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Andrew Willis: There was a lot of buzz around 31-year-old Bumble CEO Whitney Wolf Herd bringing the company public last month. But the greatest challenge for Wolf Herd – and new investors - comes with competition in the dating app scene.
Bumble operates dating apps Bumble and Badoo in over 150 countries, and they have over 40 million users, but there are a lot of cheap dates out there… And to compete with giants like Match Group, aka Tinder, they’re going to need to convince more people to pick up the tab.
Luckily, as Morningstar data journalist Margaret Giles notes, many dating app users don’t like commitment…when it comes to picking only one app. It’s pretty easy to attract paying users from competitors by providing similar offerings and innovations.
Morningstar senior equity analyst Ali Mogharabi notes that Match Group lacks the intangible assets to protect its innovations, practically eliminating any barriers to entry for competitors. And Bumble can look to make many first-moves with the help of the billions in public funds it just raised.
Bumble’s most powerful asset might be the brand. A woman-led company with a commitment to empowering women, their app even has features tailored for the female demographic – which is a pretty big portion of the dating market!
For Morningstar, I’m Andrew Willis.
Editor's Note: All images are courtesy of Unsplash.com and AP Images.
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