Tinder's U.S. daily active user base returned to year-over-year growth in October, parent company Match Group's chief financial officer said Monday, November 2, marking an early sign of progress for the dating app's turnaround plan.
Steve Bailey told Reuters that improved recommendation systems, including artificial-intelligence techniques that interpret information beyond simple profile fields, helped the app identify more compatible matches. He did not provide the October U.S. daily user count or a percentage growth rate, limiting the precision with which the improvement can be measured.
The U.S. improvement follows another milestone: Tinder's worldwide daily active users returned to annual growth in September for the first time in roughly three and a half years. Across the third quarter as a whole, global daily users were still down 1% from the previous year, compared with a 10% decline in the year-earlier quarter.
Tinder has faced competition from other dating services and weakening engagement among some younger people who say they have grown tired of traditional swipe-based apps. Match Group has been experimenting with product changes intended to improve the quality of recommendations and give users more reasons to return.
In its earlier second-quarter company update, Match Group described ongoing improvements to Tinder's recommendation algorithms and engagement. The company's latest October disclosure suggests some of those changes may now be translating into stronger active use, although longer-term performance remains to be demonstrated.
Bailey told Reuters that Match Group expects to spend approximately $10 million on AI tools this year. The company is slowing its hiring to help offset technology costs rather than announcing layoffs as part of that effort.
Match Group projected fourth-quarter revenue between $865 million and $875 million, close to analysts' average estimate of about $871 million. A recovery in users would be encouraging for the business, but active usage and paying subscriptions are distinct measures; future disclosures will show whether engagement also improves revenue.
Sources: - Reuters original interview with Match Group CFO Steve Bailey, Nov. 2 - Match Group second-quarter 2026 shareholder results, background