Here are my main takeaways from the earnings call;
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The product offensive has strengthened compared to Q1, particularly at Tinder. Rascoff noted that the new “Double Date” feature is showing strong product–market fit. He also highlighted upcoming college-specific features, as well as positive momentum and outcomes from recent trust and safety initiatives. He added that they now ship new code every week instead of every two weeks.
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Rascoff said all tracked user metrics have improved compared to a few months ago, but acknowledged that year-over-year declines persist, though the rate of decline has moderated.
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Rascoff praised Hinge’s team, saying they are using Hinge’s formula to turn around Tinder.
“Hinge is firing on all cylinders. I mean it’s got a really impressive and distinctive company culture, very highly engaged employees, shipping innovative products. They’ve got a terrific brand and a clear product strategy and they understand their users incredibly well and what users want from them. And the last compliment I’ll pay is that more than any of our other brands, they’ve infused AI into the product at an even greater rate than others, and it really shows.”
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CFO Bailey said they are testing alternative payment systems across the brands, which could lead to $65 million AOI savings opportunity in 2026. The 2025 savings (mainly in second half) from this alternative payment system are not included in the guidance.
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Bailey said they are feeling a lot better about macro in general compared to last quarter.
“But I think at the highest level, we feel much better about the macro environment and impacts on our business than we did a quarter ago. We’re not really seeing it aside from some small pressure at Tinder that we mentioned last call,” he said.
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Rascoff said they are not planning to increase price as a result of early product success at Tinder since they are prioritizing the recommendation algorithm more towards user outcome and less towards revenue.
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Match Group hired Vinay Kuruvila as the new CTO.
Assessment
Overall, Rascoff’s tone sounded more confident regarding the product momentum and outcome than in the previous call. Analysts acknowledged the early success when asking questions.