BofA notes that press reports on Thursday indicated that during an X all hands staff meeting, Chairman and owner Elon Musk announced the planned launch of a “fully fledged dating site” on the service formerly known as Twitter in 2024. Shares of Match (MTCH) and Bumble (BMBL) fell 2.7% and 1.5%, respectively, on Friday on the news, but the firm does not see the potential launch of a dating service by X as a material risk to Match or Bumble users. The firm cites their competitive moats, the fact that dating app users often use multiple apps and limited traction with Meta‘s (META) dating service years after launch to support its view of limited risk to Match and Bumble from X’s efforts. In its view, the bigger risk to Match and Bumble growth is when total online dating market users inflect back to growth, added the firm, which has a Buy rating on Match Group shares and a Neutral rating on Bumble.
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