Bumble tops revenue estimates in its first quarterly report as a public company; shares rise

Bumble on Wednesday logged $165.6 million in revenue, topping Wall Street forecasts, for its first quarterly report since going public in February. The stock rose roughly 5% in extended trading.

Here’s what the company reported for its fourth quarter, compared with what Wall Street analysts polled by Refinitiv were expecting:

• Loss per share: 1 cent
• Revenue: $165.6 million vs. expected revenue of $163.3 million.

Wall Street was looking for a quarterly loss of 13 cents per share. CNBC does not compare reported earnings per to share to expectations for a firm’s first report as a public company as uncertain share counts can skew forecasts.

Revenue marked 31% growth year over year, with the company’s Bumble app raking in $105.8 million during the period and its Badoo app posting $59.8 million.

Still, the company reported a net loss of $26.1 million, down from a net profit of $17.2 million during the same period a year prior.

Bumble went public in February with an initial public offering of $2.2 billion, staking a claim in the online dating market alongside industry leader Match Group, which operates popular dating apps Tinder and Hinge.

Bumble operates its namesake app primarily in the U.S., U.K., Australia and Canada and a similar offering, Badoo, primarily in Europe and Latin America.

Bumble’s unique pitch for its flagship app is simple: In heterosexual matches, only women can message first after mutually expressing interest, and men must reply within 24 hours. In homosexual matches, either party can message first.

The company reported 2.7 million paying users for the fourth quarter, up 32.5% from the fourth quarter of 2019. That figure includes paying subscribers of both the Bumble app and the Badoo app. Bumble didn’t disclose recent figures for total app users, but as of September 2020 the company logged 42.1 million active monthly users.

Dating apps have seen a surge in usage as Covid-19 lockdowns kept singles at home and online. Bumble reported a 26% increase in the number of messages sent on its platform during March 2020, a company spokesperson told CNBC in May.

Total average revenue per user during the fourth quarter came in at $20.02, compared to $19.99 during the fourth quarter of 2019.

For the first quarter of 2021, Bumble expects revenue of $163 million to $165 million. For the full year of 2021, Bumble is predicting revenue of $716 million to $726 million.

—CNBC’s MacKenzie Sigalos contributed to this report.

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