Match : 2025 Annual Report
MTCH
Published on 04/30/2026 at 08:09 pm EDT
2O2S Annual Report to Stockholders
Dear Stockholders:
At Match Group, our mission is simple, but deeply important and personal to me: to spark meaningful connections for every single person worldwide.
In a world increasingly shaped by digital interactions, we believe our mission matters more than ever. We are living through a growing loneliness epidemic. As expectations around how people meet and connect continue to evolve, it's our responsibility to meet those changing needs.
When I joined in 2025, we began executing a three-phase transformation to reposition Match Group for long-term success: Reset the company, Revitalize our products, and drive a Resurgence in our user growth and financial performance.
The Reset phase consisted of reshaping our organization to operate with greater speed, accountability, and focus at Match Group and Tinder®, specifically. We streamlined decision-making, increased collaboration, and reoriented teams around product excellence and user outcomes, creating a stronger foundation for the work ahead. At the same time, we introduced a unified '1MG' approach, breaking down silos and leveraging shared data, technology, and insights across our brands.
When strong teams are aligned around clear priorities and urgency, execution improves quickly and that is what we saw across the company.
We are now squarely in the Revitalize phase, focused on improving our products and delivering better user outcomes through a product-led approach. This is the core work underway today.
Over time, we believe this work will drive the Resurgence phase, which we coin as a return to sustainable user growth and stronger financial performance in 2027 at Tinder.
Our Portfolio Approach
A key part of this transformation is how we think about and operate our portfolio. We serve a broad range of user needs from lower-pressure discovery to more intentional, relationship-focused experiences across category-leading apps like Tinder and Hinge®, as well many other brands.
In 2025, we further clarified how these brands fit together through a simple framework spanning three dimensions: Fun, which emphasizes more playful, low-pressure connection (e.g. Tinder); Focus, which supports intentional relationship-seeking (e.g. Hinge); and Familiarity, which fosters belonging within shared communities. Some brands live at the intersection of these dimensions.
This framework allows us to serve a range of user intents, while maintaining clear and distinct brand identities.
We believe this clarity provides several advantages:
Better data and learning across platforms.
More efficient product development and innovation.
Clearer brand positioning across different user needs.
Opportunities to identify white space available for long-term growth.
The Tinder Turnaround
Tinder is both our largest business and our biggest opportunity. Over the past few years, parts of the product experience did not keep pace with evolving user expectations, especially among Gen Z, where preferences have shifted toward more authentic and lower-pressure ways to connect.
We addressed that directly by reorienting Tinder around a clear set of product principles: prioritizing user outcomes, building for trust and safety, and moving faster with greater speed and accountability. We streamlined the organization, accelerated product velocity, and designed a roadmap centered on improving user experiences.
This work began to show up in our product innovation:
New modes like Double Date are making dating more interactive and lower-pressure for younger users.
AI-driven recommendation improvements are increasing relevance and match quality, and AI-enabled features like Chemistry are providing more curated experiences.
Face CheckTM, our facial verification feature, is helping to reduce interactions with bad actors1 and improve the perception of trust and safety on the app.
Today, we measure success differently. We are focused on whether these features are actually helping people connect, as measured by Sparks (the number of users engaging in a six-way conversation), as a proxy for real connection. We saw this approach translate into our metrics in 2025:
Engagement trends began to improve, including gains in Sparks and Sparks Coverage2, along with improved retention.
Year-over-year ("Y/Y") Direct Revenue declined modestly as we deliberately began prioritizing user outcomes.
1 Based on a random weighted sample of in-app profile views. Bad actors include accounts that engage in deceptive or harmful behaviors, including spam, scam attempts, or operating automated fake profiles (bots).
2 The percent of users that get a Spark (6-way conversation) in a given period.
This reflects how we think about the funnel: improvements in product quality drive better conversations (Sparks and Sparks Coverage), which improves retention, stabilizes MAU, and ultimately supports sustainable revenue growth.
These changes reflect a fundamental shift in how Tinder operates. We are still early in this transformation, the trajectory is encouraging and the direction is clear. Turning around a business of our scale takes time, and we are making intentional investments that may create short-term trade-offs, but we are confident in the path forward.
Hinge
Hinge continues to demonstrate the power of when product, brand, and user insights are fully aligned. Simply put, Hinge is performing exceptionally well, with Direct Revenue growing 26% Y/Y in 2025.
On the product side, Hinge is improving match quality and real-world outcomes through meaningful innovation:
Features designed to improve self-expression and conversation quality, including First Impressions, AI-powered Prompt Feedback, and Convo Starters, are helping users engage more meaningfully
New experiences designed to move users from matching to real-world dates faster
At the same time, Hinge is scaling globally, with successful launches in Mexico and Brazil in the back half of 2025, and ongoing momentum across European expansion markets.
Hinge is an important proof point for Match Group. It demonstrates that when we deliver a high-quality product experience focused on real outcomes, demand is strong and growth follows. We continue to invest behind Hinge's momentum and see significant runway ahead.
Emerging & Evergreen + MG Asia
For our Evergreen & Emerging ("E&E") brands, we are seeing audience headwinds on certain brands and are focused on improving product-market fit by refining the user experience.
In MG Asia, performance has been impacted by regional dynamics, including Azar®'s ongoing block in Turkey and its removal from the App Store by Apple and subsequent reinstatement with different product functionality. In Japan, Pairs™ continues to play an important role in our portfolio, supporting users seeking more intentional, relationship-focused connections.
In both areas, we are applying the same product-led approach: prioritizing user outcomes, improving core experiences, and positioning these businesses for durable growth over time.
Financial Performance
In 2025, we delivered solid financial performance while investing in our transformation. We generated $3.5 billion in Total Revenue and strong cash flow, returning significant capital to stockholders through share buybacks and a dividend.
At the same time, we made disciplined investments in product innovation, marketing, and international expansion, particularly at Tinder and Hinge, to position Match Group for future growth.
Additional details on our financial performance and outlook are available in our earnings materials.
Looking Ahead
As we move through 2026, we are focused on continuing the product-led transformation already underway: advancing Tinder's turnaround, scaling Hinge's momentum, extracting greater synergy from bringing business units closer together, and bringing new innovation across the portfolio. This includes accelerating our roadmaps around AI-driven innovation, expanding how people connect through new formats and experiences, and continuing to raise the bar for trust and safety across our apps.
Importantly, we are able to invest in this transformation while continuing to return capital to stockholders, reflecting the strength of our business model.
As we execute, we are guided by a simple principle: great people, properly organized and motivated, utilize consumer insights to build great products that when properly marketed attract large audiences and drive long-term shareholder value.
Thank you for your continued support and belief in our vision. We appreciate the trust you place in us and remain committed to delivering long-term value on your behalf. We believe that Match Group's best days are ahead of us. We look forward to sharing our progress as we continue building the future of human connection.
Sincerely,
Chief Executive Officer
Washington, D.C. 20549
☑ ANNUAL REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934
For the Fiscal Year Ended December 31, 2025 Or
TRANSITION REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934
For the transition period from to
Commission File No. 001-34148
(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)
Delaware 59-2712887
(State or other jurisdiction of incorporation or organization) (I.R.S. Employer Identification No.)
8750 North Central Expressway, Suite 1400, Dallas, Texas 75231
(Address of Registrant's principal executive offices and zip code)
(214) 576-9352
(Registrant's telephone number, including area code)
Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:
Title of each class Trading Symbol Name of exchange on which registered
Common Stock, par value $0.001 MTCH The Nasdaq Global Market LLC (Nasdaq Global Select Market)
Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act:
None
Indicate by check mark if the Registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act. Yes ☑ No ☐
Indicate by check mark if the Registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d) of the Act. Yes ☐ No ☑
Indicate by check mark whether the Registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the Registrant was required to file such reports) and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days. Yes ☑ No ☐
Indicate by check mark whether the Registrant has submitted electronically every Interactive Data File required to be submitted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the Registrant was required to submit such
files). Yes ☑ No ☐
Indicate by check mark whether the Registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, smaller reporting company, or an emerging growth company. See the definitions of "large accelerated filer," "accelerated filer," "smaller reporting company," and "emerging growth company" in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.
Large accelerated filer ☑ Accelerated filer ☐ Non-accelerated filer ☐ Smaller reporting company ☐ Emerging growth company ☐
If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act. ☐
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has filed a report on and attestation to its management's assessment of the effectiveness of its internal controls over financial reporting under Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (15 U.S.C. 7262(b)) by the registered public accounting firm that prepared or issued its audit report. ☑
If securities are registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act, indicate by check mark whether the financial statements of the registrant included in the filing reflect the correction of an error to previously issued financial statements. ☐
Indicate by check mark whether any of those error corrections are restatements that required a recovery analysis of incentive-based compensation received by any of the registrant's executive officers during the relevant recovery period pursuant to §240.10D-1(b). ☐
Indicate by check mark whether the Registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act). Yes ☐ No ☑
As of February 20, 2026, there were 232,644,477 shares of common stock outstanding.
The aggregate market value of the voting common stock held by non-affiliates of the registrant as of June 30, 2025 was $7,426,689,174. For the purpose of the foregoing calculation only, shares held by all directors and executive officers of the registrant are assumed to be held by affiliates of the registrant.
Documents Incorporated By Reference:
Portions of Part III of this Annual Report are incorporated by reference to the Registrant's proxy statement for its 2026 Annual Meeting of Stockholders.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page Number
PART I
Item 1.
Business
4
Item 1A.
Risk Factors
14
Item 1B.
Unresolved Staff Comments
32
Item 1C.
Cybersecurity
32
Item 2.
Properties
33
Item 3.
Legal Proceedings
33
Item 4.
Mine Safety Disclosure
35
PART II
Item 5. Market For Registrant's Common Equity, Related Stockholder Matters and Issuer Purchases of
Equity Securities 36
Item 6.
Reserved
38
Item 7.
Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations
39
Item 7A.
Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk
61
Item 8.
Consolidated Financial Statements and Supplementary Data
62
Consolidated Balance Sheet
64
Consolidated Statement of Operations
65
Consolidated Statement of Comprehensive Operations
66
Consolidated Statement of Shareholders' Equity
67
Consolidated Statement of Cash Flows
69
Note 1-Organization
70
Note 2-Summary of Significant Accounting Policies
70
Note 3-Income Taxes
77
Note 4-Goodwill and Intangible Assets
82
Note 5-Financial Instruments
83
Note 6-Long-term Debt, net
85
Note 7-Shareholders' Equity
92
Note 8-Accumulated Other Comprehensive Loss
93
Note 9-Earnings per Share
93
Note 10-Stock-based Compensation
94
Note 11-Segment and Geographic Information
97
Note 12-Leases
101
Note 13-Commitments and Contingencies
102
Note 14-Benefit Plans
104
Note 15-Consolidated Financial Statement Details
104
Note 16-Subsequent Event
106
Item 9.
Changes in and Disagreements With Accountants on Accounting and Financial Disclosure
107
Item 9A.
Controls and Procedures
107
Item 9B.
Other Information
109
Item 9C.
Disclosure Regarding Foreign Jurisdictions that Prevent Inspections
109
PART III
Item 10.
Directors, Executive Officers and Corporate Governance
110
Item 11.
Executive Compensation
110
Item 12. Security Ownership of Certain Beneficial Owners and Management and Related Stockholder 110
Matters
Item 13.
Certain Relationships and Related Transactions, and Director Independence
110
Item 14.
Principal Accountant Fees and Services
110
PART IV
Item 15.
Exhibits and Financial Statement Schedules
111
Item 16.
Form 10-K Summary
111
Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Information
This annual report on Form 10-K contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The use of words such as "anticipates," "estimates," "expects," "plans" and "believes," among others, generally identify forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements include, among others, statements relating to: Match Group's future financial performance, Match Group's business prospects and strategy, anticipated trends and prospects in the industries in which Match Group's businesses operate and other similar matters. These forward-looking statements are based on Match Group management's current expectations and assumptions about future events as of the date of this annual report, which are inherently subject to uncertainties, risks and changes in circumstances that are difficult to predict.
Actual results could differ materially from those contained in these forward-looking statements for a variety of reasons, including, among others: the risk factors set forth in "Item 1A-Risk Factors." Other unknown or unpredictable factors that could also adversely affect Match Group's business, financial condition and results of operations may arise from time to time. In light of these risks and uncertainties, these forward-looking statements discussed in this annual report may not prove to be accurate. Accordingly, you should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which only reflect the views of Match Group management as of the date of this annual report. Match Group does not undertake to update these forward-looking statements.
Item 1. Business Who we are
Match Group, Inc., through its portfolio companies, is a leading provider of digital technologies designed to
help people make meaningful connections. Our global portfolio of brands includes Tinder®, Hinge®, Match®, Meetic®, OkCupid®, Pairs™, Plenty Of Fish®, Azar®, BLK®, and more, each built to increase our users' likelihood of connecting with others. Through our trusted brands, we provide tailored services to meet the varying preferences of our users.
As used herein, "Match Group," the "Company," "we," "our," "us," and similar terms refer to Match Group, Inc. and its subsidiaries, unless the context indicates otherwise.
The business of creating meaningful connections
Our goal is to spark meaningful connections for every single person worldwide. Consumers' preferences vary significantly, influenced in part by demographics, geography, cultural norms, religion, and intent (for example, casual dating or more serious relationships). As a result, the market for social connection apps is fragmented, and no single service has been able to effectively serve all of those seeking social connections.
Human connection is a fundamental need, yet the ways people meet and build relationships have evolved significantly over time. Historically, connections were shaped by physical proximity and social circles such as the workplace, schools, religious institutions, social gatherings, and local communities. Today, mobile technology and the internet play a central role in how people can create new interactions and develop meaningful connections. Additionally, the increasing integration of technology into daily life has contributed to broader acceptance of digital tools for connecting with others, eroding biases and stigmas across the world, which previously served as barriers that limited adoption.
We believe that technologies that bring people together serve as a natural extension of the traditional means of meeting people and provide a number of benefits for users, including:
Depending on a person's circumstances, social connection apps can act as a supplement to, or substitute for, traditional means of meeting people. When selecting a social connection app, we believe that users consider the following attributes:
Our portfolio
We operate a portfolio of differentiated brands designed to serve distinct user needs, preferences, and relationship intents. Collectively, our brands span a range of connection experiences, from discovery-oriented interaction to highly intentional relationship building, as well as demographic- and community-based connection. This portfolio approach allows users to engage with products that reflect how they want to connect at a given point in time.
Evergreen & Emerging ("E&E")
Our collections of brands within E&E include well-known pioneers in online relationships (which we refer to as Evergreen brands) and newer brands designed to serve specific communities, demographics, and identities (which we refer to as Emerging brands). The following brands are included in E&E:
purpose.
BLK®, Chispa®, Upward®, Salams®, HER®, Archer®, Yuzu®, The League®, and other affinity-based brands, serve communities defined by shared culture, values, or experiences.
Match Group Asia ("MG Asia")
The focus of the MG Asia brands has primarily been to serve various Asian and Middle Eastern markets.
The following brands are included in MG Asia:
On February 22, 2026, Apple removed the Azar app from the Apple App Store, resulting in users being unable to initiate new downloads of Azar from the Apple App Store. In available markets, users can sign up for and continue to access the app through the web or Google Play Store and existing iOS users who had downloaded the app through the App Store prior to the removal can currently continue to access and use the app, including the ability to execute purchases and renewals. For additional information, see "Item 7-Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations-Management Overview-Trends affecting our business-MG Asia."
Our Portfolio Strategy
We believe an effective portfolio strategy begins with an understanding of the challenges individuals face when seeking connection today. Many people experience pressure when meeting new people. Others encounter noise, as an abundance of options can feel overwhelming.
Additionally, some experience alienation, seeking spaces where they feel a sense of belonging.
To address these challenges, we introduced a simple framework to articulate how we position our brands across three complementary dimensions: Fun, Focus, and Familiarity. Together, these reflect how we believe individuals approach connection and provide different ways to engage depending on individuals' needs and preferences.
Fun emphasizes creating engaging, lower-pressure ways to meet new
people. Brands oriented toward Fun help reduce the pressure often associated with initiating connection.
Focus emphasizes intentional experiences that help users navigate connection with greater purpose.
Familiarity emphasizes belonging, serving communities defined by shared values, culture, or experiences and helping users feel understood and accepted.
Our brands span these dimensions, with some solely speaking to one element and others operating at the intersection of two elements. For example, brands such as Tinder emphasize Fun; Hinge emphasizes Focus; and our affinity-based brands emphasize Familiarity. Several Evergreen and Emerging brands, including Match, Meetic, Plenty of Fish, OurTime, and OkCupid, combine elements of these dimensions, reflecting the varied ways individuals seek connection over time.
This framework allows us to focus on how we offer differentiated services that collectively address a broad spectrum of user needs while maintaining clear roles and positioning for individual brands. It also provides a lens for innovation, experimentation, and portfolio evolution as user behaviors, technologies, and external forces change.
Operationally, we strive to empower individual leaders to grow their respective brands. Our brands compete with each other and with third-party businesses on brand characteristics, service features, and business models. However, we also work to apply a centralized discipline and share best practices across our brands in order to quickly introduce new services and features, optimize marketing, increase growth, reduce costs, improve user safety, and maximize profitability - an approach we call "One MG". Additionally, we centralize certain administrative and operational functions to promote efficiency, consistency, and effective oversight across the portfolio. Our centralized functions include legal, finance, accounting, treasury, tax, human resources, and real estate and facilities. We further support the portfolio by:
operating shared services across brands, including trust and safety and moderation, certain technology and data platforms, media buying, and regional go-to-market capabilities;
centralizing select commercial, technical, and operational capabilities where scale, expertise, and common business needs exist;
developing and deploying talent across the portfolio to build specialized skills and support priority initiatives;
promoting cross-brand collaboration and knowledge-sharing in areas such as marketing optimization, infrastructure and cloud utilization, recommendation systems, and user engagement; and
sharing analytics and insights to support consistent measurement, inform decision-making, and improve portfolio-wide performance.
Through this approach and strategy, we believe our portfolio is positioned to serve a wide range of connection needs while operating efficiently and responsibly at scale.
Staying competitive
The industry for social connection apps is competitive and has no single, dominant brand globally. We compete with a number of other companies that provide technologies for people to meet each other, including other online dating platforms; social media platforms and social-discovery apps, such as Facebook and Instagram (both owned by Meta), Snap, TikTok, X, LinkedIn (owned by Microsoft), Twitch (owned by Amazon), and YouTube (owned by Alphabet); offline dating services, such as in-person matchmakers; and other traditional means of meeting people.
We believe that our ability to attract new users to our brands as well as retain existing users will depend primarily upon the following factors:
our ability to adapt to how consumers discover, evaluate, and engage with each other and with social connection apps, particularly among younger generations and in emerging markets and parts of the world where the associated stigma has not yet fully eroded;
continued growth in internet access and smart phone adoption in certain regions of the world, particularly emerging markets;
the continued strength, differentiation, and evolution of our well-known brands and the growth of our Emerging brands;
the authenticity, breadth, and depth of our active communities of users;
our brands' reputations for trust and safety, including investments in technologies that enhance user authenticity across our apps, such as Face Check, a facial verification feature that helps confirm users are real and match their profile photos and was launched in 2025 at Tinder in several markets;
our ability to evolve existing services and introduce new features that respond to evolving user preferences, social trends, and advances in technology, including the use of artificial intelligence ("AI");
our brands' ability to keep up with the constantly changing regulatory landscape, in particular, as it relates to the regulation of consumer digital media platforms;
our ability to efficiently acquire new users for our services;
our ability to continue to optimize our monetization strategies while maintaining positive user experiences;
the design, functionality, and reliability of our services; and
macroeconomic and geopolitical conditions.
A large portion of customers use multiple services over a given period of time, either concurrently or sequentially, reflecting the various ways in which users seek connection, making our broad portfolio of brands a competitive advantage.
How we earn our revenue
Many of our brands enable users to establish a profile and review other users' profiles without charge.
Each brand also offers additional features, some of which are free, and some of which require payment depending on the particular service. In general, access to premium features requires a subscription, which is typically offered in packages (generally ranging from one week to six months), depending on the service and circumstance. Prices can differ meaningfully within a given brand depending on the duration of a subscription, the bundle of paid features that a user chooses to access, and whether or not a user is taking advantage of any special offers. In addition to subscriptions, many of our brands offer users certain features, such as the ability to promote themselves for a given period of time, or highlight themselves to a specific user, and these features are offered on a pay-per-use, or à la carte, basis. The precise mix of paid and premium features is established over time on a brand-by-brand basis and is subject to constant iteration and evolution.
Our direct revenue is primarily derived from users in the form of recurring subscriptions, which typically provide unlimited access to a package of features for a specified period of time, and to a lesser extent from à la carte features, where users pay a non-recurring fee for a specific consumable benefit or feature. Each of our brands offers a combination of free and paid features targeted to its unique user base. In addition to direct revenue from our users, we generate indirect revenue from advertising, which comprises a much smaller percentage of our overall revenue as compared to direct revenue.
Dependencies on services provided by others
We rely on the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store to distribute and monetize our mobile applications. While our mobile applications are free to download from these stores, we offer our users the opportunity to purchase subscriptions and certain à la carte features through these applications. We determine the prices at which these subscriptions and features are sold, however purchases of these subscriptions and features are generally processed through the in-app payment systems provided by Apple and Google, notwithstanding the availability of alternative payment options in certain circumstances. We pay Apple and Google a meaningful share of the revenue we receive from in-app transactions as well as where payments on
Android and iOS devices are processed through alternative payment systems. For additional information, see "Item 7-Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations-Management Overview-Trends affecting our business-In-App Purchase Fees" and "Item 1A-Risk Factors-Risks relating to our business-Distribution and marketing of, and access to, our services rely, in significant part, on a variety of third-party platforms, in particular, mobile app stores. In the past, some of these third parties have limited, prohibited, or otherwise interfered with features or services or changed their policies in material ways that have adversely affected our business, financial condition, and results of operations, and these third parties could do so again in the future."
The manner in which Apple and Google operate these services is being reviewed by legislative and regulatory bodies globally and challenged in courts in multiple jurisdictions. Notably, the European Union (the "EU") has, under the Digital Markets Act, designated Apple and Google as "gatekeepers." As such, we expect Apple and Google to be restricted from, among other things, (i) imposing fees or other requirements that are not fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory to all application developers and (ii) prohibiting application developers from informing users about alternative payment options, offering their own in-app payment systems and making their applications available through alternate app stores on iOS and Android devices or through direct download. In addition, the Republic of Korea has adopted legislation that prohibits Apple and Google from requiring that developers exclusively use Apple's and Google's respective payment systems to process payments. Korean lawmakers have also clarified that charging excess fees for using alternative payment systems constitutes unfair payment practice. Further, courts and regulators in several jurisdictions, including the U.S., France, India, the Netherlands, and Australia have found that certain app store practices and policies, such as the requirement that application developers exclusively use their payment systems, violate laws in those jurisdictions. Multiple jurisdictions, including the United Kingdom, Japan, Mexico, Brazil, Indonesia, Chile, India, and Australia, are investigating, considering regulatory action or considering legislation to restrict or prohibit these practices. The United States Congress, as well as a number of state legislatures, are also considering legislation that would regulate certain terms of the relationships between developers and Apple and Google and prohibit Apple and Google from requiring the use of their respective payment systems for in-app purchases.
We rely on third parties, primarily data centers and cloud-based, hosted web service providers, such as Amazon Web Services, as well as third party computer systems, service providers, software providers, and broadband and other communications systems, in connection with the provision of our applications generally, as well as to facilitate and process certain transactions with our users. We have no control over any of these third parties or their operations, and such third party systems are increasingly complex.
Problems experienced by third-party data centers and cloud-based, hosted web service providers upon which our brands, including Tinder, Hinge, and Pairs, rely, the telecommunications network providers with which we or they contract, or the systems through which telecommunications providers allocate capacity among their customers could also adversely affect us. Any changes in service levels at our data centers or hosted web service providers, or any interruptions, outages or delays in our systems or those of our third-party providers, or deterioration in the performance of such systems, could impair our ability to provide our services or process transactions with our users, which would adversely impact our business, financial condition and results of operations. For additional information, see "Item 1A Risk factors-Risks relating to our business-Our success depends, in part, on the integrity of third-party systems and infrastructure."
All of our brands rely on word-of-mouth recommendations for free user acquisition and also paid user acquisition, both to varying degrees. Our online marketing activities generally consist of purchasing social media advertising, advertising on streaming services, banner, and other display advertising, search engine marketing, email campaigns, video advertising, business development or partnership arrangements, creating content, and partnering with influencers, among other means to promote our services. Our offline marketing activities generally consist of television advertising, out-of-home advertising, and public relations efforts.
Intellectual property
We regard our intellectual property rights, including trademarks, domain names, and other intellectual property, as critical to our success.
For example, we rely heavily upon the use of trademarks (primarily Tinder®, Hinge®, Match™, Plenty Of Fish®, OkCupid®, Meetic®, Pairs™, Swipe®, Azar®, and BLK®, and associated domain names, taglines and logos) to market our services and applications and build and maintain brand loyalty and recognition. We maintain an ongoing trademark and service mark registration program, pursuant to which we register our brand names, service names, taglines and logos and renew existing trademark and service mark registrations in the United States and other jurisdictions to the extent we determine it to be necessary or otherwise appropriate and cost-effective. In addition, we have a trademark and service mark monitoring policy pursuant to which we monitor applications filed by third parties to register trademarks and service marks that may be confusingly similar to ours, as well as potential unauthorized use of our material trademarks and service marks. Our enforcement of this policy affords us valuable protection under current laws, rules, and regulations. We also reserve, register (to the extent available), and renew existing registrations for domain names that we believe are material to our business.
We also rely upon a combination of in-licensed third-party and proprietary trade secrets, including proprietary algorithms, and upon patented and patent-pending technologies, processes, and features relating to our recommendation process systems or features and services with expiration dates from 2027 to 2043. We have an ongoing invention recognition program pursuant to which we apply for patents to the extent we determine it to be core to our service or businesses or otherwise appropriate and cost-effective.
We rely on a combination of internal and external controls, including applicable laws, rules, and regulations, and contractual restrictions with employees, contractors, customers, suppliers, affiliates, and others, to establish, protect, and otherwise control access to our various intellectual property rights.
Government regulation
We are subject to a variety of laws and regulations in the United States and abroad that involve matters related to our business, many of which are still evolving and being tested in courts, and could be interpreted in ways that could harm our business. These laws and regulations involve matters including, among others, antitrust and competition, broadband internet access, online commerce, advertising, user privacy, data protection, intermediary liability, protection of minors, biometrics, consumer protection, general safety, sex-trafficking, taxation, money laundering, accessibility, intellectual property, AI, and securities law compliance. We have and could again in the future be subject to actions based on negligence, regulatory compliance, various torts, and trademark, patent and copyright infringement, among other actions.
Because we receive, store, and use a substantial amount of information received from or generated by our users, we are particularly impacted by laws and regulations governing privacy; the storage, sharing, use, processing, disclosure, transfer, and protection of personal data; and data breaches, in many of the countries in which we operate. For example, in the EU we are subject to the General Data Protection Act ("GDPR"), which applies to companies established in the EU or otherwise providing services or monitoring the behavior of people located in the EU and provides for significant penalties in case of non-compliance as well as a private right of action for individual claimants. GDPR will continue to be interpreted by EU data protection regulators, which have and may in the future require that we make changes to our business practices, and could generate additional costs, risks, and liabilities. See "Item 3 Legal Proceedings-Irish Data Protection Commission Inquiry Regarding Tinder's Practices." The EU is also considering an update to the GDPR, the Privacy and Electronic Communications (so-called "e-Privacy") Directive, and its AI Act, which may also require that we make changes to our business practices and could generate additional costs, risks and liabilities. Compliance with the various EU data transfer requirements, and the resulting interpretations, decisions, and guidelines from EU supervisory authorities, may require changes to our business practices and generate additional costs, risks, and liabilities.
At the same time, many countries in which we do business have already adopted or are also currently considering adopting privacy and data protection laws and regulations. For instance, multiple legislative proposals concerning privacy and the protection of user information have been introduced in the U.S. Congress. Various U.S. state legislatures are also considering privacy legislation in 2026 and beyond. Some U.S. state legislatures have already passed and enacted privacy legislation, most prominently the California Consumer
Privacy Act of 2018, which came into effect in 2020. Also, the California Privacy Rights Act of 2020 (the "CPRA") was enacted, which expanded the state's consumer privacy laws and created a new government organization, the California Privacy Protection Agency, to enforce the law. The majority of the CPRA's provisions entered into force on January 1, 2023, with a lookback to January 2022. In addition to California, comprehensive privacy laws have been passed in numerous other U.S. states, which have come into force over the last several years.
Additionally, the Federal Trade Commission has increased its focus on privacy and data security practices at digital companies, as evidenced by its levying of several large fines against digital companies for privacy violations in recent years. Finally, talks of a U.S. federal privacy law are ongoing in Congress, with multiple proposals being considered, and may lead to the passing of a new law in the coming years. In some cases, privacy and data protection requirements may be in tension with regulatory or public expectations relating to user safety, including efforts to prevent fraud, abuse, or other harmful activity. As a result, our attempts to design, implement, or expand safety-related features or controls may be subject to heightened scrutiny by privacy and data protection regulators, could require careful balancing of competing legal obligations, and may expose us to regulatory inquiries, enforcement actions, or limitations on how such features are deployed.
Concerns about harms, protection of minors, and the use of dating services and other platforms for illegal conduct, such as romance scams, promotion of false or inaccurate information, financial fraud, and sex-trafficking, have produced and could continue to produce future legislation or other governmental action. For example, the EU's Digital Services Act (the "DSA"), which went into effect in 2024, imposes additional requirements on technology companies around moderation, transparency, and the overall safety of their platforms. A number of jurisdictions, including India and the U.S. State of Colorado, have also instituted or are considering transparency and data disclosure obligations similar to those provided in the DSA. In addition, the UK's Online Safety Act imposes broad and similar requirements to those provided in the DSA. Of note, this law places new requirements on social media companies, including online dating companies, to protect children from being exposed to inappropriate material. Most of the provisions of this law went into effect in 2025.
Further, while we do not deliberately offer any of our services to minors, we are subject to an increasing number of age assurance requirements in various jurisdictions. For example, under the UK's Online Safety Act, we are required to demonstrate that our age assurance measures are "highly effective" at preventing access by underage users, including through the use of automated facial age estimation techniques. Similar provisions apply to our services under the Australian Social Media Minimum Age Act.
In the United States, government authorities, elected officials, and political candidates have called for amendments to Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (the "CDA") that aim to limit or remove protections afforded to technology companies. Additionally, there are multiple ongoing legal challenges to the CDA in U.S. federal courts, which could further alter its scope and applicability. If these legislative or judicial efforts succeed in weakening the protections afforded by the CDA, we may be required to make changes to our services that could restrict or impose additional costs upon the conduct of our business generally or otherwise expose us to additional liability. Any weakening of the CDA could also result in increased litigation costs, as well as a potentially increased chance of liability. See "Item 1A Risk factors-Risks relating to our business-Inappropriate actions by certain of our users could be attributed to us or may not be adequately prevented by us and consequently damage our brands' reputations, which in turn could adversely affect our business."
Our global businesses are subject to a variety of complex and continuously evolving income and other tax frameworks. For example, sweeping international tax reform known as Pillar Two has gone into effect in certain jurisdictions starting in 2024. The work is being undertaken by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's ("OECD") Inclusive Framework and organized by the OECD's Centre for Tax Policy and Administration. Pillar Two establishes a global minimum corporate tax rate of 15 percent for multinational enterprises with €750 million or more in annual revenue. Multinational enterprises will need to conform to the various rules in every Pillar Two country in which they operate. The Company has analyzed the impact of enacted legislation and determined it does not have a material impact to the income tax provision. The Company will continue to monitor future developments, including the recently introduced side-by-side safe harbor, which would exclude U.S. parented multinational enterprises from the scope of certain Pillar Two taxes.
As a provider of subscription services, we are also subject to laws and regulations in certain U.S. states and other countries that apply to our automatically-renewing subscription payment models. For example, the EU's Payment Services Directive (PSD2), which became effective in 2018, has impacted our ability to process auto-renewal payments and offer promotional or differentiated pricing for users in the EU. Also, Germany and France
have imposed additional obligations on providers of subscription services regarding the automatic renewal and cancellation of online subscriptions. Similar legislation or regulation, or changes to existing laws or regulations governing subscription payments, have been adopted in New York and California, or are being considered in many other U.S. states and in the UK. For example, New York's law requires disclosures related to when algorithms are used to set prices.
The EU, the U.S. Federal government, and many U.S. states are considering, or have already enacted, orders, legislation or regulations that would impact the use of AI by companies. For example, several states, including Colorado, California, and Utah, have already passed laws prescribing how AI can be used or what permissions must be granted before it can be used, and several more states are considering similar legislation. In addition, the Federal Trade Commission has a compulsory process in nonpublic investigations involving products and services that use or claim to be produced using generative AI or claim to detect its use. Further, the EU is enacting legislation aimed at updating liability rules, providing for specific liability related to AI or extending product liability to software and digital services. As we seek to further integrate AI technologies into our services, compliance with existing, new, and changing laws, regulations, and industry standards relating to AI may limit some uses of AI and may impose significant operational costs.
Finally, certain U.S. states and certain countries in the Middle East and Asia have laws that specifically govern dating services. At the same time, a number of U.S. states, the U.S. Congress, and some other countries such as Brazil are considering legislation that would directly regulate online dating services.
Human capital
Our people are critical to Match Group's continued success, and we work hard to attract, retain and motivate qualified talent. As of December 31, 2025, we had approximately 2,200 full-time employees and 9 part-time employees, which represents an approximate 12% year-over-year decrease in employee headcount. The decrease in headcount was largely due to the launch in 2025 of an enterprise-wide initiative to further leverage our portfolio approach and decrease operating costs by, among other things, reducing headcount, management layers, and duplication of certain functions across the Company. In 2026, we plan to focus recruiting on critical technical functions, such as software and product, while continuing to hire specialized talent to support our innovation and AI initiatives.
As of December 31, 2025, approximately 64%, 21%, 13%, and 2% of our employees reside in the North America, Asia-Pacific, EMEA, and Latin America regions, respectively, spanning 17 countries and reflecting various cultures, backgrounds, ages, sexes, sexual orientations, and ethnicities. Our global workforce is highly educated, with the majority of our employees working in engineering or technical roles that are central to the technological and service innovations that drive our business. Competition for software engineers and other technical staff has historically been intense, and we expect will remain so for the foreseeable future as we continue to recruit in the most competitive markets.
We have four business units supported by a central team. These four business units consist of Tinder, Hinge, Evergreen & Emerging, and Match Group Asia. The employee distributions in each business unit are 21%, 15%, 22%, and 20%, respectively, leaving 22% to support in a centralized capacity. These distributions generally align with the size and complexity of each business unit.
Our compensation and benefits programs are designed to attract and reward talented individuals who possess the skills necessary to support our business objectives, assist in the achievement of our strategic goals, and create long-term value for our stockholders. In addition to salaries, these programs (which vary by country/ region) include annual bonuses, stock-based awards, an employee stock purchase plan, retirement benefits, healthcare and insurance benefits, paid time off, family leave, flexible work schedules, mental health and wellness programs, and employee assistance programs. We are committed to providing competitive and equitable pay. We base our compensation on market data and conduct evaluations of our compensation practices at all levels on a regular basis to determine the competitiveness and fairness of our packages.
We are committed to empowering our people with career advancement and learning opportunities. Our talent, learning and development programs provide employees with resources to help achieve their career goals, build strong foundational technical and leadership skills, and contribute to and, where applicable, lead their organizations.
We regularly conduct anonymous surveys to seek feedback from our employees on a variety of topics, including but not limited to, confidence in company leadership, competitiveness of our compensation and benefits, career growth opportunities, and ways to improve our company's position as an employer of choice. The results are shared with our employees and reviewed by senior leadership, who analyze areas of progress or opportunity and prioritize actions and activities in response to this feedback to drive meaningful improvements in employee engagement.
We believe that our approach to talent has been instrumental in our growth and has made Match Group a desirable destination for current and future employees.
Additional information
Company website and public filings. Investors and others should note that we announce material financial and operational information to our investors using our investor relations website at https://ir.mtch.com, our newsroom website at https://mtch.com/news, Tinder's newsroom website at www.tinderpressroom.com, Hinge's newsroom website at https://hinge.co/press, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") filings, press releases, and public conference calls. We use these channels as well as social media to communicate with our users and the public about our company, our services, and other issues. It is possible that the information we post on social media could be deemed to be material information. Accordingly, investors, the media, and others interested in our company should monitor the websites listed above and the social media channels listed on our investor relations website in addition to following our SEC filings, press releases, and public conference calls.
Neither the information on our website, nor the information on the website of any Match Group business, is incorporated by reference into this report, or into any other filings with, or into any other information furnished or submitted to, the SEC.
The Company makes available, free of charge through its website, its Annual Reports on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, and Current Reports on Form 8-K (including related exhibits and amendments) as soon as reasonably practicable after they have been electronically filed with (or furnished to) the SEC.
Code of ethics. The Company's code of ethics applies to all employees (including Match Group's principal executive officer, principal financial officer, and principal accounting officer) and directors and is posted on the Company's website at https://ir.mtch.com under the heading of "Corporate Governance." This code of ethics complies with Item 406 of SEC Regulation S-K and the rules of The Nasdaq Stock Market LLC. Any changes to the code of ethics that affect the provisions required by Item 406 of Regulation S-K, and any waivers of such provisions of the code of ethics for Match Group's executive officers, senior financial officers, or directors, will also be disclosed on Match Group's website.
Item 1A. Risk Factors Risk Factor Summary
Our business is subject to a number of risks, including risks that may prevent us from achieving our business objectives or may adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations. These risks are discussed more fully below and include, but are not limited to:
Risk relating to our business
If we fail to retain existing users or add new users, or if our users do not convert to paying users, our revenue, financial results, and business may be significantly harmed.
The industry for social connection apps is competitive, with low switching costs and a consistent stream of new services and entrants, and innovation by our competitors may disrupt our business.
Our restructuring and reorganization activities may be disruptive to our operations and harm our business, and the investments we make in our business with the savings from such activities may not achieve the intended results.
Our growth and profitability rely, in part, on our ability to attract and retain users through cost-effective marketing efforts.
Distribution and marketing of, and access to, our services rely, in significant part, on a variety of third-party platforms, in particular, mobile app stores.
Inappropriate actions by certain of our users could be attributed to us or may not be adequately prevented by us and consequently damage our brands' reputations.
Dependence on our key personnel.
Our operations are subject to volatile global economic conditions, particularly those that adversely impact consumer confidence and spending behavior.
We have experienced, and in the future may again experience, operational and financial risks in connection with acquisitions.
We have incurred impairment charges related to our intangible assets in the past and may incur further impairment charges related to our goodwill and other intangible assets in the future.
We operate in various international markets, including certain markets in which we have limited experience, and some of our brands continue to seek to increase their international scope.
Foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations have adversely affected and may in the future adversely affect our results of operations.
Our user metrics and other estimates are subject to inherent challenges in measurement, and real or perceived inaccuracies in those metrics may adversely affect our business, results of operations, and reputation.
The limited operating history of our newer brands and services makes it difficult to evaluate our current business and future prospects.
Climate change may have a long-term impact on our business.
Risks relating to systems and infrastructures, data, security, privacy, and the use of AI
Our success depends, in part, on the integrity of our systems and infrastructures and on our ability to enhance, expand, and adapt these systems and infrastructures in a timely and cost-effective manner.
Our success depends, in part, on the integrity of third-party systems and infrastructure.
We may not be able to protect our systems and infrastructure from cyberattacks and may be adversely affected by cyberattacks experienced by third parties.
The success of our services will depend, in part, on our ability to access, collect, and use personal data about our users and subscribers.
Breaches or unauthorized access of personal and confidential or sensitive user information that we maintain and store.
Challenges with properly managing the use of AI.
Risks related to credit card payments, including data security breaches and fraud that we or third parties experience.
Risks related to our use of "open source" software.
Risks relating to legal and regulatory compliance
Our business is subject to complex and evolving U.S., foreign, and international laws and regulations, including with respect to data privacy, platform liability, and AI.
We may fail to adequately protect our intellectual property rights or may be accused of infringing the intellectual property rights of third parties.
Adverse outcomes in litigation to which we are subject.
Risks related to our taxation in multiple jurisdictions.
Risks relating to our indebtedness
Our indebtedness may affect our ability to operate our business, and we and our subsidiaries may incur additional indebtedness, including secured indebtedness.
We may not be able to generate sufficient cash to service all of our indebtedness and may be forced to take other actions to satisfy our obligations under our indebtedness that may not be successful.
Exchange of our outstanding exchangeable notes may dilute the ownership interests of existing stockholders or may otherwise depress the price of our common stock.
Risks relating to ownership of our common stock
Stockholders may experience dilution due to the issuance of additional securities in the future.
We cannot guarantee that our share repurchase programs will be fully consummated or enhance longterm stockholder value, and the price of our stock is subject to volatility.
There can be no assurance that we will continue to declare cash dividends.
Provisions in our certificate of incorporation and bylaws or Delaware law may discourage, delay, or prevent a change of control of our company or changes in our management.
Risks relating to our business
The size of our user base is critical to our success. Most of our brands monetize via a freemium model where the use of the service is free and a subset of the users pay for subscriptions or in-app purchases to access premium features. Our financial performance has thus been and will continue to be significantly determined by our success in adding and retaining users of our services and converting users into paying subscribers or in-app purchasers. We expect the size of our user base to fluctuate or decline periodically in various markets, including markets where we have achieved higher penetration rates. Furthermore, the size of our user base is also influenced by other factors, including competitive products and services, regional cultural preferences, and global and regional business, macroeconomic, and geopolitical conditions.
If people do not perceive our services to be useful or trustworthy or if people question the engagement level of our user base, we may be unable to attract or retain users. In recent years, demand for online dating
services has softened among younger generations, particularly among women in those generations, reflecting evolving preferences, shifting social behaviors, and changing expectations regarding digital interactions. As a result, we have begun to further leverage our existing capabilities as well as advances in technologies like AI to improve our existing services or introduce new features designed to better meet user expectations and to expand our penetration of what continues to be a large available new user market. In addition, we have recently undertaken several initiatives to strengthen the ecosystem of our Tinder service and combat declines in the number of Tinder users that occurred in recent years, including removing accounts that are not used for dating purposes and requiring further verification of the authenticity of certain user profiles, each of which has had, and may continue to have, a negative impact on the number of Tinder users. Further, in 2025, we shifted our overall portfolio strategy to place greater emphasis on improving user outcomes, particularly for women, with the goal of driving long-term revenue growth. This strategy includes introducing new features and experiences that we believe will improve user outcomes, some of which have in the past and in the future may again drive short-term decreases in both revenue and user numbers. Although we believe these actions, including the further implementation of technologies like AI, will ultimately enhance the health of our platforms and drive sustainable growth, including through an increase in the size of our user base, there can be no assurance that these initiatives will achieve their intended objectives or that any short-term declines in users or revenue will be offset over time.
Declines in the number of Tinder users have adversely affected our revenue and financial results in recent years and, in some cases, have rendered our services less attractive to both existing and potential users. Declines in the number of users for our Evergreen brands have also adversely affected our revenue and financial results in recent years and, in some cases, have rendered those services less attractive to both existing and potential users. Further, certain of our Emerging brands are re-focusing their business model on intentioned daters, which may have a negative impact on the number of users and revenue at those brands. If we are unable to maintain or increase the size of our user base in the future, our revenue and other financial results may be further adversely affected, including as a result of further rendering our services less attractive to both existing and potential users.
In addition, on February 22, 2026, Apple removed our Azar app from the Apple App Store following a February 6, 2026 update to Apple's App Review Guidelines, meaning the app is no longer available for download from the Apple App Store. While we continue to evaluate potential modifications to Azar in order to potentially gain reinstatement to the Apple App Store, there can be no assurance that any efforts to apply for reinstatement will be successful. If we are not successful in having the Azar app reinstated to the Apple App Store, we expect there would be a decrease in the size of our user base over time, but we are uncertain how quickly this decrease would occur and to what extent we will be able to offset this decrease with increases of users from other sources, such as on Android or the desktop and mobile web versions of Azar. Further, the size of Azar's user base may be adversely affected by the timing of our ability, if any, to gain reinstatement of Azar to the Apple App Store and the usefulness to users of any future version of the app that is able to gain reinstatement to the Apple App Store, if at all. Any of these impacts from the removal of the Azar app from the Apple App Store could have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
The industry for social connection apps is competitive, with a consistent stream of new services and entrants. Some of our competitors may enjoy better competitive positions in certain geographical regions, user demographics, or other key areas that we currently serve or may serve in the future. These advantages could enable these competitors to offer services that are more appealing to users and potential users than our services or to respond more quickly and/or cost-effectively than us to new or changing opportunities.
In addition, within the industry for social connection apps generally, costs for consumers to switch between services are low, and consumers have a propensity to try new approaches to connecting with people and to use multiple services at the same time. As a result, new services, entrants, and business models are likely to continue to emerge. It is possible that a new service could gain rapid scale at the expense of existing brands through harnessing a new technology, such as generative AI, or a new or existing distribution channel, creating a new or different approach to connecting people, introducing a new business model, or some other means. We may need to respond by introducing new services or features, which we may not do successfully. If we do not sufficiently innovate to provide new services, or improve upon existing services, each in ways that our users or
prospective users find appealing, we may be unable to continue to attract new users or continue to appeal to existing users in a sufficient manner.
Potential competitors also include larger companies, such as social media companies and operators of mobile operating systems and app stores, that could devote greater resources to the promotion or marketing of their services, take advantage of acquisition or other opportunities more readily, or develop and expand their services more quickly than we do. For example, Facebook offers a dating feature on its platform, which has grown dramatically in size supported by Facebook's massive worldwide user footprint. These social media and mobile platform competitors could use strong or dominant positions in one or more markets, coupled with ready access to existing large pools of potential users and personal information regarding those users, to gain competitive advantages over us, including by offering different features or services that users may prefer or offering their services to users at no charge, which may enable them to acquire and engage users at the expense of our user growth or engagement.
If we are not able to compete effectively against current or future competitors as well as other services that may emerge, or if our decisions regarding where to focus our investments are not successful long-term, the size and level of engagement of our user base may decrease, or we may convert a smaller proportion of our user base into paying users, which could have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
Over the past few years, we have implemented internal restructurings and reorganizations designed to reduce the size and cost of our operations, improve operational efficiencies and reprioritize investments, and accelerate our business growth and product development initiatives. From 2023 to 2025, we consolidated some of our legacy brands' platforms and, in 2025, we launched an enterprise-wide initiative to further leverage our portfolio approach and decrease operating costs by, among other things, reducing headcount and duplication of certain functions across the Company and sharing more operational infrastructure across brands. We may take similar steps in the future, including further reductions in headcount, as we seek to realize operating synergies, optimize our operations to achieve our financial objectives, respond to market forces, or better reflect changes in the strategic direction of our business, including as a result of apps or services that we discontinue.
Disruptions in operations may occur as a result of taking these actions, such as decreased productivity due to employee distraction, declines in employee morale, and unanticipated employee turnover, and could adversely affect our operating results. There can also be no assurance that these efforts, including efforts to reduce operating costs will be successful.
We have made, and plan to continue to make, substantial investments with the savings from our restructuring and reorganization activities in order to launch new features and services, increase marketing efforts, and expand into new geographic markets. If we do not invest these savings efficiently or effectively, or if these investments do not produce the intended results, we may not realize the expected benefits of our strategy. Further, our development efforts with respect to new services and features could distract management from current operations and divert capital and other resources from our more established offerings. Although we believe these investments will improve our financial results over the long term, they may negatively impact our short-term financial results, which may be inconsistent with the short-term expectations of our stockholders. Moreover, there can be no assurance that consumer demand for such initiatives will exist or be sustained at the levels that we anticipate, or that any of these initiatives will gain sufficient traction or market acceptance to generate sufficient revenue to offset any new expenses associated with these new investments. It is also possible that offerings developed by others will render any new services or features noncompetitive or obsolete. If we do not realize the expected benefits of these investments, our business, financial condition, and results of operations may be harmed.
Attracting and retaining users for our services involve considerable expenditures for online and offline marketing. Historically, we have had to increase our marketing expenditures over time in order to attract and
retain users and sustain our growth. We have also often increased marketing spending to support new feature or service launches or when smaller brands enter new geographic markets.
Evolving consumer behavior can affect the availability of profitable marketing opportunities. For example, as consumers communicate more via text messaging, messaging apps, and other virtual means, to continue to reach potential users and grow our businesses, we must continue to identify and devote more of our overall marketing expenditures to newer advertising channels, such as mobile, social media, and online video platforms. Generally, the opportunities in and sophistication of newer advertising channels are relatively undeveloped and unproven, and there can be no assurance that we will be able to continue to appropriately manage and fine-tune our marketing efforts in response to these and other trends in the advertising industry. Additionally, changes by large tech platforms, such as Apple and Google, to advertisers' ability to access and use unique advertising identifiers, cookies, and other information to acquire potential users, such as Apple's rules regarding the collection and use of identifiers for advertising ("IDFA"), have adversely impacted, and may continue to adversely impact, our advertising efforts. There can be no assurance that we will be able to continue to appropriately manage our marketing efforts in response to these and other trends in the advertising industry.
Any failure to do so could adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
We market and distribute our services through a variety of third-party distribution channels, including Instagram and Facebook, which has rolled out its own dating service. Our ability to market our brands on any given property or channel is subject to the policies and practices of the relevant third party. Certain platforms and channels have, from time to time, limited or prohibited advertisements for our services for a variety of reasons, including poor behavior by other industry participants. Further, certain platforms on which we market our brands may not properly monitor or ensure the quality of content located adjacent to or near our advertisements on such platforms, which may have a negative effect on consumers' perceptions of our own brands due to association with such content, which content our users may deem inappropriate. If this were to happen with a significant marketing channel and/or for a significant period of time, or if we were limited or prohibited from using certain marketing channels in the future, our business, financial condition, and results of operations could be adversely affected.
Additionally, our mobile applications are almost exclusively accessed through the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. Both Apple and Google believe they have broad discretion to unilaterally change, and from time to time have changed, their policies regarding their mobile operating systems and app stores in ways that may limit, eliminate, or otherwise interfere with our ability to distribute or market our applications through their stores, our ability to update our applications, including to make bug fixes or other feature updates or upgrades, the features we provide, our ability to access native functionality or other aspects of mobile devices, and our ability to access information about our users that they collect. To the extent either or both of them do so, our business, financial condition, and results of operations have in the past been, and could again in the future be, adversely affected. For example, on February 22, 2026, Apple removed our Azar app from the Apple App Store following a February 6, 2026 unilateral update to Apple's App Review Guidelines, making the app no longer available for download from the Apple App Store. While we plan to evaluate potential modifications to Azar in order to gain reinstatement to the Apple App Store, the outcome of our efforts to apply for reinstatement will depend, in part, on decisions by Apple over which they believe they have broad discretion, including how they interpret their own guidelines and the potential for further unilateral changes to those guidelines by Apple.
There can be no assurance that any efforts to apply for reinstatement will be successful.
Further, we are generally required to share with Apple and Google a portion of the revenue we receive from purchases of subscriptions and á la carte features offered through our mobile applications. These costs are expected to remain a significant operating expense for the foreseeable future. If the amount these platform providers charge increases, it could have a material impact on our results of operations. In particular, our partnership with Google entered into in 2024 is set to expire in the first quarter of 2027. If Google does not reduce its standard in-app purchase fees, whether voluntarily or involuntarily, before that partnership expires, we expect that the fees paid to Google for transactions processed either through their in-app payment system or
through alternative payment options on Android, will increase. Apple and Google may also change their fee structures or add fees associated with access to and use of their operating systems, which could have an adverse impact on our business. There has been litigation, as well as governmental inquiries over app store fees, and Apple or Google could modify their platforms in response to such litigation and inquiries in a manner that may harm us. See "Item 7-Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations-Management Overview-Trends affecting our business-In-App Purchase Fees" below for additional information.
Apple and Google are also known to retaliate against application developers who publicly or privately challenge their app store rules and policies, and such retaliation has and could adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
Users of our services have been, and may in the future be, physically, financially, emotionally, or otherwise harmed by other individuals that such users met or may meet through the use of one of our services. When one or more of our users suffers or alleges to have suffered any such harm, or where similar events affecting users of our competitors' services occur, we have in the past, and could in the future, experience negative publicity, including regarding our industry generally, or legal action that could damage our reputation and our brands. For example, we are currently defending lawsuits in Colorado and Texas brought by multiple plaintiffs alleging harm by other users they met through our services.
In addition, the reputations of our brands have been, and may in the future be, adversely affected by the actions of our users that are deemed to be hostile, offensive, defamatory, inappropriate, untrue, or unlawful, especially if such hostile, offensive, or inappropriate use is well-publicized. Furthermore, like with many Internet platforms, users have in the past and may in the future use our services for illegal or harmful purposes rather than for their intended purposes, such as romance scams, promotion of false or inaccurate information, financial fraud, trafficking, and recruitment to terrorist groups. Our systems and processes that monitor and review the appropriateness of the content accessible through our services have at times failed, and may again in the future fail, to detect instances of inappropriate use of our services, and our users have in the past, and could in the future, engage in activities that violate our policies prohibiting illegal, offensive and inappropriate use of our services. Such bad actors may also use emerging technologies, such as AI, to engage in such activities, which would make it more difficult for us and other users to detect and prevent such negative behavior. Additionally, we cannot control how our users engage if and when they meet in person after connecting on our services. We may also fail to respond expeditiously or appropriately to objectionable practices by users, or to otherwise address user concerns, which could erode confidence in our brands. Furthermore, to the extent that our users or any potential users do not feel safe using our services, our reputation has been and could be further negatively affected, which may in turn materially adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Our future success will depend upon our continued ability to identify, hire, develop, motivate, and retain highly skilled individuals across the globe, with the continued contributions of our senior management being especially critical to our success. Competition for well-qualified employees across Match Group and its various businesses is intense, particularly in the case of senior leadership and technology roles, and our continued ability to compete effectively depends, in part, upon our ability to attract new employees and retain current employees. Periods of intense competition for talent in particular fields can lead to increased costs as we seek to offer competitive compensation to recruit and retain highly skilled employees. In addition to intense competition for talent, workforce dynamics are constantly evolving, such as recent broad shifts to hybrid work models. In addition, changes we make to our current and future work environments or benefits policies may not meet the needs or expectations of our employees or may be perceived as less favorable compared to other companies' policies, which could negatively impact our ability to hire and retain qualified personnel. If we do not manage changing workforce dynamics effectively, it could materially adversely affect our culture, reputation, and operational flexibility. Further, evolving state and federal laws, rules and regulations regarding immigration or that are intended to limit or curtail the enforceability of non-competition, employee non-solicitation,
confidentiality and similar restrictive covenant clauses could make it more difficult to hire or retain qualified personnel.
Our ability to attract, retain, and motivate employees may also be adversely affected by stock price volatility. In particular, declines in our stock price, or lower stock price performance relative to competitors for talent, have reduced the retentive value of our stock-based awards, which can impact the competitiveness of our compensation. Further, in the past we have had, and may continue to have for the foreseeable future, significant amounts of stock-based compensation expense, which adversely affects our results of operations, due to the competitive market for executive and technical talent, which includes competitors that are much larger than us. This competition, combined with lower stock price performance relative to competitors, results in increased costs in the form of cash and stock-based compensation, which has in the past, and may continue to have in the future, a dilutive impact on our existing stockholders.
Effective succession planning is also important to our future success. At times we have experienced significant changes to our senior leadership team. For example, we appointed a new Chief Executive Officer and a new Chief Financial Officer in February and March 2025, respectively. Those changes and any future significant leadership changes or senior management transitions involve inherent risk. If we fail to ensure the effective transfer of senior management or other institutional knowledge as well as smooth transitions involving senior management and the effect of those transitions on our employee population and associated employee culture and morale more generally, our ability to execute short and long term strategic, financial, and operating goals, as well as our business, financial condition, and results of operations generally, could be adversely affected.
Adverse macroeconomic conditions, including lower consumer confidence, changes to fiscal and monetary policy, the availability and cost of credit, and weakness in the economies in which we and our users are located, have adversely affected and may in the future adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations. In recent years, the United States, Europe and other key global markets have experienced historically high levels of inflation, which have impacted, among other things, employee compensation expenses. If inflation rates rise again or continue to remain historically high or further increase in those locations where inflation rates remain elevated, it will likely affect our expenses, and may reduce consumer discretionary spending, which could affect the buying power of our users and lead to a reduced demand for our services, particularly for à la carte features or at brands that serve consumers with less discretionary income. Other events and trends that could result in decreased levels of consumer confidence and discretionary spending include a general economic downturn, recessionary concerns, high unemployment levels, and increased interest rates, as well as any sudden disruption in business conditions. Additionally, geopolitical developments, such as wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, tensions with China, trade wars, changes to immigration policies, climate change, global health pandemics, and the responses by central banking authorities to control inflation, can increase levels of political and economic unpredictability globally and increase the volatility of global financial markets.
We have made acquisitions in the past and continue to seek potential acquisition candidates. We may experience operational and financial risks in connection with historical and future acquisitions if we are unable to:
properly value prospective acquisitions, especially those with limited operating histories;
fully identify potential risks and liabilities associated with acquired businesses;
accurately project the future financial condition and results of operations of acquired businesses;
successfully integrate the operations, financial, and other administrative systems of the acquired businesses with our existing operations and systems;
retain or hire senior management and other key personnel at acquired businesses; and
successfully support the acquired businesses in executing on strategic plans.
Furthermore, we may not be successful in addressing other challenges encountered in connection with our acquisitions and the anticipated benefits of one or more of our acquisitions may not be realized. For example, on February 22, 2026, Apple removed our Azar app, which was acquired in 2021, from the Apple App Store. For additional information, see "Item 7-Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations-Management Overview-Trends affecting our business-MG Asia." In addition, such acquisitions can result in material diversion of management's attention or other resources from our existing businesses. The occurrence of any of these events could have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
We acquire other companies and intangible assets and may not realize all the economic benefit from those acquisitions, which could cause an impairment of goodwill or intangible assets. We assess goodwill and indefinite-lived intangible assets for impairment annually, or more frequently if an event occurs or there is a change in circumstances that indicates the carrying value may not be recoverable, including, but not limited to, a decline in our stock price and market capitalization, reduced future cash flow estimates, or slower growth rates in our industry. In the past we have recorded significant charges in our consolidated financial statements related to impairment of intangible assets, and may again in the future be required to record similar charges during the period in which any impairment of our goodwill or intangible assets is determined, which would negatively affect our results of operations. For example, as a result of Apple's removal of Azar from the Apple App Store, we may in the future need to record a charge related to impairment of intangible assets or goodwill. For additional information regarding Azar, see "Item 7-Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations-Management Overview-Trends affecting our business-MG Asia" and "Note 16-Subsequent Events" to the consolidated financial statements included in "Part II, Item 8-Consolidated Financial Statements and Supplementary Data." For further information regarding goodwill and intangible assets generally, see "Note 4-Goodwill and Intangible Assets" to the consolidated financial statements included in "Part II, Item 8-Consolidated Financial Statements and Supplementary Data."
Operating internationally, particularly in countries in which we have limited experience, exposes us to a number of risks in addition to those otherwise described in this annual report, such as:
operational and compliance challenges caused by distance, language, and cultural differences;
difficulties in staffing and managing international operations, including as a result of differing laws relating to employee benefits and management;
differing levels of social and technological acceptance of our services or lack of acceptance of them generally;
actions by governments or others to restrict access to our services or censor content on our services, such as how Saudi Arabia and Turkey blocked or throttled access to Azar in recent years, whether these actions are taken for political reasons, in response to decisions we make regarding governmental requests or content generated by people on our services, or otherwise;
differing and potentially adverse tax laws;
compliance challenges due to different laws and regulatory environments, particularly in the case of privacy, data security, data sovereignty, AI, intermediary or platform liability, age assurance and minor protection, content moderation, and consumer protection;
competitive environments that favor local businesses or local knowledge of such environments;
limitations on the level of intellectual property protection or our ability to enforce our rights; and
trade sanctions, political unrest, terrorism, war, and epidemics, or the threat of any of these events.
The occurrence of any or all of the events described above have in the past and could again in the future adversely affect our international operations, which could in turn adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
We operate in various international markets, including jurisdictions within the EU and Asia. During periods of a strengthening U.S. dollar, our international revenues have been and will be reduced when translated into
U.S. dollars. In addition, as foreign currency exchange rates fluctuate, the translation of our international revenues into U.S. dollar-denominated operating results affects the period-over-period comparability of such results and will also result in foreign currency exchange gains and losses. For additional information, see "Item 7
-Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations-Non-GAAP Financial Measures-Effects of Changes in Foreign Exchange Rates on Revenue," and "Item 7A-Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk-Foreign Currency Exchange Risk."
We regularly review metrics, including our Payers, Revenue Per Payer, and Monthly Active User ("MAU") metrics, to evaluate growth trends, measure our performance, and make strategic decisions. We may also seek to introduce new metrics from time to time to further evaluate the success of our growth strategies. These metrics are calculated using internal company data and have not been validated by an independent third party. While these metrics are based on what we believe to be reasonable estimates for the applicable period of measurement, there are inherent challenges in measuring how our services are used across large populations globally. Further, we have in the past implemented, and may from time to time in the future implement, new methodologies for calculating these metrics, which may result in the metrics changing or decreasing from prior periods or not being comparable to prior periods. Our metrics may also differ from estimates published by third parties or from similarly titled metrics of our competitors due to differences in methodology or data used.
Moreover, when we make an acquisition, the methodologies that were historically used by the acquired company to calculate certain metrics may be different from our methodologies in calculating similar metrics, and it may take time to align the methodologies. Conversely, we may face difficulties in calculating these metrics over time in the event we determine to cease developing and/or offering a service.
Our MAU metric may also be impacted by our information quality efforts, which are our overall efforts to reduce malicious activity on our platforms, including false, spam and malicious automation accounts in existence on our platforms. We make efforts to regularly deactivate false, spam and malicious automation accounts that violate our terms of service, and exclude these users from the calculation of MAU; however, we will not succeed in identifying and removing all false, spam and malicious accounts from our platforms. We are continually seeking to improve our ability to estimate the total number of false, spam or malicious accounts, and we intend to continue to make such improvements, but there is no guarantee as to the accuracy of these estimates. In addition, users are not prohibited from having accounts on more than one of our services, and we treat multiple accounts held by a single person as multiple users for purposes of calculating Payers and MAU.
Errors or inaccuracies in our metrics or data could also result in incorrect business decisions and inefficiencies. If stockholders do not perceive our metrics to be accurate representations of our user base, or if we discover material inaccuracies in our metrics, our business, results of operations and reputation may be adversely affected.
We seek to tailor each of our brands and services to meet the preferences of specific geographies, demographics, and other communities of users. Building a given brand or service is generally an iterative process that occurs over a meaningful period of time and involves considerable resources and expenditures. In addition, the historical growth rates of newer brands and services may not be an indication of future growth rates for such brands or similar brands. As a result, we have encountered, and may continue to encounter, risks and difficulties as we build and expand our newer brands and services. The failure to successfully scale these brands and
services and address these risks and difficulties could adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
Climate change may have an increasingly adverse impact on our business. Its impact on our infrastructure worldwide and its potential to increase political instability in regions where we, our users and our vendors do business, may disrupt our business and cause us to experience higher attrition, losses and costs to maintain or resume operations. For example, certain of our facilities may be vulnerable to the impacts of extreme weather events. We have offices in Texas, New York, California, British Columbia, France, Japan and South Korea, any of which could be impacted by extreme weather events, such as hurricanes, tsunamis, fires, earthquakes, tornadoes and flooding. Extreme heat and wind coupled with dry conditions in California have in the past, and may again in the future, lead to power safety shut offs due to wildfire risk, which can have adverse implications for our California offices, including impairing the ability of our employees to work effectively. Although we maintain insurance coverage for a variety of property, casualty and other risks, the types and amounts of insurance we obtain vary depending on availability and cost. Some of our policies have large deductibles and broad exclusions, and our insurance providers may be unable or unwilling to pay a claim. Losses not covered by insurance may be large, which could harm our results of operations and financial condition.
Risks relating to systems and infrastructures, data, security, privacy, and the use of AI
To succeed, our systems and infrastructures must perform well on a consistent basis. We have experienced and may from time to time experience system interruptions that make some or all of our systems or data unavailable and prevent our services from functioning properly for our users. Any such interruption could arise for any number of reasons, including as a result of our recent consolidation of some of our legacy brands' platforms, which may create a single point of failure in which a failure in a single platform could cause an interruption to multiple services at the same time, or as a result of actions by government agencies. Further, our systems and infrastructures are vulnerable to damage from cyberattacks, fire, power loss, telecommunications failures, computer viruses, software bugs, acts of God, and similar events. While we have backup systems in place for certain aspects of our operations, not all of our systems and infrastructures are fully redundant, disaster recovery planning is not sufficient for all eventualities, and our property and business interruption insurance coverage may not be adequate to fully compensate us for any losses that we may suffer. Any interruptions or outages, regardless of the cause, could negatively impact our users' experiences with our platforms, tarnish our brands' reputations, and decrease demand for our services, any or all of which could adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
We also continually work to expand and enhance the efficiency and scalability of our technology and network systems to improve the experience of our users, accommodate substantial increases in the volume of traffic to our various platforms, ensure acceptable load times for our services, and keep up with changes in technology and user preferences. Any failure to do so in a timely and cost-effective manner could adversely affect our users' experience with our various services, thereby negatively impacting the demand for our services, and could increase our costs, either of which could adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
In addition, from time to time we have and may continue to, augment and enhance, or transition to other, enterprise resource planning, human resources, financial, or other systems. Such actions may cause us to experience difficulties in managing our systems and processes, which could disrupt our operations, the management of our finances, and the reporting of our financial results, which, in turn, may result in our inability to manage the growth of our business and to accurately forecast and report our results, each of which could adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
We rely on third parties, primarily data center and cloud-based, hosted web service providers, such as Amazon Web Services, as well as third party computer systems, service providers, software providers, and broadband and other communications systems, in connection with the provision of our services generally, as
well as to facilitate and process certain transactions with our users, including to operate facial or liveness verification features at many of our brands. We have limited control over these third parties and their operations, and such third party systems are increasingly complex. Further, we have experienced outages by our service providers in the past, and expect to experience more outages in the future. As AI adoption increases, we are also seeing many existing service providers incorporate AI into their existing services via the rollout of new features, which may not have adequate AI governance processes or controls. Further, many AI service providers have limited operating histories and therefore often have unsophisticated systems and governance processes and are at increased risk of failure. Any (i) changes in service levels at our data centers or hosted web service providers, (ii) interruptions, outages, or delays in our systems or those of our third party providers, (iii) deterioration in the performance of these systems, (iv) cyber or similar attacks on these systems, (v) discontinuation of services, for example from a software provider, for which there is no readily available alternative or (v) need to migrate our business to different third-party data centers or hosted web service providers as a result of any such problems, could impair our ability to provide our services or process transactions with our users, which would adversely impact our business, financial condition, and results of operations. For additional information, see "Item 1-Business-Dependencies on services provided by others-Cloud and Other Services."
We are regularly under attack by perpetrators of random or targeted malicious technology-related events, such as cyberattacks, computer viruses, worms, bot attacks or other destructive or disruptive software, distributed denial of service attacks. Such attacks are becoming increasingly sophisticated, and some actors are using AI technology to launch more automated, targeted and coordinated attacks. Increasing use of agentic AI systems by both users and malicious actors also poses increasing threats, including as a result of poorly coded or programmed systems. While we have invested, and continue to invest, in the protection of our systems and infrastructure, in related personnel and training, and in employing a data minimization strategy, where appropriate, there can be no assurance that our efforts will prevent significant breaches in our systems or other such events from occurring.
We have experienced cybersecurity incidents in the past, including incidents arising from both external threats and the error or intentional misconduct of employees, contractors or other third-party service providers. For example, in January 2026, a threat group attacked our corporate network utilizing social engineering tactics to gain limited unauthorized access to certain internal corporate tools and limited user data. Although we do not believe such incidents have had a material adverse effect on our business or operating results to date, there can be no assurance that future incidents will not be material, whether individually or in the aggregate. Certain aspects of effective cybersecurity depend on our employees, contractors and/or other third-party service providers safeguarding our sensitive information and adhering to our security policies and access control mechanisms, and failures in these areas may expose us to increased risk.
It also may be difficult to determine the best way to investigate, mitigate, contain, and remediate the harm caused by a cyber incident. Such efforts may not be successful, and we may make errors or fail to take necessary actions. It is possible that threat actors may gain undetected access to other networks and systems after establishing a foothold on an internal system. Cyber incidents and attacks can have cascading impacts that unfold with increasing speed across our internal networks and systems. In addition, it may take considerable time for us to investigate and evaluate the full impact of incidents, particularly for sophisticated attacks. These factors may inhibit our ability to provide prompt, full and reliable information about an incident.
Cyber incidents affecting us or third-party service providers that provide services to us, host our systems, or process data on our behalf, as well as incidents affecting third parties that do not directly involve us but result in compromised user credentials or data reused across multiple online services, could disrupt our operations, damage our brand and reputation, subject us to regulatory investigations, enforcement actions, litigation, fines, or other liabilities, and reduce user trust in online services generally, including our services. Any of these events could have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
We rely on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store to distribute and, to a lesser extent, monetize our mobile applications. Our users and subscribers engage with these platforms directly and may be required to use their payment systems for various transactions. As a result, to the extent subscribers use these platforms' payment systems, the platforms receive and do not share with us key user data that we would otherwise receive if we transacted with our users and subscribers directly. If these platforms continue to or increasingly limit, eliminate, or otherwise interfere with our ability to access, collect, and use key user data, our ability to identify and communicate with a meaningful portion of our user and subscriber bases and provide services to help keep our users safe may be adversely impacted. If so, our customer relationship management efforts, our ability to reach new segments of our user and subscriber bases and the population generally, the efficiency of our paid marketing efforts, the rates we are able to charge advertisers seeking to reach users and subscribers on our various properties, our ability to comply with applicable law, and our ability to identify and exclude users and subscribers whose access would violate applicable terms and conditions, including underage individuals and bad actors, may be negatively impacted, and our business, financial condition, and results of operations could be adversely affected.
We receive, process, store, and transmit a significant amount of personal user and other confidential or sensitive information, including, without limitation, credit card information, biometric information, location data, and user-to-user communications. We also enable our users to share their personal information with each other. In some cases, we engage third party service providers to store or process this information. We continuously develop and maintain systems to protect the security, integrity, and confidentiality of this information, but we have experienced past incidents and cannot guarantee that inadvertent or unauthorized use or disclosure will not occur in the future or that third parties will not gain unauthorized access to, or will not use for unauthorized purposes, this information despite our efforts. For example, in January 2026, a threat group attacked our corporate network utilizing social engineering tactics to gain limited unauthorized access to certain internal corporate tools and limited user data. When such events occur, we may not be able to remedy them, and we may be required by an increasing number of laws to notify regulators and individuals whose personal information was processed, used, or disclosed without authorization. We may also be subject to claims against us, including government enforcement actions, fines, and litigation, and have to expend significant capital and other resources to mitigate the impact of such events, including developing and implementing protections to prevent future events of this nature from occurring. When breaches of security (or the security of our service providers) occur, the perception of the effectiveness of our security measures, the security measures of our service providers, and our reputation may be harmed, we may lose current and potential users, and our various brands' reputations and competitive positions may be tarnished, any or all of which might adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
We currently incorporate AI technologies into certain of our services and are working to further integrate generative AI technologies into our services, which integrations may become important to our operations over time. For example, we have announced the launch of several AI-powered features or experiences, such as enhanced recommendation systems, a new interactive matching feature on Tinder, and personalized prompts for first messages on Hinge. Our competitors or other third parties may incorporate generative AI technologies into their services more quickly or more successfully than us, which could impair our ability to compete effectively and adversely affect our results of operations. Additionally, AI algorithms and training methodologies may be flawed, and datasets may be overbroad, insufficient, contain inaccurate or biased information, or infringe third-party rights. If the content or recommendations that AI applications assist in producing are, or are alleged to be, deficient, inaccurate, misleading, offensive, biased, infringing, unauthorized, or otherwise improper or harmful, we may face reputational consequences or legal liability, and our business, financial condition, and results of operations may be adversely affected. Further, the use of AI has been known to result in, and may in the future result in, cybersecurity incidents that implicate the personal data of end users of AI-
enhanced services. Any such cybersecurity incidents related to our use of AI technologies could adversely affect our reputation and results of operations. AI technologies also present emerging ethical issues, and if our use of AI technologies becomes controversial, we may experience brand or reputational harm, competitive harm, or legal liability. The rapid evolution of AI technologies will require the dedication of significant resources to develop, test, and maintain, including to further implement AI technologies ethically in order to minimize unintended harmful impact. While we aim to deploy AI technologies responsibly and attempt to identify and mitigate ethical and legal issues presented by their use, we may be unsuccessful in identifying or resolving issues before they arise.
We may also face challenges with the use of AI technologies by employees or contractors through error or intentional misconduct. We have contracted with certain AI service providers to allow employees and contractors to make use of such services in order to enhance their work product and level of efficiency, and we have developed and implemented safeguards and policies regarding the proper use of such services. However, we rely on our employees and contractors to adhere to these policies, including what type of Company information may be entered into AI services, and to ensure they do not make use of generative AI services or accounts other than those made available by us for Company-related tasks. Any failure by employees or contractors to properly or exclusively use such Company-provided AI services, whether intentional or unintentional, may compromise the availability or confidentiality of Company-owned information and could adversely affect our business or results of operations.
Further, the legal and regulatory landscape surrounding AI technologies is rapidly evolving and uncertain, including in the areas of AI governance, intellectual property, discrimination, cybersecurity, and privacy and data protection. For example, use of AI technologies may complicate or impede our ability to own or control intellectual property we develop. Compliance with existing, new, and changing laws, regulations, and industry standards relating to AI technologies may limit some uses of AI technologies, impose significant operational costs, and limit our ability to develop, deploy, or use AI technologies. Further, the continued integration of any AI technologies into our services may result in new or enhanced governmental or regulatory scrutiny. Failure to appropriately respond to this evolving landscape may result in legal liability, regulatory action, or brand and reputational harm.
We accept payment from our users primarily through credit card transactions and certain online payment service providers, and in 2025, began implementing alternative payment options outside of the payments systems provided by Apple and Google in their platforms, which have led to increased levels of credit card transactions. When we or a third party experiences a data security breach involving credit card information, affected cardholders will often cancel their credit cards. In the case of a breach experienced by a third party, the more sizable the third party's customer base and the greater the number of credit card accounts impacted, the more likely it is that our users would be impacted by such a breach. To the extent our users are affected by such a breach experienced by us or a third party, such users would need to be contacted to obtain new credit card information and process any pending transactions. It is likely that we would not be able to reach all affected users, and even if we could, some users' new credit card information may not be obtained and some pending transactions may not be processed, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
Even if our users are not directly impacted by a given data security breach, they may lose confidence in the ability of service providers to protect their personal information generally, which could cause them to stop using their credit cards online or choose alternative payment methods that are less convenient or more costly for us or otherwise restrict our ability to process payments without significant user effort.
Additionally, if we fail to adequately prevent fraudulent credit card transactions, we may face litigation, fines, governmental enforcement action, civil liability, diminished public perception of our security measures, significantly higher credit card-related and remediation costs, or refusal by credit card processors to continue to process payments on our behalf, any of which could adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
We use open source software in connection with a portion of our operations and services and expect to continue to use open source software in the future. Under certain circumstances, some open source licenses require a user of the licensed code to provide the user's own proprietary source code to third parties upon request, or prohibit a user from charging a fee to third parties in connection with the use of the user's proprietary code. While we try to insulate our proprietary code from the effects of such open source license provisions, we cannot guarantee that we will be successful, that all open source software is reviewed prior to use, that our developers have not incorporated open source software into our operations or services, or that they will not do so in the future. Accordingly, we may face claims from others challenging our use of open source software, claiming ownership of, or seeking to enforce the license terms applicable to such open source software, including by demanding release of the open source software, derivative works or our proprietary source code that was developed or distributed with such software. Such claims could also require us to purchase a commercial license or require us to devote additional research and development resources to change our software, any of which would have a negative effect on our business and results of operations. In addition, if the license terms for the open source code change, we may be forced to re-engineer our software or incur additional costs. Additionally, the terms of many open source licenses to which we are subject have not been interpreted by U.S. or foreign courts. There is a risk that open source software licenses could be construed in a manner that imposes unanticipated conditions or restrictions on our ability to conduct our operations or market or provide our services.
In addition, we increasingly rely on open source and other publicly available datasets in developing, training and improving AI and machine learning models, including large language models. To the extent such datasets are not properly licensed, contain content subject to intellectual property or other legal restrictions, or are otherwise used in a manner inconsistent with applicable license terms or laws, the resulting models and related outputs could be subject to claims of infringement, misappropriation or other violations and could require us to modify, retrain or discontinue use of affected models, limit the functionality of our products, obtain costly licenses, or result in litigation, regulatory inquiries, reputational harm or other adverse consequences.
We also develop technology that we make available via open source to third parties that can use this technology for use in their own products and services. We may not have insight into, or control over, the practices of third parties who may utilize such technologies. As such, we cannot guarantee that third parties will not use such technologies for improper purposes, including through the dissemination of illegal, inaccurate, defamatory or harmful content, intellectual property infringement or misappropriation, furthering bias or discrimination, cybersecurity attacks, data privacy violations, other activities that threaten people's safety or well-being on- or offline, or to develop competing technologies. Such improper use by any third party could adversely affect our reputation, business, financial condition or results of operations, or subject us to legal liability.
Risks relating to legal and regulatory compliance
We are subject to a variety of laws and regulations in the United States and abroad that involve matters that are important to or may otherwise impact our business. These laws and regulations involve matters including, among others, antitrust and competition, broadband internet access, online commerce, advertising, user privacy, data protection, intermediary liability, protection of minors, biometrics, consumer protection, general safety, sex-trafficking, taxation, money laundering, accessibility, intellectual property, AI, and securities law compliance. See "Item 1-Business-Government regulation" for additional information. These U.S. federal, state, and municipal and foreign and international laws and regulations, which in some cases can be enforced by private parties in addition to government entities, are constantly evolving and subject to change. As a result, the application, interpretation, and enforcement of these laws and regulations are often uncertain, particularly in the rapidly evolving industry in which we operate, and may be interpreted and applied inconsistently from state
to state and country to country. These laws and regulations, any proposed or new legislation or regulation, and any associated inquiries, investigations, or other government actions, may be costly to comply with, may in the future impose new liabilities or eliminate existing legal protections, and have in the past, and may in the future, delay or impede the development of new services, require changes to or cessation of certain business practices, result in negative publicity, increase our operating costs, require significant management time and attention, result in geographic bans or removal of some of our apps from Apple or Google platforms, and subject us to remedies that may harm our business, including fines or modifications to existing business practices. For example, see "Item 3 Legal Proceedings-Irish Data Protection Commission Inquiry Regarding Tinder's Practices."
In particular, the adoption of any laws or regulations that adversely affect the popularity or growth in use of the internet or our services, including laws or regulations that undermine open and neutrally administered internet access, could decrease user demand for our service offerings and increase our cost of doing business. For example, in 2017, the Federal Communications Commission adopted an order reversing net neutrality protections in the United States, including the repeal of specific rules against blocking, throttling, or "paid prioritization" of content or services by internet service providers. Further, recent U.S. court decisions have opened the door to U.S. states each adopting their own laws or regulations adding, eliminating or prohibiting net neutrality protections, leading to a potential patchwork of differing requirements across the U.S., which may be costly or difficult to comply with. To the extent internet service providers engage in such blocking, throttling, "paid prioritization" of content, or similar actions, our business, financial condition, and results of operations could be adversely affected.
We rely heavily upon our trademarks and related domain names and logos to market our services and to build and maintain brand loyalty and recognition. We also rely upon patent, copyright, and trade secret protections to protect our proprietary technologies relating to our services. We depend on a combination of laws as well as contractual restrictions with employees, customers, suppliers, and others, to establish and protect our intellectual property rights. For example, we have generally registered trademarks and continue to apply to register and renew, or secure by contract where appropriate, trademarks as they are developed and used, and reserve, register, and renew domain names as we deem appropriate. Effective trademark protection may not be available or sought in every country in which our services are made available, and contractual disputes may affect the use of marks governed by private contract. Similarly, not every variation of a domain name may be available or registered, even if available.
We generally seek to apply for patents or other similar statutory protections as and when we deem appropriate, based on then-current facts and circumstances, and will continue to do so in the future. No assurances can be given that any patent or copyright application we have filed or will file will result in a patent or copyright registration being issued, or that any existing or future patent or copyright registrations will afford adequate protection against competitors and similar technologies. In addition, no assurances can be given that third parties will not create new products, services or methods that achieve similar results without infringing upon patent or copyright registrations we own.
Despite these measures, our intellectual property rights may still not be protected in a meaningful manner, challenges to contractual rights could arise, third parties could copy or otherwise obtain and use our intellectual property without authorization, our existing trademark, patent, copyright or trade secret rights can be, and, on rare occasions, have been, determined to be invalid or unenforceable, or laws and interpretations of laws regarding the enforceability of existing intellectual property rights may change over time in a manner that provides less protection. The occurrence of any of these events could tarnish our brands' reputations, limit our ability to market them, or impede our ability to effectively compete against competitors with similar technologies, any of which could adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
Further, from time to time, we have been subject to legal proceedings and claims regarding intellectual property, including claims of alleged infringement of trademark, copyright, patent, and other intellectual property rights held by third parties. In addition, from time to time we have engaged in litigation, and may continue to do so in the future, to enforce and protect our intellectual property rights, or to determine the validity and scope of proprietary rights claimed by others. Any litigation of this nature, regardless of outcome,
could result in substantial costs and diversion of management and technical resources, any of which could adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
We are, and from time to time may become, subject to litigation and various legal proceedings, including litigation and proceedings related to employment matters, intellectual property matters, and privacy, cybersecurity, and consumer protection laws, as well as stockholder derivative suits, class action lawsuits, mass arbitrations, and other matters. Such litigation and proceedings may involve claims for substantial amounts of money or for other relief, result in significant costs for legal representation, arbitration fees, or other legal or related services, or might necessitate changes to our business or operations. The defense of these actions is time consuming and expensive. We evaluate these litigation claims and legal proceedings to assess the likelihood of unfavorable outcomes and to estimate, if possible, the amount of potential losses. Based on these assessments and estimates, we may establish reserves and/or disclose the relevant litigation claims or legal proceedings, as and when required or appropriate. These assessments and estimates are based on information available to management at the time of such assessment or estimation and involve a significant amount of judgment. As a result, actual outcomes or losses could differ materially from those envisioned by our current assessments and estimates. Our failure to successfully defend or settle any of these litigation claims or legal proceedings could result in liability that, to the extent not covered by our insurance, could have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations. See "Item 3-Legal Proceedings" for additional information.
We are a U.S.-based multinational company subject to tax in multiple U.S. and foreign tax jurisdictions. Significant judgment is required in determining our global provision for income taxes, deferred tax assets or liabilities, and in evaluating our tax positions on a worldwide basis. While we believe our tax positions are consistent with the tax laws in the jurisdictions in which we conduct our business, it is possible that these positions may be challenged by jurisdictional tax authorities, which may have a significant impact on our global provision for income taxes.
Tax laws are being re-examined and evaluated globally. New laws and interpretations of the law are taken into account for financial statement purposes in the quarter or year that they become applicable. Tax authorities are increasingly scrutinizing the tax positions of companies. Many countries in the European Union, as well as a number of other countries and organizations such as the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and the European Commission, are actively considering changes to existing tax laws that, if enacted, could increase our tax obligations in countries where we do business. These proposals include changes to the existing framework to calculate income tax, as well as proposals to change or impose new types of non-income taxes, including taxes based on a percentage of revenue. If the U.S. or other foreign tax authorities change applicable tax laws, our overall taxes could increase, and our business, financial condition or results of operations may be adversely impacted.
Risks relating to our indebtedness
As of December 31, 2025, we had total debt outstanding of approximately $4.0 billion and borrowing availability of $499.4 million under our revolving credit facility.
Our indebtedness could have important consequences, such as:
limiting our ability to obtain additional financing to fund working capital needs, acquisitions, capital expenditures, or other debt service requirements or for other purposes;
limiting our ability to use operating cash flow to pursue acquisitions or invest in other areas, such as developing new brands, services, or exploiting business opportunities;
restricting our business operations due to financial and operating covenants in the agreements governing our and certain of our subsidiaries' existing and future indebtedness, including certain
covenants that restrict the ability of our subsidiaries to pay dividends or make other distributions to us; and
exposing us to potential events of default (if not cured or waived) under financial and operating covenants contained in our or our subsidiaries' debt instruments that could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
Although the terms of our credit agreement and the indentures related to our senior notes contain restrictions on the incurrence of additional indebtedness, these restrictions are subject to a number of qualifications and exceptions, and additional indebtedness incurred in compliance with these restrictions could be significant. If new debt is added to our and our subsidiaries' current debt levels, the risks described above could increase. Further, as financial markets have become more costly to access due to increased interest rates or other changes in economic conditions, our ability to raise additional capital may be negatively impacted, and any refinancing or restructuring could be at higher interest rates and may require us to comply with more onerous covenants, which could further restrict our business operations.
Our ability to satisfy our debt obligations will depend upon, among other things:
our future financial and operating performance, which will be affected by prevailing economic conditions and financial, business, regulatory, and other factors, many of which are beyond our control; and
our future ability to borrow under our revolving credit facility, the availability of which will depend on, among other things, our complying with the covenants in the then-existing agreements governing our indebtedness; and
changes in interest rates, to the extent we borrow under our revolving credit facility.
There can be no assurance that our business will generate sufficient cash flow from operations, or that we will be able to draw under our revolving credit facility or otherwise, in an amount sufficient to fund our liquidity needs.
If our cash flows and capital resources are insufficient to service our indebtedness, we may be forced to reduce or delay capital expenditures, sell assets, seek additional capital, or restructure or refinance our indebtedness. These alternative measures may not be successful and may not permit us to meet our scheduled debt service obligations. Our ability to restructure or refinance our debt will depend on the condition of the capital markets and our financial condition at such time. Any refinancing of our debt could be at higher interest rates and may require us to comply with more onerous covenants, which could further restrict our business operations. In addition, the terms of existing or future debt agreements may restrict us from adopting some of these alternatives.
We are obligated as a guarantor under the indentures relating to the outstanding exchangeable notes issued by certain of our subsidiaries. The exchange of some or all of the exchangeable notes may dilute the ownership interests of our stockholders to the extent we deliver shares of our common stock upon exchange. While outstanding hedges relating to the exchangeable notes are expected to reduce the potential dilutive effect on our common stock upon any exchange and/or offset any cash payment the issuers of the exchangeable notes would be required to make in excess of the principal amount of the exchanged notes, outstanding warrants relating to the exchangeable notes have a dilutive effect to the extent that the market price per share of our common stock exceeds the strike price of the warrants. Any sales in the public market of our common stock issuable upon exchange of any exchangeable notes could adversely affect prevailing market prices of our common stock. In addition, the existence of the exchangeable notes may encourage short selling of our common stock by market participants because the exchange of the exchangeable notes could be used to satisfy short positions. In addition, the anticipated exchange of the exchangeable notes could depress the price of our common stock.
Risks relating to ownership of our common stock
Our dilutive securities consist of vested options to purchase shares of our common stock, restricted stock unit awards, equity awards denominated in the equity of our non-public subsidiaries but settleable in shares of our common stock, the exchangeable notes, and the exchangeable note warrants.
These dilutive securities are reflected in our dilutive earnings per share calculation contained in our financial statements for fiscal years ended December 31, 2025, 2024, and 2023. For more information, see "Note 9-Earnings per Share" to the consolidated financial statements included in "Part II, Item 8-Consolidated Financial Statements and Supplementary Data." Intra-quarter movements in our stock price could lead to more or less dilution than reflected in these calculations.
Although our board of directors has authorized share repurchase programs that do not have an expiration date, the programs do not obligate us to repurchase any specific dollar amount or acquire any specific number of shares of our common stock. The specific timing and amount of any share repurchases will depend on prevailing share prices, general economic and market conditions, company performance, and other considerations. We cannot guarantee that the repurchase programs will be fully consummated or enhance long-term stockholder value. Further, our stock has experienced substantial price volatility in the past and may continue to do so in the future. Price volatility may cause the average price at which we repurchase our stock in a given period to exceed the stock's price at a given point in time. The repurchase programs could also affect the trading price of our stock and increase volatility, and any announcement of a termination of the repurchase programs may result in a decrease in the trading price of our stock. In addition, our repurchase program will diminish our cash reserves.
The payment of any cash dividends in the future is subject to continued capital availability, market conditions, applicable laws and agreements, and our board of directors continuing to determine that the declaration of dividends are in the best interests of our stockholders. The declaration and payment of any dividend may be discontinued or reduced at any time, and there can be no assurance that we will declare cash dividends in the future in any particular amounts, or at all. Dividend payments could also affect the trading price of our stock and increase volatility, and any announcement of a termination of our dividend payments may result in a decrease in the trading price of our stock. In addition, dividend payments will diminish our cash reserves.
Delaware corporate law and our certificate of incorporation and bylaws contain provisions that could discourage, delay, or prevent a change in control of our company or changes in our management that the stockholders of our company may deem advantageous, including provisions which:
authorize the issuance of "blank check" preferred stock that our board of directors could issue to increase the number of outstanding shares and to discourage a takeover attempt;
establish a classified board of directors, as a result of which our board is divided into classes, which prevents stockholders from electing an entirely new board of directors at an annual meeting until our 2028 annual meeting of stockholders, at and after which time, our entire board of directors will be declassified;
prohibit stockholder action by written consent, thereby requiring all actions to be taken at a meeting of the stockholders;
eliminate the ability of our stockholders to call special meetings of stockholders;
provide that certain litigation against us can be brought only in Delaware (subject to certain exceptions); and
provide that the board of directors is expressly authorized to make, alter, or repeal our bylaws.
Any provision of our certificate of incorporation, our bylaws, or Delaware law that has the effect of delaying or deterring a change in control could limit the opportunity for our stockholders to receive a premium for their shares of our common stock, and could also affect the price that some investors are willing to pay for our common stock.
Item 1B. Unresolved Staff Comments
None.
Item 1C. Cybersecurity
Risk Management and Strategy
Match Group maintains an information security program designed to identify, protect against, detect, respond to, and manage reasonably foreseeable cybersecurity risks and threats. Our information security teams, led by our Senior Vice President, Security Engineering, is responsible for assessing and managing our exposure to information security risks, including by:
Implementing and enforcing physical, operational and technical security policies, procedures and controls;
Conducting, and engaging independent third-party experts to conduct, when appropriate, internal and external security assessments and audits, including assessments of our cybersecurity policies, standards, processes, and practices, and the security posture of third-party vendors and partners; and
Collaborating with our development teams to engineer and integrate security as part of the product development lifecycle.
We have implemented cybersecurity controls to attempt to detect and address threats arising from our use of third-party service providers. We have established incident response and recovery plans across Match Group's businesses, and we have conducted cybersecurity awareness training for our employees, including incident response personnel and senior management. For key third parties, security risk assessments are conducted during onboarding, contract renewal, and when an increased risk profile is identified. We also require specified security controls and other responsibilities from our service providers and we investigate security incidents affecting them as deemed necessary.
Our policies, standards, processes and practices for assessing, identifying, and managing material risks from cybersecurity threats are integrated into our overall risk management program and are based on frameworks established by the International Organization for Standardization ("ISO") and other applicable industry standards. This does not imply that we meet any particular technical standards, specifications or requirements, only that we use ISO and other applicable industry standards as guides to help us identify, assess and manage cybersecurity risks relevant to our business. We have also obtained various industry certifications and attestations that demonstrate our dedication to protecting the data our users entrust to us, including for Tinder and Hinge.
We conduct periodic reviews and tests of our information security program and leverage audits by our internal audit team and testing by our red team. When appropriate, we employ external services to conduct tabletop exercises, penetration and vulnerability testing, simulations, and other exercises to evaluate the effectiveness of our information security program and improve our security measures and planning across Match Group's businesses. The results of these assessments are reported to the Audit Committee of our Board of Directors.
We have not identified risks from cybersecurity threats, including as a result of any previous cybersecurity incidents, that have materially affected or are reasonably likely to materially affect us. However, we face ongoing risks from cybersecurity threats that, if realized, are reasonably likely to materially affect our business strategy, results of operations, or financial condition, and our systems periodically experience directed attacks intended to lead to interruptions and delays in our service and operations as well as loss, misuse or theft of personal
information (of third parties, employees and our users) and other data, confidential information or intellectual property. Any significant disruption to our service or unauthorized access to our systems could result in a loss of users and adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations. Further, a penetration of our systems or a third-party's systems or other misappropriation or misuse of personal information could subject us to business, regulatory, litigation and reputation risk, which could have a negative effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations. While Match Group maintains cybersecurity insurance, the costs related to cybersecurity threats or disruptions may not be fully insured. For additional discussion of cybersecurity risks, see "Item 1A Risk factors-Risks relating to our business-We may not be able to protect our systems and infrastructure from cyberattacks and may be adversely affected by cyberattacks experienced by third parties."
Governance
Our Board of Directors, in coordination with the Audit Committee, oversees our management of cybersecurity risk, including our annual risk assessment, where we assess key risks within the company, including security and technology risks and cybersecurity threats. The Audit Committee directly oversees our cybersecurity program. The Audit Committee receives regular cybersecurity updates from management. Cybersecurity reviews by the Audit Committee or the Board of Directors occur regularly, including as determined to be necessary or advisable.
Our cybersecurity program is managed by our SVP, Security Engineering, who reports to our Chief Legal Officer. Our SVP, Security Engineering, has over 20 years of industry experience, including serving in similar roles leading and overseeing cybersecurity programs at other public companies. Our information security program encompasses partnerships among teams that are responsible for cyber governance, prevention, detection and remediation activities within our cybersecurity environment. Team members have relevant certifications, educational and industry experience, including experience holding similar positions at other large technology companies. The information security teams provide regular reports to senior management and other relevant teams on various cybersecurity threats, assessments and findings. Our information security leadership reports directly to the Audit Committee or the Board of Directors on our cybersecurity program and efforts to prevent, detect, mitigate, and remediate issues. We also maintain an escalation process to inform senior management and the Board of Directors of material issues and make determinations with respect to any required disclosures.
Item 2. Properties
Match Group believes that the facilities for its management and operations are generally adequate for its current and near-term future needs. Match Group's facilities, whether owned or leased, are in various cities in the United States and abroad, and generally consist of executive and administrative offices and data centers. We also believe that, if we require additional space, we will be able to lease additional facilities on commercially reasonable terms.
Item 3. Legal Proceedings Overview
We are, and from time to time may become, involved in various legal proceedings arising in the normal
course of our business activities, such as trademark and patent infringement claims, trademark oppositions, and consumer or advertising complaints, as well as stockholder derivative actions, class action lawsuits, mass arbitrations, and other matters. The amounts that may be recovered in such matters may be subject to insurance coverage. The litigation matters described below involve issues or claims that may be of particular interest to our stockholders, regardless of whether any of these matters may be material to our financial position or operations based upon the standard set forth in the SEC's rules.
Consumer Class Action Litigation Challenging Tinder's Age-Tiered Pricing
On May 28, 2015, a putative state-wide class action was filed against Tinder in state court in California. See
Allan Candelore v. Tinder, Inc., No. BC583162 (Superior Court of California, County of Los Angeles). The complaint
principally alleges that Tinder violated California's Unruh Civil Rights Act by offering and charging users over a certain age a higher price than younger users for subscriptions to its premium Tinder Plus service. Plaintiff seeks damages in an unspecified amount. On July 15, 2024, the court granted Plaintiff's motion to certify a class based upon California Tinder Plus and Tinder Gold subscribers age 29 and over. On January 17, 2025, the court denied our motion to compel the class and the plaintiff to arbitration. We filed a Notice of Appeal on January 24, 2025, and on April 18, 2025, the court stayed the case pending our appeal. On September 10, 2025, the parties agreed to settle the case on a class-wide basis for a payment of $60.5 million, and on January 13, 2026, the court preliminarily approved the settlement agreement. The settlement amount was placed into escrow in January 2026, pending the final court approval.
Irish Data Protection Commission Inquiry Regarding Tinder's Practices
On February 3, 2020, we received a letter from the Irish Data Protection Commission (the "DPC") notifying us that the DPC had commenced an inquiry examining Tinder's compliance with GDPR, focusing on Tinder's processes for handling access and deletion requests and Tinder's user data retention policies. On January 8, 2024, the DPC provided us with a preliminary draft decision alleging that certain of Tinder's access and retention policies, largely relating to protecting the safety and privacy of Tinder's users, violate GDPR requirements. We filed our response to the preliminary draft decision on March 15, 2024. We believe we have strong defenses to these claims and will defend vigorously against them.
FTC Investigation of Certain Subsidiary Data Privacy Representations
On March 19, 2020, the FTC issued an initial Civil Investigative Demand ("CID") to the Company requiring us to produce certain documents and information regarding the allegedly wrongful conduct of OkCupid in 2014 and our public statements in 2019 regarding such conduct and whether such conduct and statements were unfair or deceptive under the FTC Act. On May 26, 2022, the FTC filed a Petition to Enforce Match Civil Investigative Demand, and on June 20, 2025, the Court ordered that the FTC's Petition be granted in part and denied in part. See FTC v. Match Group, Inc., No. 1:22-mc-00054 (District of Columbia). We believe we have strong defenses to any allegations of wrongdoing and intend to defend vigorously against them.
Meslage Securities Class Action And Related Derivative Actions
On November 25, 2024, a Match Group stockholder filed a complaint in the Central District of California against Match Group, Inc., its Chief Executive Officer, and its President and Chief Financial Officer seeking to recover unspecified monetary damages on behalf of a putative class of acquirers of Match Group securities between May 2, 2023 and November 6, 2024. See Sébastian Meslage v. Match Group, Inc. et al., No: 2:24-
cv-10153-MEMF-PVC (Central District of California). The complaint alleges that Match Group materially understated the challenges affecting its Tinder business and, as a result, understated the risk that Tinder's monthly active user count would not recover by the time the Company reported its financial results for the third fiscal quarter of 2024. On July 24, 2025, the court appointed Evan Weisz as the lead plaintiff. On September 22, 2025, the plaintiff voluntarily dismissed without prejudice the Meslage putative class action as to all defendants.
In addition, in December 2024, purported Match Group stockholders filed two derivative complaints in the Central District of California (nominally on behalf of the Company) against certain of Match Group, Inc.'s current and former executive officers and members of its board of directors, alleging violations of the federal securities laws and breach of fiduciary duty stemming from the same or similar purported misrepresentations as the securities class action. See Hollin v. Kim, et al., No. 2:24-CV-10776 (Central District of California), and Roy v Kim, et al., No. 2:24-cv-11007 (Central District of California). In August 2025, a third derivative complaint was filed in the Central District of California alleging similar causes of action. See Habedus v. Kim, et al., No. 2:25-cv-07171 (Central District of California). On September 9, 2025, the court dismissed the Habedus derivative action with prejudice as to all defendants. As to the remaining derivative actions, we believe that we have strong defenses to the allegations and will defend vigorously against them.
Netherlands Privacy Class Action
On December 17, 2024, a writ of summons was filed against MTCH Technologies Services Limited, an indirect subsidiary of the Company, and Match Group, Inc. in the District Court of Amsterdam. Among other things, the lawsuit alleges that defendants unlawfully collected, processed, and shared Dutch Tinder users' personal data without proper consent in violation of GDPR and Dutch consumer protection laws. See Stichting Take Back Your Privacy v. MTCH Technologies Services Limited et al. (Amsterdam). The lawsuit purports to
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Match Group Inc. published this content on April 30, 2026, and is solely responsible for the information contained herein. Distributed via Public Technologies (PUBT), unedited and unaltered, on April 30, 2026 at 23:49 UTC.