Rather cherry or grape?
Bumble, the first rival of Tinder, announces this Monday, February 7 to acquire the French dating application Fruitz.
Created in 2017, this dating service allows users to directly indicate what they are looking for: long relationship, friendship, one-night stand, etc.
Each option is represented by a fruit, hence this particular name.
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The Bumble Inc group, valued at $3.7 billion on the stock exchange, includes the Bumble and Badoo sites and has 2.9 million paying subscribers.
By adding Fruitz to its catalog, the group wishes to expand its offer of freemium services.
Second objective: expansion into the French and European markets.
One audience in particular is on its radar, 'Gen Z', or people born before 1995. This would be a "
fast growing category among consumers of online dating applications
", according to the press release.
This acquisition - for an amount that has not been disclosed - does not call into question the existence of Fruitz.
“
The Fruitz founders and team will remain in place and lead the app within Bumble Inc
,” said Fruitz CEO Julian Kabab.
It is more a question
of “accelerating
” the growth of the application.
Bumble, the eternal second
By appropriating his tricolor rival, Bumble tries to revive his own machine.
The group had an explosive IPO in February 2021, but has since seen its rating decline.
At their peak, the company's shares reached $75 per unit.
The title is only worth 26. The reason for this sudden change in the price?
The pandemic.
Despite a turnover of 200 million dollars in the third quarter of 2021, the group's growth is damaged by health restrictions that are not conducive to romantic encounters.
In detail, Bumble is doing well, with revenue growth of around 39%.
While Badoo, which targets an older audience, is down 3%.
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A score that allows Bumble to slip into second place on the dating site podium, far behind its eternal rival, the Match group (Tinder, Meetic, Match.com...).
The king of dating apps, valued at $32 billion on the stock market, is far from being dethroned.
