AI integration can help 'remove some of the friction' in online dating: Bumble president

Yeah, well, it's great to be here. Thank you for having me. As you mentioned, we've had a great first quarter, a great start to the year. Revenue at $243 million, up 16%. Bumble app revenue leading the way with 26% growth to almost $194 million, and with growth in our EBITDA margin as well to 24%. So we thought it was a really good quarter, and it really is powered by this consumer demand. We are seeing demand really around the world—in the US, in Canada, in Western Europe, and parts of Southeast Asia and Latin America—really very, very strong at the moment. What we call top-of-funnel, new registrations, new people coming into the market, really powering the business, including with the Gen Z segment, which is obviously very critical for this business. And then some of the new products that we've been launching are really catching on and converting people into paying users. So we really think that we're really firing on multiple dimensions at this point.

Well, we are seeing a couple of different things in the market. First of all, people really still want to date. And if you think about the experience that you get on Bumble and think about how easy it is to meet a number of different people, it's actually a really good value. You compare the cost of a Bumble subscription to going to a bar and buying food and drinks in New York City, and it really, I think, compares quite favorably. And we hear that time and again. This is actually a very efficient way to go out and meet new people. So that's absolutely one thing. We are seeing robust demand for our subscriptions. Our new subscribers continue to lead the charge. As we talked about, we've seen payer user growth. We now have 3.5 million paying users. Those new subscriptions are continuing very strong. There are some pockets, particularly in the Gen Z segment, where we are seeing some people saying, 'You know, I'm going to do a month or two and take a break,' but really it isn't slowing down the company. We're delivering 26% revenue growth on Bumble app as an example, even with those dynamics that are going on. So we think the demand for love and for connection is really, really strong.

Look, this is not the pandemic anymore. People are not going to be doing endless dates on video chat, and that's not what we want. What we want is to make sure that when you do meet in a bar, when you do actually go out to dinner, when you do actually go for a walk in the park, whatever it is that you want to do to connect with somebody, it is a real connection. It's a connection that you have some chemistry with, so you're not showing up and saying in the first five minutes, 'Oh, I really shouldn't, this is the one I thought it would be, this isn't the person I thought it would be,' etc. And so we really think this is a safer way to date. We think it's a way to improve the quality of your first dates. And our business is all about connecting you in real life. It is not about connecting you virtually. We just use the mobile app as a way to help you connect with people.

Yeah, it's a great question. And we have a program that we call Bumble IRL, and the whole point of that program is to create real-life experiences that singles are going to try and meet people in real life. So we really view our competition as other dating apps, as other online players. We don't view IRL as the competition. We view that as success. We view you actually meeting somebody that you like in real life as success. And if we can help you go to a bar and find somebody who happens to be there, that's great. So we've been leaning into location, into events, into locations that are places where singles want to go. We are leaning into how do we connect you by interest, so that we know that you are both interested in soccer and want to go see a soccer game, or you're both interested in wine and hey, let's go to a wine bar. So we're really trying to make sure that whoever we connect is being connected so that they can have a successful first, second, third date, and hopefully that's a successful relationship in real life. And in real life is not a competitor; it's really a complement to the business.

Well, so I think AI is doing a couple of different things. I think the first part is it's really helping you—it's helping remove some of the friction. It's helping you make the choices that you're already making in the dating app. So we're not altering photos, we're not adding filters, we're not doing things like that that change who you are. What we're trying to do is say, if you're setting up a profile and you've got eight photos, here's the one that's likely to work the best of the ones that you currently have. We want to maximize the chances that you are successful as your authentic self, and that is a really important piece. AI for us is really a complement, it's an assistant in that dating experience. We're also using it to help match people so that we can figure out what you're interested in and who you are, and help you find the most compatible, the most curated set of matches, and we think that leads to more success on the platform, not less. We are all about success—for us, it's finding you that connection that is special and that you want to continue.

Yeah, you know, one of the biggest concerns people have with online dating is, is it a real person and is the person representing themselves in the right way? And we think that AI can be very helpful in that. It can detect, it can detect bots. It can help keep you safe. It can actually keep conversations safer. We can say, 'Oh, do you really want to say that before you send a message?' So there's a lot of really things that AI is doing already today inside of our app that is helping to improve the experience. And it's going to be what we know works the best is when you can bring your authentic self to the dating experience, that is inside of the app and in real life, to the earlier question. We think that AI can really be helpful there, and we have a very big focus inside the company on what we call 'kind connections.' How do we make sure that the connections that you're making are kind, that they're safe, that they're authentic and real? And we think that AI is going to be very helpful in helping us accomplish that. But we have to be vigilant. We don't want people out there misrepresenting themselves, and we are a community that prides ourselves—our members really believe in the power of community and in the quality that we bring to the Bumble app.

Well, I think if we learn one thing in the pandemic, it's that people want to connect. People need to connect. There is—the Surgeon General said it just, I think it was last week, that there's a real crisis of loneliness out there. And we know that the demand for connection, the demand for dating is really just robust—it's indestructible. It's really something that you see it in boom times, you see it in recessions. What we have to do is make sure that we are helping people break out of that. Recessions can be lonely times, they can be stressful times, and we know that the connection business is one that can really help people at a very human level, and in a very, very tangible way. And so we are all about how do we make sure we bring those connections to life and help you do it in a way that is suited to your lifestyle, to your economic means, etc.