Match Group, Inc.

Good morning, and welcome to the Match Group Second Quarter 2022 Earnings Conference Call. All participants will be in listen-only mode. Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Tani Shelburne, SVP of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Operator, and good morning, everyone. Today's call will be led by CEO Bernard Kim and CFO and COO Gary Swidler. They'll 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 BK.

Thanks, Tani. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining today's call. This is my first earnings call as Match Group CEO, and I want to start off by thanking everyone at the company for such a warm welcome. I truly believe that love, connections, and relationships are the pillars to a happy and fulfilling life. I'm elated to work with the team that's responsible for creating joy through connecting millions of people around the world. I've been on the job for two months and I've been fortunate enough to travel to many of our global offices with Gary and the rest of the management team. At each stop, I've conducted all hands, ask me anything meetings to convey what I will bring to the table and what I expect from the team in return. As I told my colleagues, I'm passionate about people, culture, and product. I promise the teams that I will always be authentic, honest, and act with integrity, and I expect our employees to bring those same values to work every day. I've been learning as much as possible about our business, assessing what's working and what's not, and beginning to build our strategy. I'm very impressed by the team's experience and their growth mindset, as well as strong financial discipline. This balance will serve us well as we forge ahead. I also want to thank Gary, who's been a great partner during my onboarding. As COO and CFO, he's made key strategic recommendations that we see eye to eye on, and we've been able to move quickly and decisively to unlock value across the portfolio and set up the next phase of growth. There's no doubt that there are challenging macroeconomic factors at play. Over the past two and a half years, people have been forced to isolate, then adjust to society reopening, and I don't believe the behavioral impacts of COVID are fully understood yet. But what I do know is that human real world connections are imperative and our apps are the best way to create those connections. It's our responsibility to innovate and provide the best experiences and that creates the real opportunity for our business. In our shareholder letter, I was able to share my initial observations about the business market opportunity and our portfolio of products. I also touched upon my management style, noting that we have to be decisive and set up the right teams with long-term growth in mind. In two months, we've made immediate steps to unlock and maximize Tinder's true long-term potential. Tinder is the go-to app in the industry. Available in 190 countries in over 40 languages, it is a global phenomenon that has transformed dating culture in Western markets over the past 10 years, and it's still early in its journey in non-Western markets. I believe that innovating Tinder will only enhance its ability to continue to transform the dating experience for the next generation of singles around the world. With the current Tinder CEO stepping down, I've put a new leadership team in place who will report directly to me while I lead the recruiting efforts for a new CEO. This team has a great working dynamic that's already apparent and brings proven expertise to Tinder's next phase of growth. They're passionate, strategic leaders who are also able to get into the trenches, experiment, lead by example, and get things done. I'm confident that this new team will work well together to build product enhancements and innovation. But I do want to acknowledge that there have been some misfires and turnover on the team that have led to delays in product and execution in the first half of the year. I believe that our new team can right that ship, but it will take some time to execute and build momentum. I've been impressed by the diversified dating experiences throughout the portfolio. As part of Match Group, Hinge has been a breakout star. The team has executed on building a strong brand, including their designed to be deleted campaign that resonates with our user base. They have elegant differentiated product that I believe will be just as successful in international markets as they have been in English speaking ones. While our other brands continue to face their own challenges, I'm working closely with the teams to ensure that we're organized to tackle them and set up the brands for long-term success. While the HyperConnect acquisition has not gone to plan in our first year, we finalized the acquisition during lockdowns. My trip to Korea last month was the first time the teams were able to sit down together since we completed the deal. Their core products have struggled with increased competition and adjusting to the elimination of IDFA, but the team is strong and I've been impressed by the entrepreneurial spirit and innovation. The HyperConnect team has built technologies that have been introduced in our products around the world. This collaboration is something that I expect to see more of across our teams. We continue to increase adoption and acceptance of our products in markets like Japan. We have a team on the ground ensuring our two products, Tinder and Pears, have marketing messages that are resonating with our users. In our other established brands, we are ensuring right-sizing marketing spend to ensure long-term profitability. And when we think about new opportunities and demographics to serve, we found a great business in the league. Their founder and CEO, Amanda Bradford, has built a brand that people love and continue to return to. We've been impressed by the league's user base as they are willing to pay significant premiums for this service. From my experience, product innovation always drives user adoption and engagement. We have great products, but I want to speed up product delivery, bring new dynamic features to life, and set big, audacious goals. At Tinder, we need some time to regain product momentum. I'm committed to product innovation that will give our users more reasons to come back more often and for new singles to sign up and start dating. This is only my 63rd day on the job, but over the next few months, I'll be building out more plans as Gary and I continue to work with the teams. And on future calls, I will share more details about our developing strategy. The team's understanding and execution on building subscription models is unparalleled. I bring expertise on the a la carte side of the business, which will be a great compliment to our products. We will push our teams to innovate, collaborate, and drive more growth on our platforms in the future. I bet on people and feel great about the team's ability to transform the way people connect with others around the world. Together, I expect we will drive long-term shareholder value, be decisive, and always strive to win. And with that, I'll turn it over to Gary.