Bumble (BMBL) Q3 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

Motley Fool Transcribing11-06

Image source: The Motley Fool. DATEWednesday, Nov. 5, 2025, at 4:30 p.m. ETCALL PARTICIPANTSChief Executive Officer — Whitney Wolfe HerdChief Financial Officer — Kevin CookOperatorNeed a quote from a...

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Email [email protected]RISKSTotal Revenue Decline — Kevin Cook reported, “Total revenue for the third quarter was $246 million, a 10% decline.”Bumble App Revenue Decline — Kevin Cook stated, “Bumble app revenue was $199 million, also down 10%.”Lower Member Registrations — Whitney Wolfe Herd explained, “Member registrations are lower in the near term.”Q4 Revenue Guidance Implies Larger Decline — Kevin Cook guided, “For Q4, we expect total revenue in the range of $216 million to $224 million, representing a year-over-year decline of approximately 17% to 14%.”TAKEAWAYSTotal Revenue -- $246 million for Q3 2025, representing a 10% year-over-year decline as reported by Kevin Cook.Bumble App Revenue -- $199 million, down 10% year-over-year for Q3 2025, according to Kevin Cook.The Due App and Other Revenue -- $47 million, declining 11% year-over-year for Q3 2025, per Kevin Cook.Foreign Exchange Impact -- FX contributed $4 million to total revenue for Q3 2025.Total Expenses -- $183 million in Q3 2025, per Kevin Cook.Operating Expenses (non-GAAP) -- $163 million in non-GAAP operating expenses for Q3 2025, down 15% year-over-year, mainly due to reduced marketing and headcount restructuring.Cost of Revenue -- $69 million, representing 28% of revenue, down approximately one percentage point year-over-year, with direct billing initiatives cited as a factor (non-GAAP, Q3 2025).Product Development Expense -- $25 million (non-GAAP), up 14% year-over-year for Q3 2025.Sales and Marketing Expense -- $32 million, down 50% year-over-year, attributed to a shift in marketing strategy (non-GAAP, Q3 2025).G&A Expense -- $37 million, up 38% year-over-year for Q3 2025, driven by indirect tax adjustments from prior periods.Net Income -- $52 million reported for the quarter.Adjusted EBITDA -- $83 million in adjusted EBITDA for Q3 2025, up 1% year-over-year, with margin at 34% compared to 30% previously; includes a negative $12 million impact from indirect tax obligations.Cash Flow From Operations -- $77 million in Q3 2025, compared to $93 million in the prior-year quarter.Cash and Equivalents -- $308 million at the end of Q3 2025.Term Loan Repayment -- $25 million repaid in Q3 2025 as planned.Q4 Revenue Guidance -- $216 million to $224 million in total revenue for Q4, implying a 17%-14% year-over-year decline.Q4 Bumble App Revenue Guidance -- $176 million to $182 million, a 17%-14% year-over-year decrease for Q4 2025.Q4 Adjusted EBITDA Guidance -- Adjusted EBITDA is expected to be $61 million to $65 million, with margins of approximately 28%-29% for Q4.Marketing Strategy -- Kevin Cook cited “a significant year-over-year reduction in marketing expense,” with ongoing focus on targeting approved members.Personnel Strategy -- Kevin Cook mentioned selective headcount additions in AI product and engineering roles following Q2 restructuring.Brand Campaign Awareness -- The “For the Love of Love” campaign resulted in a four percentage point improvement in awareness among U.S. single women aged 22-45 in Q3 2025.Direct Billing Progress -- Nearly all U.S. members now have access to some form of direct billing, and testing continues.TRA Liability Elimination -- Kevin Cook announced the company will purchase all parties' outstanding TRA rights for $186 million. He stated, “The transaction eliminates the company's TRA liability in full.”Product Investments -- Ongoing focus on AI-driven capabilities, improved trust and safety, and member quality, supported by the Be Hi Fit framework.SUMMARYBumble (BMBL 23.43%) management described the quarter as a period of accelerated strategic transformation, emphasizing intentional decisions to prioritize higher member quality at the expense of near-term user and revenue metrics. The company completed a $186 million purchase and elimination of TRA liabilities, which was highlighted as a significant improvement to the balance sheet and cash flow. Product enhancements included new trust and safety features, richer profile tools, and expansion of direct billing, all designed to address user pain points and lay the groundwork for future monetization and retention. The introduction of a new AI-first tech stack and a forthcoming standalone AI product were presented as central to the company's long-term differentiation and innovation roadmap. Management advised investors to expect further sequential revenue and user declines in Q4, but noted that foundational metrics such as retention and average revenue per paying user are showing positive early trends.Kevin Cook attributed roughly 80% of the paying user decline in Q3 2025 to “trust and safety work and a reduction in our marketing spend.”Whitney Wolfe Herd described the ongoing efforts as “deliberately trading near-term volume for quality,” with future growth potential linked to these completed resets.Adjusted EBITDA margin temporarily increased to 34% for Q3 2025, though management cautioned it will revert to more typical levels as investments and marketing resume.Retention improved, and Bumble saw an 11% rise in average revenue per paying user for Q3 2025 within the Bumble app.The Be Hi Fit framework focuses on converting improved members into approved members, who “monetize at more than twice the rate of improved members.”Efficient capital allocation and maintenance of high cash balances were flagged as priorities, with Kevin Cook highlighting the flexibility to invest in strategic priorities while preserving profitability.INDUSTRY GLOSSARYBe Hi Fit Framework: Bumble Inc.'s internal categorization system designed to evaluate and upgrade member profiles from “improved” to “approved,” with an emphasis on trust, verification, and platform engagement, underpinning monetization strategy.TRA (Tax Receivable Agreement): Post-IPO contractual obligation for Bumble Inc. to make payments to certain pre-IPO equity holders based on realized tax benefits, now fully eliminated with the repurchase transaction.Full Conference Call TranscriptWhitney Wolfe Herd: Hello, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. Helping people find love has been Bumble's focus since day one. What made Bumble successful from the start was simple but powerful. We built trust with women. That trust became our moat. It created a healthier, more balanced member base that drove engagement, retention, growth, and a global brand. Historically, most dating products skewed male, leading to an uneven experience where women often felt overwhelmed and disengaged. Bumble changed that by putting women in control. Creating trust, balance, and a higher quality member base that produced better outcomes for everyone.Today, we have the brand long identified with putting women first and a deep understanding of what women want from love and connection. This brand identification is perhaps our biggest strategic asset. That's why we've returned to that core. Winning with women. Because we believe that when women feel safe, everything else improves. Connection becomes more meaningful. Engagement When I returned as CEO in March, the first thing we did was listen. Deeply and intentionally to women. What we heard across markets was consistent. People want to trust who they're meeting. They want better quality matches. And they want more authenticity.Those insights became the foundation of the quality over quantity reset I've been talking about over the past two quarters. Every step we have taken since our product updates, investments in AI, and every marketing move ties back to one goal. Making Bumble a better experience for women. Because when women are happy, the entire ecosystem thrives. That is the focus driving our transformation into the love company, expanding beyond dating to build the global platform for meaningful relationships. Romantic and platonic. At its heart, what women seek on Bumble is love, and we are building the product, the technology, and the brand to deliver it.Since our last call, we've executed this reset with real focus and urgency while also delivering on our financial commitments. For the third quarter, our results are near the high end of our guidance range for both revenue and adjusted EBITDA. We are also seeing the expected short-term effects of prioritizing quality over quantity. Member registrations are lower in the near term. But we believe that the foundation of the business is getting stronger. Early indicators suggest that retention is improving and our people are growing. The entire team is heads down, laser-focused on executing this plan. The early signs we're seeing just months into our reset reinforce our confidence in our strategy.We look forward to sharing more details as we progress further and have more data and visibility into trends. We are working aggressively to improve the mix of engaged, approved members on our platform. Reduce the noise, and build a higher quality community. Our Be Hi Fit framework is how we are measuring our progress against these goals. We are emphasizing members who are verified, thoughtful, and focused on finding love and connection. While filtering out low-intent profiles and bad actors. This transformation isn't about growth for growth's sake. It's about growing right. We're deliberately trading near-term volume for quality because that's what we believe builds long-term trust, stronger engagement, and sustainable growth.Consistent with this goal, in August, we launched a major update to BumbleDate focused on trust and safety. This was more than a feature release. It was a foundational step forward. These updates were built directly from what we heard from members. Men told us they weren't getting enough meaningful interactions. Women told us the profiles they were seeing didn't give them the context that they needed to take action confidently.Kevin Cook: So we built tools to close the gap.Whitney Wolfe Herd: We introduced richer profiles that let people show more of who they are. We added stronger verification features, like phone number verification. And we launched our new coaching hub, filled with content from relationship experts and a help hub to reduce the time it takes to get our members to resolutions for any issues. They are designed to create trust. The problem we're solving for isn't a demand problem. The desire for love and relationships is universal. To deliver on that desire, we have built a product roadmap that is defined by fixing our members' pain points. Let me spend a moment on exactly how we think about this. It starts with strengthening the foundation.It's really wanting more trust, safety, and authenticity. The August update landed this first piece. We're building tools that guide members to put their best selves forward and engage with confidence. Between now and the spring, we'll maintain a steady drumbeat of releases. Tangible improvements that reflect what we're hearing from our community. Individually, the tools and features we introduced may not sound game-changing, but taken together, they're the critical building blocks for addressing members' pain points. The second largest complaint members have is that they're not seeing who they want to see. This is about the fundamental technology that any dating app has to get right.A major portion of the work we are doing on the UI side is building better signal capturing so that we can supercharge our matching and recommendation engine. Right now is an incredible time in technology to be doing this. AI makes so much more possible. It unlocks the ability to reinforce and enhance our matching engine in ways we could never before. These AI-driven improvements won't necessarily be visible to members, but they will deliver what they want, more quality matches. How does that work? To get good matches, you need great signals. Great signals come from stronger profiles. This is why we are starting at this foundation.More robust, dynamic profiles give both sides of the marketplace more info to react to. This gives our matching engine the high-grade fuel it needs to deliver the best possible experience and outcomes faster. As we get these pieces right, you will see more member-facing innovation. More social tools, for instance, which are coming next year. And behind the scenes, better customer service. We've already made a lot of improvements in response times and problem resolution through automation over the past year. We believe there's a lot more to accomplish here. Together, all of these components drive the experience of our members today and those yet to join our platform. We're being really thoughtful about how we're sequencing our work.And what we're putting out there and when. Which brings me to the final pain point. Members want all of the above. And they want the outcome faster. Our AI-first cloud-native platform will become the engine of Bumble's future. Helping us personalize at scale. Enhance safety further, and continuously improve the experience for our members. This new platform is expected to give us the innovation speed and flexibility to adapt faster than ever before. It's how we'll turn insights from member behavior into meaningful real-time improvement. We see this new platform as the unlock to restoring long-term product-led growth. In parallel, we're building something entirely new, a standalone AI product that will become part of our portfolio.We believe it will be unlike anything else in the market. Powered by our deep understanding of human connection, and supported by the robust data, brand, and infrastructure that already set Bumble apart. We have begun internal testing as well as getting direct feedback on the concept to ensure we get this right. While we continue to enhance BumbleDate, we're also broadening our ecosystem through Bumble BFF, built on our modern Geneva platform. The new BFF app combines friend matching with group management and event planning. It's the next step in transforming Bumble from a dating app into a full platform for connection, and it is already performing well. With increased retention compared to the old app.Operator: Our primary audience in the near term is Gen Z and millennial women.Whitney Wolfe Herd: The same demographic that powers Bumble Date. In 2026, we will expand this even further, adding group and community discovery so people can more easily find their people. And form real friendships offline. BFF is both a growth opportunity and a launch pad for new social experiences that we can apply across our portfolio. Further strengthening Bumble's position as the place women choose for friendship, love, and belonging. In Q3, we introduced our \"For the Love of Love\" campaign, a celebration of real success stories and real connection. It's a reminder of why people come to Bumble in the first place. To find love in all of its forms. The reaction has been encouraging.With a four percentage point improvement in awareness among single women in the US aged 22 to 45. Our goal is simple. To be the most trusted, highest quality, women-first platform in the world. The brand people turn to when they're ready for something real. Across Bumble Date, the Due,Operator: BFF,Whitney Wolfe Herd: we're more differentiated and AI-driven innovations. We are building a connected portfolio of love. We believe the work we are doing today is strengthening our business and setting the stage for durable, profitable growth. We are proud of the progress we are making. Confident in our strategy and focused on execution. We have conviction in where we're headed, and we are so excited for the quarters ahead. Thank you so much for your continued support. And now I will turn it over to our new CFO, Kevin Cook, who I am happy to introduce to you all today.Kevin has already brought fresh perspective and strong operational discipline to the company, and I am so excited to have him here to round out our outstanding new senior leadership team.Kevin Cook: Thank you, Whitney, and good afternoon, everyone. In my first months at Bumble, I've been impressed by the strength of our brand, the capability of our teams, and the clarity of our vision. As Whitney mentioned, our third-quarter results reflect our quality-first prioritization and ongoing strategic reset. We remain focused on improving member experience. Strengthening the foundation of the business, and maintaining financial discipline. While some of these actions create near-term headwinds, they're designed to position Bumble for healthier growth and stronger monetization over time. Together with continued product innovation and market expansion, we believe this is the path to durable long-term revenue growth. I will focus my comments on our third-quarter performance before sharing guidance for the fourth quarter.Our third-quarter results came in ahead of our expectations. But also were heavily impacted by our transformational work. So I think it's useful to start with context on the status of this work and the related puts and takes into what we're reporting today as well as our outlook for Q4. First, with respect to revenue, during Q3 we launched our August product updates focused on trust and safety. As Whitney has explained, we are committed to improving member base quality. And we expected these updates to result in increased attrition of targeted member segments over the near term.That attrition is reflected in our monthly active user counts with the associated reduction in paying users creating a headwind to revenue this quarter. Since the Trust and Safety rollout occurred relatively late in the third quarter, results for Q4 will reflect a comparatively larger full-quarter impact both from a paying user count and revenue perspective. The second factor is marketing. We discussed last quarter how we largely paused marketing spend and in particular stopped most performance marketing as we shifted our marketing posture to align to product launches and highly targeted user acquisition. Overall, the shift drove a significant year-over-year reduction in marketing expense and a corresponding benefit to adjusted EBITDA.This reduction is inclusive of the cost of our \"For the Love of Love\" brand campaign launched in August. At the same time, the reduction in marketing substantially contributed to the decline in registrations. Active members and payers. The current performance marketing strategy has begun to show encouraging results with targeted audiences. Attracting more approved, ready members into the ecosystem. While marketing spend is not expected to return to pre-transformation levels, as we are focused on efficiency, we do expect some spend to return moving forward. The third factor to discuss relates to personnel. At the end of the second quarter, we restructured our headcount to align with our product and marketing strategies.We noted at the time that we expected to reinvest much of the savings from headcount reductions and we are already making selective headcount additions primarily in AI product and engineering roles that support further innovation. As a result, we saw modest benefits to our Q3 expenses related to headcount. Consistent with the tech and product-led organization, this controlled hiring will continue into Q4 and beyond. Hopefully, this discussion is helpful in shaping everyone's understanding of our performance as we execute on our strategic priorities. I'll now take you through the numbers. Unless stated otherwise, results are presented on a GAAP basis and all comparisons are year-over-year.Total revenue for the third quarter was $246 million, a 10% decline from a year ago. Foreign currency exchange rates contributed $4 million to revenue in the quarter. Bumble app revenue was $199 million, also down 10% year-over-year. The Due app and other revenue declined 11% to $47 million. Total expenses for Q3 were $183 million. On a non-GAAP basis, which excludes stock-based compensation and other non-cash and non-recurring items, operating expenses were $163 million, a decline of 15% driven primarily by a decrease in marketing activity as well as the headcount restructuring previously discussed. Turning quickly to our key expense categories, which we report on a non-GAAP basis.Cost of revenue was $69 million, representing 28% of revenue, down approximately one percentage point year-over-year with incremental improvements due in part to early testing of direct billing initiatives. Product development expense was $25 million, an increase of 14% year-over-year. Sales and marketing expense was $32 million, down 50% year-over-year. G&A was $37 million, an increase of 38% year-over-year driven primarily by the cumulative adjustments for certain indirect tax obligations related to prior periods. Net income was $52 million. Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter was $83 million, up 1%, representing a margin of 34%, up from 30% in the year-ago period.Please note that included within adjusted EBITDA is a negative impact of $12 million related to prior period indirect tax obligations. Nonetheless, adjusted EBITDA margin is temporarily elevated due to the factors I described, including the cadence of both marketing spend and our organizational realignment. We expect our margin to revert closer to historical norms as we complete technical and specialized hiring, reinstitute brand-targeted user acquisition spend, and invest in updated product in our new tech platform. Q3 cash flow from operations was $77 million compared to $93 million in the year-ago period. And we ended the quarter with $308 million in cash and equivalents. As planned, we repaid $25 million of our term loan in the third quarter.Looking ahead to the fourth quarter, as previously contemplated, our outlook reflects our expectation for continued attrition in active and paying members, as we maintain higher quality standards across the platform. With a full quarter of impact planned from the initiatives implemented in August. While Q4 will be challenging, we currently anticipate that the rate of sequential paying user declines will improve beginning in early 2026. As we largely complete our trust and authenticity work. As Whitney highlighted, it is early, but these measures are showing signs of improving retention and increasing average revenue per paying user.The thesis continues to be that a better member experience will result in higher retention and drive members' perception of value, leading to increasing revenue. For Q4, we expect total revenue in the range of $216 million to $224 million, representing a year-over-year decline of approximately 17% to 14%. We expect Bumble app revenue in the range of $176 million to $182 million, representing a year-over-year decline of approximately 17% to 14%. Direct billing tests continue to progress, and nearly all members in the U.S. now have some form of direct billing available. We expect to continue to refine our direct billing offerings in Q4.We expect adjusted EBITDA in the fourth quarter of $61 million to $65 million, representing a margin of approximately 28% to 29%. Before wrapping up, I want to call your attention to additional information we reported today in our earnings press release and accompanying 8-Ks. Pertaining to our tax receivable agreement that was created in connection with our IPO.Operator: A special committee of our Board has agreed to a transaction whereby the company will purchase.Kevin Cook: All parties' outstanding TRA rights for $186 million. The transaction eliminates the company's TRA liability in full. We believe the transaction is a positive development for Bumble and our shareholders. It removes a large liability from our balance sheet at favorable terms. Thus simplifying and creating a more efficient capital structure. By terminating payment obligations under the TRA, the transaction also improves future cash flows. And finally, it greatly improves the company's strategic flexibility moving forward as we work to create shareholder value. I'd also like to note that we are funding the termination agreement with available cash given our solid balance sheet and cash-generative business.As a result of the TRA transaction, which substantially reduces our liabilities, and deleverages the business, we no longer plan to pay down $25 million of our term loan as discussed last quarter. In closing, there's a lot of work ahead, but early indicators suggest that we're on the path to reshaping the core business and positioning the company for future revenue growth. From a financial perspective, we're prioritizing disciplined expense management, solid cash flows, and the flexibility to invest in our strategic priorities while preserving profitability. We believe we are setting the foundation for a healthier, higher quality business that will monetize more effectively over time. Operator, we'll now take some questions.Operator: Thank you. When preparing to ask your question, please ensure your device is unmuted locally. The first question comes from Nathaniel Jay Feather with Morgan Stanley. Your line is open. Please go ahead.Nathaniel Jay Feather: Hey, everyone, and thanks for taking the question. Two from me. First, Whitney, now that you've gotten back in the seat and are really starting to make some real product changes, if we zoom forward, you know, two, three years, what's your key vision for how Bumble will really work differently from today and be able to drive the successful outcomes? And then a little bit more short term, but what visibility do you have into the timing and magnitude of when revenue growth might bottom and then hopefully start to improve, especially given the talk of potentially paying user growth bottoming in the first? Thank you.Whitney Wolfe Herd: Thank you so much for the questions. I appreciate it. So let's start with the two to three-year outlook. I think there's a slight misconception that exists with folks looking at the dating industry thinking that, you know, it's the swipes that people are dissatisfied with, or it's this, or it's that functionality. But the reality is, just to put this extremely bluntly, our product roadmap for the foreseeable future for the years to come is people's pain points, particularly women's pain points. And frankly, that is how we got here. That is truly what differentiated Bumble from any other dating product that had ever existed.If you think about it, quite simply, you don't have a balanced member base or ecosystem or dynamic when we're talking about heteronormative dating if you don't have a place that women want to be. And frankly, that's what Bumble has been synonymous with for all of these years. So when we look to the future, I don't think it's all that complex that you have to reinvent the wheel. The wheel works. And frankly, the demand has not changed. Throughout history, you know, as human beings, we just want love. We want relationships, and frankly, we need it to survive. How we deliver that needs to be modern.It needs to be current, and it has to feel up to par with where people are today with what they expect from technology. So what's so exciting about right now, and I cannot overemphasize this, what AI gives the ability to do, it gives us the ability to solve our members' pain points, to hear women and say, oh, this is what you want from a dating product? Oh, you don't want this to ever happen to you again. Oh, you want to meet this type of person and you want more control over that experience.What's phenomenal about our opportunity right now is when we have this modern tech stack that we are operating on top of, we will be able to deliver these changes to our members in a matter of hopefully, days to weeks versus months. And frankly, even historically, it's taken companies years to build certain things. So we have a superpower because we listen to women. We have women that believe in us globally, and this gives us market expansion opportunity. This gives us a dynamic opportunity to really rescale once we have this quality approach really under our belt, and we're making great headway.So as you know, and I'm so grateful to all of our shareholders, we're very early in this transformation. I stepped back into the seat in March. We actively got to work. We have a brand new executive team. They are superstars. We are very bullish on going all in on having the highest quality platform. And that's not just from a member-based standpoint. That's from an experience standpoint. You should come to Bumble no matter who you are. And you should be able to be very deliberate in what you're looking for, and you should be able to get a great high-quality match as soon as possible. And hopefully, that should lead you to love.So that's the two to three-year plan. It's really just build for the demand. And answer the wishes and the wants and solve the problems of the dating market around the world. AI is going to be a huge part of this, but ultimately, we're here. And we're so excited about it. So as far as when do we see a return to revenue growth. So I know this is a tricky one for people to follow along with in such tight timelines as far as earnings calls go. But we've got to complete this reset. Frankly, we have to complete the trust and safety efforts. You've seen that the Q4 numbers really reflect most of the impact of that.And it's largely what drove the payer decline along with us really pulling back on the performance marketing. But one point I'd like to make quickly, and then I'll wrap this up. Is we've actually, because of all this work we've done around quality and the BeHiveFit framework, have actually found ways now to go do targeted performance marketing that brings in high-quality, what we call a or likely to be approved members. So we can go back to that here in a very precise and targeted and measured way. So overall, that is on the horizon. We do see an end in sight, if that makes sense, and we're very fully committed.Kevin, is there anything you'd like to add to that?Kevin Cook: Yeah. Hey, Nathan. It's Kevin. Thanks, Whitney. So as you might expect, we're not forecasting revenue beyond Q4, but I can give you an idea of the arc. Right? So just thinking about the Q3 decline in payers, for example, the decline was driven primarily by two intentional strategies. Designed to improve member base quality and of course member experience. You're familiar with some of these, but let me just repeat them for clarity. So trust and safety work and a reduction in our marketing spend together contributed approximately 80% of the decline in paying users on a year-over-year basis. So it's important to recognize that we control these reductions to a large extent.And that this strategy is all consistent with the reset that Whitney outlined. In terms of progress in executing that strategy. Just looking at some of the things that we know and as Whitney highlighted already, it's extremely early. We've only been at it for about a quarter. But we are seeing some signs of encouragement. We saw modest improvement. You might have observed this in our prepared remarks. But we saw a modest improvement in retention, for example, over the quarter. We saw an 11% improvement in RPPU. In the quarter for Bumble. We in addition saw very strong uplift in brand awareness and brand perception among women. In the quarter. Mostly related to our brand campaign.And we are we continue to make progress on this internal framework you've heard us refer to before, the Be Hi Fit framework where we are attempting to lift members from what we call internally the improved category into the approved category. And there we are seeing all of the categories moving in the right direction. And so that incremental progress it's going to take time of course, but that incremental progress is encouraging as well. Remember that the approved members show significantly higher engagement and they monetize at more than twice the rate of improved members.So apart from understanding as Whitney was suggesting that the functioning of the ecosystem, it's essential to have high-quality members with as proxy approved members it also has obvious impact on business performance. So I'll pause there and we'll see other questions we have or Nathan's got a follow-up.Nathaniel Jay Feather: That was great. Very helpful. Thank you.Operator: We now turn to Andrew Jordan Marok with Raymond James. Your line is open. Please go ahead.Andrew Jordan Marok: Hi. Thanks for taking my questions. Maybe digging into that last point that Kevin made there on the improved bucket. I know it was going to be a major initiative in kind of bringing along the improved members to approve. And I understand it's probably a pretty wide spectrum, but is there anything specific that you're seeing out of those improved members that are giving you signs for encouragement or perhaps caution? Or anything else that you'd like to call out within those that you think would be important for us to look for as we go into 4Q and beyond?Whitney Wolfe Herd: Hi there. Thanks for the question. So I'll take that and if Kevin wants to add on we'll do that after. So I think it's really important to understand that a lot of folks have the capability to be what we would call approved members in just a couple of tweaks. So I'll give you a quick example. You might have a great person who's looking for love, but they have no clue how to write a bio. They only have one photo.So while they could be going out on lots of dates and getting a lot of interaction, because they have, you know, limited knowledge on how to set up a dating app or how to show up as their best self, they actually get stuck in what we call this improved category. And so what we're really seeing is the more profile photos someone adds, going through just a couple of these quick steps, with the trust and the safety tooling that we've introduced, they get more matches. They get more right swipes. They get more engagement in an approved member has better outcomes. And as Kevin just stated, they have higher retention rates. They monetize much better.And frankly, it just improves that entire flywheel and it really gives people more to operate with. And so when we focus on improving the improved, not to be redundant there, there's huge opportunity here because the vast middle is somewhere stuck in the middle. And so this is what we're focused on with this roadmap that we keep talking about. Building a product experience doesn't have to be some fancy flashy new feature. It's frankly, hey. How do we get onboarding tools in the hands of our members so that they can set up a remarkably robust and authentic and great profile in a really short amount of time. And then they're out in the dating pool.And so these are just a couple of examples of how really just enabling the system to provide easier tooling to get out there and to move into the approved category, it pulls the tide up for everyone. And it really enhances the experience for everyone. So while we're early and while the metrics at math aren't suggesting, you know, this huge monumental moment. You know, bearing with us and having some patience is critical here because this is the strategy that wins in dating. And I believe that I can speak to this with a lot of conviction. I've been at the forefront of this industry.Frankly, on the front lines of modern dating technology since I was 22 years old. And I have seen this front and center. When you have a healthy balance of women on a product, when people fill out their profiles with high-quality information, when they are not, you know, flooded with removed profiles, and they see who they want to see. They get good matches. They get into great chats. They go on dates, and that's why I meet Bumble Babies every day when I go out into the world. You know, this works. And this changes lives.Just need to land this strategy with returning to quality and then we will reaccelerate on all of our growth opportunities in new markets, in core markets, and we're here for it. We're very excited.Andrew Jordan Marok: Great. Thanks for that. Really helpful color. And then maybe one quick one for Kevin. Not sure if you've seen the proposed transaction or the excuse me, the proposed settlement details between Google and Epic today. But just wondering if you have an opinion on how that kind of contrasts with what you have assumed into your guidance for the cost of revenue line?Operator: Thank you.Kevin Cook: Okay. So, no, I haven't seen I haven't seen the details. So I don't have any insight to share there. I can comment briefly on sort of our direct billing initiatives. As you might expect, we've we as soon as permitted we set up alternative payments and we've been testing those strategies throughout Q3 and we'll continue to do that in Q4. You saw in our cost of sales a meaningful improvement in Q3. And we would expect to continue to while we will refine strategies around alternative billing throughout Q4, we'd still expect that benefit to persist into Q4 and we should have a full quarter effect of cost of revenue benefits.Operator: We now center Ygal Arounian with Citi. Your line is open. Please go ahead.Ygal Arounian: Guys. Good afternoon. I want to ask specifically about the standalone AI product. Whitney, and sort of your thoughts and visions around that. But something that will sort of always be standalone. You know, what's a sort of AI-first dating app experience like, and how does that impact how you view the core Bumble experience, and how that overlaps with that vision and strategy. Thanks.Whitney Wolfe Herd: Hi. Thanks for the question. So I think before I talk about our upcoming standalone AI product, I actually did want to speak about two things surrounding AI. So first and foremost, I'm sure you and everybody else tuning in have been reading a lot and hearing a lot about the new AI-focused dating apps. I really want to make an important point here. Throughout my career, I have seen hundreds of dating apps, dating products, dating matchmakers, you name it, hit the market. And fizzle and fumble. You know, there's a reason why there's only a couple of us.That stand as strong as we do on a global level, and that's because building critical mass and building a trusted double-sided is incredibly difficult to do. So what really gives us a unique opportunity here and a right to win we have extraordinary data. We have unbelievable, sets of, you know, groups of people around the world that are looking for love, that are actively searching for dating. And us being able to lean into this moment with AI and provide them a modern experience that doesn't collapse or change the current experience. So you've got to separate these in your mind.You've got Bumble Date today, and we're going to talk about how AI affects that in a moment. But the standalone product is something that, in my opinion, has never been done before. It is going to be very unique. I am extremely excited about it, and our team is very excited about it. The way it ultimately we can't disclose the details of how it will work, but what I will leave you with is if dating apps have predominantly been discovery-oriented. Right? You know, you get on and you kind of just discover people. This is really the first time that there will be precise search involved in that.And so when you look at a lot of our consumer products we all use on a daily basis. They're powered by great search and great algorithms. So this AI product is going to lean into a new way of thinking about dating. And how it really will flow in our category and in our portfolio over time is very exciting because, yes, it can be standalone. However, we can take a lot of those learnings and we can take a lot of that modern technology and layer it into the core products that we already have. You're seeing us do a bit of this already with BFF.Because BFF, we've migrated onto the Geneva tech stack, and I'll give you a quick example. What would have taken us a few months at Bumble Date to really update. So Date 1.0, that's the tech stack we're on right now at Bumble Date. It might take us months to build a certain feature or product change for our members. We had a piece of feedback from members at BFF, for example, and we had that problem fully changed and solved within a week where that would have taken months on Date 1.0.So we are already integrating, you know, some of these AI changes into 1.0 to solve customer needs, but what's very exciting is you'll have this tandem approach to AI in our group because the upcoming 2.0 infrastructure for Bumble Date, which we just said will be mid-2026, that will give us the capability to build tooling. And I was we were speaking earlier about how certain features can be engineered in hours now due to this technology. It's revolutionary. So we're going to be able to move so fast. So the answer is yes, it will be standalone this new product.However, it will have overlap crossover function just like we're doing with BFF, where we're learning about how groups behave and how communities behave so that we can build that into the core dating product. So I hope that answered the question. If it didn't, please let me know.Ygal Arounian: It did. Thank you. And very helpful. And I guess maybe, a little bit more near term, just as you get through to the spring product release needs or are you talking about kind of the, I guess, steady releases through spring? And solving pain points? Are there a few things that you see as being the biggest drivers? I know we're doing all the cleanup work and enhancing the user experience on one side, but in terms of, like, new products that are coming out, are there a few things that sort of excite you the most?Operator: Thanks.Whitney Wolfe Herd: Yeah. No. That's a great question. So this might be a slightly unpredicted response that the least exciting features on paper are actually the ones that move the needle the most for us. Sometimes. So you go and invest time and energy in optimization, for example, in customer service. You know, that has a meaningful impact on our members' lives. They are feeling heard. They're getting their problems resolved. Now on paper, that's not some flashy new release. So what we're really focused on right now between the launch of 2.0 and I'm using that as a reference point. 2.0 is the new AI cloud-native tech stack that Bumble will live on in the future, which is the mid-2026 technology.But if you look at everything we're doing between now and then, it's just listening to our members. Right? Our product roadmap is our customer pain points. And as I said, you don't ask members, hey, what's not working for you? And they say, oh, wow. I really wish you had this flashy crazy feature. They just say, I want a better profile. I want to be able to see more information about someone. I want a safer experience. I want the algorithm to be more personalized to me. These are at face value quite basic asks, but this is what builds an incredible experience. And frankly, this is what got us to being the great company we are.And, the technology has been innovating and iterating over time. And obviously, we have to evolve with where the category is. But ultimately, the strategy doesn't change. Just listen to women and give them what they want. It's very simple, and that's exactly what we're doing, and that's how we win with the category.Ygal Arounian: Helpful. Thank you.Operator: We have no further questions. So this concludes our Q&A and today's conference call. I'd like to thank you for your participation. 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