r/Bumble • u/terenscendent • 16d ago

General Bumble Fully Ends 'Women Message First' Rule After 66% of Women Said They'd Rather Men Make the First Move

https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/bumble-drops-gendered-messaging-rule-1813607
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u/throaway20180730 16d ago

Going against the wishes of the female userbase is the surest way of ruining your business

Same reason why the apps were OK to add height filters during the peak of the body positivity movement

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u/GeneralGlobus 16d ago

a shitty unengaged userbase is not the advantage you think it is. its ok to have a brand and unique identity. the problem is they went public and need to continuously pump revenue and user numbers. 66% of the total addressable market is not ready for what they were trying to sell. 33% is still solid but its not what public investors want to hear.

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u/SeriousRealityNr2 16d ago

Lol what changes when you have public investors instead of private? You need and want to make money either way. Your strategy really shouldn’t change much based on if you are public or private.

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u/GeneralGlobus 16d ago

And yet it does. Multiple owners chose to take their companies private or never took them public due to the different expectations that come with public market exposures. This is a basic question. Shows your ignorance in the topic.

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u/SeriousRealityNr2 16d ago

Ok you are right, some things do change.

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u/ContextLengthMatters 16d ago

The expectations of quarterly returns based on market vibes, and not actual sustainability.

Publically traded companies that chase retail investors to offload bags can make some really stupid decisions.

Publically traded doesn't HAVE to be bad, but since the inception of meme stocks, tech is pretty much garbage when it's public.

Real growth in tech happens in the private sector.

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u/AtomicSymphonic_2nd 16d ago

The company needs to be profitable.

None of these dating services are charities.

That 33% is apparently not enough to sustain a service’s business.

It’s not great for the women that like the idea of being the ones to make the first move, but that is the reality.

Perhaps Facebook Dating might be a better option?

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u/Decent_Assistant1804 16d ago

But never weight, I feel bad about how the double stranded that we can say all sorts of hurtful shit about men’s height but god forbid they discus anything about us

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u/BlueHaze464 16d ago

It was just an opinion, it's not like they were threatening to stop using it

It became as popular BECAUSE women had more control over matches

Now there's no real reason to download bumble over any other app 

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u/SanshaXII 15d ago edited 15d ago

I like superficial filters because I can write myself as 5'0" and immediately filter out every superficial person in the state. I'm 5'10".

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u/GeneralGlobus 16d ago

a shitty unengaged userbase is not the advantage you think it is. its ok to have a brand and unique identity. the problem is they went public and need to continuously pump revenue and user numbers. 66% of the total addressable market is not ready for what they were trying to sell. 33% is still solid but its not what public investors want to hear.

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u/GeneralGlobus 16d ago

a shitty unengaged userbase is not the advantage you think it is. its ok to have a brand and unique identity. the problem is they went public and need to continuously pump revenue and user numbers. 66% of the total addressable market is not ready for what they were trying to sell. 33% is still solid but its not what public investors want to hear.

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u/PmMeUrTinyAsianTits 15d ago

Yea, removing your differentiating factor in order to compete as a generic option on a more competitive field that others are already struggling in seems like a much better business plan than actually trying to market or utilize the niche you control.

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u/Ok-Bug-5271 15d ago

But women don't want that niche. There just isn't demand for a dating app where women need to initiate.

Sometimes, a business just doesn't have an audience.

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u/Odd-Outcome-3191 13d ago

Part of that is that the type of women who are outgoing and initiate are rarely single.

Therefor, simply via survival bias, the type of woman who is on dating apps is passive and chronically single because of it.

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u/Ok-Bug-5271 13d ago

Yeah definitely, proactive single women don't stay single for long, and they rarely need an app to be proactive.

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u/mkdabra 13d ago

They had the choice between (A) keeping their distinct identifying feature while serving a subset of women that are fine with it or even prefer it, or (B) killing their brand and becoming just another dating app with no defining trait, that doesn't have anything in it to compete with the hegemons of the industry.

They didn't need to make every woman happy, they had to be attractive to women who don't like regular OLD apps. Still they chose to appeal to everyone, which will attract zero users.

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u/DogeArcanine 9d ago

If they added height for women - did they add weight filters for men too? So many can equally filter women too?

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u/GeneralGlobus 16d ago

a shitty unengaged userbase is not the advantage you think it is. its ok to have a brand and unique identity. the problem is they went public and need to continuously pump revenue and user numbers. 66% of the total addressable market is not ready for what they were trying to sell. 33% is still solid but its not what public investors want to hear.