Match Group Inc Q1 2016 Earnings Call Transcript

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

Question: Ross Sandler - Deutsche Bank - Analyst : Great. Thanks, guys. I had two on Tinder and then one on the core Match brands. With Tinder, can you guys talk about the conversion from free to paid by country? Like is it fairly consistent or is the US driving a lot of the PMC growth that you are seeing in Tinder? Or I guess, asked a different way, is it broad-based in global? Is it lumpy by geo? How sustainable do you see this current kind of 3 to 4x trajectory of Tinder PMCs? And then how does the retention of those PMCs compare to other dating products? I know it's fairly new, but are they sticking around for several months or quarters? And then -- thank you, by the way, for the new disclosures. They look great. I guess the core Match side, if you strip out Tinder and PlentyofFish, it looks like PMCs reversed from declining sequentially each of the two quarters in back half 2015 to now positive. So I guess, as you look out over

Question: Ross Sandler - Deutsche Bank - Analyst : Great, thank you.

Question: Doug Anmuth - JPMorgan - Analyst : Thanks, it's Doug. A couple questions. First, guys, can you talk a little bit more just on the management additions at Tinder and some of the changes that are taking place there? In particular, the slower rollout just on advertising, which seems to make sense just given how well you're monetizing the rest of the business. And then also just where the higher headcount is coming through. Then also if you could talk to some of the monetization changes or additions, let's say, that you are considering there over the next couple quarters and how we should think about these, whether they are incremental or more needle-moving kind of things. Thanks.

Question: Doug Anmuth - JPMorgan - Analyst : Yes, you did. That was helpful on Tinder, thank you.

Question: John Blackledge - Cowen and Company - Analyst : Great, thanks for the questions. So Tinder off to a strong start for the year, 1 million ending subs in the quarter. Can you just flesh out the product pipelines for 2Q and the rest of the year? Maybe give some examples of upcoming products that you expect could drive either further sub penetration and/or engagement. without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters. 'Thomson Reuters' and the Thomson Reuters logo are registered trademarks of Thomson Reuters and its affiliated companies. MAY 04, 2016 / 12:30PM, MTCH.OQ - Q1 2016 Match Group Inc Earnings Call And then also maybe just discuss Tinder MAUs. Are they growing and how is engagement? And then just also match.com; how is the mobile upgrade progressing? Thank you.

Question: John Blackledge - Cowen and Company - Analyst : That's great, thank you. without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters. 'Thomson Reuters' and the Thomson Reuters logo are registered trademarks of Thomson Reuters and its affiliated companies. MAY 04, 2016 / 12:30PM, MTCH.OQ - Q1 2016 Match Group Inc Earnings Call

Question: Jason Helfstein - Oppenheimer & Co. - Analyst : Thanks, two quick ones. Can you give us a sense, Greg, of the number of registered users on the platform today, based on the MAU, and how that will compare, let's say, to one or two years ago? And then how you think about the pace of conversions from registered to paid over the next few years? Because clearly historically you had a very high percent of paid and obviously with the shift to the premium services you have more registered than you have paid and tracking that. So if there's any help you can give us on that I think people would appreciate that. Then, secondly, can you go into a little more detail about what drove the marketing efficiency, if there's anything specifically you want to call out that you guys think you are doing better? Thanks.

Question: Jason Helfstein - Oppenheimer & Co. - Analyst : And then on the marketing efficiency?

Question: Jason Helfstein - Oppenheimer & Co. - Analyst : Just like there are things you guys have put in place that you are doing better I think now than maybe a year ago and if there's anything you want to highlight that you felt was more visible. (multiple speakers)

Question: Jason Helfstein - Oppenheimer & Co. - Analyst : Thanks.

Question: Eric Sheridan - UBS - Analyst : Thank you very much for taking the question and appreciate all the additional disclosure. Wanted to go back to slide 7 in the presentation and I am just getting a little bit of some of the trends that we are seeing on that slide. Do you think there is a natural ceiling that you will hit in terms of mobile versus desktop on the branded registrations by platform? Wanted to also understand a little bit how you think mobile conversion as a percentage of desktop also continues to traject through 2016, but also beyond 2016. Then last would be, as you look at mobile conversion versus desktop, how does that inform how you spend a dollar of marketing and how you think about the relative ROI between channels when you look out over the business over the next couple years? Thanks, guys.

Question: Eric Sheridan - UBS - Analyst : Thanks so much.

Question: Dan Salmon - BMO Capital Markets - Analyst : Good morning. Two questions; first, for Greg. Last week or the week before you launched the Tinder social initiative test in -- with a small group of users in Australia. Could you maybe just tell us a little bit more about what the milestones you are looking at for that test and maybe expand a little bit more on the big picture opportunity there? Then just a second one for Gary. In the outlook slide under the forecast updates, mentioned some changes to the tech migration to Match Affinity. Maybe just give us a little bit more color there and any other important initiative on the backend that are going on, thanks.

Question: Dan Salmon - BMO Capital Markets - Analyst : Okay, great. That's very much for the details.

Question: Heath Terry - Goldman Sachs - Analyst : I just wanted to -- since a lot of the other questions we had have been answered, I just wanted to dig a little bit more into the Meetic example, because I think that's really interesting, the turnaround that you guys have seen there. Can you give us a sense for what happens with pricing over this period and whether or not -- how much, if at all, that was a lever? And then the chart starts a couple years or three years ago, right after you guys did the massive media acquisition into Meetic. Just curious how much of an impact the attrition of Match's users had on that initial decline, and if we were to look at this just purely -- maybe excluding the acquisitions on a

Question: Heath Terry - Goldman Sachs - Analyst : Massive Media, when you guys bought Twoo.

Question: Heath Terry - Goldman Sachs - Analyst : Great, thank you.

Question: Peter Stabler - Wells Fargo Securities - Analyst : Thanks, two quick ones for me. First of all, Greg, wondering if you could comment a little bit on the advertising landscape for your other brands, the non-Tinder brands. Most of us on the call pay pretty close attention to ad trends and we've seen kind of a divergence in performance. So just wondering, some comments there. And secondly, Greg, could you remind us of your exposure to App Store taxes and strategies to mitigate those? Thanks.

Question: Peter Stabler - Wells Fargo Securities - Analyst : I guess what I meant, Greg, is across the landscape we are seeing share being taken by large-scale, data-driven, great execution and then we've seen other platforms kind of languishing. So just wondering if you could give us a little bit of color on the trends you are seeing in (multiple speakers) business. without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters. 'Thomson Reuters' and the Thomson Reuters logo are registered trademarks of Thomson Reuters and its affiliated companies. MAY 04, 2016 / 12:30PM, MTCH.OQ - Q1 2016 Match Group Inc Earnings Call

Question: Peter Stabler - Wells Fargo Securities - Analyst : Thanks, Greg.