Tinder CEO Renate Nyborg Is Out As the Dating App Pivots Away from Crypto

Renate Nyborg is out as CEO of Tinder, less than a year after taking the helm of the popular dating app. Nyborg's exit is one of several management changes at Tinder announced by the parent company Match Group.

Tinder's plans to adopt new technology, including virtual currencies and metaverse-based dating, are also being reconsidered in the shake-up. These projects may be scaled back or canceled altogether as the company focuses on more traditional dating.

In an August 2, 2022, letter to shareholders, Match Group chief executive Bernard Kim announced Nyborg’s departure. He wrote that Tinder’s “current revenue growth expectations for the second half of the year are below” Match expectations “as a result of disappointing execution on several optimizations and new product initiatives.” Then continued on to say he’d made changes in management and the structure of the executive team that he felt confident would “help deliver Tinder’s full potential.”

Nyborg leaving is just one of several noteworthy changes happening as Kim says he’ll be “fully embedded within the team at” Tinder’s Los Angeles headquarters “to oversee business progress until the search is complete.” In addition, multiple recent projects are getting a second look after Match Group’s shares dropped by 20% on news the company missed second-quarter expectations and its outlook was weaker than expected.

Kim also told shareholders that there were “mixed results” from testing in-app digital currency Tinder Coins, so the company will be reexamining “that initiative so that it can more effectively contribute to Tinder’s revenue.”

According to Kim, Tinder will also buck a more significant trend across various industries and step away from the metaverse. “I believe a metaverse dating experience is important to capture the next generation of users,” Kim wrote in the letter to shareholders, but “given uncertainty about the ultimate contours of the metaverse and what will or won’t work, as well as the more challenging operating environment,” the team working on a Tinder metaverse initiative was instructed to “not invest heavily in metaverse at this time.”

The news for Tinder users isn’t all bad—the app recently brought back its “desk mode” feature, which lets users look for matches from their computers and even hide the app as an innocent-looking tab if surfing while at work.

Per Match Group's fourth-quarter results, the company’s revenue increased 12% year over year in the second quarter of 2022. The firm, which also owns Hinge, OkCupid and Plenty of Fish, is looking at third-quarter profits of up to $800 million, but that still falls below Wall Street expectations.

Renate Nyborg addressed leaving Tinder in a LinkedIn post, writing that she has “loved every moment” of her time there but was looking forward to her “first true break in 16 years, starting with a few weeks in nature with my very own Tinder match.”