Bumble Stocks Fall As New CEO Lidiane Jones Appointed

Bumble has appointed a new CEO, Lindiane Jones, as co-founder Whitney Wolfe Herd stepped down from the role. Since the company went public in 2021, its shares reached their lowest price at $14. Change is happening at the top of the company, and it could signal a shift in focus at the company and platform. Could social discovery arms of the business become a new focus?

Bumble has no doubt been a massive success in the last decade. Even now while stock shares have dropped to a new low – the company reported revenues of over $275.5 million in its latest quarter reportings. Wolfe Herd set the company up after leaving Tinder and suing the company for sexual harassment. Bumble’s huge innovation was allowing women to message first. But since then – the platform has grown massively – and expanded into the world of social discovery with Bumble BFF. At first, the friend finding aspect was a different branch on the main app, but it has now become its own standalone app this year, hinting that this could be a new key market for Bumble.

The inherent struggle with dating apps is how do you keep customers on the app once a customer has been successful on the app. With friendship finding, there is perhaps greater scope to acquire a wider audience and keep that audience on the app for longer. Outgoing CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd is staying on at the company in a new role as Executive Chair. She said:

“This move to executive chair gives me the ability to step forward into a new and exciting role, get back to my founder roots and bring immense passion and focus to this next chapter of growth.”

Lidiane Jones, who moved to the US from Brazil, was previously CEO at Slack, the work management messaging system. She has said she is looking forward to ushering in the next wave of “innovation” and artificial intelligence at Bumble. It will be very exciting to see if Bumble BBF becomes a more core component and focus of the company.