Bumble’s paying users are slipping as it bets on an overhaul later this year

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However, during the call to investors this afternoon, Bumble has framed this as a deliberate shift toward higher-quality, more intentional users. So while total revenue dropped 14.1% to $212.4 million (though it did beat expectations), and Bumble app revenue fell to $172.7 million, its total average revenue per paying user increased nearly 9%. It also reported higher profits: Net earnings increased to $52.6 million compared to $19.8 million in the year-ago quarter (largely from cutting sales and marketing expenses).

On the company’s investor call, founder and CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd described the paid-user decline as part of an intentional reset. We made a clear choice to prioritize quality over quantity, focusing on well-intentioned, engaged members. That decision reduced overall scale, but meaningfully improved the health of our ecosystem.” Still, even with that framing, a shrinking paying user base is hard to ignore.

That’s why much of the conversation on the call was more about what comes next. Bumble is asking investors to look ahead to its massive overhaul, which it hopes will eventually reverse the trend. Well, the answer is very simple.

When our technology and our next-gen recommendation engine can actually help better connect people more compatibly and show people who they want to see and out on great dates. That’s where the magic happens,” Herd said. The overhaul refers to replacing Bumble’s old technology platform with a cloud-native, AI-powered one so it can improve matches and roll out updates more quickly.

This is already starting to roll out to some users and will expand over the next few months. var playerInstance_jwplayer_6a7d3a47c5185 = jwplayer( "jwplayer_6a7d3a47c5185" ); playerInstance_jwplayer_6a7d3a47c5185.setup(); The more noticeable changes, though, are coming later. Bumble said on Tuesday that its full “reimagined” experience for members is now expected to launch in Q4, with a broader rollout continuing into late this year and early next year. That’s a bit later than earlier expectations and shows this is going to be more of a phased rollout than a single big relaunch.