After an earnings report more disappointing than a date that doesn't even offer to split the bill, Tinder is curtailing its metaverse ambitions.
Catch up: Last year, Tinder-parent company Match Group purchased augmented reality company Hyperconnect for a cool US$1.73 billion, with the aim of building ways to date in the metaverse—dubbed the “the Tinderverse” by Tinder’s former CEO Renate Nyborg.
What happened: After posting a net loss of US$10 million last quarter, Match concluded that going all in on the metaverse isn’t a moneymaking proposition right now and ordered Hyperconnect to scale back its ambitions.
- Tinder also axed its virtual currency, Tinder Coins, which were used to make purchases in its app.
Match CEO Bernard Kim said that “uncertainty about the ultimate contours of the metaverse and what will or won’t work” was the reason for the decision, a fancy way of saying: “We need to figure out what the metaverse actually is before we spend money on it.”
Why it matters: Meta may be willing to stake its future on the Metaverse (and sustain massive losses in the process), but with the economy growing more uncertain and crypto cratering, it’s a bet that’s starting to look less appealing to most companies.
- New monthly job postings across all sectors with “metaverse” in the title declined 81% between April and June, according to workplace researcher Revelio Labs.
Given the uncertainty about the whole metaverse concept, you can expect more businesses to start questioning how much money they can sink into a (for now) hypothetical endeavour.