Dating app Bumble has surpassed strong user growth estimates

Bumble Inc lost first-quarter profit and revenue estimates on Wednesday, helped by a surge in paid members crowding its dating apps to find connections, with the company’s shares rising 11% in after-hours trading.

The resurgence of COVID-19 cases has helped dating apps pick users during epidemics, as people stuck at home seek out virtual social interactions.

Research firm Aptopier’s data shows that bumble downloads in the United States increased by 20.6% in the first quarter, with average monthly users increasing by 13.7% compared to a year earlier.

“The Bumble App has significantly increased revenue across the United States and international markets and provided a significant sequential increase in user payments,” CEO Whitney Wolf Hard said in a statement.

The owner of the dating app, which requires women to take the first step, said total paid users grew 7.2% to 3 3 million this quarter, raising analysts’ estimates from $ 208.30 million to 21 211.2 million.

For the current quarter, Bumble has forecast revenue of between $ 218 million and $ 221 million, with the Bad 6 million Ukraine conflict initially having an adverse effect on the Badoo app. Analysts expect 224.16 million.

In early March, Bumble said it was shutting down operations in Russia, including removing all apps from Russia and Belarus from the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.

Bumble said it lost 60,000 paying users in the fourth and first quarters of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, and expects the current quarter to reduce the number of paid users in these three markets from about 120,000 to 130,000.

Excluding items, Bumble earned 13 cents per share for the first quarter. According to IBES data from Refinitiv, analysts expected the company to report an average loss of 3 cents.

Shares of Austin, a Texas-based company, rose $ 11.4% to .6 19.64 in extended trading.

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