How Bumble broke new ground in dating, and then became just one of the masses

Bumble dating app's founder and CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd, who founded this women-centric dating app in 2014, has decided to step down after being in charge for nearly a decade. She will be succeeded by Slack CEO Lidiane Jones. But, here's all you need to know about the rise and fall of this dating app.

Whitney Wolfe Herd will assume the position as executive chair once the leadership change comes into effect.

Bumble's key selling point is that women make the first move in Bumble, they initiate the conversation with the man or another woman.

Rise of Bumble

• Before founding Bumble, Whitney Wolfe Herd was one of the founders of Tinder. However, she left Tinder after she was in a row with another one of the executives.
• She left Tinder in 2014 and filed a lawsuit against the company alleging sexual harassment and discrimination, which was eventually settled.
• Whitney Wolfe Herd, at the age of 24, Wolfe Herd created 'Bumble' based on the thinking that by giving women the opportunity to talk to guys first, it would empower women and enable them to gain control over their romantic lives.
• This feature acted as an important safety measure for women, as finally women could decide if they want to speak with the other man or not.
• Bumble has been known for backing women's safety campaigns and it also says that they ban users who body shame others.
• She also became the world's youngest self-made female billionaire when she took Bumble public in February 2021.
• Bumble got Bollywood actress Priyanka Chopra on board, as an investor and advisor to Bumble.
• Priyanka Chopra and Bumble first collaborated in 2017 for the launch of Bumble Bizz.

How Bumble works

• At Bumble, women make the first move.

• After setting up your profile and completing the security verification process, the woman has 24 hours to make the first move and the man has 24 hours to respond.

• In same-sex matches, either person has 24 hours to make the first move.

• The other individual has 24 hours to respond or the connection expires.

Bumble's decline

• Right after going public, Bumble Inc (Bumble's parent company) saw its stock price reach a peak at $75, but it subsequently experienced a decline.
• And with the recent news of Wolfe Herd's resignation, the shares fell down to a historic low of $12.77.
• Although Bumble raised more than $2 billion in its initial public offering in February 2021, Bumble's worth now is $1.78 billion.

Bumble users speak

dailyO  spoke with two Bumble users aged between 20-24 years and they shared their opinion about the online dating app.

• One of the users, who is a female, shared her experience and said, "one of the issues with Bumble is that women feel like it’s too much of an effort to start the conversation always."
• Another Bumble user highlighted that even though Bumble is economical compared to other online dating apps, but it's Premium membership cost INR 449 per week.
• The user also emphasized that he finds Bumble's verification process is not as strong or rigid compared to other online dating app competitors of Bumble.
• The user also said, "Bumble’s interface is very crowded."
• Bumble, like other dating apps, can be susceptible to fake profiles and catfishing, where individuals create deceptive profiles to scam or deceive other users.

Although Bumble was created with the intention of women taking control of their dating lives, but now, Bumble has just become another one of those dating apps because of too much crowd.