Match Group, Inc.

Good morning and welcome to the Match Group First Quarter 2021 Earnings Conference Call. All participants will be in listen-only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing the star key followed by zero. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. Please note, this event is being recorded. I'd now like to turn the conference over to Bill Archer, Head of Investor Relations and Corporate Development. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Operator, and good morning, everyone. Today's call will be led by CEO Char Dubé and CFO and COO Gary Swidler. They will make a few brief remarks, and then we'll open it up for questions. Before we start, I need to remind everyone that during this call, we may discuss our outlook and future performance. These forward-looking statements may be preceded by words such as we expect, we believe, we anticipate, or similar statements. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties, and our actual results could differ materially from the views expressed today. Some of these risks have been set forth in our earnings release and our periodic reports filed with the SEC. With that, I'd like to turn the call over to Char.

Thank you, Bill. Good morning, and thank you for joining the call today. For the first time in well over a year, Gary and I are actually doing this call from the same location. We're fully vaccinated. We've gotten on planes, which speaks to the optimism we're feeling about the situation here in the U.S. Our Q1 results reflect that. The 23% year-over-year growth in revenue came through reacceleration of Tinder with 18% growth and non-Tinder brands posting a growth rate of 30%, the highest those brands have achieved since our IPO in 2015. A big driver of this momentum is the US, where we have seen increases across all our brands as the quarter went on. The vaccination rates and control over the COVID cases these last few months have resulted in our users feeling more confident about their dating lives. However, I've also gotten a tough reminder that we're still not out of the woods with this pandemic. Just a couple months ago, we were feeling very good about the trends in India, which, as you know, has suffered last year. These last few weeks, my days have all started with grim news from India, where we have a team, and I still personally have a lot of friends and family, including my parents. The dire situation in India and somewhat worsening conditions in countries like Brazil and And even Japan that is going through its third emergency declaration is a reminder that we've not gotten past the pandemic in much of the world, and things could still turn on a dime. So we are still operating with a degree of uncertainty. But back to the parts we actually have more control over. Tinder made progress in Q1 across users, subscribers, and ARPU, and the trends look good. But what's more exciting to me is the roadmap that Jim Lanzone, who's now been the CEO at Tinder since late summer last year, has laid out. It's a journey to transform the Tinder experience from a swipe, match, message funnel to a more multidimensional and richer one with more ways to self-express, discover, flirt, and connect. And this in turn we think will open up new opportunities for increased engagement and monetization through 2022 and beyond. Hinge continues to gain traction in the English speaking market that it is available in. In addition to the progress they've made on revenue recently, the focus for Hinge is on outcomes with its tagline designed to be deleted. They have a track record of innovation that supports their brand promise of getting people off their phones and out on great dates. Features such as photo prompts, most compatible, your turn, we met. And most recently, they introduced prompt packs into the video chat experience, which are being used on approximately 20% of video dates. Also this year, Hinge announced Hinge Labs, an in-house research team that is dedicated to helping daters be more successful. Research there is fueling what we believe will be an exciting second half of the year, focusing on, among other things, an expansion of its What Works guidance program for users who need help getting out on great dates. Again, in line with their focus on outcomes for their users. Finally, the team has been making progress on the plans for the pending HyperConnect acquisition and post-closing integration, including the various regulatory approvals needed. We still hope to be able to close by the end of Q2. And while the growing trend of isolation and loneliness was already a thing across many parts of the world, the pandemic has really escalated its impacts on mental health. Growing popularity of social discovery category is a testament to the need for more human interaction, companionship, connections. And while our apps have traditionally focused on romantic connections, we do think we can lend our expertise in the area of making meaningful connections among people you don't know in this newer, evolving, adjacent category. We think we can leverage our product jobs as well as our Western market experience combined with HyperConnect's video and AI technology and their APAC market experience, and we have an opportunity to succeed in both solving a social need and expanding our business footprint. As we've said all year, we remain agile and ready to react to changing conditions. Sitting here today, there are many reasons for us to feel optimistic about our social lives and hence our business, although the situation in a few parts of the world gives us appropriate pause about the uncertainty that still exists. If nothing else, this past year has reinforced the urgency of our mission to work tirelessly on products that help people find meaningful connections, love, and relationships around the world. And with that, I'm going to hand it over to Gary to talk more about the quarter.