Bumble, the online dating app, has announced that it will layoff 350 employees, equating to about 37% of its workforce.

The news comes as Bumble reveals its fourth quarter and full year 2023 results, which fell much below expectations on Wall Street. The company had a net loss of £32 million, making £273.6m in revenue. The dismal posting, tied with a poor 2024 first quarter forecast, has sent Bumble’s stock down about 10%.

“Today, we announced solid full-year results and a bold plan to transform Bumble and lead the company to its next phase of growth and innovation,” said Lidiane Jones, CEO of Bumble Inc.

The move to cut around 350 roles is in an effort to align Bumble’s operating model with “future strategic priorities and to drive stronger operating leverage,” the company said in their 2023 results statement.

“We are taking significant and decisive actions that ensure our customers remain at the centre of everything we do as we relaunch Bumble App, transform our organisation and accelerate our product roadmap,” Jones said.

“We believe these actions will strengthen our foundational capabilities and enable us to continue delivering new and engaging user experiences that create healthy and equitable relationships. I am confident in our team’s ability to deliver Bumble’s next chapter of growth as we sharpen our focus on execution.”

Jones took on the role of CEO last November after Bumble’s founder, Whitney Wolfe Herd, stepped down and became an executive chair of the company.

Bumble’s C-suite has since transformed, with four new appointments in the last week.

The dating app is a lone wolf against the Match conglomerate of Tinder, Hinge, and Match.com, which have contended to keep the younger generations pre-occupied with algorithmically derived love as real-life meetups returned to the foray after the pandemic.

Bumble tried to set itself apart by letting women make the first move on dating apps – men matching with women could not send the first message to a match.

A lawsuit brought up in the United States recently accused Match Group of using addiction tactics to keep users in a never-ending loop of use, rather than helping them actually find love.

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While Bumble was not a part of this lawsuit, it points to a potential mistrust in the dating app industry.

Further, dating apps are struggling to get GenZ and Millennials to pay for premium – a 2023 study found that only 22% of users under 20 have paid for dating apps.

Bumble’s layoffs mirror other tech companies reeling from an changing economic ecosystem – according to layoffs.fyi, 45,356 jobs have been cut since the start of 2024.