On Wednesday, MTCH stock dropped over 10% after Match Group Inc. (NASDAQ:MTCH) projected its Q4 revenue with estimates that fell below Wall Street forecasts. The company has indicated that its dating service Tinder has continued to face growing competition from various online dating sites.

Tinder Records 437,000 Subscribers in Q3

The company has, however, indicated that Tinder registered strong growth in the quarter. The company indicated that it added 437,000 Tinder subscribers in the recent quarter, which has set it up for its best year ever in terms of subscriber growth. However, this is a decline from the 503,000 reported in the previous quarter, and it brought total subscribers to 5.7 million in Q3. The company now expects to increase the number of paying subscribers this year by 1.6 million, up from 1.2 million at the end of last year.

The growth in paying Tinder subscribers generated considerable income for its parent company. Match Group reported net income for the quarter of $151.5 million or $0.51 per share, a significant increase from $130.2 million or $0.44 per share a year ago. Analysts had expected a GAAP EPS of $0.44.

The company posted impressive growth in subscribers despite growing competition from Bumble and Facebook Inc.’s (NASDAQ:FB) dating site that launched in September. Bumble has also been looking at its operations, and last year, it launched in India where there is huge market potential.

MTCH stock is down 10.30% at $61.68.

Growth of Other Match Platforms

To deal with growing competition, the company has enhanced its marketing spend on Tinder in emerging markets such as Latin America and India. Equally, Match Group has enhanced the marketing of its other dating platforms Hinge and PlentyOfFish.  The company indicated that the other platforms are also experiencing considerable growth. For instance, this year, Hinge has had around 2.2 million downloads globally.

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For the fourth quarter, Match is expecting revenue of between $545 million and $555 million, as well as adjusted EBITDA of between $205 million and $210 million. Analysts had expected revenue of $559 million and adjusted EBITDA of $228 million.

Despite today’s fall, MTCH stock is still up 42% so far this year.

Featured image: DepositPhotos © SergeyNivens