Match Group, Inc.

Welcome to the Match Group fourth quarter 2023 earnings conference call. All participants will be in a 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, Senior Vice President 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 risk 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 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 reflect on 2023, I am deeply proud of the accomplishments and progress that we made as a team. Just one year ago, we introduced an entirely new operating structure with several new leaders put in place across Tinder, Hinge, MG Asia, and E&E, and it's been working. Together, we deepened our focus on execution and innovation, helping lay the foundation for sustained longer-term growth. At the same time, we recaptured financial momentum, ending the year with strong revenue growth and our third consecutive quarter of record AOI. Before we dive into more detail regarding our ambitious plans and goals for this coming year, I wanted to take a moment to recognize Faye Isatiluno as Tinder's new CEO, which we announced earlier this month. Faye has been an impactful leader at Match Group for several years, and most recently as COO of Tinder. Her intimate understanding of the online dating category, as well as her deep expertise in strategy and business development, among many other skills, are just a few of the reasons why I believe Faye is best suited to lead Tinder in its next chapter of growth. Faye is also supported by Tinder's strong management team, which we set in place last year, giving me the utmost confidence in their ability to execute together. The plans for Tinder reflect our shared vision and I look forward to working with her and the team along this journey. Now taking a step back, at Match Group, we come to work highly motivated every day to foster genuine human connections. But the tools and technologies that people use to connect, match, and date today must evolve to meet modern expectations of today's daters. And as Tinder once did a decade ago, it's imperative that we boldly innovate to create engaging, joyful, and exciting experiences for users on our apps. There are certain things that are table stakes for us. We need to continue to foster online communities where women and all underrepresented groups of people can show up as their true, authentic selves, feel safe, and be respected. But this new generation of singles is digital first and expect platforms like ours to allow daters to showcase their unique personalities in an engaging setting and be shown highly curated matches. In 2024, our roadmaps are shaped with this in mind. First, we are working to improve existing dating apps, beginning with our two largest brands, Tinder and Hinge. Leveraging AI, Tinder will focus on creating a more inclusive experience, beginning with improving the Gen Z and women's experiences while solving for key user pain points across the dating journey. At Tinder, Faye and her team are relentlessly focused on modernizing the existing experience. For example, take Tinder's effortless swipe feature. In 2024, Tinder plans to build on the swipe right and swipe left mechanism by adding in more discovery gestures to better align with today's behaviors and expectations. Not only will users be able to like as they always have, but now they will be able to swipe up to engage deeper in profiles and swipe down for a revamped new explore experience. Tinder is also working on several features that give women real and relevant experiences every time they come into the app. This will include increased trust and safety, more focus on the right primary photos, and improved curation of recommendations. By continuously improving the product, building on what works, while modernizing key features, we'll produce an experience that aligns with what the next generations of daters are expecting. 2023 was a year of execution and increased product velocity for Tinder, which set a strong foundation. In 2024, Tinder is adopting a fast fail mentality, a strategy that prioritizes rapid experimentation and testing. This approach is all about agility. If a new idea or feature doesn't yield the anticipated results, the team is prepared to quickly pivot, absorbing valuable insights and move forward. We recognize that not every innovation will be a groundbreaking success. However, it's this very willingness to embrace risk and learn from failures that fuels our growth. And when we do strike gold, it not only elevates our business, but it sets a new standard for our users, which we will continually enhance. We look forward to sharing more over time, but I am confident that these changes will meaningfully transform Tinder in 2024 and beyond as it builds on its roots and shapes a product experience that redefines dating yet again. Similarly, Hinge is leveraging AI to further improve its powerful experience by reimagining meaningful connection. Hinge envisions a focused and intentioned experience that places guidance at the heart of a dater's journey. Hinge will aim to truly understand you and what you're looking for in order to introduce you to the right person sooner. This redesigned experience will utilize the vast treasure trove of insights on profiles, rich interactions, and great dates that Hinge has collected over several years. Hinge will help users discover matches based on shared interests and highlight compatibility in addition to many other features with the ultimate goal of improving dating outcomes for its users. This work will begin in 2024, and I can't wait to share more as things progress. In 2023, we established a central innovation team that has been making significant impact. In 2024 and beyond, the team will focus on launching disruptive new brands that will grow the category and bring in those who may not have previously tried a traditional dating app. Additionally, we're building internal technology capabilities in coordination with our central innovation teams to help improve our overall effectiveness as a company. While AI brings with it cost efficiencies and a potent optimization tool, we view it as far more than just that. AI has played an important strategic role at Match Group for years, from trust and safety efforts to our matching algorithms, and I believe it will play an even larger role moving forward. AI enables us to bring groundbreaking improvements across a gator's journey. We expect it to touch every aspect of our apps by improving profile quality, discoverability, and matching. And even more importantly, creating an even safer environment for our users to connect in. The bets that we are making are bold and large-scale changes like this do take time. However, we expect to make tangible progress through 2024 as we roll out AI-driven capabilities and feature enhancements within our existing apps and as new AI-powered standalone apps begin testing in the marketplace. I am confident that early indications of momentum at Tinder, particularly from Gen Z and women, will be evident in the second half of the year as a result of consistent brand narrative, modernizing product, and an ecosystem that celebrates human connection and inclusivity. Ultimately, we recognize that our ability to deliver revenue growth and free cash flow is what gives us the freedom to pursue these ambitious roadmaps. As we push the boundaries of innovation, we will maintain financial discipline, we will grow revenues, maintain or enhance our margins, and generate significant free cash flow, which will allow us to return capital to shareholders. 2024 is about both delivering on our short-term commitments and positioning our company for enduring long-term growth. We've always been at the forefront, adapting to technology shifts, and we'll continue to lead this wave of change. At the heart of our endeavors is an unwavering dedication to delivering products and services that delight our customers. And with that, I will turn it over to Gary.