Quick take:
- Tinder has pulled the plug on its metaverse plans.
- The online dating app also cancelled its virtual currency, Tinder Coins.
- Tinder’s parent Match Group missed the forecast on both revenue and earnings.
Tinder has walked back plans for metaverse dating. The online social app also cancelled its virtual currency, Tinder Token, essentially removing itself from the Web3 race. The announcement came during its parent, Match Group Inc.’s (NASDAQ: MTCH) recent quarterly report.
The social networking service provider reported disappointing Q1, 2022 results, with both revenue and earnings falling short of estimates.
According to the report, Tinder was the lowest revenue generator per paying user with just $14.00, whereas The League contributed the highest figure in the revenue mix with over $100 per payer.
Tinder launched its metaverse campaign in December 2021, with Tinder CEO Renate Nyborg, stating that the company had been discussing internally the metaverse opportunity.
However, after a disappointing quarter, the company is now doing away with the metaverse along with the virtual currency, which Match Group has been testing in the last few months. And Nyborg under whose tutelage the idea came to life will also be stepping down, the company announced on Tuesday.
The metaverse is broadly described as a 3D virtual space that allows people to meet and interact with each other immersively. One of the biggest advantages of using avatars in the metaverse to meet people is the ability to remain anonymous, one user of the Chinese metaverse dating platform Soul App, told Financial Times in July.
However, just like any other social app, monetisation is a major challenge for these applications with most people more interested in the experiential part of the platform, rather than the monetary side.
Unlike other applications like gaming and retail that can be integrated with utilities to generate more income from the blockchain community, dating apps have to rely on premium subscriptions, which is what Match Group is referencing in its revenue report what it says Revenue Per Payer.
And therefore, Tinderverse is no more, and neither is Tinder Token.
Match Group CEO Bernard Kim said the decision to scale down the metaverse strategy was driven by the growing uncertainty of what the metaverse really is, or what it could be, or not be in the future.
“Given the uncertainty about the ultimate contours of the metaverse and what will or won’t work, as well as the more challenging operating environment, I’ve instructed the Hyperconnect team to iterate but not invest heavily in metaverse at this time,” Kim said.
Kim’s sentiments about the metaverse seem to align with Ethereum Co-Founder Vitalik Butenin’s, who said late last month Facebook’s current strategy for the immersive 3D virtual world will likely misfire.
“We don’t really know the definition of the metaverse yet,” Buterin said, adding that “it’s far too early to know what people actually want.”
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