By Kelly Cloonan

Match Group will once again turn to its chief executive to lead its Tinder dating app, which has struggled to resonate with younger audiences and attract paying users.

Chief Executive Spencer Rascoff, who joined Match in February, will take on the same role at Tinder, the largest dating app in the company's portfolio. Faye Iosotaluno, who was named to lead Tinder in January, said in a LinkedIn post Thursday that she would be stepping down in July after eight years with the company.

Match has cycled through a number of leaders running Tinder in recent years, including its previous CEO, Bernard Kim, for a period in 2022 to fill in for the prior leader who left after less than a year running it. Still, Tinder has failed to generate the same buzz as it did during the pandemic when users took to the platform to make connections.

Rascoff, the co-founder and former CEO of home-listing portal Zillow Group, has highlighted Tinder's struggles in recent remarks, noting that its reputation as a hook-up app doesn't fit with what younger users want.

Gen-Z is "not a hookup generation," he said during Match's latest quarterly earnings call.

"They don't drink as much alcohol, they don't have as much sex. And we need to adapt our products to accept that reality."

Previously, much of Tinder's product strategy tried to attract more users looking for relationships, he said. "But we have one of those, it's called Hinge, and Hinge is amazing," he said.

Hinge, another dating app in Match's portfolio, has fewer users but has seen steady growth, with revenue rising 23% and paid users up 19% last quarter.

Tinder, meanwhile, posted a 7% drop in sales as the number of paying users fell 6%. Match's overall sales fell about 3%. The company also said it would cut about 13% of its workforce.

Rascoff also hinted at new product innovations at Tinder aimed at making connections more serendipitous rather than transactional, including features such as double dating.

In a LinkedIn post Thursday, Rascoff said that Tinder has a strong foundation to work from. "This next chapter is about momentum, innovation, and delivering on our full potential," he said in the post.

The leadership change at Tinder is the latest in a broader shakeup at the company. In addition to Rascoff's arrival, Match has added a new chief financial officer and chief operating officer this year. It is also facing pressure from activist investors, who have criticized the company's performance and governance.

Write to Kelly Cloonan at kelly.cloonan@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 22, 2025 15:26 ET (19:26 GMT)

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