Match Group, Inc.

Good day and welcome to the Match Group second quarter 2023 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. To ask a question, you may press star then one on your telephone keypad. To withdraw your question, please press star then two. 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 President and CFO 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. As I look back on the first half of this year, I'm even more motivated by the numbers we're going to discuss today and the efforts we've undertaken to lead to this record quarter. I'm a firm believer in the teams that we now have in place. I've spoken at length about the changes we've undergone. Through all the change management, I believe our teams have gelled well and have become stronger together. However, I also believe that gelling well is not enough. Leaders need to be intelligent, determined, and have the right goals and people around them. We must challenge our teams to inspire and deliver. It's apparent that we have all those key ingredients to make an organization good, but we also have the most important ingredient to make our teams great, and that is grit. Grit has been evident in our team meetings, product roadmap execution, marketing, and budding AI efforts. Our teams are buzzing with excitement, and I am too. Although our numbers are great, we are just at the beginning of our turnaround. There are still many single people who have yet to try our services and many more who need to come back to our apps. I am certain that if we keep executing and innovating, we will achieve our goals of helping our members get out there in real life, make new connections, and enjoy their dating experience. The energy in our LA office where many Tinder team members are located is completely different than it was a year ago. People are back in the office collaborating, solving problems, and forging ahead. The teams are executing on their product roadmaps and marketing initiatives, and the results of their hard work are clearly showing. We have product and marketing momentum, and people are starting to think about Tinder differently. Our new It Starts with a Swipe marketing campaign is delivering, most importantly by increasing overall new user signups and reactivations at Tinder and is having an impressive impact on our brand consideration and intent. The Tinder roadmap we showed you last year was not the sexiest as it delivered on core experiences and optimization, but it was the right one as our results now show. Our product and design teams are preparing an exciting refresh of the Tinder experience in the coming months. We want to make the app more relevant, fun, and relatable to a younger demographic. We're relentlessly focused on making sure Tinder stays true to what makes it special, while also elevating the experience to be more modern and enjoyable for our members. These innovations will be amplified by great marketing. We are excited about the future of Tinder, and we believe we're just getting started. Hinge continues to fire on all cylinders, leading to exceptional user and revenue growth. Hinge is now a top three most downloaded dating app in 14 countries. And while we're driving new users and growing as expected, we're also taking the learnings from our other brands and applying them at Hinge to maximize growth. Our businesses in Asia are solidly course correcting now. Azar's revenue momentum has been driven by their new AI-enabled matching algorithm, and Hakuna is in the midst of a pivot to deliver a better experience for content creators and audiences, which we believe will lead to increased engagement for users. In Japan, we're ready to roll out ads on TV for the first time ever. We believe this channel unlock will help improve user trends for the category. Our evergreen and emerging brands have unified so that the teams are sharing key learnings more effectively. The teams are now innovating on new features and also putting products on the same platform, which should lead to improved efficiency, innovation, speed to market, and cost savings. One of our teams just launched Archer, a social-first dating app built for gay, bisexual, and queer men, which is now live in New York City and is planned to roll out nationally by the end of this year. I'm really proud of Archer and the team that has brought it to life. The app is beautiful and speaks directly to the needs of the community, and we're excited to see it flourish. Last point before I hand it over to Gary. Every tech company needs to innovate to stay relevant. I've outlined a few areas of innovation already, but we'd be remiss to not talk about generative AI and the enthusiasm and concern it's created for industries at large. This technology is tremendous, but we're approaching it very thoughtfully as dating requires unique considerations. It's imperative that our features and tools enhance trust, authenticity, and respect, and ultimately lead to better matches and dates in real life. I believe this technology is also really fun and engaging, and when applied correctly, can drive curiosity and make the dating journey more enjoyable. By the end of the year, we expect to have launched a number of initiatives that will use generative AI to eliminate awkwardness, make dating more rewarding, and surprise and delight users, all in a way that focuses on authenticity and maintaining the highest ethical and privacy standards. We remain committed to innovation and providing our users with the best possible dating experience. It's full speed ahead at Match Group, and we're energized, motivated, and feeling really good about our future. And with that, I'll turn it over to Gary.