tinder's trends held up quite well. Hinge added downloads, and Match Group as a whole grew in those regions.

And I think the opposite holds true. I mean, one of the things we're really focused on is the gem we talk a lot about, which is where our brands fit within our portfolio. And clearly, Hinge is in the focused part of the gem. And directly across from that is the fun part of the gem, which is where Tinder lies. So as long as we keep those products distinct and the brand positioning and the product positioning unique, I don't see a problem. It's a multi-app usage category. Users using 3-plus apps at a time, I think there's a use case for both. So I mean, that -- what we want to do is keep the Hinge growth going and get Tinder back to user growth. That's the formula to get the Match Group stock price up and the company back on the right footing.

I want to ask about -- you've made 2 minority investments. Sniffies, very recent, and then also Overtone from the Hinge founder. Could you talk about these 2 businesses and just how you're thinking about the -- why the minority investment route and how you're thinking about the optionality to build that ownership over time?

Yes. There are a little bit different use cases. Overtone, we made a minority investment in -- or sorry, Sniffies, we made a minority investment in. It was a founder-led start-up that we've invested in. I think the reason behind that is it's the biggest segment of the category, the non-heterosexual male segment of the category that we don't really play in.

And we tried to do that with Archer. They built a great product. It's been a couple of years. We've invested a bunch in marketing and in people, and it hasn't gained the product market fit that we had hoped. So we've pivoted the strategy. We've shut that business down. We're going to save on OpEx, on headcount, on SBC, which helps the P&L. And we're making a minority investment in Sniffies, which is the #2 player in that space, and we think a path to #1. They'll benefit a lot from our trust and safety know-how, just our institutional knowledge of the category.

But at the same time, a minority investment has a couple of things. One, it keeps it off our P&L, although it's a profitable business and growing quite nicely from a revenue and EBITDA perspective. But it also lets them continue to be a start-up founder-led organization. so it doesn't sort of lose the magic created by coming in and being part of a larger public company.

And so the idea is leave it founder-led, give it more support, the support that it needs to reach its full potential, and then we have the option to buy it down the road, which is a similar approach to what we took at Hinge, and that's worked out phenomenally well. We bought Hinge for $20 million, $30 million back in 2017, and look at it now. So if we could repeat that playbook, that would be great.

Overtone is a little bit different. Overtone, we incubated internally and then spun out, and we have a minority investment there. That is because it's a new bet on the category, right? It's a truly AI-native experience. We think there's room for that in the category. Nobody has really cracked the code yet. I think Justin, given his experience in the category, has a leg up against other start-ups. But it also is going to take a while, and it's going to accumulate losses. And there's a low probability of ultimate success. So I'd like to do those things sort of off balance sheet in a minority investment way with the option to buy it. To the extent it does gain product market fit, we think it's a good long-term fit for the portfolio.

I think that's a good segue to just capital allocation. You kind of laid out your capital allocation framework at your Investor Day 2 years ago, maybe at this point. Maybe refresh on...

December 2024.

Yes. Refresh us on the capital allocation strategy. And are there any changes that you're making to it?

The short answer is no. Look, I think Sniffies is a big bet, but at $100 million out of the $1.1 billion in free cash flow for the year, like from my perspective, it's very manageable, right? So doing a Sniffies deal does not take away from our commitment to return 100% of free cash flow to shareholders through largely buybacks and also a dividend. So that hasn't changed.

And I think going forward, we don't have any plans to do large-scale acquisitions. We'll continue to do this tuck-in approach. But the primary objective will be -- really, our first and foremost objective is invest organically in our businesses, right? So we're investing in marketing and in product at Tinder and Hinge to keep Hinge growth going and the turnaround at Tinder. We feel like they have the right levels of investment.

Second is returning cash flow to shareholders through buybacks and the dividend. And I think it's a really powerful formula given where the stock price is at. We bought back about 5% of shares over the last year. So we're buying down the shares outstanding while turning around free cash flow. Those two things compound on each other. And free cash flow per share, for example, grew, I think, 23% last year. So that's a powerful formula if we can keep it going.

Before I ask about app store fees, any questions in the audience? All right. I'll bore you with app store.

Okay. So you've talked about, I think, over $100 million of savings from lower app store fees this year. I think two questions. One, now that you're kind of fairly advanced in your rollout of alternative payments, like what have been your key learnings? And then secondly, what are the key pieces of legislations or trials that you're watching that could impact fees in the future?

Yes. It all comes down -- a couple of learnings. One, friction is the most important thing. So as we've improved the experience to make it more and more frictionless, that has led to better financial results. And as we said, we're about 10% ahead of expectations against that $110 million in savings. So a lot of that is through is just optimizing the flows. Like one win was just improving the tech around web payments that increase the time, the checkout time. Fractions of a second adds up to real dollars.

And then two, I mean, using Apple Pay, payment options that are pretty frictionless because it's different than -- Apple Pay is different than IP. Apple Pay is more like a credit card, but the adoption of Apple Pay is very high. So folks already have their credit cards with Apple. They don't have to get their credit card out and fill out -- in a credit card form. It's those types of things that have led to real benefits. And then we have started to test discounting a little bit and found that, that was not a big lever. So it's really about optimizing the flow more than anything.

And then the court cases that we're watching. Really, there's two: Apple versus Epic and Google versus Epic. They're both going through the courts. Apple versus Epic is in appeal, and we're waiting to see how those both play out to ultimately see where the fee structures land. Google did recently roll out a new fee structure, but people should note that the U.S. component of that is still subject to court ruling. The judge has essentially said that he doesn't agree with it. It's not fair enough to developers. So we're watching how that all plays out. We expect probably, a ruling on the Apple. It's hard to tell, but the lawyers internally think within the next few quarters, likely this year. In the meantime, what we're doing is just maximizing all payment savings to the greatest extent possible.

All right. Last one, and we'll get you on time for your flight.

Right. That's great.

So you're hosting a CEO connect event on June 11. I think it's the first time you've done an event like this. So what type of sneak peek could you tell us in terms of what investors should expect around that event?

Yes, this is going to be a really interesting one, and it goes back to a lot of questions I get around the consumer, around Gen Z. So it's all about Gen Z insights. It's us sharing all the research that we have on what Gen Z is looking for, what their dating habits are, what they're looking for in a dating app.

And it also goes into Gen Alpha too, where we're getting some early reads on how Gen Alpha is similar or different than Gen Z. So you're going to get to hear from our data scientists, our researchers, our product experts all around Gen Z and Gen Alpha and dating.

Great. One question, okay.

The question is this -- okay. Great, thanks. With regards to competitive landscape, Bumble has had their issues. They've made some changes. I think they just got rid of the swipe, kind of going...

If you're saying they're going to get rid of the swipe, yes.

Yes. And so I'm just wondering if you think 3 to 5 years from now, how you would expect the competitive landscape to look different vis-a-vis 3 to 5 years ago? Is it going to be -- is Bumble -- is it still going to be sort of you and Bumble? Is it going to be AI-enabled, different players with a different model? Is Facebook going to kind of encroach on someone's turf? How do you see that all playing out?

Look, I mean, we'll have to see. I think Tinder is still by far the largest dating brand in the world by a multiple. And I think it has real staying power if we can improve the product experience. And so what we're doing is we're not throwing out the swipe, we're evolving it. I think Double Date is a great example where it just totally transformed the experience from swiping to matching with pairs, going out on a double date is exactly what Gen Z wants. It's safer, it's more fun, it's lower pressure. We've got new modes like Astrology that is totally in the Gen Z zeitgeist. So I feel like Tinder is going to continue to evolve.

I think another space I see as fertile ground for the next -- forget 3 to 5 years, the next few years is really a focus on IRL. So I think apps are going to start to blend in Tinder, in particular, online versus offline. The line is going to get blurred. And Tinder is going to become a way you can -- a tech platform or a conduit for meeting people in real life. So less about swiping and chatting and more about those IRL connections. That's what Gen Z wants.

We've got a pilot in L.A. We've done 30 events there. We're doing it in a way that's scalable and doesn't affect our margin profile. We don't want to be an events company. We want to be a technology company. But you can -- these events are already out there. What the events need are the singles, and what we need is a means for people to connect in real life. And I see a huge opportunity there. I think that's going to be a big part of the road map for Tinder going forward. So that's one area, I would say, is IRL.

The other area is I do think AI will play a role. I think Overtone is a great bet. Can someone figure out a truly AI-native approach? It will likely be more of a higher intent use case. Think of it as like more like a digital matchmaker of sorts. And I do think there's a place for that in the category.

And in terms of the competitive landscape, look, liquidity still matters, right? AI has made it incredibly easy -- I got 20 seconds left -- incredibly easy to build an app. You or I can go build an app tomorrow. But you or I cannot gain liquidity in a double-sided network effect ecosystem. We cannot -- AI cannot beat the cold start problem. And so I think that gives tremendous competitive advantage to brands like Tinder and Hinge that have built true scale. And to a certain extent, Bumble.

And in terms of Bumble itself, like we're, in a way, rooting for Bumble to win because Bumble is part of the category as a whole, too, and it's a category challenge. So Bumble levels up, does better for users, so does Tinder. Hinge keeps going and innovating, then the category as a whole grows.

There's much more room to grow the pie than there is to divide the slices. So remember, category adoption is 30% or so in developed markets and 10% -- I think it's like 6% or 7% in developing markets. So really, the long-term play is grow the pie. We're less worried about how the competitive landscape shakes out.

I think we end it, but thank you.

Thank you so much.

Welcome's to the Match Group First Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Please note, this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Tanny Shelburne, Senior Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you, operator, and good afternoon, everyone. Today's call will be led by CEO, Spencer Rascoff; and CFO Bailey. We'll make a few brief remarks, and then we'll open it up for questions. Before we start, I need to remind everyone that during this call, we may discuss our outlook and future performance.

These forward-looking statements may be preceded by words such as we expect, we believe, we anticipate or similar statements. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties, and our actual results could differ materially from the views expressed today. Some of these risks have been set forth in our earnings release and our periodic reports with the SEC.

Also during this call, we'll discuss certain non-GAAP financial measures. Reconciliations to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures are provided in the published materials on our IR website. These non-GAAP measures are not intended to be a substitute for our GAAP results.

With that, I'd like to turn the call over to Spencer.

Good afternoon, and thanks for joining us. Macri entered 2026 with tangible progress on the 3-phase transformation we outlined last year. reset, revitalize and resurgence. We completed the reset phase in 2025, and we're now well into revitalize, focused on improving product experiences, strengthening the ecosystem and rebuilding growth. We are operating with greater focus and discipline.

The portfolio is sharper, execution is faster and we are leveraging our scale more effectively through our One MG approach. We are reinvesting where we see clear opportunities to improve user outcomes while continuing to return meaningful capital to shareholders. Our progress is showing up in 3 areas: first, leading indicators at Tinder are showing momentum. -- reflecting better product experiences for Gen Z, and that progress is increasingly translating into top line metrics like monthly active users or MAU, payers and direct revenue.

Second, Hinge continues to scale, combining strong revenue growth, rapid product innovation, particularly in AI-driven features and continued international expansion. And third, we continue to streamline our portfolio and organizational structure, simplifying how we operate and focusing resources on our highest conviction opportunities.

Looking ahead, our objective is to drive a resurgence with our audience by reestablishing Tinder as a growth business during 2027 through restoring durable user engagement and relevance at scale. And all of this is happening alongside disciplined financial execution. In Q1 2026, we exceeded our revenue and adjusted EBITDA expectations on the back of strength at Tinder. Steve will walk through the details shortly. Turning now to Tinder's product-led turnaround. From the beginning, I've said this will be a product-led turnaround, starting with user outcomes and moving up the funnel towards user growth.

Our most important leading indicators Spark and Spark coverage continue to improve. In March, Sparks, the number of users engaging in 6-way conversations were down only 1% year-over-year. a meaningful improvement from down 11% year-over-year in March 2025. Spark's coverage, which measures the percentage of our users who experienced a Spark in a given period was up 6% year-over-year in March compared to down 1% year-over-year in March 2025. These are our clearest signals of product efficacy and real connection, and they are improving.

As we've said before, our belief is improving Sparks leads to better retention and stronger word-of-mouth driving mow over time. We're now starting to see that play out. Mal declines continued to moderate in March, down 7% year-over-year, the slowest rate of decline in 31 months compared to down 10% year-over-year in March of 2025. This improvement was driven by a few factors. First, user retention increased, up 1% year-over-year in March after multiple years of decline. U.S. Gen Z women retention, a critical cohort for ecosystem health was up 3% year-over-year in March.

Second, registrations returned to growth for the first time since June 2024, up 1% year-over-year in March compared to down 12% year-over-year in March 2025. This is proof that the brand is resonating through marketing and word of mouth, driving new users into the experience. We're seeing this progress across different geographies and demographics, including in markets where we've had the most rent to recover. Progress may not always be linear, but the year-over-year trajectory of these leading indicators and user engagement underscores our confidence in the strategy, and we expect it to translate into revenue growth over time.

Let me highlight a few of the efforts driving these improvements, many of which we showcased at our Tinder Sparks event in March, which is available on our IR website. First, recommendations. We've sharpened how Tinder understands what users are looking for and how we deliver matches across the ecosystem. I learning preferences earlier, showing more relevant profiles and better serving both active and returning users. We're helping people find matches faster and driving more conversations with particularly strong gains for women. Next, product innovation. Features like the strology mode and music mode are gaining traction with Gen Z following their mid-March launch, reaching 19% and 8% adoption, respectively.

We're also seeing encouraging early signals on user outcomes. For example, in our early read, women who swipe on astrology cards are more likely to reach a spark than those with non-Astra cards. Like double date, these signals show new modes are resonating by making discovery more expressive and lower pressure, which is exactly what Gen Z users have been asking. And finally, trust and safety. We continue to scale FaceCheck into more regions including the recent launch in the U.K. and Singapore. FaceCreck is improving authenticity and user trust with particularly strong trends in the U.S., where Net Promoter Scores have been trending higher.

Importantly, the revenue impact from our ongoing user experience tests remain within the range that we planned. Simply put, Tinder works better now. We're not at the finish line, but the turnaround is clearly underway. Turning to Hinge, where product-led growth continues to scale. Hinge continues to build thoughtful, best-in-class experiences for highly intentioned daters. The team remains focused on a key objective, helping users get out on great dates. That clarity is driving its product road map, which is both rapidly advancing the core experience and introducing new and compelling features.

Starting with the core experience. hinges strengthening profile quality through a redesigned onboarding experience that encourages users to slow down and reflect on what they're looking for before viewing profiles. Structured prompts help users more clearly communicate their relationship goals, their personality and preferences from the start. The experience is also more interactive, giving users more visibility into how they are represented and improving confidence during profile creation. We plan to expand this globally by the end of Q2.

In parallel, Hinge continues to strengthen trust within the experience with [indiscernible], which is now fully rolled out in the U.S., U.K., Australia, Canada, Brazil and Mexico, with additional markets planned for Q2.

In these markets, the feature has reduced interaction with bad actors by 20% to 30% with minimal impact on revenue. Originally developed by Tinder, Facecheck showcases portfolio-wide innovation, enabling King to quickly iterate and bring the feature to market faster. Building on its stronger core experience, Hinge is introducing a set of category-first features designed to better express intent and help users move from connection to date.

First, hinges reducing friction in getting to great dates with bad ideas, a feature formerly known as Direct to date, which allows users to propose a date idea and time upfront to clarify intent and move matches to real-life meetings faster. Early feedback has been encouraging with nearly 9% adoption in testing, 1 of the highest rates we've seen for a new profile feature and users expressing genuine excitement on social media.

So far, users are defaulting to familiar low-effort data ideas like dinner, drinks and walks, while custom data ideas skew toward light conversational activities like Bowling, arcades, Newseum and Mini Golf. Second, Hinge is expanding the role friends play on daters profiles with friends take, which addresses 2 core tensions, representing yourself authentically and navigating dating alone without community. Building on Hinge's prompt native format, the feature allows users to invite trusted friends on offing to contribute short reflections to their profiles, adding credibility and helping users get to know 1 or other more deeply.

Friends take will begin testing by the end of Q2 with broader rollout expected in Q3. We see potential for it to be a top of funnel driver similarly to voice prompts a couple of years ago. Third, Hinge began testing signals a new feature designed to make effort and intentionality more visible. When users consistently demonstrate thoughtful participation by doing things like completing their profile, responding to messages and engaging in meaningful conversations. They earn a signals badge on their profile. This badge signals to others on the app, their level of effort and intentionality addressing a long-standing friction point in the category, particularly for women and younger daters.

Early results show improvements in dating outcomes and user behaviors that benefit the overall ecosystem. As we invest in these types of intentional features, we are creating new surface areas to potentially monetize later. Hinge demonstrates the simple principle that when product market fit is strong and user outcomes are clear, growth follows and the model scales. Hinge continues to lead the category in product innovation through its consistent focus on user outcomes and it's led to strong financial results. We're excited to see the impact of Hanger's product road map on the business this year as it continues on its path to be $1 billion business by 2027.

Now turning to our [indiscernible] approach in action. We're continuing the work that we began last year to simplify the organization and operate more effectively as 1 match group. As part of this effort, we folded our MG Asia business unit into our E&E business unit. This brings our 2 Asia-based businesses, Azar and pairs, closer to the rest of the company, removes the management layer and improves efficiency while maintaining in-region cross-brand go-to-market capabilities.

We expect this change to result in roughly $15 million in annualized cost savings, including stock-based compensation. It also enables more cohesive portfolio management, faster execution, and to apply shared capabilities and resources. On Azar, as we previously disclosed, App will temporarily remove the app from the App Store on February 22, 2026. The team moved quickly to make adjustments, which led to the reinstatement of a new version on April 6, 2026. While still early, registrations and now are beginning to recover, but the new app experience is monetizing at lower levels than the previous burn. We're testing changes to the product to improve monetization, but expect continued pressure on the ZAR direct revenue over the balance of the year.

With the consolidation of MG Asia into E&E, we've transitioned our soul-based MG AI team of more than 20 talented data scientists and machine learning engineers to report into Tinder's CTO. This team will continue building shared 1 MG technologies, including AI-driven photo uploading and AI-enabled recommendation algorithms, but we'll now operate with closer alignment to our largest business unit. In addition, we're shifting nearly 30 product engineering and analytics employees from Azar to Tinder in full. These moves concentrate resources into Tinder at a critical moment, supported by excellent executive leadership and accelerating product road map and improving business momentum.

Following this move, we'll have a nearly 60-person team focused on Tinder in Seoul, making it our third largest tech hub after Palo Alto and Los Angeles. We've also made progress in unifying performance marketing by further centralizing teams and resources into a 1 MG organization that buys digital media across brands. We spend nearly $600 million globally across 20 or more brands. with significant efficiencies available to us as coordination wraps. We're also bringing certain areas of E&E closure with Tinder, starting with the executive layer where I now directly oversee both business units.

This has unlocked significant opportunities for better coordination and synergies, including the marketing changes I just mentioned. As I dug into E&E the last few weeks, we've identified many areas where Tinder and E&E results can be improved through tighter coordination collaboration and integration. Finally, this couldn't be a 2026 earnings call without discussing AI. We see AI as a core enabler of improving user outcomes, enhancing product experiences, increasing relevance and accelerating development and iteration across the portfolio.

To support this, we've launched a global AI enablement program that gives every employee access to leading AI tools with the goal of becoming an AI-native company. We're also reassessing our hiring plans with AI enablement in mind and plan to reduce head count growth over the remainder of the year. And we're standing up a cross-company AI leadership team to help ensure consistent deployment of capabilities and avoid fragmentation across brands. These changes are about operating more simply and more effectively. We're simplifying the portfolio, focusing resources on our highest conviction opportunities and adapting quickly to where we believe the category is going, not where it's been. That's 1 MV in practice.

Now for some final thoughts. Stepping back, we've aligned our business around distinct user intents with each brand serving a different and important role. Together, they expand our reach across a broad and growing market for human connection. Within that framework, in April, we made a $100 million investment for a significant minority stake in [indiscernible], a differentiated platform with strong product market fit and a highly engaged user base. We have the option to acquire the remaining equity in the future similar to the approach we took with our initial investment in Hinge back in 2017.

SNFs reinforces our commitment with nonheterosexual met, which represent a large and growing portion of the category. We see a clear opportunity to lend our expertise in areas like trust and safety and geographic expansion while preserving what makes the platform unique to its community. As part of this investment, we plan to wind down our Game Mail app Archer, which we expect to result in roughly $10 million in annualized cost savings, including stock-based compensation.

We built a stronger foundation and are now seeing that translate into real momentum. By improving how people connect and delivering better outcomes for users, we're setting the business up for durable growth. That's what gives us confidence in the path to resurgence.

Over to Steve now.

Thanks, Spencer. We delivered a strong start to the year, exceeding both our revenue and adjusted EBITDA expectations. The outperformance was primarily driven by better-than-expected direct revenue and payers trends at Tinder and a benefit associated with Canada's recision of its digital service tax. I'll walk through the key drivers of the quarter and then turn to our guidance. Unless otherwise noted, all amounts are on an as-reported basis and comparisons will be discussed on a year-over-year basis.

More details can be found in the financial table below and in the financial supplement found on our IR website. In Q1, Match Group's total revenue was $864 million, up 4%, flat on a foreign exchange neutral basis. FX was $3 million better than we expected at the time of our last earnings call. Payers declined 5% to $13.5 million, while RPP increased 10% to $20.90. Indirect revenue of $16 million was down 14% and largely driven by a decrease in spend from top advertisers as compared to a record quarter the prior year. In Q1, Match Group's adjusted EBITDA was $343 million, up 25% and representing an adjusted EBITDA margin of 40%. Canada's recision of its digital service tax positively impacted adjusted EBITDA by $11 million in the quarter. Tinder direct revenue in Q1 was $455 million, up 2% and down 3% FXM. Q1 direct revenue includes an approximately $5 million negative impact from user experience testing in the quarter. Payers declined 5% year-over-year to $8.6 million, a marked improvement from the 8% year-over-year decline in Q4 2025.

RPP increased 7% to $17.56 and adjusted EBITDA in the quarter was $237 million, up 4%, representing an adjusted EBITDA margin of 51%. Pange maintained momentum in Q1 with direct revenue of $194 million up 28% and up 24% FXM. Payers increased 15% year-over-year to $2 million and RPP increased 11% to $33.13. Adjusted EBITDA was $71 million, up 66% year-over-year representing an adjusted EBITDA margin of 36%. [indiscernible] direct revenue in Q1 was $139 million, down 7% and down 10% FX payers decreased 16% to $2 million, while RPP increased 11% to $22.97., Adjusted EBITDA was $39 million, up 37%, representing an adjusted EBITDA margin of 28%.

The Match Group Asia delivered direct revenue in Q1 of $60 million, down 6% and down 7% FXM. Azar direct revenue was down 6% and down 9% FX. Azar Direct revenue was negatively impacted by an estimated $3 million from its temporary removal from the App Store. Hayes direct revenue was down 6% and down 4% of [indiscernible] across Match Group Asia, payers declined 9% to approximately $900,000, while RPP increased 2% to $21.74. Adjusted EBITDA was $21 million, up 11%, representing an adjusted EBITDA margin of 35%. As a result of the organizational changes associated with MacGroupAsia that Spencer discussed, beginning with our Q2 2026 results, we will combine the Match Group Asia and E&E business units into a single operating segment called E&E and report Match Group results across 3 operating segments: Tinder, Hinge and E&E.

Now on to consolidated operating costs and expenses. Including stock-based compensation expense, total expenses in Q1 were down 5%. Cost of revenue decreased 11% and represented 24% of total revenue down 4 points as a percent of total revenue, primarily driven by alternative payment savings. Selling and marketing costs increased $6 million or 4%, but remained flat at 19% of total revenue. as a result of increased marketing spend at Tinder and Hinge partially offset by reduced marketing spend at E&E and Match Group Asia. General and administrative costs decreased 20%, down 3 points as a percentage of total revenue to 10% driven by the Canadian digital service tax reversal of $11 million and lower employee compensation, including SBC.

Product development cost decreased 3% down 1 point as a percentage of total revenue at 14%. Depreciation and amortization increased by $16 million to $48 million due to impairments of intangible assets of ZAR totaling [ 25 million, ] resulting from changes required to reinstate the app in the Apple App Store. Our trailing 12-month gross leverage was 3.1x, and net leverage was 2.3x at the end of Q1. We ended the quarter with $1 billion of cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments on hand and plan to use $424 million of cash to pay off the 2026 convertible notes on or before the maturity in June. Year-to-date, through Q1, we delivered operating cash flow of $194 million and free cash flow of $174 million.

We repurchased 2 million shares at an average price of $31 per share on a trade date basis for a total of $60 million, paid $44 million in dividends and deployed $75 million of cash towards net settlement of employee equity awards, -- to 103% of free cash flow. Between April 1 and April 30, 2026, we repurchased an additional 700,000 shares at an average price of $32 per share on a trade date basis for a total of $22 million. As of April 30, 2026, we reduced diluted shares outstanding by 5% year-over-year. We also used $100 million in cash on hand to acquire a minority stake in SNFs, which we announced on April 27, 2026. Our capital allocation strategy centered on returning capital to shareholders through buybacks and a dividend remains unchanged.

Now for guidance. We expect Q2 total revenue for Match Group of $850 million to $860 million, down 2% to flat year-over-year. This range assumes a 1 point tailwind from FX. At X, we expect total revenue to be down 1% to 3% year-over-year. Q2 total revenue guidance assumes a $10 million negative impact from Tinder's user experience tests had a $20 million negative impact from lower Azar direct revenue. We expect MacCap adjusted EBITDA of $325 million to $330 million, representing a 13% year-over-year increase and an adjusted EBITDA margin of 38% at the midpoint of the ranges.

As we remain financially disciplined and continue to optimize our cost structure while making the necessary investments that we believe will drive long-term growth in the business. Now let's open it up to Q&A.

[Operator Instructions] The first question today comes from Shweta Khajuria with Wolfe Research.

One on the Tinder sort of turnaround and leading indicators you're seeing the March metrics you called out are very promising. Could you please talk to if you saw a continuation of these trends into April and I guess now early May, -- that's the first question. And then the second question I have is around your AI cost savings. So how should we be thinking about all these cost savings that you may have either from integrating business units and also driving productivity with AI tools. And it seems that you have greater and greater potential for margin if you wanted to, either this year or next year. So how should we be thinking about that? .

Thank you for the questions. So firstly, yes, Tinder's momentum has continued into April. Just to sort of take a step back and then I'll share some April data the product-led turnaround at Tinder is clearly well underway, and I'm feeling really good about it. So as I said in the prepared remarks, Mal declined 7% year-over-year in March, which was the slowest rate in 31 months. And then it went on to decline 6.6% in April. So it continued to improve. Dow, which I don't think we talked about in the prepared remarks, but daily active users was down 9% back in March of 2025, then down 6% in March of 2026 and was only down 4% in April of 2026.

So every month, every week, almost every day, we continue to chip away at the audience declines at Tinder. So let me just take a moment to try to talk about what's driving this and it's clearly product improvements, which are impacting user outcomes. So the big needle movers on improving user outcomes have been, first of all, recommendations. So we're just doing a much better job today of showing women the men that we think they'll want to see. And obviously, that is the most important thing for a dating app, figuring out who to show to whom, and we're much better at it than we ever were before.

We made lots and lots of changes. But for example, 1 set of changes improved women's sparks by 6%, and that improved women's down by 2% and which in turn improved men's sparks by 5% and then men's down by 1%. So that's just 1 example of 1 set of REX changes. And that plus other REX changes, we thought might hurt revenue, but actually on balance, it resulted in a $15 million annualized revenue gain because of improved women's retention, which then improve men's revenue. So it's not always a trade-off between REX improvements and revenue. Sometimes they actually work together.

The second big needle mover on Tinder product improvements was double date. So around 1 in 5 global users now 18 to 22 are using double data around 1 in 4 U.S. women 18 to 22 are using double date and it's just an important way that people are now using Tinder. Music mode and astrology mode also drove great adoption in the quarter. I think it was 8% for Global Gen Z for music and 19% for Global Gen Z for Astrology. And then the next section is a variety of things that we don't talk about very much because they're kind of mundane improvements, but this is really important blocking and tackling. These are things like improved CRM for better e-mails and notifications or better app performance. So the app doesn't crash the way it used to or better website performance and just general better operating cadence at the company and all those things really do work together.

The last 1 I'll just add is the IRL, the in real life pilot in L.A. has been successful, and we're working to expand that. And it's just another example of how we're creating these low-pressure ways to connect. I'll leave it at that if -- the last piece, I guess, is the marketing support of these products. But let me let me give it to Steve now to talk about the AI and cost savings. And then if there's interest, we can talk about Tinder marketing and how it supports those product changes.

Steve?

Yes, sure. Here's the way I would think about it Shweta. -- we're making a big push around AI enablement. We're giving every employee in the company access to all the cutting-edge tools. We're giving them the training they need to succeed. We're setting expectations. We really want to become an AI-native company, we think is a huge opportunity. So -- but these tools cost a lot of money, as I'm sure you know. And so the way we're helping to pay for that is by slowing our hiring plan for the rest of the year. So I think of that as a little bit of a cost neutral, lower head count cost, higher software expense down the road over the long term, it could result in cost savings, but it's a bit of a neutral for us in 2026.

And hopefully, it leads to not just cost savings over time, but increased productivity and ultimately, revenue growth through higher throughput and output from employees. And then on the structural changes, we talked about MacroAsia, we talked about Archer. Just know that what we quoted in the prepared remarks are annualized savings, including SBC, So I would think of that more as a 2027 savings. It's less so in '26 just due to the timing and due to some of the onetime costs that come along with it, but it certainly does give us optionality in 27 around margins.

The next question comes from Cory Carpenter with JPMorgan.

Thanks for the question. I have 2 -- Stephen, they might both be for you. Just on the 2Q guide, it implies flat revenue that you're expecting, and that's despite a $20 million headwind from ZAR -- so my question is kind of where are you seeing offsets and which brands to make up for that? And any comments you can give on your expectations for Tinder in 2Q specifically? And then Steve, looking beyond -- any update you can provide us on how you're thinking about the full year outlook. .

Yes. Sure. I can take that. Thanks, Cory. On Q2, the way to think about it is, yes, Azar is a $20 million headwind because of the changes we need to make there to get back in the App Store. -- that's being nearly fully offset by Tinder strength. That's really where it's coming from. So tend to perform quite well in Q1, and we expect that to continue in Q2. So that's where the offset is coming from. If you think about the full year, we made no changes to the full year guide, but let me just give you sort of some puts and takes to think about -- we expect the ZAR revenue pressure to continue for at least another few quarters, so I would think about it for the rest of the year.

The team is hard at work. We've got a road map. We're trying to address the added friction to improve monetization, but I think it will take some time. at Tinder, we'll have to see how things play out. One of the things I'm looking at pretty closely is we've got a $45 million user investment budget still slated for the second half of the year, spread out pretty evenly between Q3 and Q4. So I'd expect us to end up at the lower half of the full year guidance range. given a ZAR weakness if we end up using that $45 million user investment budget. Now what we've seen in the last couple of quarters is that we haven't had to. But for now, we're assuming we will, and that's kind of -- that's all baked and contemplated in the guide.

But if we don't have using it, that could offer some further offsets those are in Q3 and Q4. So that's sort of the revenue story. On the EBITDA story, the adjusted EBITDA story, I feel really good about the guide there, same with free cash flow even if revenue comes in a little softer because of a -- that's because we mitigated a lot of the adjusted EBITDA impact from the ZAR changes through reducing marketing there and reallocating head count at Azar towards other parts of the business, namely Tinder and close some open roles at Tinder in the U.S. And we've reduced costs across other parts of the portfolio, too.

Our op payment initiative, in particular, is doing better than expected. So that's helping and then the changes we just talked about at Match Group Asia as well as the shutting down of Archer is helping to. Again, there are more 2027 savings impacts, but they also benefit 2026 as well. So that's kind of the way I'm thinking about it. Tinder helping to offset Azar in Q2. We'll have to see how the user giveback budget goes for the rest of the year. and then feel really good about EBITDA and free cash flow because of some of the cost savings efforts we've made.

The next question comes from Nathan Feather with Morgan Stanley.

Thanks for the question. And really encouraging to see the progress you've been making here in Kinder -- are you just helping kind of chart the path over the end year, understanding there will be some kind of puts and takes here. But what's the hope for kind of that glide path for mouse as we kind of continue in 2Q into the back half? And then given a lot of these improvements that you talked about that are driving this outgrowth weren't necessarily just launched in 1Q, but a kind of a cumulative impact over 2025 up until 1Q.

How should we think about the kind of release cadence and how that interplays with now? And have you kind of uncovered any maybe delayed impact as the tools get released and then users start to use them and that can eventually drive 1 of those?

Nathan. So a couple of things. First of all, with respect to the product release cadence going forward, we're stepping we're not taking our foot off the gas. So -- we -- the March 12 event was a great catalyst. It generated a ton of urgency and a lot of the innovations that we've announced or that we've shipped came from that urgency, but the team has not slowed down since then. So for example, upcoming initiatives are things like video speed date, which we announced at the Spark week -- or sorry, at the Spark Tenders and we will be shipping in the next, I don't know, kind of a month or so. In real life events, expanding to other cities, rolling out Tinder Connect with partners like Duolingo and belly and a number of other features that we haven't -- that we're not ready to share publicly.

So the work is definitely not done, and I'm excited about the road map for the balance of the year. In terms of how it will play out on impact on Sparks and impact on Mal. Obviously, that's hard to predict. I think -- I think what we've been saying, we've been kind of setting ourselves up to get to flat now by the end of, I think, we said end of '27. And clearly, I'm very proud and pleased that we're already in kind of the negative 6% to 7% year-over-year range. You can argue that maybe it could accelerate the pace with which we improve now because product efficacy improves as you start to bring more people into the ecosystem because there are just more good people for you to match with.

You could also argue that the rate of improvement could slow down because we started with the low-hanging fruit first when this new leadership team took over about 6 or 9 months ago and started knocking things down. So it's very hard for me to predict how we'll get like what the path will be from the negative 7% now to flat and then mow growth?

The next question comes from Ross Sandler with Barclays.

Spencer. The 1% growth in 30-day retention that's pretty bullish. I know it's an early signal, but like could you guys just say like how long has it been since you've had growing 30-day user retention it sounds like some of the safety and product changes you mentioned on a previous question are driving this trend. But just any other details, any color you can provide on what's turning that kind of key metric up would be helpful.

Yes. Thanks, Ross. It had been years since we had retention improvements up year-over-year. I don't know how many years, but at least several. Equally encouraging is that retention among U.S. Gen Z women is actually up 3% year-over-year. So that's even better than total overall number that I put in the script, and I think in the press release. So what's driving this as I said, it's better recommendations, it's double date, it's music mode astrology mode, blocking and tackling. Changing perception of Tinder moving more towards the fun and safe way to meet new people, improving social sentiment on TikTok and Instagram. Better marketing, which is now working more effectively because when we market these types of features, our marketing budgets go further.

Prior campaigns were focused on kind of more amorphous brand reconsideration. -- sort of like, hey, Tinder's great checkout Tinder. Now we're able to actually market very specific features that have great resonance with our key user segments. And so the marketing is much more effective. So taken all together, this is what's improving retention. And as I'd like to remind people, this is a network effect business. So you're already seeing in certain countries in Asia and Latin America, where now is flat or in some countries, actually up year-over-year. we're seeing better user efficacy, better sparks, better smart coverage, better tension because more people just improves user results for everybody in the ecosystem. So it's really encouraging. And you're starting to see that in some of the retention data that we're sharing.

The next question comes from Eric Sheridan with Goldman Sachs.

I wanted to ask about capital allocation priorities because you've now made an outside investment in SNFs, I believe you backed to Justin's venture in parallel with Match when he left Hinge to go down that road. How are you thinking about the competition for capital between outside investments that can be made versus application of capital internally to build and scale some of the platform and productive issues you're trying to accomplish? Just want to understand if there's been any evolution in the thought there.

Why don't I take that first and Spencer feel free to jump in. The way our approach has not changed. Our priority has always been first, organic growth in the business. So we're prioritizing investments in Tinder and Hinge to drive growth in those businesses. And we feel like we've got the capital needed to do that. And then number 2 is returning capital to shareholders, as you know, through buybacks and the dividends. we'll continue to be acquisitive when we find opportunities to do M&A, we will do that. We've shown a good track record of it. These are pretty small investments, right? The Stiff's investment there's a $100 million investment in what we think could be a big opportunity. overtone is a much smaller investment than that.

So this is something we can easily sort of handle while still remaining committed to returning vast majority of capital shareholders should buy back some dividends. So I don't think that's new. And I think $1.1 billion a year in free cash flow allows us the flexibility to do all those things.

Anything you'd add? .

Yes. Just in case I don't have the opportunity to address sniffs later in the call, I want to address it now. Steve is right, in the grand scheme of things, it's a relatively what you call it a small investment. I guess I would say it's -- we're so profitable and we have such a solid cash flow generation machine that we're quite easily able to fund it. But it's not a small investment. It's a big investment, and it's a big swing in a huge TAM. Arguably, the non heterosexual mail segment is the most attractive, largest and highly -- most highly engaged segment in the dating category. And this is a big investment in the #2 player that we think has the potential to become the #1 player.

This is a company that's not even in the app store right now. So SNFs, despite all their success to date has only been on the mobile web, and we expect to be able to help them create a safer work experience, which gets into the app store, which will be a huge unlock for SNF. So I'm really excited about this investment. This combined -- we've won on 2 deals since I started, 1 was acquiring her and 1 was investing $100 million in SNFs with the right to buy the rest of it. So we're very focused on these 2 segments, the Safi segment and the non-headset mail segment. We think these are huge TAMs, and I'm very excited to own the #1 player in the Safi segment and own a significant portion of the #2 player in the nonsexual mail segment with an option to buy the rest. So it's really encouraging and exciting

The next question comes from Benjamin Black with Deutsche Bank.

Spencer, you clearly have a lot of product initiatives underway right now at Tinder. If you -- so step back and look ahead to the next 12 to 18 months, I'd be curious to hear, which 1 is the most needle moving in your perspective? Or -- is this maybe a sort of a situation where smaller products initiatives sort of build on top of each other and create compounding benefits. And then quickly, Steve, I'd be curious to hear what you're embedding in your guidance for the year-on-year trends for Tinder payers and made for RPT as well. .

That's a hard 1 to choose amongst all these different product initiatives. As I said, the 1 that's driven the most improvement to date have been improvements in our recommendations algorithms. -- in terms of looking ahead there -- I'll keep it a little bit vague for competitive reasons, but basically say it's like it's kind of an expansion of double date and IRL. So kind of tapping into this light weight, lower pressure ways to connect, which is what Gen Z wants. And I'll give a little plug here on June 11, we're going to have an investor and media focused webinar. We're creating kind of a new Investor Relations product called the CEO Connection, where we're going to -- outside of earnings do like a double click on something that we think is of interest to all of you.

And the first 1 we're going to do on June 11 is on this topic. It's decoding Gen Z dating. So we're going to have a number of our social scientists who study Gen Z and Gen Alpha share our insights and learnings of how these 2 generations want to connect and how our road map informs it. So look for more information coming out of our IR team. for that event on June 11. And -- but it will be an hour webinar, and I think it will be really insightful and interesting for folks.

And I'll take the payer question. Yes, here's the way I would think about it. First of all, tender payers in Q1 were down 5%, which you probably saw, which is a huge improvement from the down 8% in Q4 and 7% the quarter before -- the couple of quarters before that. So a lot of progress there that we're really excited to see. I would think of payers as being in a similar range, maybe some small improvement, but similarly down for the rest of the year as Q1 only because of the $45 million in user investments. So for now, again, we're assuming we make those investments because we want to give the product teams the optionality to do it. But that's what's leading to similar payer trends over the rest of the year.

And then I think if we gave you Tinder full year revenue guidance last quarter, which hasn't changed, so you can kind of back into the payers' assumption. But I think would tell you is payer growth would slow a little bit over the rest of the year, too. But again, a lot of that slowdown is related to the user investments, which we'll only do if we think it's the right long-term thing to do for the business.

The next question comes from John Blackledge with Cowen.

Two questions. I thought another good signal was the new user registrations returning to growth. I don't know if you could add a little bit more color there and how things are trending with that metric thus far in the second quarter? And the second question is around face check rollout. How is it going? And should we still expect it to be about a 1 point headwind to revenue growth this year? .

Yes, let me start with base check. FaseCheck is rolled out in most markets now for Tinder. It's also now rolled out in all major markets at Hinge -- it's showing great results at Hinge to just like it has at Tinder in terms of reducing bad actors on the apps. So in terms of revenue impact, Yes, it's gotten -- it's pretty negligible at this point. It's about 1%. That hasn't changed for the total company. That's included in the guidance. And yes, that's about where it's trending now.

John, I don't have new regs from April at my fingertips, but it is a really encouraging statistic. I think the registration improvement speaks to overall improving social sentiment and our ability to drive reconsideration. I think a lot of that speaks to the product, but much of that speaks to marketing, frankly, because a new reg is basically somebody that hasn't used Tinder before or maybe perhaps they did have a tender account many years ago, but they've deleted the app. So it really speaks to general social sentiment, improving word-of-mouth, some of that's due to product, but a lot of it is due to marketing that is really resonating. So we're encouraged by it.

The next question comes from Jason Helfstein with Oppenheimer.

One on Hinge and then a quick 1 on in there. So matineBPis accelerating -- is that reflecting a mix within plans and user choice? Are there some headline price increases? And then is that -- obviously, in payers did decelerate. Is there any connection between price and volume there? And then just a second quick one. Spencer, how do you know that like the new product innovations have staying power, like astrology mode, music mode, double date, they're definitely cool. -- like how do we know this is not like when a new AI image generator or casual game launches get to virality and then kind of phase after a few months? .

Why don't I take the first part of that. Yes. So I mean what we've done at Hinge is optimized pricing geographically over the last few quarters. Some of that means a price up. Some of that means a price down. that's what's moving the payers and RPP numbers around a little bit. It's not really package mix shifts per se. With that said, our payer growth is still very strong in Q1. The 15% -- and I expect that to be the case for the rest of the year. I still feel that the bulk of the payer -- the bulk of the revenue growth in 2026 will come from payer growth, not RPP growth. Anything you want to add

Look, on Hinge, overall, Hinge continues to crank. It was up -- the revenue was up 28% year-over-year in the quarter, which is pretty amazing. Brazil and Mexico launches both went very well. Hings became a top 2 or 3 dating app basically right out of the gate based on the success of Brazil and Mexico, we accelerated the launch of more international markets. We quietly launched 10 more markets earlier this week. I think it was Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Peru, in LatAm and then a couple of significant European markets like Poland, Hungary, Croatia, Iceland, Luxembourg, Czech Republic.

So we continue to march across the world with Hinge, which has terrific product market fit. There's obviously huge potential for male growth in these new markets, but also monetization potential on the path to $1 billion of revenue in 2027. Obviously hinge is now in English-speaking markets has flattened as we'd expect because those are more mature markets, but revenue growth even in those core English-speaking markets was up 17% year-over-year in the quarter. And this is very consistently the #1 downloaded app in English-speaking markets, #1 or #2. So I guess the last thing I'd add is, as I think I mentioned in the prepared remarks, the rate of product innovation at Hinge continues to impress.

So this quarter, we're -- we've got 3 great innovations, date ideas which lets people indicate what types of dates they want to go on, friends take, which brings friends into the dating experience and then signals, which lets people show if they're high intent. Those are all great features, which directly speak to Gen Z and millennial needs in the category. And again, we're going to be talking more about that at the June 11 event. So all of this is to say, I'm very confident in Hinge's trajectory and its growth. I think, Jason, your other question was about kind of staying power of these new features.

The way I would answer this is that first of all, as I've said, a lot of the improvements in our data have come from recommendation algorithm improves. So those are not specifically shiny new features. Those are just giving people -- showing people the people that would be a better match with them. But with respect to the shiny new features and might they might their appeal fade over time. Double date, I think, is a good indicator where its usage just continues to grow every month, every quarter. And as more people become aware of the feature and the same thing is happening with music and astrology so right out of the gate, for example, with music mode when nobody had music mode, there were not many people to see in music mode, but now that you start to see more users with their music connected to their tender profile, it becomes more immersive, you're more motivated to upload or to kind of connect your Spotify to your tender to bring in your music and awareness grows as the network effect kind of fills out.

So in that sense, it's quite different than other feature launches of mobile games, for example.

The next question comes from Youssef Squali with Truist.

Awesome. So Spencer, maybe a couple of questions for you. Can you maybe talk a little bit about the health of the overall online dating market both from a competitive standpoint with some of the new modalities that we're seeing off-line like run collabs and book clubs and all kinds of other clubs, but just how would that impact in the environment, the online dating environment, if it is. And then on SNFs, what makes that model so successful? And so superior to archers that you decided to invest $100 million at full Archer into it. .

Yes. So on the overall macro market, Gen Z desperately wants to connect. They know they want to meet new people. They just want to do it in a low pressure, low stakes way that doesn't feel like a job interview. And so traditional dating apps are very highly structured and can be intimidating to a user under 30. So I think the growth of these alternative ways to meet new people speaks to how Gen Z is trying to find lower pressure ways to connect. We've obviously adapted our road map to this reality and double date is was our first foray into this.

The in real life events product in Los Angeles was our next big foray into this. So we're basically at Tinder and Match Group more broadly, we are embracing this trend. -- of meeting people IRL at different -- in different modalities rather than hiding from it. Again, the June 11 event will give us an opportunity to bring a lot more data and learnings from our team of experts. -- into this conversation. In terms of the SNFs investment, SNFs is very, very different than Archer. SNFs is a -- basically the experience of sniffs is for a map-based experience for more of an instant connection.

So people that are looking to meet people right away this evening or who are nearby. -- whereas Archer was much more of a serious high intent kind of find -- helping a man find a husband type experience. And SNFs had -- it has an incredible product market fit with 3 million monthly active users, again, only on web, not even on app. And just really resonates with this community in a way that Archer did not. And because Sify's has such huge audience, the network effects are self-reinforcing.

People use NiFi because people use NiFi and people weren't using Archer because people weren't using Archer. So it's a very different product and has a wildly different level of product market fit. And so that's why we've decided to place this bed on the non-headset mail market on the SNFs team and SNF's experience. And we basically moved our Archer team who is mostly New York-based either in Hinge or Tinder or E&E. So -- that was a very talented team that had built a beautiful product that hadn't yet found product market fit. And with the Sniffy's investment, that team is now -- has found other roles at Match Group.

The next question comes from James Heaney with Jefferies.

Yes. Great. I just had one. You talked in the letter about your objective to get Tinder back to growth in 2027. When you say a growth business, do you mean revenue payers, MAUs just some other engagement metrics. Just trying to understand kind of how you're thinking about growth in 2017. .

Yes. I think -- correct me from Monty, but I think what we've kind of the sort of line in the sand that we've committed to is by end of 2027, year-over-year -- now growth and by -- for full year 2027 revenue growth or by end of 27?

By the end.

By the end of 27 revenue growth. So I guess that's Q4 2017 revenue year-over-year over Q3. So those are the stated goals, and you know where we're at on our path to achieve them.

The last question comes from Brad Erickson with RBC.

i guess just a lot's been asked here. When you think about -- you talked about kind of collaborating across brands, Spencer earlier in the call with, I guess, Hinge's had so much success, if you like, with lots of new product innovation in the last few years. I wonder if there's anything you could add or bring over to Tinder that could be impactful there. Anything you've done to date where you're seeing similar results or kind of how you think about the collaborative opportunity there.

Yes, it's a great 1 to end on. This is a huge focus of mine. And I've definitely changed the culture internally away from being siloed to being much more deeply collaborative and communicative and in some cases, integrated organizationally. Probably the most notable example of this is something that internally we call Project Mercury, which cross-sells 1 app to another. So a BLK user, for example, might get a pop-up that says, you've been invited to join Tinder and they can create their tender profile with 1 tap or an OkCupid user might get a notification that they can -- they've been invited to join Hinge and they can create a high profile with 1 tap. That's driven a lot of incremental revenue and just a lot of goodness across the different apps.

But there are many other initiatives of brewing that exact greater synergy between the brands. Pairs, for example, in Japan has been a leader in the in real life events space. So has Mitic in France. and Tinder is learning a ton from payers and Meetic and what they've built out in the event space. So that's just another example, but there are many dozens of examples around the company, and we're just getting started in terms of extracting the full benefit of the combined scale and synergies as we move away from being siloed more towards deeply integrated.

I think we'll wrap with that. Thanks, everyone, for joining. I'm incredibly proud of the team in the last couple of months of accomplishment. We are not out of the woods yet, but things are much improved and improving more every day. We will talk to you again at the June 11 event decoding Gen Z dating. And thanks, everyone, for your time today. Bye-bye.

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.

Please welcome to the stage, the CEO of Match Group and Tinder, Spencer Rascoff.

Good morning, and thank you all for being with us here at the El Rey today. This place has quite the history. This stage I'm standing on started as a single-screen movie theater back in the 1930s. In the '80s and '90s, it reinvented itself as a club. And today, it's one of L.A.'s most iconic music venues, hosting some of the greatest acts of all time. No pressure. For nearly a century, it's been a place where people come together, and it's evolved to do that in different ways for different generations. At its core, the El Rey has been a venue that helped people create connections, and share the things that they love with other people.

Tinder plays that same role. We introduced our Swipe feature and revolutionized how people connect online forever. But in Tinder's 14 years of innovation, we've never hosted an event to talk about how we've stayed at the forefront of our industry for so long and what comes next. Today is that day.

Just over a year ago, I joined Match Group as CEO. And very quickly, I made the decision to also run Tinder directly, because Tinder matters. It's the largest dating app in the world. It's available in more than 185 countries, tens of millions of people come to Tinder every day to meet someone new. Our users make around 2 billion Swipes per day. And for millions of people, Tinder is the first app they choose to use when they start dating.

Over the past year, though, there's been a lot of noise around dating apps, headlines about fatigue and Gen Z opting out. But let me be clear, the need for human connection is stronger than ever. We are in the midst of a loneliness epidemic. People are craving connection, real connection more than at any time in recent memory. And at a time when we're constantly interacting with machines and technology and with artificial intelligence, Tinder believes that humans need humans now more than ever.

We need each other for happiness, for health, for belonging, for someone to laugh with. Connection has also mattered for every generation. My parents were married for 50 years. My wife and I have been together for more than 30. My brother and sister both met their significant others on a Match Group app. So connection is not some trend. It's a primal human need. People just need a better way to spark that connection. And that's why we're here today.

The truth is that I've been looking forward to today for months, because on our Match Group earnings calls, we talk about business results and financial results and other metrics, but it's very rare for us to get an opportunity to show off what we've built and how we use consumer insights to create innovative features and to show how those changes are reshaping the Tinder experience. That's what today is all about, and that's why I'm so excited.

I'm excited for you to hear what we've been working on, and to hear it directly from the people and the teams who have been building these features. Approximately 600 people at Tinder from L.A. to New York to Ghent, Belgium to Seoul, and everywhere in between, spending every day thinking about and building new ways to spark connections for millions of people around the world.

We're going to share updates today around four key areas. Number one, we're expanding Tinder into new formats, including new Modes as well as virtual and In Real Life or IRL experiences to enable more fun, low-pressure ways to connect. The way people connect on Tinder today looks very different than even 12 months ago. Since I joined, we launched two new Modes, Double Date mode and College Mode. And Double Date is transforming how people use Tinder, nearly half of Gen Z female Tinder users in the U.S. say that Double Date is a key reason why they choose to use Tinder. So that's more than just some incremental improvement. It's a significant shift in why people use Tinder and how they use it.

And today, we're announcing two new ways to connect through shared tastes and personalities, not just photos on your profile with Music Mode and Astrology Mode. And we're also extending Tinder beyond the screen because today, we're launching IRL events, bookable in the app in Los Angeles, creating real-world moments where Tinder users can meet up in person. And soon, we'll begin testing Video Speed Dating in several cities across the U.S. because this is what we hear from young daters about how they want to connect. The blending of the digital and the physical world together in to fun, safe and low-pressure way. Together, our new modes and events have the potential to reshape how Tinder is perceived, moving us far beyond the legacy stereotypes of a decade ago.

Number two, we are redesigning the profile experience to enable more authentic expression and drive higher quality matches. We've, in fact, rethought the profile experience entirely, and we're rolling out a series of huge updates globally, introducing new tools to help people put their best foot forward.

Photo Prompts, which we launched last year, add personality directly into photos. But the new launches, which you'll learn about today like Photo Enhance will improve lighting and clarity of images and Camera Roll Scan will help surface authentic moments hidden in your old photos and create visual collages that reflect one's interest. We're also evolving the design with full-screen photos and a clear, more immersive interface. This makes Tinder more expressive, more dynamic and more modern. And with Tinder Connect, we're bringing the apps and platforms that people already love into their Tinder experience so they can bring more of their real lives into how they show up.

Area number three, we're using AI in new ways to better understand user intent and deliver more relevant outcome-driven matches because just getting matches is not the goal. They have to be relevant, and they have to lead somewhere. Over the past year, we've completely rebuilt the Tinder algorithm and how it learns using AI to better understand intent, preferences and behavior. So today, we're introducing you to Learning Mode, which helps us respond more quickly to what someone is actually looking for, so better matches show up earlier.

We're also expanding our Chemistry feature today, our AI-powered personalization layer beyond just Australia and New Zealand, into Canada and the United States. Tinder users have said that they're interested in AI, but only if it leads to better outcomes. So instead of replacing connection or standing in for authenticity, we're using AI to help move people towards better connections.

And number four, we're continuing to raise the bar for safety across the category and investing at an unmatched scale. Trust is the foundation of everything that we do at Tinder. Over the past few years, we've launched more than 20 trust and safety features globally, helping set the standard, not just in the dating category, but also in social media. We invest over $125 million every year in trust and safety across our portfolio, and that reflects the importance that we place on safety as the foundation of the product experience.

Our Face Check feature provides mandatory facial liveness verification. It has reduced exposure to bad actors and bot accounts by more than 60% and lowered bad actor reports by over 40% in key markets since we've launched it. Face Check is now live today in the U.S. and dozens of other countries, and we're continuing to expand it internationally, raising the bar on what safe real connection looks like. Because when people trust what they see and whom they see, they're more willing to start.

Taken together, all these changes mark the most significant evolution of our app in years, and they make Tinder today meaningfully different than a year ago. More social, more expressive, more intelligent, more trusted. Each of these areas matters, but what really matters is how they work together as a system. When they work together as a system, we drive better outcomes. We create stronger trust, lower pressure, richer profiles and better connections. You're going to hear more about all of these new features and updates from leaders across our team who are building this next chapter of Tinder. Mark Kantor, our Head of Product; Yoel Roth, who leads Trust and Safety, product leaders, Claire Watanabe and Hillary Paine and Melissa Hobley, our Head of Marketing.

But before that, I want to talk about an important and deliberate shift that we made 6 months ago to make all of this happen. We became a product and engineering-led organization with a founder mindset, focused on user experiences and real outcomes. And we changed how we measure success. It's not just by activity in the app, and it's not by surface level engagement and it's not short-term revenue. we measure success at Tinder by whether people are actually connecting. Because here's what we learned, for over 18% of women under 30 who told us that they stepped away from the dating app category, their reason was not a lack of matches. It was that those matches didn't actually turn into conversations. That's the gap, that moment between a like and something real.

That's what we call a Spark. A Spark is the signal we use internally to measure whether we're truly creating connection, not just matches. A spark to our users is that reply that turns into a conversation. It's the shift from maybe to, let's see where this goes. It's the butterflies when you meet someone new on Tinder. It's the feels. It's that shared energy between people. We are not optimizing for Swipes or Likes, we are optimizing for Sparks, and it's changing what we prioritize and how we build.

That's also why today's event was called Tinder Sparks: Start Something New. And to show you how we're building towards more Sparks, I'm going to hand it over to our Chief Product Officer, Mark Kantor. Mark is a startup founder and a product leader with more than 20 years of experience building consumer apps at scale. From growing apps at Zynga by millions of daily active users to creating products used by tens of millions worldwide. Please welcome Mark Kantor.

Thanks, Spencer. If Sparks are the goal, every product decision has to move people forward, not just generate activity because activity alone doesn't matter. Despite some of the external chatter about dating fatigue or Gen Z stepping away from the category, we see a massive opportunity to deliver the experience they're craving. The desire to connect is as strong as ever. What's changed is what people expect from the experience. They don't want an endless stream of random profiles, and they don't want to judge or be judged in a split second based on just a couple of photos. They want something intentional. They want authenticity and to show up as their real selves. They want to understand more about someone before they decide to match.

What they're asking for is a curated experience. The sense that people they're genuinely excited to meet are already on the app and that Tinder can help surface them. And when they invest in expressing and who they are, the app responds intelligently, learning from their behavior, understanding their intent and delivering recommendations that feel aligned. And they want help accurately representing themselves to share more of their personality through Prompts and show their hobbies through the right photos to get started with tools that make self-expression easier and more fun.

So our perspective is that the chatter about fatigue wasn't a signal that young daters don't want to date or don't need Tinder. It was a signal about where we had an opportunity, where expectations had evolved, where we needed to step up. In fact, 50% of singles under 30 have had a first date in the past 3 months. And that's up from 47% in the same time frame in 2024. The need to connect hasn't weakened, the tools required to do it have changed. That's why, as Spencer said, we shifted our approach, and we became a product and engineering-led organization focused on user outcomes, especially for today's daters.

The past 12 months have been about building based on those insights, and the early signs are encouraging. They show we're moving in the right direction. A Spark is our internal measurement. It's when two users message back and forth at least 6 times, which signals mutual engagement. And that only happens when the experience works together as a system.

So over the past year, we've aligned around 5 core principles that guide how Tinder builds today. First, lower the pressure to Spark possibilities. Dating can be intimidating. So creating lower pressure means removing friction that keeps people from starting and setting them up to connect in their own ways and on their own terms. And that matters. Because when we look at how young singles described their ideal first date, it's not about grand gestures. It's about something playful and low pressure, a walk, a coffee, something that fits naturally into their lives.

Second, create a canvas for people to express themselves authentically. When people feel like they can show who they are, connection becomes easier.

Third, personalize the user experience. When someone shares their interests, their preferences or their dating intent, the app should adapt. That's where we think AI strengthens the system. We use AI to help recognize patterns and behavior, prioritize stronger signals and improve the probability that interest turns into conversation. It helps new users see better recommendation sooner, and it helps experienced users refine what they're looking for. Matches are better and conversations start more often.

Fourth, make the experience more valuable. That means fewer stalled conversations, fewer dead ends and more moments that move towards Sparks. And most importantly, continue to reinforce trust as a prerequisite for everything that happens on and off our app. Profile realness and respectful behavior between users are requirements for connection, every launch, every test, every update runs through these principles. And if it doesn't move people towards a Spark, we don't ship it, and we're moving faster than ever.

We're shipping features at twice the pace of a year ago, with generative AI helping us build smarter and more efficiently, writing more than half of all new code, which allows engineers to spend more time on architecture, creative problem solving and building features to improve the dating experience. Product and engineering are operating differently now with greater urgency, faster iteration, stronger experimentation and better performance and stability. Consumers may not see how we work internally, but they absolutely feel the outcome, and that momentum is showing up in the features we offer.

Let's take Double Date, which has quickly taken hold. It's the most impactful product innovation we've launched in years, and it's significantly reshaping how young people experience Tinder. Double Date works because it makes dating feels social, fun and low pressure. When you show up with a friend, dating feels less like a test and more like an experience. There's energy in a 4-way group chat and fun in the shared experience of a low-pressure meetup that's not as intimidating as a one-on-one date.

As Spencer mentioned, 48% of Gen Z women on Tinder in the U.S. cite Double Date as a unique reason to use Tinder. Today, 1 in 5 female Tinder users in the U.S., ages 18 to 22 have a Double Date pair. And in Norway, one of the first countries where we launched Double Date mode. That number is nearly 1 in 2. Because we launched early there, it's had time to build real momentum. What we're seeing in Norway gives us confidence in the trajectory elsewhere.

So this isn't just a one-off spike. During peak moments like Christmas, New Year's Eve and Dating Sunday, Double Date invites surged, with women sending around 20% more invites and men around 30% more. And that momentum continued into the new year. That tells us this is a behavioral shift. Modern dating is social. Approximately 40% of young singles see their friends influence their dating lives. Group chats are part of that process. In fact, 22% of Gen Z women have heard of Double Date from a friend. Friends are their emotional copilots, and Double Date brings the dynamic directly into the product.

Conversations and Double Date matches also tend to be more dynamic with users sending more messages per match than in one-on-one chats. Across Double Date, College Mode and Face Check, our mandatory Facial Liveness Verification, one pattern shows up again and again. When we lower pressure and raise trust, connections increase. That's the path forward. Our work to make Tinder the safest way to meet new people deserves its own focus.

So I'm going to hand it over to Yoel, the Head of Trust and Safety, to talk about how we are continuing to build confidence directly into the experience. Yoel is one of the world's leading voices in online safety and as SVP of Trust and Safety at Match Group and formerly Head of Trust and Safety at Twitter. He has spent years leading global teams focused on content moderation, platform integrity, security and responsible innovation.

Thanks, Mark, and hey, everyone.

Before I dive into what's new at Tinder, I actually want to share a little bit about my own history in this space. Nearly 15 years ago, when Tinder was brand new, I was working on a PhD studying safety issues on dating apps. And along the way, I also met the guy who's now my husband on an app. I have seen first -- thank you. I've seen firsthand the incredible transformative power of this category. Then as now, one thing was clear, earning and maintaining trust is the key to success for dating apps. It has to be the foundation of everything that we do.

At Tinder, we talk a lot about how it starts with a Swipe, and I think that's true of safety, too. The double opt-in Swipe feature that Tinder invented and patented, which means that people can only message each other once both parties have opted in, was not just a product innovation that turned the online dating category on its head, it was a safety principle from the start. Two people choose each other before messaging begins. That mutuality and focus on consent changed modern dating for the better. Since then, we've built for safety across the Tinder experience.

Let me give you just a few examples of the more than 20 different features we've introduced over the years.

Share My Date, lets you easily share your plans with a trusted friend or family member, giving people even more confidence when they take the step of connecting IRL. Traveler Alert, proactively helps clear people on the road understand if there might be risks associated with their identity and helps them manage their visibility on Tinder. And optional ID verification gives folks powerful ways to confirm their matches are authentic. We have helped define the standards for this category.

But my two personal favorite features, Are You Sure? and Does This Bother You? are a really meaningful step towards guiding conversations in real time and are powerful examples of how technology can help change human behavior for the better. So let me break down a little bit about how they work.

A lot of times, we talk about trust and safety as being about punishing people when they behave badly. But I believe we need to turn that dynamic on its head and try to get ahead of content that might be inappropriate. Are You Sure? does exactly that. By prompting someone to reconsider language that might be over the line before they send a message. Does This Bother You? is on the other side of that dynamic. Connecting is deeply personal and a message that's over the line for one person might be totally fine for someone else. With Dose This Bother You? we proactively check in with users about messages that we think might be inappropriate and give them immediate agency to report problematic behavior.

These systems work. We consistently see users revise messages after a prompt. Taken together, these are small interventions that improve the tone of conversations across the platform. We first introduced these features in 2021, and today, we're announcing the biggest update they've received in their history. We're using the power of large language models to make both features even more effective. These updates move us beyond rule-based detection to context-aware understanding. Instead of relying primarily on a list of inappropriate keywords, the LLM based system can better interpret tone and conversational context and help get a content that might be too much too soon or otherwise contribute to the ick factor that can sometimes go with first messages.

The result, we believe, are better, smarter speed bumps, interventions that are better timed, more precise, less intrusive. And on the recipient side, we want to give people even more control upfront, and we will flag and hide potentially inappropriate messages in real time. If you're okay with something a little bit spicier, no problem, you can see it. But Does This Bother You? will help keep things even safer by default. And our new LLM-powered version has shown a more than 10x improvement in the accuracy of our detections. Together, this reinforces respectful behavior as the foundation of the Tinder experience steps that are critical to expanding category usage among Gen Z female users and frankly, all other user groups, too.

But conversation safety is only one part of trust, and that's where Face Check comes in. Face Check is our mandatory facial liveness verification for new users. During onboarding, users complete a quick video selfie to help confirm they're real and that their photos accurately represent them. Once complete and if their video selfie matches their profile, users earn a badge that signals authenticity. From the perspective of our users, Face Check is built to be quick and easy. Most people can complete the process in just a few seconds and get back to what they're on Tinder to do, find Sparks.

But there's real magic that comes from strengthening our identity checks at the front door. Since introducing Face Check, we've seen significant measurable decreases in bots, impersonation and repeat bad actors. As Spencer mentioned, we've seen more than 60% fewer views on bad actor profiles and a 40% drop in reports in regions where Face Check is live. This is, by far, the most impactful trust and safety feature I have seen in my career. And the results are real. There's less annoying spam and more trust. In the U.S., we've pushed Face Check even further and are using this technology to help keep serious bad actors and scammers that have previously been banned from Tinder off the app, and the results have been striking. Since we rolled out this functionality in January, more than 80% of repeat bad actor accounts are removed within the first day of reregistering compared to less than half previously.

And Face Check is just one part of our approach. A secure video selfie is a quick and easy way to verify authenticity, but we also are giving people access to a wide range of tools to confirm they're legit. In Japan, we've launched an industry-leading integration with World ID, which makes Tinder the first dating app to use their pioneering biometric humanness verification. Our team in Seoul have built advanced AI to help keep underage users off Tinder and ensure that photos are appropriate. And we've been working with leading companies like Reality Defender to try to stay ahead of issues like deep fakes and AI-generated profile pics.

All of this is in service of one goal, earn our users' trust. We know that when people trust what they're seeing, they're more willing to engage. And on the flip side, if people hesitate because they doubt who they're talking to, sparks do not happen. On Tinder, trust should feel built in, consistent, proactive, present from the moment you open the app because when trust is strong, people start and starting as everything.

To show you how we build on that foundation, I'm going to hand it over to one of our incredible product leaders. Claire Watanabe leads Tinder's end-to-end product experience as VP of Product, overseeing the teams behind onboarding, Swipe, Chat and Modes. She's the product leader behind Double Date, bringing a more social immersive energy to the app.

Thanks, Yoel. Yoel talked about trust as infrastructure. That's the foundation. But trust gets people in the door. Expression is what gets them through it. A Spark starts when someone sees something real in another person, not just a photo, but a signal of who they actually are, a song they love, a shared sense of humor, something that makes you curious. That's what we're building towards with Modes. Each one designed around a different form of self-expression to start a different context. Today, I'm thrilled to announce that we're launching Astrology Mode, alongside a redesign of Music Mode that will help people connect based on their interests.

So let's talk about music. Music is personal. It makes you feel something. And that feeling changes, which profiles you actually like. When your favorite song comes on right as someone's profile of appears, something clicks. It's not a thought, it's a feeling. It's simple, but it's powerful. And in fact, more than half of matches in the U.S. involve at least one person that has a Spotify anthem on their profile.

So we took a fresh look at Music Mode, which hadn't been meaningfully updated in nearly 5 years, and we redesigned it to better reflect how people actually use music when dating. This is a sound-on experience. It's immersive, it's visual, it's full screen. It's kind of experience modern daters already expect from the apps they live in. And we're bringing that energy to dating.

So Music Mode, lets you select up to 20 songs. In this case, let's add my new favorite song, Something New. And I'll add a few others to round out the vibe. Visually, the mode now feels more modern and integrated with the rest of Tinder. As we discover people in this new dedicated space, you'll hear a snippet from one of their songs.

[Presentation]

You see shared artists overlapping genres, you're taking in someone's photos and their music at the same time. There's something about hearing someone's music that makes them feel closer. It gives this sense of depth to the person in a surprisingly effective way. And behind the scenes, the algorithm is matching you based on shared music taste. So the people you're discovering are already share your vibe.

When you Match, the song you connected on shows up in chat. The conversation starts from something you already share. We soft launched in select markets last month and already, we're seeing that 1 in 10, 18 to 22 year olds have adopted it. And there are signs of long-term positive sparks for women. These are strong signals that this drives both engagement and the kind of context that leads to real connection.

We are also launching a brand-new mode, Astrology Mode. If Music Mode is about a shared feeling, Astrology Mode gives you a lens on compatibility. It's not just that someone's a Leo, it's about how your sign and their signs come together. For Gen Z, astrology has become a shared language for talking about personality and chemistry. We hear it constantly from our users, our focus groups, and our younger employees. From our early testing, we see women like 17% more profiles in Astrology Mode. This is a big deal. It tells us that women are finding real value and real reasons to connect when they otherwise would have said no.

We worked with professional astrologers to ensure our content is thoughtful and credible while still keeping it lighthearted. When you enter Astrology Mode, your sun sign is automatically populated with your birth date, which we already have from your profile. If you choose, you can add your birth time and place and unlock your moon and rising. In astrology, these are known as your big 3. And honestly, onboarding is kind of fun itself. You learn something about yourself before you even start browsing. I already knew I was a Cancer, but I didn't know my moon sign reflects my emotional side or that my rising is in Leo.

As you begin to browse, you see your big 3 for your potential matches. Luca here is a Leo sun, Libra moon and Cancer rising. And right away, I can see our compatibility. If you want to dive in further, I tap into the full breakdown. Our cosmic sparks, across the vibes, communication, emotion and sizzle. Even our element mix, Luca and I are 50% water. So the emotional connection could be strong. It's not just here's who they are, it's here's what could happen between you two.

So I'm swiping right on Luca, and it's a Match. And right away, I'm reminded why Cancer, Leo, different styles but opposite attract. That insight follows us straight into chat and Luca has already got something to say. So we're pretty different. And just like that, the conversations started. No awkward opener, just context that makes it easy to begin.

We quietly launched Astrology Mode in Australia and selected European markets last month, and the response has been incredible. Nearly 1 in 6 of our 18- to 22-year-olds have adopted it. For a brand-new feature, this is a super strong signal. It tells us this is the kind of context that daters have been looking for. We see both Music and Astrology Mode resonating strongly with our young daters, shared context, cultural relevance, lower pressure. We found a formula, and we're just getting started.

I'm going to hand things over to Hillary Paine, Tinder's SVP of Product, who leads the teams behind Tinder's recommendation algorithms, premium subscriptions, and international growth and expansion. She spent her career building mission-driven human-centric products that meet real-world needs at a massive scale. And she's going to share some of the other ways we're helping people connect.

Thank you, Claire. What you've seen so far are exciting new formats that we're ready to scale globally. But we believe in starting small before we build big, testing in real markets, learning in real time, and scaling only when something proves, it creates real Sparks.

That discipline is how we move faster. So alongside our global launches, we are also running smaller format tests in select markets. These are ideas designed to explore entirely new ways to start. And I'm excited to share two of these with you today.

First, I'm excited to announce IRL events. Instead of defaulting to a one-on-one first date, which can be too narrow an outcome for young daters. We are creating low-pressure group experiences with shared interests and activities at the center. I want you to think about coffee shop raves, speakeasy bowling, trivia nights, pickleball tournaments, art workshops. We're focused on creating more environments where these kinds of connections can happen, because your dating life and your social life can and do happen in the same spaces.

Beginning today in Los Angeles, users will see a new Events tab in Tinder. As our beta market, Tinder users in L.A. can open that tab and browse through curated events that are happening over the next month. We're working with favorite local spots to represent a variety of different ways to connect and offer meet-ups across different L.A. neighborhoods so that attendees can start somewhere if that feels familiar.

So let's say you're interested in the coffee and cold plunge event. Once you opt in, you'll see the details, the venue and other people who have expressed interest. They're all Photo Verified. Everyone there has opted in. That clarity removes social uncertainty before the first conversation even begins.

Now we wanted to solve for this IRL need as quickly as possible. We went from ideation to proof of concept to a beta that is live in the app today in just 10 weeks. And we're continuing to expand on elements of the experience, and we'll soon be introducing new features like the ability to connect with somebody who is at the event in the app after the event. We're starting in just one city, but we see meaningful long-term potential. Experiences like IRL events, along with Double Date and other social features offer completely new ways for people who are new to Tinder or returning to Tinder to Spark something new with someone new.

And when connection feels social and intentional, it becomes easier to start. Now we know that the fastest way to create that Spark is meeting face-to-face, but you can't always do that IRL. So that's why we're also excited to announce that we are exploring a new speed dating experience that is designed to help people form real-time connections on Tinder sooner.

The short interaction style relieves the pressure of committing to a full date, while still giving you the sense of your chemistry with somebody. Users we've spoken to have really enjoyed the spontaneity and intentionality of connecting with someone in real time and getting to know the person behind the profile. We decided to offer an experience that covers both of those needs. Making it virtual means that more daters can spend their time on the app, talking directly to other people face-to-face.

Video Speed Dating events will also live in the Events tab, and it will require Photo Verification. At a set date in time, users will join a live video meet-up, where they're introduced to people who match their Tinder preferences. They will be set into a series of short 3-minute conversations.

Now in just 3 minutes, you can really start to get a feel for someone's energy, and you'll know if the vibe is right. If it isn't, you can skip. If the Spark is real, you can both choose to add more time and keep chatting. For many people, the hardest part of dating is investing time, getting ready, energy, getting to the place and showing up, only to know that within minutes, it's not a match. So these virtual sessions are giving you a preview of what a real date could feel like, and it's bringing back that adrenaline of meeting someone new, but in a way that feels controlled, safe and intentional. Video Speed Dating will start testing in L.A. in early June with the intention of rolling out to additional markets in the near future.

Now Claire is going to come back on and talk about how we are reimagining profiles.

We talked about new places for a Spark to start in a mode, via Events, but the moment -- those moments depend on the same thing, a First Impression. At the core of every First Impression on Tinder is a profile, and we're fundamentally redesigning profiles from the ground up, how you build them, what they show, and how they feel. The goal of a profile isn't just something to display their details, but to actually represent them. Historically, Tinder profiles have been almost all photos, but not the kind that tell you much, a polished selfie, a group shot where you're trying to guess which one is your potential match.

But Gen Z really wants to be perceived authentically. They're not looking to perform, they're looking to be seen. A profile shouldn't feel like a resume, it should feel like a real taste of someone. So let's walk through how we're making that happen.

This is Jamie. Here's what Jamie's profile looked like a year ago. Photo Verified. Here's a selfie of Jamie. And another selfie of Jamie, that's a start. He has a nice smile, but I just can't really get a read on him. So let's rebuild Jamie's profile in this new era of Tinder profiles.

We're introducing Photo Enhance that make your pictures look at touch better. We brightened Jamie's dark photo, so I can actually see his face, but it still preserves the integrity of the photo. He can also add captions to his photo, showing off his sense of humor and giving me something to respond to. Jamie says, I should guess where this photo was taken. Well, I see the New York Skyline so it's kind of a layup. What a gentleman.

If he's stuck and doesn't know which photo to add, he can opt in to our Camera Roll Scan. It looks at his photos and surfaces the best ones that best reflect how we actually spend his time. Eventually, he'll be able to display those interests as photo collages, turning a text label like travel into something you can actually see and feel. But Jamie still thinks something is missing in his profile, some important sides of him, maybe is wit, a cute quirk.

Photos can't be the only and primary modality for expression. It just doesn't work that way for everyone. That's why we're putting a much greater emphasis on the written parts of a profile, bios and prompts. But Jamie is not a writer, so we're going to give him some prompts to help him out. So Jamie says, he is a bit of a passenger princess. Luckily, I prefer the driver seat, so this could work. When Jamie joins Tinder today, he's encouraged to add a bio and prompts during onboarding. They're no longer buried in the depths of this profile. They're elevated, sitting alongside his photos in the main carousel. So people engage with who Jamie is, not just how he looks.

And what about Jamie's interest? Right now, they're a text list at the bottom of his profile, that's easy to miss. We're going to change that. Interests are especially the ones you have in common, are some of the best conversation kindling there is. Now let's see. Jamie says he's interested in food, sports and movies. And through our partnership with Clue, we can see The Sandlot, Dune, Batman and his all-time favorite and mine, Wicked. These show up alongside visually the rest of his photos. Again, they're playful, scannable and give you that instant read. Interests stop being an afterthought they go from footnote to First Impression.

And to make this a lot more about Jamie and less about Tinder, we're redesigning the experience itself. Photos and content go full screen. Navigation fades into the background, with a glossy minimal look. The UI gets out of the way so that Jamie, the person comes through. So now with all of this, Jamie's profile is richer now. We've got better photos, more personality, more conversation starters. But there's a whole side of Jamie that lives outside of the app. Through Tinder Connect, we're making it possible to bring that in. We're partnering with apps people already love to add a new dimension to how they show up.

We already talked about our partnership with Spotify for the music category, but wait, there's more. For the learning category, we're launching with Duolingo. Duolingo has over 130 million users globally and taps into Gen Z's growing importance of continual self-development. We see this in research with roughly 70% of Gen Z skill building at least weekly, compared to 59% of Millennials. Tinder partnering with Duolingo makes it easier to connect over what you're both learning. After all, what's more fun than flirting with someone who's just beating your Duolingo streak in Hindi. It's another dimension of authentic expression and may even remove one less barrier to connecting with someone.

For the restaurant category, we're launching with Beli. Where you eat can say a lot about you? And Beli has become the food app in cities. Whether you're the person who knows every hole-in-the-wall Ramen Shop or the one with a running list of places to try, your food taste tells someone what a Saturday night might actually look like with you. Beli is the social hub for exactly this, rankings, reviews, list that reflect how you move through your city. Through connect, that becomes a part of your profile.

These aren't just integrations. Jamie doesn't need to rebuild his profile from scratch. He connects the apps he already uses and loves and his profile gets richer on their own. We are so honored and excited to be working alongside these partners to give people more ways to show who they are, more context to connect and more reasons to say, yes. That's how you create Sparks.

Hillary is going to dive into how all this feeds into better outcomes for our users.

Lowering pressure and expanding expression is only half the equation. The experience also has to feel responsive. App fatigue comes from effort that doesn't lead anywhere. Tinder starts by understanding your intent. What you say you're looking for matters, and every like and every profile update adds another signal. Over time, Tinder learns what you care about, and it adapts. It starts servicing people who are more aligned with your preferences.

The result, stronger, more personalized recommendations faster. For you updates quickly and reflects mutual compatibility more clearly. Over the past year, we've completely rebuilt how Tinder learns from your very first likes, introducing personalization earlier in your journey so that recommendations become relevant sooner. Now within just seconds. When you download Tinder, a new Learning Mode begins gathering feedback in real time to refine your recommendations. Instead of endless browsing, you start seeing better recommendations right away.

For new women joining Tinder, Learning Mode increases the likelihood of returning within the first week, and of getting into real back-and-forth conversations that Spark something meaningful. And if you come back after a break, Tinder quickly relearns your preferences. So you spend less time reexplaining what you want and more time getting into great conversations within just a few likes.

We recognize that some daters can feel frustrated by paywalls in the category. And we believe that premium features should feel like added value, not a requirement for success. So over the past year, we've identified the features that matter the most for driving momentum, and we've made more of them free in the core experience. That shift supports better outcomes for users while maintaining strong revenue performance.

For You, Learning Mode and richer profile tools all reflect the same shift, building the product around helping users get to better outcomes faster. Spark should be experienced by everyone.

When effort feels rewarded, people show up more consistently, and their engagement provides us the signals that our system needs to work harder on their behalf. And those changes are working. After a year of investing in better recommendations, we've driven meaningful growth in the share of people who get a Spark on Tinder. It is up 7% compared to this time last year. That is what happens when recommendations work the way that they should, less guessing, more alignment, more Sparks.

When someone -- when you ask someone what personalization looks like for them, there's a high chance that their answer is different from the next person you ask and the next person and the next person. We are each unique, and we're looking for something that makes sense for us. That's why we believe that data should have different opportunities to shape their recommendations. There are different levels to this.

So for daters looking for even more curation, there's Chemistry. Chemistry is an AI-powered personalization layer, which leverages insights from Camera Roll Scan and responses to in-app questions. It's designed to reduce fatigue with a few highly tailored recommendations daily. Chemistry is already live in New Zealand and Australia, and it expands today to test in parts of the U.S. and Canada. With Chemistry, we can surface even better recommendations by getting to know the users themselves. Earlier, Claire walked through how Camera Roll Scan can lead to better expression. Now I'm going to show you that it can also surface insights that lead to better matches.

Donny's Camera Roll shows that he prefers to keep things real and relaxed. And his answers to Q&A share that he's into books and memes. Now we can introduce him to someone who shares that same energy, the same values and the same interests. It reduces the need to endlessly browse because the first profiles feel like the right ones.

Even as they're looking for connection, Gen Z singles cited mental drain and app fatigue as a leading reason to not try dating apps. They over-index more than any other group. Chemistry moves us from volume to compatibility. And in a study in Australia, we saw that users who were familiar with Chemistry were 11 points more likely to think that the profiles they saw felt relevant to them, and 10 points more likely to view the experience as thoughtful and intentional. For these dates, Tinder starts to feel worth it. And when it feels worth it, people have meaningful experiences that match their expectations. When it feels worth it, we are fulfilling a very real human need.

Now to bring it all together from a brand and cultural perspective, I'd like to introduce Melissa Hobley, who is Tinder's Head of Marketing, leading brand, marketing, communications and partnerships worldwide. She's known for award-winning inclusive campaigns and for using her platform to champion LGBTQ+ equality and women's equity around the world.

Hi, everybody. What a great room. Okay. So you've been hearing about how we're lowering pressure, how we're strengthening trust and how we're introducing brand-new ways for people to Spark connection. I get to talk about what this means beyond the product experience.

For more than a decade, yes, decade, Tinder has expanded what dating looks like and who gets to participate. We introduced the Swipe feature. Yes, we didn't just launch a tool with the Swipe, but we reset the way people expressed interest. We made getting started a lot easier. We didn't just define a product, we defined new possibilities for connection because when you lower the barrier to starting at a global scale, you expand participation. And that's what we're doing again now. With Music Mode, with Astrology Mode with IRL events, with Virtual Speed Dating, not to mention stronger trust systems and smarter recommendations, which you've heard about just a little bit ago.

These aren't just features. There are new ways to help people express who they are before they even have a chance to meet. And when millions of people experienced dating that way, we believe that the culture is going to move with them. We saw it in music a lot this year for Tinder with Bad Bunny writes one of the most talked about albums of the last decade, and writes Tinder into a song. It's not an ad, it's cultural, shorthand. When Lily Allen wrote one of the most talked about albums, all about modern relationships, Tinder is also part of that story, because Tinder is modern dating.

And Tinder isn't just present on social platforms. It's embedded in how people narrate their lives. There have been more than 24 billion views, mentioning Tinder on TikTok, 24 billion. Yes, that's a big number. Women are sharing their beige flags and their green flags and their get ready with me from my Tinder date videos, couples that met on Tinder are hard launching their relationships on TikTok and YouTube and Snap and Instagram. We're not just interrupting those conversations were a core part of them. But the cultural momentum only works if people really feel safe enough and if they feel confident enough to participate.

That's why lowering pressure really matters. That's why building the trust really matters, because when people feel lighter, they're more likely to show up and put themselves out there, and more women are likely to show up. And for women, the possibilities that Tinder is bringing to life are powerful. It creates access to people they may have never crossed paths with. It creates the ability very importantly, to disengage instantly if those vibes are off. It's made dating more transparent, it's made dating more self-directive and it's made dating more expansive.

Let's talk about the expansive part. One of my favorite things to talk about with Tinder is the significant role that Tinder has played in the lives of LGBTQ communities around the world. For many people, you may not know this, for many people in the LGBTQ space, Tinder is the first place where they will come out. It's where affirmation is critically important, and it's where they'll start to find community. Today, nearly 30% of matches on Tinder are with LGBTQ users. That is the highest in Tinder's history.

Yes, you can clap for that. I clap for that. At Tinder, we believe in creating the best experiences for queer users, but we also believe that we should play a role in supporting the fight for quality around the world for these communities. A historic step in this fight was last year -- about this time last year, when Thailand became the first country in Southeast Asia to legalize same-sex marriage. That's me. Tinder was the only company invited to be on the stage by the Prime Minister because of the role we play in supporting those communities and because of our standing around the world.

It's not just in supporting these communities around the world, but it's in our partnerships and our collaborations. When we get to partner with iconic fashion designers like Willy Chavarria, Ottolinger, EgonLab, LoveShackFancy. It's not just a logo placement or a great hoodie, although it is a great hoodie. It is about backing these communities who use Tinder every single day. It's about supporting youth advocacy around the world. It's about supporting efforts to end violence against women and efforts against violence against queer communities.

Inclusion is not trendy for Tinder. It is not seasonal. It's foundational and it's cultural. When we design safer systems, marginalized communities feel more confident starting, they feel more confident putting themselves out there. Because of marketing, I love a sizzle, let's take a look at what I mean.

[Presentation]

I feel really, really proud watching that back. I feel proud about the scale of Tinder's impact. I feel really proud about the diversity of our impact. No matter where we are in the world, you just saw in the video, our mission is quite simple, it's to Spark -- to be the most fun way to Spark something new with someone now.

I'll say this. I've been here 3 years. I have not seen this level of momentum at Tinder in my time here. It's not just the new features and the trust and safety work. It's about how we're building and it's about how we're showing up for users around the world. In the coming months, you're going to see that shift more clearly. You'll see it in the product. You'll see it in our brand campaigns and our socials and our partnerships and the nonprofits and advocates we support around the world.

And if the Sparks are working, people won't say, "Oh, Tinder added new features." They'll say, "Tinder feels different." The person that has led this focus and this pace is Spencer Rascoff, our fearless leader. Spencer, please come back up here and bring it home.

Thanks, Melissa, and thank you, Mark, Yoel, Claire, Hillary and the entire Tinder team behind the scenes.

We've shown you a lot today, but let's remember where Tinder was just a year ago. Profiles were simpler. There were fewer ways to express who you are, fewer ways to start a conversation and fewer ways to meet beyond a one-to-one match. Today, Tinder looks very different. As of this morning, Music Mode and the Astrology Mode are live globally, including launching in the U.K. and the U.S. Double Date is live worldwide and outperforming expectations, making dating more social and lower pressure. And we're bringing Tinder into real-world events here in Los Angeles in beta, creating new ways to connect through IRL. We're also launching Virtual Speed Dating to create more low-pressure ways for people to connect.

Profiles are becoming richer and more expressive. AI is working behind the scenes to reduce friction and improve recommendations, helping people find more relevant matches. And we're continuing to roll out new features and products like Chemistry, which move us from volume to real alignment. At the same time, we continue to make unmatched investments in trust and safety, with mandatory Face Check, in key countries and rolling out globally, we're well on our way to making Tinder the safest dating app to meet someone new.

These are not just incremental things. It's a platform-wide shift. Over the past year, we have fundamentally changed the Tinder experience. We aligned the company around one measurable outcome, creating more Sparks, lower pressure, stronger trust, smarter relevance. When those pieces come together, something powerful happens. Connection stops feeling complicated and starts feeling possible. A year ago, Tinder was a place where people swiped. Today, Tinder helps people connect in more ways with more confidence and with more authenticity than ever before. And if we've done all of this in just 12 months, imagine where we'll be this time next year. We are just getting started. Thank you.

Yes. Okay. Good morning, everyone. Thank you so much for joining us. I'm Nathan Feather, Morgan Stanley's small and mid-cap internet analyst. And I'm pleased to be joined by Spencer Rascoff, CEO of Match Group. Thank for joining us.

Thanks for having me.

Now before we begin, a few quick housekeeping items. For important disclosures, please see the Morgan Stanley research disclosure website at www.morganstanley.com/researchdisclosures.

If you have any questions, please reach out to Morgan Stanley sales representative. And please also note Match's safe harbor during this presentation and during the question-and-answer session. We may discuss our outlook and future performance. These forward-looking statements may be preceded by words such as we expect, we believe, we anticipate or similar statements. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties, and our actual results could differ materially from the views expressed today.

Some of these events set forth in our periodic reports filed with the SEC. Also today, we may discuss certain non-GAAP financial metrics, reconciliations to the most directly comparable GAAP financial metrics are provided in the published materials on our IR website. These non-GAAP measures are not intended to be a substitute for our GAAP results. With that, let's begin.

That's the fastest I've ever heard it. Nice work. That's like the airplane safety talk, and you did it really like that.

Hopefully, the airplane safety talk is a little slow, but...

So Spencer, now a year into your time here, tell us what are some of the major changes and accomplishments the team has had and how those learnings have evolved your view on the business and opportunity?

We've made a lot of progress in a short period of time. I'll start with something really important to me and really important to any product-led turnaround, which is a little squishy, maybe too touchy-feely for a Wall Street audience, but we have made a lot of progress on employee engagement and getting great people to be properly organized and motivated and to care deeply and feel that they can do their best work. And Tinder, for example, we did an employee engagement survey about 6 months ago and then about 1 month ago. And the answer to the battery of questions about would you recommend working to a friend, do you feel confident in leadership? Is this a great place to work? Those types of things, grew by between 10 and 20 points in just a 6-month period, which is really unheard of. So that's really important. It all starts with that.

The other thing that we've done really well is we've made a ton of progress on the product road map. So what we're shipping now for Tinder is innovative. It is consumer-centric. It is solving real user problems and we're seeing that in a lot of the data. We see this with double date, which is a really important feature for Tinder.

We see this in our recommendation algorithm improvements. We see this in better app stability. So we made a lot of progress there as well. And we've got a big product event next Thursday, which is the first time we've ever done a product demo of that. I'm very excited about it. And we'll have some news to announce there around the product as well.

Okay. Great. Well, you're just starting to see green shoots on Tinder, as you mentioned, with leading indicators like Sparks now down just 5% year-on-year and Sparks coverage up 4% in December. Can you help us chart the path back to stable user growth? And where are some of the key milestones you're working towards and the timeline that comes with that?

Yes. So I mean Sparks are a metric that we care a lot about. That's a conversation that goes back and forth 6 or more times. The milestones that we have to drive in order to really improve user outcomes are making Tinder a safe place where people feel they can come meet new people in a way that resonates with young users.

So let's talk about safety for a moment. So Tinder had a real spam and bot problem. And it's always going to be a challenge because at the largest dating app, we attract a lot of bad actors that come to try to take advantage of our audience. We've built a lot of important technology, including Face Check, which is a facial verification product, which significantly reduces the incidence by about 60% of people's interactions with that actor.

So made a lot of progress on trust and safety, but still more work to do. We spend about $125 million year-over-year, trying to make our apps the safest way to meet new people.

In terms of our branding and marketing, we've also changed a lot of our marketing tactics at Tinder, in particular, where previously, a lot of our marketing spend was up funnel to drive awareness of Tinder, not so much down funnel at the user acquisition level. But Tinder has no awareness problem. Everybody knows what Tinder is. The branding challenge that we have at Tinder is not around awareness, it's around reconsideration. And so we've shifted a lot of the marketing mix towards down funnel trying to make it product focused, so telling users about this feature or that feature about our safety initiatives or about double date or other product features or just very direct response associated. So a TikTok of a woman doing Get Ready With Me video saying Tinder is great. It seems like the guys there are better than ever, you should download Tinder now.

That's an example of a bottom funnel UA, user acquisition media spend that's very different from a billboard that is -- or a TV ad that's top of funnel. So we've changed our marketing mix and our marketing tactics as well.

Okay. And as you're going through this process, one of the hallmarks has been Project Aurora. Help us break down what that program is for people that aren't familiar, the goals of the program and early learnings so far?

Sure. We decided to throw everything at Australia, make Australia be the best Tinder that it could be, and we call that Project Aurora. Not sure who named it or why it's called Aurora. But it's -- that's what the Australia initiative is. And it's product and marketing related. So starting with product, there are features in Australia and -- that are not available in other countries, features like chemistry, which is an AI-driven single drop, where it connects to the consumer's camera roll. It goes through my 110,000 photos that have on my phone and it pulls out insights like I like dogs and Chinese food and the beach and hikes, things that are buried in my camera roll. It's almost like what a palm reader would do, but now we're reading the camera, and this window to my soul is telling me everything about me.

And it's driving compatible matches based on the photos that are on her camera roll. And so that's how chemistry works. That's only available in Australia right now. We'll be expanding that elsewhere shortly. So that's an example of something in Aurora. Aurora also has differentiated marketing, where that was the first market where we shifted from this top-of-funnel brand advertising to bottom a funnel user acquisition. We've also done different recommendation algorithms in Australia. We've built out a number of other features that are only -- have only been available in Australia. I think investors have been keying on it, and we've been trying to give as much transparency as possible about the green shoots that we're seeing in Australia. On the last earnings call, I gave a couple of good examples. The gender balance has improved. The Spark coverage, Sparks and MAU have improved quite a bit in Australia. And so that's very encouraging.

Yes. That's great. And coming out of that 4Q call, a lot of investors were surprised that the 4Q global trends look relatively similar to those in Australia. Is that what you expected so far? And can you help us understand the puts and takes of why Australia wouldn't be tracking substantially ahead.

And this -- the reason is that we like -- we teed up Australia and Aurora as a separate -- kind of a separate whatever play pen, but we've been impatient -- I've been impatient. And so Australia doesn't actually have as many differences as the rest of the world, as I think maybe investors think. I think investors think that Aurora is like really this walled garden that's totally separate. And a lot of the features we've been launching in other countries too. So I think that's maybe why the Australia differences aren't that radically different than the rest of the world.

Yes. Okay. Makes sense. Now thinking of that product event, you mentioned next week in Los Angeles, I'm sure we'll learn a lot more. But from a high level, as we think about the Tinder road map, what are your main priorities from a user perspective in '26? And what are the 1 or 2 features that you think could be the most material?

So one of the main priorities is helping people showcase themselves better. We look at Tinder profile -- a Tinder profile of somebody and a Hinge profile of that same person. And you wouldn't know that they're the same person sometimes. On Hinge, they look interesting and charismatic and amazing. And on Tinder, they look mediocre. And so -- and it's the same person. And the reason for that is 15 years ago, when Tinder started, it's ease of use. It's quick profile creation, was a feature, not a bug. You could, within minutes, create your profile on Tinder, and it was a response to eHarmony and Match, which had this really long onboarding. But now the results 15 years later, it's a lot of kind of incomplete or unimpressive or uninteresting profiles of people that look mediocre.

Hinge, on the other hand, has always had a really complex onboarding. And so it ends up feeling like a better place with better dating outcomes. So we've been raising the bar on Tinder profiles. We are doing products like camera roll. I already described how camera roll in Australia with chemistry is impacting your matches through the chemistry product. Camera roll is also going to be impacting your profile creation and pulling those insights from your camera roll into your profile where we're testing other ways to bring information from your profile -- qualitative information. So your answer is to prompts up into the photo carousel to give them more prominence and a number of other features including helping users indicate what about the person they're interested in rather than just I'm interested in the person. This is something that women in particular really want. They don't want to just know that a guy says, they are interested in you. They want to know what was it about me, and that is the beginning of a conversation because you then know that that's the commonality of where the conversation begins.

So we'll be showing off a lot of these things next Thursday, but there's a whole set of work around improving profile creation and in order to generate more Sparks. I'll just give -- I mean, there's so much to answer your question. I'm trying to figure out how to focus on it. The other big one I'll quickly hit is the recommendation algorithm, which is the beating heart of any dating app, right? And we've seen how important the recs algo has been to TikTok or to Snap or to Instagram or to YouTube.

I mean, in those cases, their business goal is to drive engagement and time spent because they're ad-supported, right? In the case of Zillow, its recs algo is really important, figuring out which houses to show is very important because they're trying to do it in service of generating leads to real estate agents. That's how they monetize.

In the case of Spotify, its recs algo is really important, and what they're optimizing for is user satisfaction because they're trying to drive retention of a subscription product. Our recommendation algorithm was historically quite focused on monetization because that was the priority that was set from the Board and from the leadership team that we should prioritize short-term business results.

With my joining, we've been much more focused on driving user outcomes. And we've been able to point the recommendation algorithm team more towards user outcomes and improve match quality, improve spark coverage, improve number of sparks by changing whom we show to whom. And we see that we see that impact on retention very significantly. So that's another big area of focus that we've made a lot of progress.

And with that comes your focus on user giveback. So within the '26 guidance you budgeted, about $60 million of user givebacks, largely back-half weighted. What's leading to that cadence kind of back half versus first half? And are there any specific updates that you think could cause a more material headwind, whether it's the recommendation engine or something else.

Yes. I mean, here's -- I'll give you an example from -- I was in New York yesterday for our Board meeting, and I got in late last night. And on the plane, I was reading an example of a test that we're doing right now with what we call Unblurring, see who likes you. So for those that don't use the product what does that mean? On Tinder, you -- there's a page that shows these people that like you, but they're blurred out unless you pay. And if you pay, they become unblurred. And so we're testing, giving more free value to the user, unblurring 1 or 2 or N of those to the user. And so this is an e-mail about an experiment that we're running in a couple of countries, a very small percent of users. And if we unblurred 1 or 2 of them, it drove better user outcomes. It improved retention, it improved Sparks, it improved user satisfaction, et cetera. for obvious reasons because now you're -- like you're seeing what's -- you're getting a little taste of what's behind the paywall if you -- and a taste of potentially meeting the right person without having to pay.

So it improves user results quite a bit, but it also hurt revenue quite a bit. What the team does very, very well now is now they grind. And they're like, okay, well, how can we change the -- how can we change the test -- the experiment in order to retain as much of the retention improvement and Spark's improvement as possible while mitigating and ameliorating the revenue impact.

So maybe it shouldn't be showing two see who likes you, it should be showing one, maybe it doesn't have to be every time the user opens the app, maybe it's every other time and just that is enough to drive retention, but not impact revenue as much. Maybe we should only do this for women, not for men, maybe which countries are we allowed to do that just for women not men.

There are some countries where you're not allowed to have differentiated products or differentiated pricing by country, but there are many countries. You're -- maybe it should just be certain age groups, et cetera. So they'll kind of grind and 2 to 6 weeks from now, we'll end up having a winning experiment that improves user results, but only hurts revenue a little bit, and that's where the revenue budget comes from. So we've communicated to investors that we're willing to give up $60 million of revenue annualized intentionally for things like this. I have no idea how much that particular experiment will end up eating up of that budget. What happened in Q4 was that we had, I think, a $15 million budget, I think we spent about $9 million of it.

So what keeps happening over and over again is our team is so darn good at that grind stage of being able to retain most of the user benefit while mitigating the revenue loss that we've underspent that budget. I don't know what will happen with the $60 million this year, but that's how the sausage gets made, that's probably more information than you wanted, but that's like that's how the company actually operates.

That's very helpful. Now let's zoom a big way back here. We talked a lot about the near term. But I want to talk a little more long term. If we look out over the next 5 years, I think certainly one of the big tech changes we've seen, you talked a lot about this conference is Gen AI. How do you think generative AI/machine learning? How do you think that can revolutionize the online dating industry?

Well, I mean, it already is, not really a long-term thing, it's more of a short-term thing, I guess. But to answer your question, I think there are a couple of ways. The simple one is internal employee productivity, which I think every company is experiencing and the block news, I think, has kind of brought it back into focus, and I've been getting questions from investors of is that the new normal? Should you guys have 2,200 employees, should you have 1,100, et cetera. And what we're doing is we're obviously adopting all internal AI tools you can imagine. People are finding superpowers they didn't know they had, but no, I don't expect any massive step down in headcount at Match Group.

We're already a very tightly run company after the layoffs that we did last year, where we did do a 13% reduction. So internal productivity, yes, of course. And there are lots of examples that I could give of things that are taking -- I'll give you just one quick example because I'm excited about it. So Hinge last week, I dialed into the Hinge huddle -- the Hinge Wrapped meeting, which is every 2 weeks, we do it all hands. And at their Hinge all hands, a content manager on the social team.

So like a relatively junior employee who is not technical at all, showed something that he built with Claude code, which when one of their influencers wants to create a social asset saying, here's a TikTok of me using Hinge, and they wanted to show a screenshot of people texting, messaging back and forth in hinge like flirting in Hinge. Hinge designers used to actually create that, it would take about a week turnaround. And so instead, this nontechnical junior employee created a password-protected website where any creator can now go and create a social asset. So he just types in like, hey, how are you? What's going on? Do you want to go to date? Yes, where should we go, bla, bla, bla. So you type that and now it creates a video asset real time in the Hinge branding of showing them typing back and forth.

You can change the typing speed, do you want clicks or no clicks, do you want emojis, whatever. And now it's a social asset. So like, oh my god, this is the productivity improvement for Hinge internally just from having that is massive. So anyway, there are hundreds of examples like that throughout the company. It doesn't mean we're going to lay people off, it doesn't mean everyone is going to get superpowers.

So that's that. On the product, I think, is the bigger impact, where to begin. We're using AI for profile creation is a big surface area of this. Hinge has been a leader in this, where when you're creating your profile, let's say, what do you like to do on Sundays and if you type brunch, the AI will automatically say, like come on, Spencer, you can do better than that, tell me where you'd like to have brunch? I'll say I like to this restaurant, it's going to say, come on, mate, like tell me about a funny story that you had? Well, the waiter spilled the food on me. Well, how did you react to that? And so I'm kind of chatting back and forth with the AI and improving my profile on the way. And now if you go look at Hinge, everyone looks very funny and clever and interesting, and it's because it's all been teased out from them during the profile creation with AI.

Tinder uses AI in photo selection right now to scan my camera roll to select which photos would be good, which photos just of me or it will say -- just on my profile, it just told me that -- it noticed that I'm wearing the same jacket in 3 of the photos. And it's like -- the AI is telling me that it's giving me AI coaching saying that I would probably do better if I had different outfits in each of my photos.

So those are the ways in which it's improving profile selection on Tinder. The recs algo is massive. The whole thing is AI/ML. What else? [ Mark and Hillary and Claire], feel free who run product based here in our San Francisco office, they're in the front. Feel free to shout out other AI.

Yes. Okay. That's good. All right, sure. And does this bother you? Thank you.

So in chat, a huge problem that we have is men are terrible. And the things that they say can be extremely offensive and we call it too much, too soon, where they're they have no game. And so we've built an LLM based kind of barrier there that reads what I write, interprets it with -- as an LLM and puts up a little speed bump and says, "hey, are you sure you want to say that, that might be viewed offensively or maybe you want to change it in this way, et cetera." And then on the receiving side, we have a does this bother you, which as it comes through, it reads it. And if we think it's going to be a problem, we give the recipient the opportunity to say, "hey, I don't want to see this, it kind of blurs it," and it lets them unblur it if they want.

So it's a really important safety feature. It's a really important vibe feature, which changes people's experience on the app because we can build an amazing app with beautiful design and market it really well. But at the end of the day, this is a 2-sided marketplace, and the product is only as good as the people that are in it and the way those people behave but we can use AI to improve the way they present and the way they behave.

Super interesting. Now talk a lot about Tinder so far, a little bit of a Hinge. I really want to dig in on Hinge here continues to be a bright spot in the portfolio.

Where are my Hinge sneakers today?

I love it. So what do you need outside of sneakers to hit the $1 billion revenue target you outlined in the Analyst Day here. And what are you most excited about for Hinge as we kind of progress over the next 24 months towards that?

We need Hinge to continue doing what's doing, I guess, is a simple version. So I was in the New York office yesterday, went through the latest product road map with them. They're building a lot of innovation in that focused intentional dating space and continuing to just own that space. I mean they have run the table. There's -- they are the clear category leader in that intentional dating space, so they need to just keep doing what they're doing and continue to grow in new countries. So they launched in Mexico and Brazil last year. They're launching in 3 more Latin American countries and potentially an Asian country this year. So keep doing what they're doing and they're doing it really, really well. I don't have -- I didn't have many edits when I sit down with them.

Okay. Great. Easy enough.

I mean I'll say one other thing, actually, which is I think investors have already like accepted that, there's this path of billing like check, check, no problem. I think the interesting next phase of the conversation is trying to figure out how big Hinge can really be. And I believe that, that intentional focused dating segment is bigger than the fund dating segment that Tinder plays in. And I think that for 2 reasons: number one, it's a much wider age demographic. It's from who wants to use app that designed to be deleted someone from 25 to 65. I mean I -- college friend of mine is 50 and just got divorced and he's on Hinge and friends of mine that are in their 20s are on it. So it's a much wider age group that's interested in that type of a product. And it monetizes really well because my 50-year-old friend is willing to pay a lot, by the way, he's an MD of Morgan Stanley. Not here, but he's going to pay a lot to use an app that's designed to be deleted.

And the Tinder users generally are less well off. They tend to skew younger. So it should be a bigger audience size and more highly monetizable. So I have very big dreams for Hinge, how big it can really be globally, and there's just a lot of running room ahead for.

Yes, certainly. Now talk also a lot about a lot of the investments you're making. But as you're going through this tender turnaround continuing to build out Hinge, help us understand how you're thinking about balancing profitability with investing in the user?

Well, what we decided to do this year was to run the business at flat. We run a flat revenue, flat EBITDA. We maybe could have accelerated the rate of Hinge revenue growth or accelerated the speed with which we can turn around Tinder if we had decided to take a big step down in margin, but I decided not to do that. So that's -- that was the limiter that I gave as kind of ballpark flat on margin and revenue. We are taking some margin degradation at Tinder in order to give Tinder more budget.

But I think I like that discipline. I don't -- I get asked sometimes if there's a whole like margin step-down reset required, I do not think there is that's not in the works. I have no plans for that. But I think with enough focus on the right user segments and enough innovation and effort, I think we'll be able to accomplish what we need without a reset and how the -- and how the business is monetized.

And then looking forward, are there any factors you're monitoring that could cause upside or downside to the 39% margin here outlined for '27 or kind of beyond.

I mean there are a lot of little things, right? One is the Tinder, Tinder model improves more, revenue comes. We don't have to spend all the user giveback budget or if the marketing efficacy is better than we expect, we don't have to spend as much as the marketing budget. So those are all -- any of those things could happen. We got a little gift last night from Google with the Android decision. We are still assessing is that a small gift or a medium gift, but there's something -- there's some benefit there. So there -- I mean, they're like a dozen small puts and takes, but nothing jumps out that made big in that regard.

Okay. And you mentioned direct payments there. Obviously, the Google change last night had a lot of changes on iOS and the U.S. is that to get roughly $10 million or so of savings from direct payments this year. How are you thinking about reinvesting versus passing through those incremental savings? And then what's the plan to navigate a scenario where maybe the courts roll back some of that?

So we got this gift from the courts for Apple, $100-ish million. And then we created our own gift with our staff reductions last year, which was around $100 million. So we have this $200-ish million benefit. But as I said, we're running basically a flat margin this year. So where did all that money go? We're buying back a lot of stock, and we're also paying a lot of dividend. We get about $1 billion a year of free cash flow, and that all goes back to shareholders through buybacks and dividends. But we're basically taking this 200 -- no, but -- and we're taking the $200 million savings and giving it back to the user through increased marketing expense, Tinder has gone from $180 million to $230 million and -- of marketing expense and through the user giveback budgets.

So that's where we're spending the Apple gift. What might happen if the rules change if the court has changed? I think it's really hard to speculate because it depends how they might change. So like, for example, the higher court seems to have -- or not seems to, they said, Apple actually is entitled to something when you link out. Okay. Well, we have to figure out what something is. And then we can figure out, for example, is it going to be a different amount for subscriptions versus single purchases, for example, because then if it's higher or lower for one or the other, then we can change what we prioritize and how we incentivize these are just like one versus the other.

So it's just -- there are too many unknowns to speculate how any of this might impact us. What I can tell you is we did a great job of cranking last year to adapt and testing, and it really showed the benefits of Match Group's scale and the multiple brands because the emerging and evergreen brands, especially the evergreen brands like Match and OkCupid, which had websites with a decent percent of their business still on the web, they had web payments already, and they had 20 years of optimizing the checkout flow on a mobile website and the desktop website.

So they took the lead and the other brands learned a lot from how they iterated on this alternative payments, then Tinder benefited from that. And then Hinge, which had no web presence. So they were really at a disadvantage when the starting gun was fired.

They created their own implementation which also was terrific and actually, in some ways, even better than the others because they were starting from scratch. So it took them longer, but they ended up in a great place. So whatever happens with the Apple ruling, however, the Google decision shakes out, we'll -- I'm pretty confident that we'll adapt very well to it and recognize the benefits of scale and of different -- having these different platforms that learn from each other.

Now switching gears, you announced in the 10-K that Azar had been removed from the App Store. Talk us through what happened there and how that could impact the financials in '26 guidance?

About a month ago, Apple decided that random video chat app don't abide by their rules. They took out -- I don't know what the total number was, but I think it was 100 or more video chat apps. We are still in active negotiations or conversations with Apple, making changes to the app, so that is not random so that the user has preferences, has profiles, select specific people to feel less like you're being paired with a random person and much more like you're actually selecting the person that you're paired with.

So we're still talking with Apple. We're still resubmitting I don't know what the ultimate outcome will be. It's a small impact. I think you put out a note or a couple of sell-side analysts have put out notes estimating we put in the 10-K what the number was, and it's small, especially after expenses and stock comp. Those are basically breaks even. But we're fighting for it. So we'll see where it all nets out.

Now thinking about the broader portfolio. On the 4Q call, you unveiled the [indiscernible], which is your portfolio strategy framework. Through this initiative, have you identified any clear gaps or areas of opportunity within the portfolio? And how has that shape your view on potential acquisitions and launches from here?

Yes. So what you're referring to is we have this kind of 3-sided triangle now where we've got fun brands like Tinder. We've got focused brands like Hinge and we've got familiar -- familiarity brands like BLK for black daters or Salams for Muslim daters and then a number of our other apps like The League sit at the intersection of familiar and focus. So all of our 20-odd brands are mapped to those different user needs. In terms of white space, I do think we have some white space in some of the user segments.

The question is, like, for example, we don't have a Jewish app, just as an example, but Hinge is the largest Jewish dating app by a mile for the focus space. And for the fund space, Tinder is largest Jewish dating app. So do we need a Jewish dating app? Yes, I don't know, it's debatable. So we're assessing that now that we have this framework. What I will say is that we are very attentive to the startup landscape.

This company better than any company I've ever worked at before, has our ear to the ground and has an incredibly robust competitive intelligence function. And there are 3 areas of innovation that we see that are interesting to us. One is the in real life space where increasingly Gen Z says they want to meet in person, not on the apps and there are a number of start-ups that are in that space.

Another area of innovation is around the social graph, where increasingly, Gen Z says, "I don't want to just be shown strangers. I want to see mutual friends and friends of friends." Of course, Tinder is a leader in that space with double date where we really have a social graph. And that's where Tinder and Hinge both started right? They both started with Facebook Connect. So you would see, "Oh, these are my friends or my friends of friends or 2 degrees of separation." When Facebook Connect deprecated -- or when Facebook deprecated Facebook Connect, they lost the social graph and by then Tinder and Hinge were very big. But there are a number of start-ups in that space.

And then the last space is in the AI matchmaking space, where people are saying, "Well, hold on, why do I have to look through hundreds of profiles to get to a date? Why can't the AI just do that for me and just figure this out for me like it's going out there into the world and doing other things for me." And there are a lot of start-ups in that space, including overtone, which of course, we incubated and Justin, the founder of Hinge and I decided for it to spin out. And now we're a large shareholder of that. And then there are a number of other startups in that space.

So those are the 3 general areas of innovation that we track most closely as well as more affinity apps like other demographic or ethnic groups that we don't have discrete apps for.

Okay. Great. Well, we've covered a lot of ground here. So there've been a lot of investor conversations since you joined the seat. Can you leave us with maybe 1 or 2 aspects of the business you think are most misunderstood or underappreciated by the market?

I think we get I mean -- I had a call last week with 1 of the largest shareholders of Zillow that I've been courting to try to get to become constructive on Match Group and the way that person described it. He's like, look, I will stipulate and underwrite to your Tinder turnaround because you're saying all the right things, and you seem to have the right people in place and you're selling green shoots like good, okay. And I will stipulate that Hinge is going to conquer the focus space, et cetera. And I will stipulate that E&E has headwinds, but it's not going to really move the needle all that much and that Azar is kind of irrelevant. So let's just take all that on its face. Convince me that this category overall isn't left for dead that Gen Z hasn't just moved on and said like, not interested in dating, not interested in using dating apps because that's what the headlines keep telling me, and that's what my 23-year-old in my office tells me and so on and so forth.

So I think that is the -- that's the stink in the room. That's like what hangs over the stock in the company and the category. My retort to that is a couple of things. First of all, the research says that they still want to meet, they still want to date. That's just what -- that's true. It's just that they didn't want to be using the old Tinder, which was a hotter nut product. And you look at Hinge and Hinge has crushed it, even with Gen Z users. And so it's just that the world changed and Tinder didn't change with it.

The second thing I'd say is that help is on the way demographically because all the research that we do about Gen Alpha shows that they are a more normal generation than Gen Z that they are willing to put themselves out there to date. They -- they have girlfriends and boyfriends in high school. They enter college having kissed a couple of people. They didn't miss several years, formative years of high school and then making mistakes in early college because of COVID and the pandemic and remote school and they're not so nervous about how AI is going to take their jobs and ruin their lives, et cetera, the way Gen Z is. So they're a much more adaptive generation and that bodes well for us as well. But we're not sitting here waiting for that. We're adapting the product to suit the needs of where the daters are today, but also the weather is going to change pretty soon.

Okay. Great conversation, Spencer, really appreciate it.

Thank you for having me.

Welcome to the Match Group Fourth Quarter 2025 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions]. Please note, this event is being recorded.

I would now like to turn the conference over to Tanny Shelburne, Senior Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you, operator, and good afternoon, everyone. Today's call will be led by CEO, Spencer Rascoff; and CFO, Steven Bailey. They'll make a few brief remarks, and then we'll open it up to questions.

Good afternoon, and thanks for joining us. Just 1 year ago, I became CEO of Match Group. From day 1, my focus was clear, prioritize user outcomes to rebuild trust and position Match Group to lead the next chapter of human connection. Given Tinder's scale and importance, I also took direct ownership of its turnaround.

To guide this work, I laid out a simple 3-phase transformation, reset the company, revitalize the products and drive a resurgence with our audiences and over time, our financials. We completed the reset phase by putting user outcomes at the center of everything we do, rationalizing costs and shifting from a siloed organization to a more collaborative One MG approach. With that foundation in place, we are now firmly in the revitalize phase, focused on delivering clear value to users and building experiences that lead to real human connection. We have compelling 2026 product road maps across the company. And at Tinder, I'm confident that by the end of this year, the product will feel meaningfully different.

Before focusing on Tinder, I first want to highlight our financial performance in 2025 and our expectations for 2026, which Steve will then cover in more detail. In 2025, we achieved our Match Group revenue and margin goals, excluding the discrete items we've called out in prior quarters and generated over $1 billion in free cash flow, which we returned to shareholders through nearly $800 million of share buybacks and nearly $200 million in dividends, reducing our diluted shares outstanding by 7% year-over-year. And we did this while making meaningful progress on the Tinder turnaround and continuing to invest in Hinge.

In 2026, we expect Tinder year-over-year direct revenue declines to be similar to 2025 as we continue to make product changes to improve user outcomes and drive long-term sustainable growth, but with short-term revenue trade-offs. Across the rest of the portfolio, we expect continued strong direct revenue growth at Hinge, while Evergreen & Emerging or E&E and MG Asia continued to face headwinds.

We are reinvesting savings from last year's workforce reductions and alternative payments initiative into Tinder and Hinge product and marketing to drive long-term growth and shareholder value. Together, we expect this to result in relatively flat Match Group total revenue year-over-year in 2026 and adjusted EBITDA margins broadly in line with last year's, excluding the discrete items we've discussed.

Now let me go a level deeper on Tinder. The most important leading indicators we track for product efficacy are Sparks and Spark coverage. Sparks reflect the number of users engaging in a 6-way conversation, which we believe is a strong proxy for real connection. Spark Coverage measures what percent of our users get a Spark in that period. Both metrics are improving, including among Gen Z users in the U.S.

Globally, total Sparks were down 11% year-over-year in December 2024 compared to down 5% year-over-year in December 2025. Similarly, global Spark coverage improved from down 1% to up 4% year-over-year over that same period. Our product work is paying off. Our data indicates that Sparks drive retention. Retention helps stabilize monthly active users or MAU and stabilized MAU supports revenue recovery over time. It is the earliest measurable signal that the ecosystem is healing, and I'm very encouraged by these trends.

We also closely tracked new registrations as a leading indicator of future MAU growth. Globally, new registration trends have improved significantly down 5% year-over-year in Q4 compared to down 12% year-over-year in Q2, also a very positive signal.

MAU naturally lags. But again, we're starting to see some progress here as well. MAU was down 9% year-over-year in Q4 compared to down 10% year-over-year in Q3. In fact, year-over-year MAU declines in December improved by at least 2 points across 15 countries, together representing approximately 1/3 of Tinder's global MAU and in 10 of those markets we're actively testing new marketing strategies.

This momentum has continued into early 2026, driven by better retention of existing users. Much of this progress is a result of our increased focus on improving the experience for women and in turn for all users through greater relevance and stronger safety.

For example, we've been testing new AI-driven recommendation algorithms, which affect the order of profiles shown to women. Project Aurora has been an important learning engine, allowing us to test multiple high conviction product changes together in the single market, Australia. In tests, Sparks went from down 14% in December 2024 to down around 8% year-over-year in December 2025. And Spark coverage reversed declines from down 2% to up 2% year-over-year over that same period.

MAU trends have also improved in Australia from down 12% in January 2025 to down 9% in December 2025. And improvement was even more pronounced among women over that same period. Importantly, the negative revenue impact from these product changes continues to be less than we expected. This gives us a lot of confidence that the turnaround is working.

Our 2026 product road map at Tinder directly addresses the most common Gen Z pain points. They want better outcomes, so we're focusing on relevance and match quality. They want authenticity and trust. So we're further strengthening verification and safety. And they're feeling dating fatigue, so we're redesigning discovery to be more expressive and less repetitive.

The early indicators give us confidence in our strategy, and I expect more lagging indicators like year-over-year MAU trends to improve throughout the year as we execute on the product road map. Our objective is to reestablish Tinder as sustainable growth business in 2027 and beyond by restoring durable user engagement and relevance at scale.

While this approach involves making some near-term revenue trade-offs, we believe it ultimately strengthens Tinder's long-term monetization engine and will provide opportunities to increase both payer penetration and revenue per payer as user outcomes and the overall ecosystem improve.

On March 12, Tinder will host our first-ever product event in Los Angeles to showcase upcoming feature updates, AI-driven innovations and a deeper look into our road map. The event will be webcast and available via our Investor Relations website.

Turning now to Hinge. Our latest research with Harris Poll shows that roughly 80% of Gen Z singles want meaningful relationships much higher rates than older generations. And we believe our platforms will increasingly be where those connections begin. Hinge continues to be the leading app in this intentional or focused dating space with strong user growth and revenue momentum. Hinge's exceptional performance reflects clear positioning, disciplined execution and a simple north star of getting users on more great dates.

Trust and safety is the foundation for this Hinge experience, built upon Tinder's successful rollout of Face Check. Hinge is also rapidly rolling this feature out in key markets. By the end of Q1, we expect Tinder to launch Face Check globally in the majority of markets and Hinge to have rolled out in some of its major markets. On Tinder, Face Check has led to a more than 50% reduction in interactions with bad actors in markets where it's been rolled out with only a minimal impact on revenue, and we expect it to meaningfully improve Hinge's user experience as well.

In Q1, Hinge is also testing features that help users get out on great dates faster, including Direct to Date, which clarifies intent to accelerate IRL or in real life plans. And a redesigned onboarding experience to build confidence in profile creation. Hinge will also roll out an AI-driven feature, Convo Starters to more countries following its successful rollout in the U.S. in December. Hinge is poised to stay at the forefront of product innovation in the category, and it continues to show broad appeal, not only in the U.S. but also across every international market, it has entered. Hinge officially entered its first non-English-speaking market in Q2 of 2022, supported by already strong organic traction. Since then, Hinge is actively marketed in 12 European countries. Its European expansion markets where it is the top downloaded app as of December 2025.

In these markets, Hinge ended 2025 with over 3.3 million monthly active users, up from only 200,000 at launch. User growth continues to scale rapidly with MAU growing nearly 50% year-over-year in 2025. We expect Hinge to deliver over $100 million of direct revenue in 2026 in its European expansion markets with significant runway ahead.

In the second half of 2025, Hinge successfully launched in both Mexico and Brazil, where very early results have far outpaced our expectations. Hinge was already the second most downloaded dating app in Mexico and Brazil as of December 2025 and is clearly resonating with intentioned daters. Building on this momentum, Hinge plans to expand to 3 additional Latin American markets in 2026, Argentina, Chile and Peru, and into its first APAC market, India. Hinge has already built a meaningful organic presence in India with over 1 million monthly active users in 2025, growing 40% year-over-year without marketing spend.

Overall, Hinge is on track with the targets we've shared previously and demonstrates how a strong focus on product market fit and user outcomes can drive durable growth and long-term shareholder value. Taken together, the work at Tinder and Hinge gives us greater clarity on how the portfolio fits together and how we can unlock new value with focus and investment. Our robust multi-brand portfolio provides scale, rich data for multiple apps in a multi-app usage category and the ability to serve a different user intents while preserving strong and distinct brand identities.

We've introduced a simple internal framework to articulate how we position our brands based on how they solve users' needs. At one end of the portfolio is fun, where Tinder leads with social low-pressure connection. At another is focus where Hinge leads with intention and depth. And across familiarity, our affinity brands serve communities with shared intent and purpose.

Some of our apps sit at the intersection of these user needs. For example, The League, our app for intentional dating among highly ambitious people sits at the intersection of focus and familiarity. This rubric shows how we think about future growth, including M&A and incubations. It helps us identify white and gray space where unmet user needs exist and where we can build or acquire products that meaningfully expand how people connect.

Let me close with this. At the core of our vision for Match Group is a simple truth, humans need humans. In the world facing a growing loneliness and mental health crisis, we believe Match Group is uniquely positioned to make a positive impact by helping people form real connections. We believe Match Group plays a fundamentally different role in people's lives than most digital platforms. Our goal is clear, help users get off their phones and into the real world where meaningful relationships actually form.

Long-term value creation depends on delivering successful outcomes for our users. People will only use our products if they work. We believe AI is a core enabler of how we improve relevance and matching, strengthen trust and safety at scale and increase the speed at which we learn and iterate.

The early progress we're seeing in our technology, product quality and user outcomes reinforce our decision to double down on these initiatives, all while maintaining a commitment to returning meaningful capital to shareholders through buybacks and our dividend, and boost our confidence in the turnarounds already underway at Match Group.

With that, I'll turn it over to Steve.

Thanks, Spencer. Today, I'll share more details on our latest performance and discuss our guidance for Q1 and full year 2026. Unless otherwise noted, all amounts are on an as-reported basis and comparisons will be discussed on a year-over-year basis. More details can be found in the financial table below.

We finished 2025 with another quarter of strong execution. Total revenue and adjusted EBITDA both exceeded the high end of our Q4 guidance. Total revenue benefited from a smaller-than-expected impact from Tinder's user experience tests. These tests had a $6 million negative impact to Tinder direct revenue in Q4, which was $8 million less than we expected at the time of our last call, and adjusted EBITDA benefited from our ongoing cost efficiency efforts.

Diving deeper into Q4, Match Group delivered total revenue of $878 million, up 2% and flat on a foreign exchange neutral basis. Payers declined 5% to 13.8 million while RPP increased 7% to $20.72. Adjusted EBITDA was $370 million, up 14%, representing an adjusted EBITDA margin of 42%. Excluding an $8 million gain on the sale of an L.A. office building and $2 million of restructuring costs, adjusted EBITDA margin would have been 41%.

For the full year 2025, Match Group delivered total revenue of $3.5 billion, flat both as reported and FXN. Adjusted EBITDA for the full year was $1.2 billion, down 1%, representing an adjusted EBITDA margin of 35%. Excluding the legal settlements, restructuring costs and the sale of an L.A. office building each of which we've discussed in prior quarters, adjusted EBITDA margin would have been 38%, which meaningfully exceeded our 36.5% margin target provided at the beginning of 2025, primarily due to our restructuring efforts and alternative payment initiative.

Tinder Q4 direct revenue was $464 million, down 3%, down 5% FXN. Tinder payers declined 8% to 8.8 million and RPP grew 5% to $17.63. Adjusted EBITDA in the quarter was $263 million up 1%, representing an adjusted EBITDA margin of 55%. For the full year, Tinder delivered direct revenue of $1.9 billion, down 4%, down 5% FXN. Adjusted EBITDA was $941 million, down 7%, representing an adjusted EBITDA margin of 49%. Excluding the $61 million Candelore legal settlement charge and $5 million of restructuring costs, adjusted EBITDA margin would have been 52%.

Hinge Q4 direct revenue was $186 million, up 26%, up 24% FXN. Payers were up 17% to 1.9 million and RPP grew 8% to $32.96. Adjusted EBITDA was $67 million in Q4, up 54% and representing an adjusted EBITDA margin of 36%. For the full year, Hinge delivered direct revenue of $691 million, up 26%, up 25% FXN. Adjusted EBITDA was $226 million, up 36% for an adjusted EBITDA margin of 33%.

E&E Q4 direct revenue was $145 million, down 7%, down 9% FXN. Payers were down 14% to 2.1 million and RPP grew 8% to $22.53. Adjusted EBITDA was $48 million, flat year-over-year, representing adjusted EBITDA margin of 33%. For the full year, E&E delivered direct revenue of $594 million, down 8%, down 9% FXN. Adjusted EBITDA was $140 million, down 18% for an adjusted EBITDA margin of 23%. Excluding the $14 million Federal Trade Commission legal settlement charge and $6 million of restructuring costs, adjusted EBITDA margin would have been 26%.

Match Group Asia direct revenue in Q4 was $66 million, down 2%, down 1% FXN. Azar direct revenue was up 1%, both as reported and FXN. Pairs direct revenue was down 5%, down 4% FXN. Across Match Group Asia, payers increased 3% to 1 million, while RPP declined 5% to $20.91. Adjusted EBITDA was $16 million, up 2%, representing an adjusted EBITDA margin of 25%. For the full year, Match Group Asia direct revenue was $267 million, down 6%, down 5% FXN. Excluding the exit of our live streaming businesses, Match Group Asia direct revenue would have been flat year-over-year, up 1% FXN. Adjusted EBITDA was $66 million, up 9% and for an adjusted EBITDA margin of 25%.

Including stock-based compensation expense, total expenses in Q4 were down 7%. Cost of revenue decreased 6% and represented 25% of total revenue, down 2 points as a percent of total revenue, driven by alternative payment savings. Selling and marketing costs increased $6 million or 4% and but was flat at 17% of total revenue, primarily due to higher marketing spend at Hinge.

General and administrative costs decreased 22%, down 3 points as a percent of total revenue to 10%. And driven by the gain on sale of an L.A. office building and lower legal fees. Product development costs remained flat at 12% of total revenue. Depreciation and amortization decreased by $10 million to $21 million due to lower internally developed capitalized software costs primarily at Tinder.

Our trailing 12-month gross leverage was 3.2x and net leverage was 2.4x at the end of Q4. We ended the quarter with $1 billion of cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments on hand and plan to use $424 million of cash to pay off 2026 convertible notes on or before the maturity in June.

In Q4, we repurchased 7.3 million shares at an average price of $33 per share on a trade date basis for a total of $239 million and paid $45 million in dividends. For the full year 2025, we delivered operating cash flow of $1.1 billion and free cash flow of $1 billion. Free cash flow was negatively impacted by the timing of the final Apple payment of the year, which we expected in December but did not receive until early January. For the full year 2025, we repurchased 24.7 million shares at an average price of $32 per share on a trade date basis for a total of $789 million, paid $186 million in dividends, employed $129 million of cash towards net share settlement of employee equity awards to reduce share dilution, equating to 108% of free cash flow in total.

As of January 31, 2026, we've reduced diluted shares outstanding by 7% year-over-year, a meaningful accomplishment. Our Board of Directors declared a cash dividend of $0.20 per share, representing a 5% increase from our prior quarterly dividend. The dividend is payable on April 21, 2026, to shareholders of record as of April 7, 2026. The increased dividend reflects our commitment to providing shareholders with a predictable and consistent form of capital return. The dividend is expected to be paid on a quarterly basis going forward subject to approval by our Board of Directors.

Now for guidance. We expect Q1 total revenue for Match Group up $850 million to $860 million, up 2% to 3% year-over-year. This range assumes a 3.5 point tailwind from FX. FXN, we expect total revenue to be down 1% to flat. We expect Match Group adjusted EBITDA of $315 million to $320 million representing a 15% year-over-year increase and an adjusted EBITDA margin of 37% at the midpoint of the ranges.

Q1 total revenue guidance assumes a $6 million negative impact to Tinder direct revenue from user experience tests. For the full year 2026, we expect Match Group to deliver total revenue of $3.41 billion to $3.535 billion, approximately flat year-over-year at the midpoint of the range. This year-over-year range assumes a 1 point tailwind from FX, a nearly 1.5 point headwind from Tinder user experience tests and a 1 point headwind from the planned rollout of Face Check across the portfolio. We expect full year 2026 indirect revenue to decline in the mid-teens percent. We expect total Match Group adjusted EBITDA of $1.28 billion to $1.325 billion and adjusted EBITDA margin of 37.5% at the midpoint of the ranges. As we reinvest savings into Tinder and Hinge to drive the revitalization phase of our transformation.

Our guidance assumes approximately $110 million of adjusted EBITDA savings in 2026 from alternative payments based on current app store policies. The app store fees we pay could change based on evolving litigation and regulatory changes both in the U.S. and in other jurisdictions, including the Epic Games versus Apple case, which was recently sent back to the lower court. We continue to monitor these events closely and will determine the appropriate course of action if and when there are future changes to app store policies.

At Tinder, we expect direct revenue to decline at approximately the same rate as 2025. Our guidance assumes a 3-point headwind from user experience tests and a 1 point headwind from the full rollout of Face Check. It also includes a $50 million increase in Tinder marketing spend for a total budget of approximately $230 million as we test in the marketing to support our product turnaround and user growth efforts. We expect adjusted EBITDA margins of approximately 50% with alternative payment savings helping to offset higher marketing spend.

At Hinge, we expect continued strong direct revenue growth in the low to mid-20 percents and adjusted EBITDA margins in the mid- to high 30% with robust margin expansion driven by our plan to reinvest only 1/3 of Hinge's expected savings from alternative payments. Hinge remains on track to achieve $1 billion of revenue in 2027 with continued margin expansion.

At E&E, we expect direct revenue to decline in the low double digits as we work to reinvigorate Emerging Brands growth by improving user outcomes. We expect adjusted EBITDA margins to expand to the high 20% with the completion of our platform consolidation efforts and from alternative payment savings.

And at Match Group Asia, we expect direct revenue to decline in the high single digits, reflecting Azar's ongoing block in Turkey and its global rollout of a new user verification technology, which builds upon Face Check. We also expect a 3-point FX headwind to Match Group Asia direct revenue. We expect adjusted EBITDA margins to be in the low to mid-20%. We expect free cash flow of $1.085 billion to $1.135 billion in 2026, an 8% year-over-year increase and representing 85% free cash flow conversion at the midpoint. Due in part to the Apple payment we originally expected in December but received in January.

We expect SBC expense of $250 million to $260 million and capital expenditures of $55 million to $65 million. Our effective tax rate is expected to be approximately 19%. Our capital allocation strategy remains unchanged, prioritizing organic investment in our business capital return to shareholders through buybacks in the dividend and selective M&A. We plan to continue net selling employee equity awards in 2026 to reduce dilution.

We expect to use 100% of free cash flow for buybacks, dividends and net selling employee equity awards over time. However, the percent of free cash flow used in any particular quarter or calendar year could vary due to a number of factors, including market conditions. While execution in our existing businesses remains our top priority, we may use free cash flow for selective M&A evaluated on a case-by-case basis. We will continue to target net leverage of 2 to 3x.

Taking a step back, we've reduced our diluted shares outstanding by 7% over the last year, and our plan calls for a similar reduction in 2026. While we're hard at work turning around Tinder's MAU trends, we're also aggressively reducing shares outstanding, which we expect will leave us in a very attractive spot on the other side of this.

With that, let's turn it over to Q&A.

Before we start Q&A, I need to remind everyone that during this call, we may discuss our outlook and future performance. These forward-looking statements may be preceded by words such as we expect, we believe, we anticipate or similar statements. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties, and our actual results could differ materially from the views expressed today.

Some of these risks have been set forth in our earnings release or periodic reports with the SEC. Also during this call, we will discuss certain non-GAAP financial measures. Reconciliations to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures are provided in the published materials on our IR website. These non-GAAP measures are not intended to be a substitute for our GAAP results.

[Operator Instructions]. Our first question today comes from Jason Helfstein with Oppenheimer.

I guess just to Spencer, any more details you can share around the early learnings from Project Aurora. And is the idea that -- is it one -- kind of 1 thing or the idea that you may take pieces of it and use some use all, et cetera, et cetera. So the point is like, I guess, just expand there.

And then just second, can you connect the dots with us the Tinder between the fourth quarter improvement in new registrations? And an MAU and the 4% increase in December Sparks and did Sparks improve throughout the quarter?

Thanks, Jason. So Aurora is our focus on Australia in Q4. And we gave Australia everything we had in terms of product improvements up to that point in time and marketing spend and tactics. And so I'll give you some Australia-specific data. I don't think -- I think some of this I referenced -- some of this is in the earnings script, but some of it is not.

So for example, Australia Sparks. In December of 2024, were down 14% year-over-year. In December 2025. They were down 8% year-over-year. Sparks Coverage, we mentioned went from negative 2% year-over-year to positive 2% year-over-year. Australia MAU in December 2024 went from negative 12% year-over-year to negative 9% year-over-year and female MAU improved even more. Overall MAU improved by 3 points, but female MAU grew by 5 points.

Australia, double date usage also went up quite a bit. So last quarter, I said 1 of 6 Australians 18 to 22 were using double date. This most recent quarter, it was 1 out of 4, 18- to 22-year-olds were using double date. And overall, in Australia, 10% of users are now using double date. So very encouraging results in Australia. It shows that good product road map and a lot of hard work and effective marketing can start to change these user metrics. In terms of the scope of what -- within Australia and how we roll that out elsewhere.

There are some aspects of Aurora, which are already rolled out elsewhere. So for example, Face Check was just in Australia at some point in 2025. Now it's in much of the world. By March, it will be in most -- in most territories globally. So Face Check is not just in Australia. The marketing spend and tactics that we tested and learned our way through in Australia. That also is being rolled out globally.

Specifically, in 2026, we're focused more on user acquisition or performance marketing not top-of-funnel brand marketing. What I mean by that is, if you think of our past campaigns, such as it starts with a swipe, which generate overall awareness for Tinder, that would be an example of top-of-funnel brand marketing. But most of our marketing in 2026, following the results from Aurora are going to be bottom of funnel focus. These are things like real user-generated content on TikTok or Instagram of young users saying, I'm using double date or this isn't -- this is a totally different tender. This is not what I thought Tinder was like, check it out.

So shift in marketing tactics and marketing scale globally based on what we learned from Aurora. But there are some things that are still only in Australia. This is examples like Chemistry which we haven't rolled out into many other geographies yet, but we will -- but more to come on that soon. So that's how what we learned in Australia with Project Aurora is informing the rest of the world.

To your second question, Jason, about Q4 registration improvements where we went from negative 12%, new regs in Q2 to negative 5% in Q4 and how that ties to Sparks and MAU. I would describe it as this. If you think of our audience as a funnel, where at the bottom of the funnel, we have Sparks, that 6-way conversations. And at the very top of the funnel, you have new registrations it's easiest to impact the bottom of the funnel. And so that's where you would expect this product-driven turnaround to start showing up the most in our numbers, and that is, in fact, what we're seeing.

We can improve the user experience of the product relatively quickly with enough focus by improving our recommendation algorithms by improving the apps performance and uptime, the design of the apps, the quality of our push notifications many other things that we've done on the roadmap over the last 6 months. And so you see that in Sparks at the bottom of the funnel. It's much harder to drive top of funnel MAU growth and registration growth because that -- for that to grow, we need to drive reconsideration. We need to convince people to gift Tinder another shot. It's very encouraging. It gives me a lot of confidence that we're even starting to see any improvement yet in MAU and new registrations given how recent the start of this turnaround really is.

And the next question is from Cory Carpenter with JPMorgan.

I had 2. I know Australia has gotten a lot of focus, but you mentioned that engagement improved by 2 points in 15 countries. Maybe, Spencer, could you expand a bit on what you think is driving that and how that's trended to start of the year? And then just a second question, user experience headwinds. You called that out as coming in less than expected. If you could just give some color on maybe in particular, where are you seeing less of a headwind than you had anticipated?

Yes. Absolutely. So I'll give you some data here. For example, I think I said in the prepared remarks that countries representing 1/3 of our MAU have improved by 2 or more points. And we said it's around 15 countries. So for example, Korea went from -- in December of 2024, South Korea MAU was down by 8% year-over-year. And in December 2025, South Korea MAU was up 2% year-over-year. In December 2024, Japan MAU was down 12% and in December 2025, it was down 6%. And as I've already said, Australia went from down 12% to down 9% from December 2024 to December 2025. So really nice swings in MAU in some key countries. It's hard to put a single finger on what is driving these numbers because we've made so many encouraging product changes.

But if I had to put a finer point on it, I'd say it is a improvements to our recommendation algorithm. Number 2, it's double date. Number 3, it's Face Check, improving authenticity; and number 4, it's marketing. So those I think are the 4 biggest drivers of those MAU improvements in those countries I mentioned.

And then to think about the revenue kind of the revenue trade-offs. I'll give you a couple of quick examples to try to understand how this happens. One we've already talked about, which is Face Check. When we first launched Face Check in Canada, we saw immediate improvements in trust and safety, but it was a 10% revenue hit. Through a lot of hard work and iteration. We got that down to a 2% to 3% revenue hit, and we started rolling it out into other countries. But we kept at it. And now it's about a 1% revenue headwind but a 50% reduction in your interactions with fake accounts or bad actors. So well worth it for just a 1% revenue shortfall.

But from negative 10% hit to negative 1% revenue hit over a couple of months of iteration. I'll give you another quick example. We have a new -- we're testing some work on the week 0 experience for new users. And if we show new users a couple of free user accounts who like them, every time they open the app, we've seen a 9% improvement in Spark Coverage for Gen Z users, but it impacts revenue in unacceptably large amount.

And so now just as with the Face Check example, now we iterate. Now we see how we can mitigate that and how we can reduce it. And when we get it to a reasonable revenue hit or perhaps if we get it to revenue neutral, then we'll roll out an initiative like that, which will really improve user outcomes for Gen Z at some smaller tolerable revenue impact.

What we saw in Q4, and I think Steve mentioned this in his remarks, is we continue to underspend our revenue give back budget. I think in Q4, it was -- we spent $9 million out of $15 million?

Expecting $14 million and it came in much less than that, around $6 million.

Okay. And what we've bracketed for 2026 is $60 million, and we intend to spend that. That's not a sand bag. That's a real number. But what we have found is that we are very good at iterating as in the Face Check example to mitigate revenue impact and still retain the user benefits from these types of initiatives.

The next question is from Shweta Khajuria with Wolfe Research.

Let me try 2, please. On the improvements that you are talking to right now, Spencer, in the letter and in your prepared remarks, you mentioned that you saw material improvement in experiences for women, which is one of the drivers through greater relevance and safety. So could you please talk to how you're measuring relevance for women? Any quantifiable data points that suggest that, that drove relevance.

And then second is, when you -- when we think about the relationship to payers eventually, how much of a lag do you think there will be? So we start seeing new registrations Sparks and Sparks Coverage, MAUs and then eventually payers. How should we think about that time line?

Sure. Thanks, Shweta. We look at retention and Spark Coverage and user satisfaction by all types of breakdowns by age, by demo, by gender, by sexual orientation and many other factors. So I don't have at my fingertips here, specific data on female retention, for example, or improvements from it. I'm trying to sort of rack my brain here to think about how I can be responsive to your question.

I guess I'll talk about double date for a moment, which has been such an important feature to change perception of what Tinder is, and articulating that Tinder is for fun, low-pressure ways to meet new people with friends. And this is a product that really appeals to female Gen Z users. It's only been out for a couple of months in the U.S., but already 48% of Gen Z women in the U.S. cite double date as a unique reason to use Tinder. And 69% of U.S. Gen Z women say they are aware of the feature and 46% of U.S. Gen Z women say that double date is the most defining feature of Tinder.

So the other metric I'd draw your attention to, as I think I already stated that female MAU in Australia is up even more than total MAU in Australia. So actually, if you compare female MAU with male MAU, it would be quite a bit higher over the Q4 period. And that's due to several things. As I said, it's due to double date. It's due to recs improvements, and it's due to better marketing. So we're definitely seeing stronger female retention, female MAU growth as a result of our product initiatives and marketing. Steve, you had the second question.

Yes. And just how does that translate? Look, the improving -- the expectation for improving MAU trends over 2026, we do believe will also lead to improving payer trends. So we expect those to improve throughout the year. And I actually expect them to be a point or 2 better in Q1 than they were in Q4. So we do see it translating to payers, and we expect that to continue to happen throughout the year.

The next question is from Dan Salmon with New Street Research.

Great. Spencer I kind of have a 2-part question. I kind of wanted to go back and just review a little bit about the leadership transition at Hinge and maybe, more importantly, the creation of Overtone. But then kind of dovetail that into some of the comments you walked through in your prepared remarks about the refreshed look at the portfolio and sort of the areas of fun, focus, and familiarity and trying to place your bets within that framework and ultimately get to the sort of room you've left yourself here for both small tuck-in M&A and incubation.

And just to see -- obviously, your last action here was an incubated launch. But maybe just to expand on your thoughts on what the potential is there as you look at the portfolio and how it might evolve over the year?

Yes, absolutely. Good question, Dan. So Hinge didn't miss a beat when we changed CEOs in Q4 because Jackie has been running marketing and is effectively running Hinge for 2025, stepped in seamlessly to the CEO role. So the Hinge leadership team is in place, is incredibly mission-oriented, capable, incredible stewards of the Hinge business and just fantastic and really understands the end user and the product road map. So Hinge continues to march on I'm glad you brought up what we call the [ gem ], which is this portfolio strategy work.

This is one of the first things that I kicked off when I joined this company about a year ago, and I said I need to understand how all these brands fit together. And our employees were really anxious for this as well. They were saying, why do we have 20-some brands? And how do they connect with one another? And what problems are they trying to solve and where should they overlap or not? And that work that we did, which was really important work that required and utilized a lot of consumer insights and brand strategy work gave us this framework that has been really illuminating for us as a company.

I would -- I'll use that to talk just for a moment about Hinge, and then I'll answer your question about other potential additions to the portfolio. So with respect to Hinge being the leader in the focused space, Hinge's runway in that area is massive. I actually think the focus section of that gem has more total potential over the long run than even the fun side of that gem. Because demographically, it's a much bigger potential audience. It ranges from people in their mid-20s up to people in their mid-70s or mid-80s that are looking for a focus, find your soulmate, find your person an app that's designed to be deleted. And Hinge is really just getting started as it marches country by country globally. So massive potential for monthly active user growth for Hinge, and that segment, the focus segment should monetize over time better than the fun segment because people are more willing to pay for a focused outcome than for a fun outcome. And those users also have more disposable income. So the monetization potential for Hinge as the leader in the focus space is really significant.

To answer your question about other white space or gray space we might find in the portfolio based on that brand strategy work. We're always incubating new ideas. For example, we have one right now called SLIDE focused in Korea, which is a 3-on-3 dating app concept only in Korea. And so we launched something like that. We test, we learn from it. We decide whether to invest in it or to bring that feature set to other apps of ours or to stop investing in it. So right now, we have that one. We have another one, which I -- I'm not going to talk about at this moment. And we're always exploring new concepts as well as looking at potential investments or acquisitions.

The next question is from Nathan Feather with Morgan Stanley.

I want to touch a little bit more on the new registration trends and the improvement there. You mentioned a lot of changes in the marketing side. What have been the main source of those new registrations? Are you seeing improvements in registrations through organic channels, word of mouth or is it more marketing led? And then interested to hear about the learnings from Chemistry to date, what is the consumer behavior been as you've added that new surface area to the app?

Thanks, Nathan. So there have been a variety of sources of new registrations. Certainly, marketing has been an important part of it. But double date also drives new invitations because existing Tinder users invite their friends to be their double date partner. So it's been a variety of initiatives. And then actually, organic social has been a big driver. You'll see you've seen things on TikTok or Instagram today that you probably wouldn't have seen a year ago.

People talking organically, oh Tinder is back, Tinder's cool again. I don't know what Tinder did, but I'm not seeing bots or spam accounts anymore. I mean that's how Face Check makes its way into the real world, into the Gen Z language on social. So that's driving organic new regs as well.

And regarding Chemistry, Chemistry is really -- 2 things. Chemistry is an AI way to interact with Tinder and answer questions in order to then get just a single drop or 2 rather than swiping through many profiles. It's also a way to connect your camera roll to Tinder and then let Tinder draw out insights from your camera roll. And today, that's in service of driving a custom AI-driven recommendation drop. But in the future, it will have other applications. So we're learning a lot from Chemistry. We think it helps -- on the first point, we think it helps solve swipe fatigue, which is an objection that we hear from users who say, I just want to get to the good stuff faster, I want to get to a spark more quickly.

And of course, we have lots of ways to do that. We improve recommendations, we improve lots of things about the product. But another way to do that is to give people a new way to use Tinder. With this single drop. And then as I've alluded to, we have a lot of a long-term road map regarding what to do, how to integrate the camera roll insights into the user experience as well. So still learning a lot about Chemistry, more to come.

The next question is from Ross Sandler with Barclays.

Great. I thought I'd bring Steven into the Q&A here a little bit. So I guess, high-level puts and takes on the '26 guide, if there's something that could surprise to the upside, what do you think that might be. And is this 50% Tinder EBITDA margin, the new kind of right way to think about the longer term or should we head back north once the revenue starts to grow again?

Yes, happy to take this question. Here's the way I would think about the guidance. It's a little bit flat revenue in 2026, which is a little bit lower than what we had guided to about a year ago. The reasons for that are really 3 reasons. One, some softness at E&E in Asia. If you look at kind of what we were expecting those businesses do in '26 versus a year ago to what we're expecting today, that's actually about a 3-point headwind to total Match Group year-over-year revenue growth. So that's a pretty big factor.

And then the other 2 is, one, the tender user testing, which Spencer mentioned that's about 1.5 headwind and that $60 million budget to continue to test. Obviously, that's one where there could be upside if we continue to see what we've seen over the last couple of quarters where the impact to near-term revenue is less than we expect, that could drive some upside, but we think it's prudent to keep that budget in place and allow the product teams to continue to test.

And then there's another point headwind from the global rollout of Face Check more broadly across the portfolio. That's a point headwind that we think is what we're taking, like Spencer mentioned. And then there's about -- there's 1 point of FX benefit that we're getting this year. So if you add all those up, that's 4.5 points of revenue headwind and it kind of explains how we get to -- from the mid-single digits growth that we were sort of shooting for a year ago to the flat growth we were at today but we think are all necessary investments to improve the long-term prospects of the business.

If you go -- let me just take a minute to go through each of the BUs real quickly and hit the highlights. I think Hinge continues to do phenomenally well. Revenue is right on track with expectations. Margins are ahead of where we expected. Tinder we said it's going to be down about the same as it was last year, so call it 4 points. That's really the user test budget of $60 million I mentioned and the rollout of Face Check, combined, that's a 4-point headwind. So plus or minus a point of FX that kind of gets you from the flat we were expecting a year ago to the 4 points were down today.

But again, I think well worth -- worthy trade-offs to make. We talked about the payers, the one other thing I'll just -- I'll mention again is, the composition of the revenue at Tinder, we're expecting to achieve this minus 4% decline through improving payer trends on flat RPP, which is a little bit different than what we've seen in the last couple of years and sets us up pretty well for improved revenue growth in '27.

And then on E&E in Asia, that underperformance is really slowing growth within the affinity brands, particularly at E&E and Azar within the Match Group Asia BU. Spencer, do you want to touch on those 2?

Yes, I'll take this quickly and then you can hit the margin impact or the quarterly piece. So on Azar, Azar has been -- is currently not permissible in Turkey, and we think we have a path on that. We're working very hard on getting usage in Turkey restored. But that contributes to a 2026 headwind, at least for now.

Regarding E&E, the weakness on E&E is on affinity. These are our brands that are race or ethnic-specific, such as Chispa for Hispanic daters, or BLK for Black daters or Salams for Muslim daters, for example, those apps are on the focus side of the brand portfolio. And of course, the reason for that is if you're using an app just trying to find people over particular -- of a particular ethnicity or race, you're probably in that focused zone where you're looking for your spouse or your soulmate.

And so what we saw there was we saw audience headwinds starting about a year ago on the affinity apps. And rather than just focus on monetization and sort of accept that audience decline, we decided to get ahead of it and regain product market fit. So what we're doing on affinity is we're moving from the swipe model to the vertical profile model, which we think makes a lot of sense for this user type that has a revenue hit as we make that shift but we think it's the right thing to do to improve product market fit. Steve, do you want to finish the question on...

Yes. Yes, let me just give a little bit more detail on a few other things to keep in mind. One is on the cadence of revenue. We expect to be flat to down about 1 point in Q1 on an FX-neutral basis. That's what we guided to. And we expect to be down about 1 point FX neutral for the full year, if you take the flat guide in that 1 point tailwind from FX we mentioned.

And so that should be pretty stable revenue trends each quarter this year. And then on the profitability side of the equation, we're taking the savings we achieved from the workforce reductions and alternative payments, and we're investing that back into Tinder and Hinge product and marketing. We mentioned the $50 million increase in Tinder marketing spend to about $230 million. We think they're all the right decisions to make, and that puts you out to 37.5% margins for the full year.

On the cadence, on the margin side, I do think it will look a little different this year than in years past. We guided to 37% margins in Q1. I'm expecting similar margins in Q2 and Q3 and then increase in margins in Q4 as we spend down on marketing as we typically do for the 37.5% for the full year. So that hopefully gives you some better insight into the guide.

On the Tinder margin question more long term, we're not -- I'm not going to guide, I don't think we want to guide to where Tinder margins will go. I will tell you, just we do not see these user givebacks as a structural change to the profitability of Tinder. We see them as necessary to improve user growth and the ecosystem. And once we can do that, I think there'll be plenty of opportunity to improve monetization at Tinder and get back to revenue growth in 2027 and beyond.

One data point on that. Just looking at Australia of what happened in Q4. When we look at revenue per MAU in Australia as we started improving MAU there, the revenue per MAU is basically flat. So we -- to Steve's point, we're not expecting a structural change to the profitability of Tinder. We still think Tinder will have category-leading and frankly, Internet-leading margin structure but we are making these targeted user givebacks in order to improve MAU and especially certain types of MAU that help improve the whole app ecosystem's health.

Next question is from Benjamin Black with Deutsche Bank.

Spencer, can you talk about balancing the need to sort of maintain the cadence of buybacks and the dividend versus perhaps being more aggressive on the product and prioritizing user outcomes, which ultimately may create or have been creating some near-term revenue EBITDA dislocation. Do you see the potential to maybe sacrifice more on the top line to accelerate the momentum in user outcomes as we look ahead to the next year or 2? And then just one quickly on Project Prism, maybe dig into the early learnings and how is that shaping your marketing strategy going forward?

Yes. Thank you. So turnarounds are hard and being the CEO, the turnaround is hard, but I'm blessed to be turning around a company that is immensely profitable. So with our enormous profits, we're doing 5 things at the same time. Number 1, we're improving or increasing Tinder's marketing budget from $180 million to $230 million.

Number 2, we're giving users more value from Tinder by having this user giveback budget of $60 million this year. Number 3, we're fully investing in Hinge both on marketing and headcount so that Hinge can achieve its full potential. And then number 4, we're funding a significant buyback, buying back about 7% of the company this year and 7% last year. And funding the dividend, increasing the dividend.

So the fact that we're able to do all 5 of these things simultaneously is a blessing. And I think we've rightsized each of those 5 levels of investment relative to where they all need to be. So that's how I'd approach it.

Regarding Prism, Prism for those that don't know, is our first ever Match Group-wide analysis of measuring marketing efficacy across brands. So we've been able to put every single penny we spend on advertising across every single brand on an apples-to-apples basis and look at the efficacy of ad spend.

What it exposed to us was the benefits for brands like Tinder to be more focused on down-funnel advertising performance and user acquisition advertising rather than top-of-funnel brand advertising. And it informed the increased spend on Tinder from $180 million to $230 million. And it also unlocked a lot of other learnings in the E&E brands as well as the Hinge brand. The former SVP of Marketing at Tinder is now the CMO of E&E, which was a very important cross-brand way for us to bring Tinder insights over to the E&E brands and great expertise and confidence over -- across the company as well.

I think we have -- we only have a couple of more minutes and we've got a couple of more questions. So let's go to the next question. We'll see if we can get through all of them. If not, we might have follow up offline.

The next question is from Brad Erickson with RBC.

Spencer, I just wanted to follow up on that last comment on Prism. Bottom of funnel for the space hasn't been that sort of common. And so obviously, you guys are going to get a pretty good feedback loop, right, going here in '26. Is there -- I guess, the question is like, why was $50 million the right number? And if you see more success, might you ramp it up? Or call an audible midyear? How should we think about that?

Yes, good question. I mean we -- what we -- we're following the same guidance philosophy that I had at Zillow, which is we always go 1 quarter out on guidance. And then in February earnings, we also do a full year. We make the marketing decisions constantly -- I mean I do -- the Tinder marketing team is sitting down with me every 3 days to go through all of the data that we're seeing globally real time.

So what we're putting out today is what we think are the most likely scenario is for the full year. But if the ROI is not there, we'll pull back. And if the ROI is great, we'll evaluate other potential changes. But for now, this is what we think is the most likely scenario for the year. But we are watching it real time constantly, extremely hands-on this one.

The Tinder marketing team, we've moved into the open space at our building in the L.A. office, and that's who I sit with is the Tinder marketing and social media team because that's where I want to be most aware of exactly what's happening day-to-day and week-to-week.

The next question is from John Blackledge with TD Cowen.

Logan Whalley on for John. So it's good to see the Hinge rollout go well in Mexico and Brazil. Could you talk about what the time line for monetization looks like for Hinge when it launches in new markets at this point? Like how long before the app kind of reaches critical scale? And then after that, how long is it before you begin to focus on monetization. And then also, any early learnings from Mexico and Brazil that you plan to apply to the South America launches for later this year?

Why don't I take the monetization question. The short answer is, it takes time, it does. And we've seen that with Hinge in Europe. I think that's the best sort of case study. They've been at it in Europe for a couple of years now. They've done phenomenally well. Obviously, that's the playbook. We've seen the MAU growth first. We're now starting to see revenue growth it's still going to only be about $100 million of revenue in 2026 from those countries, which is a pretty small piece of the total. And if you compare that to what Tinder is doing in that region, for example, it's still far below where Tinder is at.

And so it takes time to build that liquidity to make sure the product is working at full scale. And then what we see is a couple of things. One, you can optimize monetization for that region. And two, you get a natural increase in payer penetration in RPP just as liquidity builds. And so I'd expect to see the same thing in Latin America, but I would not expect Latin America to be a major contributor to revenue in 2026 for Hinge or probably even in 2027 either. Spencer, do you want to add?

Yes. I have one thing to add, which is the way Hinge is rolling out new markets today is different than the way it did it in the past. Today, we are operating under One MG philosophy. So everything is much more coordinated between Hinge and Tinder and E&E. In fact, we have a single unified go-to-market motion in Asia and a high degree of collaboration and coordination everywhere else in the world. So that's a significant improvement as compared in the past.

I think, unfortunately, we have to leave it at that. I just want to kind of give a high level. If you take a big step back from all of this. We're doing 3 things at the same time. The first thing we're doing is a product-led turnaround at Tinder, which is underway, progressing well, off to a great start. We shared a lot of encouraging data today.

The second thing we're doing is fully funding Hinge's rollout and ramp and helping Hinge achieve its full potential. But the third thing that we're doing is we are reducing our share count meaningfully. So by buying back 7% of the company last year, by increasing the dividend and buying back another 7% this year, we are creating an environment where free cash flow per share will compound and on the other side of Hinge's expansion and Tinder's product-led turnaround, we think there'll be this kind of coiled spring as we combine these 3 things together.

So we're confident in the business. We're confident in the status of the turnaround in Hinge's global expansion, and we think investors will increasingly take notice as we put more points on the board as 2026 rolls on.

Thanks very much for joining those of you that are going to join the March 12 event in L.A. or on webcast, we will tell you more about Tinder product then. And until then, it was great speaking with everyone. Bye-bye.

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.