Bumble Inc.

Hello and welcome to the Bumble fourth quarter 2024 earnings conference call. My name is Elliot and I'll be coordinating your call today. If you would like to register a question during today's event, please press star one on your telephone keypad. And I'd like to hand over to Will Tavares, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you for joining us to discuss Bumble's fourth quarter 2024 financial results. With me today are Bumble CEO, Lidiani Jones, Executive Chair Whitney Wolf-Herd, and CFO Anu Subramanian. Before we begin, I'd like to remind everyone that certain statements made on this call today are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties and reflect our current expectations based on our beliefs, assumptions, and information currently available to us. Although we believe these expectations are reasonable, We undertake no obligation to revise any statement to reflect changes that occur after this call. Descriptions of factors and risks that could cause actual results to differ materially from these forward-looking statements are discussed in more detail in today's earnings press release and our periodic filings with the SEC. Descriptions of factors and risks that could cause actual results to differ materially from these forward-looking statements are discussed in more detail in today's earnings press release and our periodic filings with the SEC. During the call, we also refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures. These non-GAAP financial measures should be considered in addition to, and not as a substitute for, or in isolation from, our GAAP results. Reconciliations to the most comparable GAAP measures are available in our earnings press release, which is available on the investor relations section of our website at ir.bumble.com. With that, I will turn the call over to Lydiani.

Thank you, Will, and good afternoon everyone. Today I'll share a recap of the year and offer some detail on Bumble's momentum entering 2025. We also have Whitney with us to share her thoughts on the path ahead upon her official return in a few weeks. Now, turning to the fourth quarter. Our results were broadly consistent with our outlook. Total revenue and adjusted EBITDA came in at the high ends of their respective ranges. and Bumble app revenue outperformed our guidance. The modest decline in Bumble app net ads for Q4 also came in slightly ahead of our expectations. Continue to operate with strong financial discipline, allowing us to generate free cash flow of 114 million for the year. Most importantly, we achieved solid progress on our product roadmap, a leaner, more agile team. Come a long way over the last 12 months. 2024 was an important year in rebuilding Bumble's foundation, which prepares the company to boldly reimagine the future of online dating. We've reshaped our workforce and put in place a high-performance culture. We aligned around a clear plan for moving Bumble apps forward for the next generation of consumers, seeking fresh experiences and new ways to find love and connection. That plan is guided by the three pillars we have shared with you. strengthening our ecosystem, driving innovation in our customer experiences, and enhancing our revenue strategy. When we talk about a healthy ecosystem, we're talking about creating a safe and relevant platform for customers who want to find great matches. Continue to focus in ecosystem health in a few key ways. One is continuing the effort of removing unhealthy and bad actor accounts. which is critical to providing a safe and quality experience for our customers. A second, being more intentional about the users we attract to our platform. We have increased our focus on organic marketing strategies to drive more of our targeted customers into Bumble apps. We began testing on this initiative in the fall and have been rolling it out more broadly into the new year with continued success. We are very encouraged with the progress, but it's important to emphasize that our ecosystem health initiatives will continue to create headwinds to paying users growth in the coming quarters. As we continue to execute on these pillars, we're also making good progress on our product roadmap, which is set to deliver increasingly bold innovations for our customers. Last quarter, we talked about our fall relief, which focused on dating on your terms. the release delivered significant updates to our matching algorithm, leveraging the power of AI, and new interest filters and powerful tools to enrich opening move interactions. Since its launch, we have seen notable improvements in user adoption. Interest filters have quickly become one of our most popular filters, and opening moves are now being used by approximately half of our members. Our upcoming winter release slated for mid-March, will focus on confidence, safety, engagement, and discovery. We are introducing a brand new Discover tab to deliver a more curated and updated matching experience based on shared interests. We're also introducing a new AI-assisted photo picker to improve confidence among our members, making it easier to create a profile that truly stands out. To advance our leadership and trust in safety, especially for women, we're introducing ID verification, share my date, and review before send, all features aimed at safe and healthy connections on our platform. And to provide more flexibility to our members, we will launch Instant Match, which allows members to share their profiles with one another in real life. Importantly, many of these features are free to our customers, And our primary goal is to improve engagement and generate increased yes vote rates, a metric fundamental to our customer success. This in turn drives positive word of mouth and ultimately new users to Bumble. We have undertaken a rigorous approach to the launch and our testing of all of these features have shown promising results. The team is poised to ramp innovation this year that will align with key customer needs. The work we're undertaking will take some time to re-accelerate growth in Bumble app paying users and revenue, but we're confident that all of these improvements will put Bumble on a path to renewed strength in the years ahead. As we prioritize the execution of the important work we're undertaking to reposition Bumble app, we have taken a hard look at how we're allocating our resources across our portfolio. And after careful consideration, we have decided to sunset fruits and official. These are difficult decisions, but we are confident that honing our collective focus and attention on our core business is a prudent thing to do at this time. With our strong foundation, talented team, and focus on execution, I'll be returning The Reign's fumbled founder, Whitney Wolfhard, next month. Whitney is a true visionary and it will be exciting to watch her bring her energy and passion to build on what the Bumble team has put in place. This changes catalyzes a pivotal moment for Bumble. Online dating has enormous potential and Bumble's iconic brand is the one to move the category in the next generation. I'll continue to partner with Whitney through the coming months. Make sure that we're not missing a beat since we have so much to do and deliver on. Wrapping up, I want to acknowledge the extraordinary progress the team has made over the past year in service of Bumble's mission. I have every confidence in this team's ability to deliver exceptional results for our members. It's been an honor to lead Bumble through this period of transformation, and I'm tremendously proud of the important work we accomplished as a team over the past year. I'll be cheering Team Bumble on, and I'm confident that the company is poised to capture the opportunity ahead. Now I'll turn it over to Whitney to share more about what's in store.