Valentine's day is around the corner. Increasingly, Americans are turning to dating apps to find someone to share the holiday with. Coffee Meets Bagel Co-Founder and CEO Dawoon Kang says people on their app are searching more for long-term relationships and finding a "genuine connection." Coffee Meets Bagel is focused more on individuals searching for those serious, long-term relationships, Kang says, citing that as its "biggest value proposition" in a space that include competitors like Match Group (MTCH) and Bumble (BMBL).
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Editor's note: This article was written by Stephanie Mikulich
Video Transcript
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- Well, nearly 45% of people have reportedly found prospective partners from online dating apps according to a recent Forbes survey. And Statista reports the number of dating app users is expected to grow nearly 9% in the next four years alone. Our next guest hoping to get a big share of that market. For more on the business of love, let's bring in Coffee Meets Bagel CEO Dawoon Kang.
Dawoon, it's good to talk to you today. I imagine you get a lot of attention around Valentine's Day, but talk to me about the state of online dating right now as you see it through the app. You know, you've got a few years here coming out of the pandemic now, how have you seen changes in terms of how people interact?
DAWOON KANG: You know pandemic was an interesting time, of course. When it started, everybody just stopped dating, right? Because there is now the additional health consideration that you have to think about.
However, I think, overall, as pandemic elongated, it really highlighted the importance of connection. We've been serving our users throughout COVID and subsequently afterwards. And we've been seeing a lot of people expressing that they really want to value long-term relationship, genuine connection, honesty, kindness, committed relationship. So I think, overall, it really fundamentally shifted how people view relationship.
AKIKO FUJITA: This is an increasingly crowded space. There's, of course, your company Coffee Meets Bagel, there's the original Match, there's Hinge, there's Tinder, there's Bumble. How do you set yourself apart in that space right now?
DAWOON KANG: Yeah, exactly. Coffee Meets Bagel has always been focused on servicing not every single out there, but singles who are looking for something more serious, a.k.a. long-term relationship. So if you look at dating apps out there, like some of the apps that you mentioned, fundamentally, how the app operates is very similar. We give them opportunity to meet people, then you connect, you chat, and hopefully go on a date, right? And so including Coffee Meets Bagel, the operating mechanism is pretty similar.
I would say what really distinguishes Coffee Meets Bagel apart from other dating apps is our community of our daters because we've always been so focused and been sharing the fact that you come to Coffee Meets Bagel if you're looking for something more serious not casual date. We've been able to cultivate that community. So over 90% of our daters on CMB says that they're looking for something more serious. So what's great about that is if that's you, if you're looking for something serious, you wouldn't be wasting time connecting with somebody who's not looking for the same thing. So I would say that is the biggest value proposition for Coffee Meets Bagel and we will always continue to focus on serving that segment of daters the best.
AKIKO FUJITA: The question is always how you translate that into revenue and profits. And I wonder when you look at the behavior of your users, how many are willing to actually invest in dating, as in willing to pay the extra, willing to pay premium to find a better match?
DAWOON KANG: Yeah, I would say most of the daters who join Coffee Meets Bagel, they're using the free version of the app, right? So you can join Coffee Meets Bagel and you don't have to pay a dime if you don't want to and still enjoy a lot of free features. However, I think because Coffee Meets Bagel is so particularly focused on long-term relationship, there are quite a sizable number of users who are willing to open up their wallet and subscribe to premium because the benefits that we offer and the number of connections that you're able to get in the same amount of time that you invest, a subscriber versus non subscriber, is pretty significant. About 60% more connections are generated for subscribers in the same period versus non-subscribers. So I would say it's a pretty sizable number who are willing to invest and open up their wallet.
AKIKO FUJITA: Dawoon Kang, Coffee Meets Bagel CEO. Will be interesting to see the big bump or if you get a big bump on the back of Valentine's Day here. Appreciate you joining us today. Thanks so much.
DAWOON KANG: Thank you so much.
