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date app Almighty Bumble is rethink its imagination for the company ’s hereafter after announcingweak wage and massive job cutsthat will see the company edit out a third of its faculty , or around 350 employees . In addition to plan to revamp its app for Gen Z , the fellowship ’s centering undernew CEO Lidiane Jones , antecedently chief executive officer of Slack , will include building out a social connection for its Bumble BFF friend - find business .
Currently , the BFF side of Bumble ’s app uses the same swipe - to - like chemical mechanism that ’s used on the dating side , where users are present with a visibility they can either like to pair or occur .
Jones believes this format has n’t worked out well for the company , despite spring up customer need for apps that facilitate them find friendship and platonic connections .
“ Candidly , we have been slow to realize this broad vision with Bumble BFF thus far , ” she told investors on Tuesday ’s Q4 2023 net income call . “ Going forth , we will focalize our reinvestment to accelerate a bolder strategy for Bumble For Friends , one that will focus on building equitable and secure friendships across communities of masses with similar interest that require real - life connections , ” Jones tot up .
Under Jones , Bumble will reallocate the company ’s ( now more limited ) imagination into areas it believes present chance for maturation , include the use of AI in the dating app segment — ascompetitor Match is also doing — but also to innovate in the friend - finding category with BFF .
Bumble abbreviate ~350 employees as dating apps confront a reckoning
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The CEO mark that the current BFF production has a humble , but strong following . This is due to BFF using the same one - to - one match paradigm for friendships as Bumble uses for go steady .
But this , Jones explained , limits BFF to only those who are comfortable with that paradigm . That ’s something that may puzzle out for dating , but not as well for friendships , in other word .
alternatively , the new BFF will concenter on help users connect with one another in young way — or rather , in ways that are more kin to a societal networking app .
“ … What we desire to do is actually tilt to that prototype and [ make ] Bumble For Friends a draw more about build and see communities . And this is truly what our customers are telling [ us ] — they know being part of our platform , ” Jones say . But she added , “ It ’s really hard to connect with each other . So , we are really cash in one’s chips to speed the investment in that . ”
Though the company has n’t yet revealed its roadmap for the change to BFF , some earliest tests and internal product developments could put up an approximation .
Back inAugust 2022 , Bumble was spotted experimentingwith a new societal networking characteristic nickname “ Hive , ” which would countenance users to connect via biotic community , and also included support for things like group chat , polls and video calls . Bumble had briefed investor on Hive during its Q2 earnings that class , noting it would focus on help people find platonic connections through small communities . The product was also alpha - tested in grocery store like Toronto , where user create thousands of communities acknowledge as “ Hives . ”
But Hive never launched to all Bumble users and BFF today remains a friendship - focussed version of the date stamp app formatting , with user profiles , pic and bios on profile pages that user swipe on to wish and match .
Given Bumble ’s caper cuts , it ’s not likely the company will work up a new BFF formatting from the terra firma up , but will alternatively fight Hive to found in public , as a means of revamping the champion - find product .
Whether or not Bumble will in reality be able to capitalize on this go-ahead in full term of its bottom seam remains to be seen , however . Dating app exploiter are willing to pay up for perks and subscription that give them a practiced shot at finding love life , but friendship seekers have plenty of other free choice , like Facebook Groups , Meetup , organization and local community offerings , to meet hoi polloi out in the material world . That could specify BFF ’s power to monetise as Bumble ’s dating product does .
“ We contrive to lend along the millions of customers we presently have in our base that are eager to continue to be part of our platform , ” said Jones of BFF . “ We ’ll have more to share about our full caller scheme and product roadmap in the months ahead . ”
Bumble experiments with chemical group chats , polls and video calls for its Modern social networking feature , ‘ Hive ’
