Bumble chief criticises staff for ‘freaking out’ over London job cuts

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Bumble Whitney Wolfe Herd CEO criticized the employees because of “horror” after announcing that the company will eliminate more than 160 roles in London, where radical measures were needed to reduce costs as “dating applications feel something from the past.”

The founder of the online dating group, who returned the position of CEO in March, made statements while telling the employees this week that its British office would hold 240 discounts in jobs representing 30 percent of the global workforce.

According to the people familiar with a call at the company’s level, Wolf Hurd said it is “worried” that BADOLA also has the Badoo-dating application may collapse by next year if measures are not taken to protect the company. A person with knowledge of this step also said that the world’s employees have been presented voluntary repetition.

Wolf Hurd said that the “center of gravity” will move to the United States, where “talents are now gathering.” “London is not the first option, this is the explicit reality,” she said.

This step represents a strategic change of the online dating company, where there are 70 percent of employees in the UK.

Those who know the video call said that Wolf Hurd became embarrassing when employees responded with a series of thumbs under the emojis.

She said, “I see a lot of emojis, you need to calm down.” “This is removed from the context. I love London and I think everyone exaggerates this frankly reaction … Everyone should be adults in dealing with this.” I also suggested that all employees take the rest of the week after the call.

Bumble’s market value has shrunk about 30 percent over the past year to about 700 million dollars, a decrease from about 13 billion dollars when the company became public in 2021, with investors’ interest in its significant revenues.

The group – which has abandoned its signature feature that women must send to men first – one of many dating applications including the Tinder leader, to steadily lose users in recent years.

Industry polls showed that many Gen Z users complained of “exhaustion”, while women reported concerns about receiving unwanted and violent material threats while using online dating services.

In the employee call, Hurd said that although Bumble will not close its office in the United Kingdom, it could not be “London first”, adding that the global expansion “was not delivered” to the company.

She added that the group will open a new office in Silicon Valley to take advantage of the talent of artificial intelligence in the California Gulf area.

The company is scheduled to announce a series of new products such as the system to verify photo numbers and phone numbers to try to persuade users to adhere to the service in the coming months, according to a person familiar with the company’s thinking.

“We are declining from the point of view of the numbers,” said Wolf Hurd. “Dating applications feel like something of the past.”