Match Group Inc at JPMorgan Global Technology, Media and Communications Conference (Virtual) Transcript

The following is excerpted from the question-and-answer section of the transcript.

Question: Cory Alan Carpenter - JPMorgan Chase & Co, Research Division - Analyst : So I'll kick off with questions. If anyone in the audience would like to ask one, you can click on the blue Ask a Question button, you can type it in, and we'll get to a few of those if we have time. But Shar, to kick off. So 5 years at Match. I think over that time, we've seen tremendous growth in online dating. I think the stat you gave us the last time we had you here was online dating accounted for 3% of marriages when you started, that's closer to 40% today. So my first question for you is what still excites you in terms of the opportunity ahead within dating? We'll get to the non-dating stuff as well. And where do you see the most room for innovation over the next couple of years?

Question: Cory Alan Carpenter - JPMorgan Chase & Co, Research Division - Analyst : Okay. Maybe more near term, this past year has certainly been challenging times for a lot of people. What have your key learnings been? And then more specifically, I think we called it the summer -- or you've called it the summer of love. What are you seeing in terms of consumer behavior as the economy start to reopen?

Question: Cory Alan Carpenter - JPMorgan Chase & Co, Research Division - Analyst : Okay. So let's talk about Tinder, which now has nearly 7 million subscribers, accounts for close to 60% of your overall revenue. So I think we'll spend a good amount of time here. But maybe to start, what would you say are your 2 to 3 kind of key strategic priorities for Tinder this year? And where do you still see the most growth opportunity?

Question: Cory Alan Carpenter - JPMorgan Chase & Co, Research Division - Analyst : So let's talk about one of your monetization features, Tinder Platinum, which you recently launched or made available to everyone, your third and your highest subscription tier. What have been your key learnings thus far? And how has adoption been relative to your expectations?

Question: Cory Alan Carpenter - JPMorgan Chase & Co, Research Division - Analyst : Yes. If our numbers are right, I think if you cross 1 million, it will be about at least 15% of your subscribers on Platinum. So certainly, it seems like a good uptake. I want to go back a bit. You talked a little bit about international. Tinder is certainly a very global business. Majority of subscribers, majority of users outside the U.S. We talked about India, Brazil just now. And a few earnings calls ago, a comment you made that really stuck with me was, "Look, those 2 markets can swing Tinder net adds by 100,000 in a quarter." Which I think is eye-opening in terms of size. So I guess my question for you is, would just be helpful to hear what are your biggest markets outside the U.S., maybe where you're seeing the most growth and where you're not yet at today.

Question: Cory Alan Carpenter - JPMorgan Chase & Co, Research Division - Analyst : Last one on Tinder. I think one of the questions we get a lot is just -- I mean it's growing so fast. It's so big now. Undeniably had a great run in the last couple of years. But what do you think are the biggest execution risk? What keeps you up at night on the Tinder side?

Question: Cory Alan Carpenter - JPMorgan Chase & Co, Research Division - Analyst : So moving on to the non-Tinder portfolio. I want to start with maybe zooming in on Hinge for a bit. And then we'll kind of zoom back out on the whole thing. But Hinge, I think, is now the third most downloaded dating app in the U.S. It's made a ton of progress since you acquired it in 2018. My question is, I guess, 2 things. One, what's the secret sauce here? Why -- how they've been so successful the past couple of years? And do you worry at all that it's cannibalizing from Tinder?

Question: Cory Alan Carpenter - JPMorgan Chase & Co, Research Division - Analyst : Sticking with Hinge. So you talked about monetization. I think you mentioned in the last earnings call, ARPU doubled last year. So one question, is there still a big monetization gap between Hinge and call it maybe Tinder and Bumble? And what are some of the ways you're still working on closing that gap?

Question: Cory Alan Carpenter - JPMorgan Chase & Co, Research Division - Analyst : So not getting too far ahead of ourselves here. But I mean just thinking about Hinge bigger picture, you're still very early in terms of expansion into non-English-speaking markets. You've had a ton of success in English-speaking markets. What does success look like to you in 3 to 5 years? I mean is there a reason Hinge can't be -- reach the scale of Tinder, at least in the U.S. over time? REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. MAY 24, 2021 / 3:00PM, MTCH.OQ - Match Group Inc at JPMorgan Global Technology, Media and Communications Conference (Virtual)

Question: Cory Alan Carpenter - JPMorgan Chase & Co, Research Division - Analyst : Okay. Kind of back to non-Tinder more broadly, and hopefully, we didn't just answer the question with Hinge. But look, you're seeing your strongest growth just across the whole portfolio since you've gone public back in 2015. So I think my question is what's changed in the last year that's really driving this inflection? And maybe beyond Hinge, what brands would you highlight?

Question: Cory Alan Carpenter - JPMorgan Chase & Co, Research Division - Analyst : When you think about -- just as we think about the sustainability, I mean, it's been very consistent the last year. So I think either you or Gary kind of talked about maybe potential for 15% to 20% growth over time in the non-Tinder brands. Do you think that's the right level to think about it? Is that realistic over time?

Question: Cory Alan Carpenter - JPMorgan Chase & Co, Research Division - Analyst : Okay. I think we've covered the dating portfolio for now. So let's talk a little bit about nondating, so social discovery and Hyperconnect in particular. I know you haven't closed it yet, so you may be limited on what you can say specific to Hyperconnect. But maybe just bigger picture, you talked REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. MAY 24, 2021 / 3:00PM, MTCH.OQ - Match Group Inc at JPMorgan Global Technology, Media and Communications Conference (Virtual) about this a lot in your shareholder letter in your most recent one. What's the opportunity that you see within social discovery? And why is now the right time for you to make a push?

Question: Cory Alan Carpenter - JPMorgan Chase & Co, Research Division - Analyst : That kind of leads me to the next topic of Hyperconnect, your biggest acquisition ever, assuming it closes here soon. What are you most excited about in terms of what you're getting with Hyperconnect? I think a lot of investors are less familiar kind of with their 2 core apps? And why did you think this was such a good fit for Match?

Question: Cory Alan Carpenter - JPMorgan Chase & Co, Research Division - Analyst : So that's -- I think that's a good segue to our next topic, which is Asia. This is a market you've been focused on for many years now. You've had early success. You talked about Japan, second biggest market from a revenue perspective. You've also mentioned, I mean, Asia is half of global singles, but I think still less than 20% of revenue for you guys. So clearly still just scratching the surface. Could you maybe -- a couple of questions, but I just wanted to start, what's your broader strategy in Asia, just given the markets can be so different from country to country? And then maybe what your footprint is today in Asia?

Question: Cory Alan Carpenter - JPMorgan Chase & Co, Research Division - Analyst : And I just got a question from the audience on Asia. So how do you think about China? Do you have any presence at all today? Is that a market that you -- kind of on your roadmap at all?

Question: Cory Alan Carpenter - JPMorgan Chase & Co, Research Division - Analyst : Sticking with Asia, just from a competitive perspective, how does Asia differ from other markets? And could you maybe just talk a bit about what the local competition there looks like?

Question: Cory Alan Carpenter - JPMorgan Chase & Co, Research Division - Analyst : Last question. I think we have 1 or 2 more minutes, or maybe I'll try to squeeze 2 in. I wanted to stick on competition, a question we got. Okay, I mean, now there's more public companies out there. So I guess we're hearing about it from different side of the angle. Curious, a couple of years ago, Facebook was getting into dating and there was a bunch of questions on how that would turn out. I think it's probably been a little less impactful than a lot of people expected. What are you seeing, if anything, from a competitive perspective, maybe in the U.S. and in Western Europe?

Question: Cory Alan Carpenter - JPMorgan Chase & Co, Research Division - Analyst : Great. Well, we're out of time, but thank you so much for joining us. We really appreciate it. And hope everyone have a good day.

Question: Cory Alan Carpenter - JPMorgan Chase & Co, Research Division - Analyst : All right. Bye.