How to sell love profitably: Bumble goes public, Lolly raises investments

A few days ago, statistics of downloads and use of mobile applications in 2020 were published. In general, there are not many surprises: the impact of the pandemic on user choice, overall audience growth and time spent on the phone. However, there is one interesting detail: if we analyze according to the criterion of frequency of use, downloads and monthly number of active users, then messengers, social networks and TikTok traditionally lead. But as soon as we ask the question of user’s spendings, Tinder appears in the first line of the rating.

Nowadays the dating market shows an increase in profitability and investment attractiveness. Last Friday, Bumble Inc., which combines dating apps such as Bumble and Badoo, filed for an IPO. It will be listed on the Nasdaq under the BMBL ticker. Currently, neither the number nor the price of the company’s shares has been officially announced, but last month Bloomberg predicted an approximate estimate of $6 billion to $8 billion.

The monthly audience of applications is 42 million people, the number of paid subscriptions is 2,4 million. The company’s revenue in 2020 was $ 376,6 million, and in 2019 it showed an increase of 35,8%.

As the statistics above show, TikTok is one of the top favorites among app users, we recently mentioned its audience growth. After looking at this trend, two young entrepreneurs (21 and 24 years old, respectively) decided to combine two popular formats: as the result, the Lolly application appeared. Lolly’s mechanics combine the functionality of TikTok and Tinder: users upload short videos, on the basis of which the match occurs. The idea of ​​the creators is that such content demonstrates the user’s sense of humor, the level of their creativity and the sphere of hobbies in general, which will lead to a successful acquaintance rather than a traditional static profile.

On Friday, Lolly closed the $1,1 million Seed round. Both creators and investors are betting on Generation Z, as the new format could potentially attract them more than the classic mechanics that are gradually exhausting themselves.