Two financial reports and three pieces of information on new changes in the overseas dating market

On May 5 and 6, 2020, Match Group and The Meet Group announced their Q1 2020 financial reports. The relationship between the two groups is also very confusing. In February this year, Bloomberg reported that Match Group had contacted Meet Group about acquisition, but the results were not made public. Then in March, it was reported that Meet Group would cooperate with Plenty of Fish, a product of Match Group, to help the latter develop live broadcasting functions. However, whether it is "brotherly support" after the acquisition or simple business exchanges, it can be seen that dating apps attach importance to video functions after the outbreak of the epidemic.

In addition, as the two largest dating and social networking giants in the United States, the changes in their financial report data are also very helpful for overseas developers to observe the development of the dating and social networking track.

The growth of new registered users slowed down, while the growth of new subscribed users increased rapidly

According to the financial report data, Match Group's revenue in Q1 2020 was US$545 million, a year-on-year increase of 17%. Meet Group's Q1 revenue was US$55.1 million, a year-on-year increase of 11%. The former is about 10 times the size of the latter. Although there has been a year-on-year increase, both have declined to varying degrees compared with their respective revenues in Q4 2019, and the month-on-month performance is not ideal. In this regard, Match Group gave the reason that the outbreak of the new crown epidemic has severely affected the global economy, resulting in a decrease in new registered users and a decrease in users' willingness to pay.

Data source: Match Group and The Meet Group financial reports

However, according to the financial report, Match Group's paid users increased by 15% from 8.6 million in Q4 2019 to 9.9 million, and its ARPU increased to $0.59. Of course, Tinder contributed an absolute amount of strength, with Q1 subscribers increasing by 28% to 6 million and its ARPU value increasing by 2%, driving Tinder's revenue to increase by 31%.

Although Meet Group does not have specific subscription user data, user spending accounted for 78% of total revenue in 2020, an increase from both the same period in 2019 and Q4 2019.

Meet Group's revenue sources in different time periods | Data source: The Meet Group financial report

It can be seen that due to the impact of the epidemic, although the growth rate of new registered users has slowed down, the existing users are more loyal and heavy. Users who originally liked to use dating apps have become more dependent on dating apps due to the lack of offline social methods due to the epidemic, and those who did not use dating apps originally may choose to wait for the end of the epidemic or rely more on socializing with acquaintances.

Match Group's three main advantages

Another message revealed in the financial report is that although both groups are well-known, The Meet Group is far from being a match for Match Group.

Match Group's revenue in Q1 2020 was almost 10 times that of The Meet Group. Although both groups are taking the matrix route, they are indeed not of the same scale.

Larger matrix size

Data source: App Annie

According to App Annie statistics, Match Group has 36 dating apps, while The Meet Group has 10 dating apps. The former’s matrix size is more than three times that of the latter. Match Group has been on a shopping spree in the past two years, acquiring “newcomers” in various segments.

Product Type Diversification

In addition to the large number, Match Group also covers a wider range of groups. In addition to general dating apps such as Match, Tinder and Plenty of Fish, there are also Hinge, which focuses on serious dating (marriage and love), Big Beautiful People Meet, which focuses on plus-size dating, Black People Meet and BLK, which focus on black dating, DisonsDemain, which helps users over 50, and fth, which serves Christian believers. The Meet Group only has BoyAhoy and GROWLr, which care about "gays" and "bears", and serve niche groups.

However, it also serves as a reminder to overseas developers that Match Group and The Meet Group both attach great importance to the segmented tracks in the segmented dating and friendship market. Several niche applications of both companies were only launched or acquired in 2019, and the segmented market still has potential.

The top products have more MAU and wider distribution

According to data from a previous Google social application seminar, several well-known apps of Match Group have absolute market share in major markets.

MAU distribution of popular dating apps in each market | Data source: Google

It can be seen that Tinder leads in MAU in all markets, while Hinge, Plenty of Fish, Hinge, OkCupid, and Match.com also have certain shares in each market. Only MeetMe under The Meet Group is active in a wide range of markets; SKOUT's advantages are mainly concentrated in South Korea, Hong Kong, and Taiwan; LOVOO's active users are mainly concentrated in Europe and the Middle East.

How to survive in Meet Group

Although it is not as big as Match Group, some of The Meet Group's apps are active in some emerging markets, especially the Middle East and India. This is because Meet Group was early to adopt live streaming and other gameplay.

The Meet Group adds live video streaming within the app, either supporting video calls or live streaming, or both.

The Meet Group's main apps

As shown in the picture above, all four apps under The Meet Group have enabled video streaming and matching functions. In addition, on the live broadcast page, in addition to the host options such as popular, new, nearby, and following, there is also a dating partner live broadcast section. This design makes the application more in line with the positioning of a dating app.

Although the basic functions of the four apps are similar, there are still significant differences in the user experience, which is related to the main market differences and functional positioning differences of the four apps.

Different strategies for different markets

Main active markets of four apps (estimated data) | Data source: Sensor Tower

As shown in the above figure, LOVOO mainly focuses on mature markets such as Europe and the United States, while MeetMe, SKOUT and Tagged pay more attention to emerging markets, which leads to very different strategies.

Applications that focus on mature markets and the Middle East pay more attention to user experience. For example, there are no obvious ads in the LOVOO app, while MeetMe uses rewarded ads, where users can get reward coins for watching videos. Tagged and SKOUT, which focus on emerging markets, have very aggressive ad settings, with ads distributed in the bottom banner + large image in the middle. The ad revenue mentioned above should mainly come from SKOUT and Tagged.

Screenshot of SKOUT ad page

Different positioning, different style

Top 3 in-app purchases in four apps | Data source: Sensor Tower

The most popular in-app purchases for LOVOO and Tagged are monthly subscription services, both of which are more oriented towards making friends, while MeetMe and SKOUT are more oriented towards entertainment.

Therefore, compared with the other two entertainment apps, LOVOO and Tagged page designs are more refreshing, and LOVOO even comes with a dedicated keyboard to give users a sense of security and belonging.

Comparison of the top pages of four applications

The improvement that LOVOO has made in dating and making friends is that it adds an opportunity to send a message to the other party (within 250 letters/Chinese characters) on top of swiping left and right, which can help users impress the other party by showing their strengths and personality.

LOVOO Match Page

However, The Meet Group is very lazy in the live broadcast section.

First of all, MeetMe and SKOUT, which are mainly engaged in live broadcasting, should use a live broadcasting system. The anchors can broadcast live on two platforms at the same time. The income rankings of the anchors of the two applications are exactly the same.

SKOUT and MeetMe have the same rankings

Secondly, the gifts that users give as rewards are exactly the same, including juice, red wine, roses, hot air balloons, sports cars and other gifts with love elements. Of course, the pricing fluctuates with market differences.

The differentiation of live streaming is reflected in MeetMe. In addition to supporting conventional options such as live broadcast and PK, MeetMe has also added virtual anchors. Although only one case was found, the anchor ranked ninth in the monthly list with 71.22 million diamonds (received gifts). Another point worth noting is that the anchor's appearance is set as a wolf, which is more in line with Western culture.

MeetMe Virtual Anchor

The Meet Group's differentiated approach allows it to retain its position when facing Match Group head-on.

via White Whale Out to Sea Xin Tong