Women-first approach in dating valued at a USD 14 billion
Shares of dating app Bumble soared more than 76% in their stock market debut on the Nasdaq meaning a USD 14 billion valuation. Bumble sticks out among dating apps for its women-first-approach. It has two major apps, Bumble and Badoo with more than 40 million monthly active users worldwide.
“People are building meaningful relationships digitally first, and then the physical follows. This is a really phenomenal shift toward safety and engineering more accountable experiences”, said CEO Whitney Wolf Herd. At 31, she is the youngest female CEO to take a US company public and a self-made billionaire.
The company reported USD 376.6 million in revenue in the first nine months of 2020, according to filings. The Bumble app had 1.1 million paying users, with 1.3 million on the Badoo app and other services.
Bumble has been observed because of its code of conduct arguing against fat shaming. The company says body shaming may entail projecting an opinion of what a “good body” is in a bio on the platform.
“Body shaming includes fat shaming, health shaming, criticizing skin or hair, thin shaming, unsolicited opinions, and mocking someone’s physical features,” the company said in a blog post.
The list also includes “race, colour, ethnicity, national origin, religion, disability, sexual orientation, gender expression, gender identity.”
Bumble was founded in 2014 by Whitney Wolfe Herd, who started at competitor Tinder. Bumble sets women in the driver’s seat requiring women to make the first move. The idea is that this feature empowers women to make their own choices.
“Our long-term vision is to be the platform to meet new people, no matter what you might be looking for, whichever life stage or situation you’re in,” Wolfe Herd wrote in the letter to investors. “We will do this with our innovative technology — and by advocating for equality, both through legislation and with the power of our trusted brand.”
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