Match Group quarterly revenue beats on higher Tinder subscribers

(Reuters) – Match Group beat quarterly revenue estimates on Tuesday, as it added more subscribers to its popular dating app, Tinder.

Tinder, which according to recent reports accounts for about two-thirds of Match’s overall valuation, reported 4.7 million average subscribers in the quarter, 1.3 million higher than last year.

A recent redesign of Tinder, which has made ‘swipe left’ and ‘swipe right’ a point of pop culture conversations, has helped the app raise engagement, Match said.

Average subscribers for the company increased to 7.4 million in the quarter, up 16 percent.

Revenue for the three months ended March 31 rose about 14 percent to $464.6 million, slightly better than the average analyst expectation of $463.7 million, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.

Net earnings attributable to shareholders rose to $123 million, or 42 cents per share, from $99.7 million, or 33 cents a year ago.

Income for the quarter included an income tax benefit of $28 million, the company said.

Excluding effects of foreign exchange, Match’s average revenue per user was also up 4 percent at $0.60.

For the second quarter, the company expects revenue to be between $480 million and $490 million, almost in-line with the midpoint with Wall Street’s expectation of $485.5 million.

Match expects trends at Tinder to remain consistent in the second quarter. On the back of its performance in the first half, the app is expected to add over a million average subscribers in 2019.