All right. Good morning, everyone. Thanks for joining us again, Citigroup Global TMT Conference. I'm Ygal Arounian, I'm on the internet team here. I'm really, really happy to have Bumble's Chief Financial Officer with us now, Anu Subramanian. Thank you so much for, for joining us. I'm gonna just read Bumble's safe harbor first, before we get started. There's, people rolling in still. So, this presentation, including our comments and answers to questions, may include forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties and reflect our current expectations based on our beliefs, assumptions, and information currently available to us.
Descriptions of these risks and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from these forward-looking statements are discussed in more detail in our earnings press release dated August 7th, 2024 , and our filings with the SEC, including our annual report, Form 10-K, for the year ended December 31st, 2023 , and our subsequent periodic filings.
All done?
Now I know what it's like to be an IR. Sorry, well. All right, well, a lot's happened. I think obviously the best place to start is just with the new strategy you guys laid out at 2Q, which was off the back of the kind of app refresh.
Mm-hmm.
So maybe let's start there with that app refresh in April. Kind of what happened there? What led to the decision to do this more kind of fully-fledged relaunch now?
Yeah, absolutely. First, you know, thank you for having me. It's great to be here. You know, if you take a step back, at the beginning of the year, we announced a set of fundamental changes to how we were thinking about the long-term growth of the business, and you know, part of that included the work that we did to reset our cost base. We brought in a new management and leadership team, a lot of fresh talent into the company, and we also announced that we were embarking on a sort of multi-step product refresh roadmap. The May launch of our product was really our first step in that process, and if you look at the components of what were in the May relaunch, we had things like Opening Moves.
We had additional features from. How do you have new photographs on the profile? How do you make the process of creating profiles robust? All of that and all of those things were very successful in helping drive engagement for our customers, and coming out of the May launch, we saw improvements in a lot of those metrics. You know, we've seen better matches for women, we've seen more engagement and more conversations come out of those changes that we had done. So we feel really good about the path that we are on from a product perspective.
However, if you look at the trends that we are seeing from top of the funnel, and we've been saying this now for a few quarters, that we are seeing some softness, especially in some of our more mature markets. We took a step back, and we realized that we needed to do a more holistic reset in terms of what the overall user experience was on the app for us to reignite user growth. And so, you know, we took a hard look at what our roadmap looks like over the next few quarters, and we've made this decision. And, you know, as you can imagine, this is not a decision that we've made lightly.
But we fundamentally believe that for us to not just reignite user growth, but for us to build a strong business in the long term, this is the right step that we need to be taking.
Okay. So we'll dig into the components in detail, but maybe just before we do, there were three components to this-
Mm-hmm.
So just to refresh for everybody what those were, and then we'll kind of dig into each individually.
Sure. So, you know, if you think about ultimately what is core to a dating app, people come to a dating app to find other people that they want to meet. That is, at the most basic level, what a dating app stands for. And, you know, Bumble's strength historically has really been because we have been the pre-eminent app for that puts women at the center of their relationships, it puts women at the center of the dating experience. And that is something that still holds very true today. You know, if you look at NPS scores, and you look at customer satisfaction scores, you know, we stand head and shoulders above, you know, our peers in terms of what we stand for in terms of women.
Where our focus now is going to be on is really what does that core product experience look like, looks like? And we've effectively highlighted three things that we want to focus on. One is, focusing on our core ecosystem. And when we talk about ecosystem, it is effectively, you know, everything that you see when you come to the app, the people, all of that. The second part of it is, what does the core customer experience look like? Whether it's from a product perspective, whether it's from a support perspective, safety perspective. And the last part of this is, how do you think about the monetization experience, that someone has on the app?
And that includes not just, you know, what someone sees behind the paywall, but it equally extends to what someone sees if they are just a free user. So these are the three sort of pillars that we've laid out, for the next few quarters that we will be focused on.
Okay, great, so let's dive into each of those.
Mm-hmm
... individually now. So maybe, like, we could frame it in the, what was the challenge and what's the solution, I guess for each, but, and the need to balance the ecosystem. You talked about, Bumble was always, women-centric and had a healthier ecosystem in that regard. What happened? What did you see, in the need to balance the ecosystem? Was it bad actors, or was, You know, did the mix of male versus female change too much? And what's the approach to change it, or where do you wanna get it here?
Sure. So, you know, I think it's important to remember that when we talk about the ecosystem, we are not just talking about, you know, removing bad actors, or increasing the number of women, or increasing a certain cohort of people. We're talking about it much more holistically than that. And obviously, removal of bad actors, removal of spam, all of that is an always-on experience for us because ultimately the safety of our users is at the core of what we do. But if you go back to what I said, you know, earlier, people come to the app because they want to see the people that they wanna see.
And so, our ecosystem is effectively the product that we are offering our users, and so we wanna make sure that we get the balance of what people see when they come to our app right. And that includes, in some cases, you know, fixing the balance in terms of gender. In some cases, it includes fixing the balance in terms of intent. It includes everything from, you know, what do you put out there in terms of your profile? Because ultimately all of these can impact the experience that someone has. So to give you an example, if you show up with your profile and you have one photo of yourself, it's a photo that, you know, is half hidden. You can barely see someone's face.
In some cases, we see people put photographs of like, you know, a group picture. You don't even know who's the person that you're supposed to swipe on. That ultimately creates a bad experience because the person who's looking at that photograph doesn't entirely know what that other person's intent is. So forcing the ecosystem to be curated such that, you know, everyone shows up at looking like their best self is a huge part of what we're looking to do. And this also actually extends to how we think about marketing. So being intentional about, you know, who we are acquiring in every market is also a big part of what we will be doing as we think about focusing on the ecosystem.
Okay. Well, I wanna talk about marketing more. We'll come back to it.
Mm-hmm.
Does this change the overall kind of user growth trajectory, or let's say user growth TAM, if you're trying to weed out... Maybe that's not the right word, but, you know, put some of these things in place?
So-
Higher the hurdle, I should say?
Yeah, so I think, you know, it is possible that on a temporary basis, we do create a little bit of friction as we are looking to curate the ecosystem. So, you know, to give an example of one of the things that we did as part of our May relaunch was we mandated that everyone should have four photographs on their profile, and you know, we did see that that has an impact on things like activation rates because people sort of drop out when they are forced to fill out four photographs, but ultimately, what we did also see that women had a better experience on the app coming out of that. There were better match rates. People were having more conversations with other people.
Because, again, the people that eventually finished the activation process and showed up in the ecosystem were the people that were, you know, a better quality in terms of their intent, right? So we know that all of these things ultimately are huge in terms of driving word of mouth, and while it may have a temporary impact on, things like activation rates, ultimately it actually leads to a better improvement in overall top of the funnel user growth. So over time, we believe that these are the right steps for us to continue growing users again.
Okay, and that was the factor that went into your guidance for the future-
Exactly.
Right. Okay. So let's move to talk about the customer experience, which is mostly around product and product innovation, and I don't know, broadly.
Mm-hmm
... product, product innovation, or maybe lack of product innovation, among the dating app ecosystem, what was lacking there, and what's the focus around product innovation that gets you back to the trajectory you want to be on?
Yeah. You know, I think product innovation is you know, key to ultimately how we show up for customers. And you know, Lidiane, who's our new Chief Executive Officer, is you know, extremely passionate about, especially this aspect of the plan that we have set in place. And ultimately, if you look at dating apps over the last 12+ years, you know, the product experience has largely stayed the same. And so we want to make sure that we are bringing innovation back to the forefront when it comes to the customer's experience. And if you look at the dating journey overall, even in real life, right? Dating can be quite daunting for people, right? It is, you're putting yourself out there. It's a very personal experience.
A lot of the same challenges remain even on dating apps. So the job that we have to do is to create product experiences that help customers in a way that removes the friction in the experience. If you think about it from the dating journey perspective, from the time someone comes to the app, how do we help them create the best profiles? How do we help them curate the best photographs? How do we help them have the best conversations? How do we help them look through other profiles to have more meaningful experiences in terms of people that they can engage with? What does our recommendation algorithm look like, and how do we make sure that that is the best possible in the ecosystem.
All of those things go towards making the overall product experience better. We also wanna make sure that we bring sorta joy and fun back into the experience. So, you know, a lot of the features that you'll see in our roadmap over the next few quarters will really be about how do you just make the experience just more joyful? And, you know, when you do user research, when you talk to people about, you know, what are some of their biggest pain points in dating, a lot of them will tell you it's lack of confidence, right? They just don't know how to put themselves out there in a way that showcases who they are.
And so some of the features that you will see us unveil over the next few quarters, especially around things like AI photo picker, things like that, are really about, you know, showcasing the best version of who you are as a person and really in again removing the friction in the experience. The second part to the product experience is around customer support and safety. Making sure that safety is at the forefront of what we do. You know, we are going to be rolling out some new product features that are very specific to the safety experience, things like ID verification, that are going to be core to how our users can feel safe about who the other person is on the platform, and knowing that they're all real people that they interact with.
Right.
All of those things are also going to be part of the core product experience.
Okay. And in terms of the product focus on a particular segment, so Gen Z and women come up regularly-
Yeah.
Is it geared towards, you know, making improvements more on certain areas or is it really just across the board?
You know, I think the beauty of Bumble has always been that, you know, we are known as the brand that puts women at the center of the experience, so the focus on women is going to be pretty paramount. But we've also been pretty broad-based in terms of the user base that we've catered to. We've never been known as we are an app just for Gen Z or we're an app just for millennials. We have a pretty healthy ecosystem across all sort of genders, all age demographics, so our goal is very much to be meeting people where they are in the user experience, and that could mean something different if you are eighteen, and that could mean something different if you're forty-five. The marketing experience that we bring to the fore...
To support the product experience is a key aspect of how we do differentiate. So if you think about our college experience as an example, our campus ambassador program, that, you know, is very specifically catering to the 18- to 22-year-old demographic, 'cause we show up in a very different way, versus, you know, how we show up to a millennial, as an example. That's where I think we can differentiate really well. But again, our app is very broad-based. So you'll see us do different things for different people.
Okay. And then the third pillar is monetization. So you're gonna pause monetization efforts, not pausing monetization completely. Just clarify that point.
Yeah.
And then what does... so what does that mean? What's the roadmap look like for short-term monetization, long-term monetization? What are you trying to achieve? Maybe what's the end target-
Yeah
-on that?
I did wanna clarify, we are not pausing monetization, right? Our monetization efforts are very much ongoing. Obviously, we have millions of people that come to the app today, that we are monetizing, that pay for various experiences that they get on the app. The monetization effort is really about us looking at the value proposition that we are providing our users across their user experience, and that may involve us rebalancing the feature sets that exist between what a free user gets today versus what a paid user gets. And again, I think, you know, as a freemium app, it's very important to cater not just to the paid experience, but also equally to the value that you're providing the free users.
So, it's really about us taking a pause to look at the experience end-to-end and making sure that the right value is being created at each stage of a user's journey. So that's really what we are doing. So it's not a pause in monetization. Obviously, we still have very robust subscription offerings. We still have, you know, active work that's ongoing around things like pricing. All of that is still happening. What we have decided to do is temporarily pause on adding more features to our higher subscription tier, the Premium Plus that we had talked about, while we do a little bit of this balancing work in terms of what the monetization looks like.
Okay, so it's just on that Premium Plus tier?
It's on the Premium Plus as well-
Yeah
... but we are equally looking at, you know, what does monetization look like, you know, potentially on the lower end. I think that's, you know, also something that we are taking a look at.
Right.
We are also looking at rebalancing feature sets between, like I said, each of these tiers as well. So it's a pretty comprehensive set of activities that, you know, form the overall sort of monetization value.
Okay.
And that also includes the work that we're doing on consumables as well.
Okay. Do you wanna elaborate on the consumable part for a second?
I mean, you know, we've historically talked about consumables quite a bit. As you know, Bumble has always been subscription first in terms of how we show up for our paid users. But, you know, we have used consumables very effectively in providing value add features at different points in a user's journey. Compliments is a perfect example of something that, you know, often is an entry point for a non-payer to experience a paid feature-
Right
... and then it becomes a valuable engine to then convert someone into a subscription tier. So you'll see us continue to push in those areas strategically, with the goal to, again, you know, making sure that there's value being created across the user, brand.
Got it. Okay. But so generally in the near term, less of a focus to drive up free-to-paid engagement, free-to-paid conversion, but nothing changes strategically in the long term-
Got it. That's exactly right.
... on that, on that objective. Okay. So now you've mentioned marketing and the brand a little bit, but I think kind of worth tying it all together around these three points. You're evolving the product. There's, you know, one side on making the product better, and there's the other side around keeping the brand message and, you know, conveying to users that, "Hey, we've made all these changes." So can you talk about the marketing roadmap and what that looks like?
Sure. So, you know, Bumble's brand has always been one of its biggest strengths. So our goal is in ensuring that we continue to remain top of mind for our users from a brand perspective. So that is an always-on effort, and that's something that you'll see us, you know, continue to invest in. For example, most recently, you know, we've announced this partnership with the Women's NBA as an example, where, you know, we are a sort of big brand ambassador for the program. So, you know, we have a lot of sort of brand-building activities that we will continue to invest in.
We have other activities that we are investing in, like the campus program that I talked about, which continues to be a big source of introducing Bumble to people that are using dating apps for the first time, and you know, in the last 10 years, our college ambassadors have been some of our strongest sort of brand ambassadors for us, right? In terms of talking about Bumble and talking about the features of what they stand for, so we wanna be more thoughtful and deliberate about how we continue to curate that program, and then you know, we wanna be much more intentional in how we are investing our brand dollars in some of our mature markets. In a lot of our mature markets, our brand awareness is very high already.
So now it's about, okay, how do you take that high brand awareness and convert it into something that is much more meaningful? So you'll see us investing in experiential events, IRL events, things that, again, take the high brand awareness that we already have and convert it into people actually meeting in real life. And then a lot of Tier Two, Tier Three cities where our brand awareness may be lower, I think it's much more about how do you bring people into the funnel? We are also equally investing in analytics and technology around marketing. As increasingly as the world becomes sort of more digital, we wanna make sure that we are very methodical about how we can create attribution for our brand dollars. So that is an ongoing area of investment.
So revamping our, you know, MMM models, making sure that our performance models that track our performance spend are, you know, sort of up in terms of, you know, the tools that are available in the market. All of those things-
Got it.
are things that we wanna continue to invest in.
Okay. Just to be clear, when you talk about the more mature markets, are you talking city by city or kind of country, like U.S. versus international?
We look at-
Oh.
We look at markets at a pretty micro level.
Right.
You know, you have cities in the U.S. that are more mature, but you equally have large cities in the U.S. where, you know, we are still very new and nascent in terms of our growth.
Okay.
Definitely it's not, you know, a country-by-country approach. It's very much a regional, city-by-city approach.
Okay. All right, so shifting gears a little bit, and just for a second on the macros, it continues to get so much attention here. So how is that impacting... Is that impacting what you're seeing at all? Things getting better or worse? Just kind of rehash what we're seeing in the macro.
You know, so, you know, like we said in August at our earnings, we are seeing some softness in top of the funnel, and you know, that's continued into Q3 as well. We certainly think macro is playing a part in that, especially for consumer companies, or as people are being a little bit more conscious in terms of spend. You know, we do expect that that is something that is having an impact. Again, it's something that we're keeping a pretty close eye on, and you know, if we see any more changes, obviously we'll update everyone.
Got it.
Yeah.
Okay. Let's head on to Badoo for a little... There've been some changes there, been some improvements in some of the metrics. There's a lot of factors there, with Ukraine and whatnot in Europe. But you're still making some more changes there. So what's the roadmap for Badoo? What's the kind of ultimate end goal or end state-
Yeah
... expectation for Badoo?
Sure, so Badoo is actually a very good sort of case study in the efforts that we've taken over the last, I would say, twelve months, in sort of rebooting the user experience that exists in Badoo, and for those that are not familiar with Badoo, Badoo is a very scaled app that has millions of users in a lot of markets, especially in countries such as Eastern Europe, Brazil, France, et cetera, et cetera. It's an app that's, you know, been around for many years, and it caters to a different socioeconomic group of users. Our Badoo users are usually often people that have two jobs, that are frontline workers. People that are often strapped for time, but still obviously wanna make connections, want to meet people.
Badoo's always optimized for quick, instant connections. That's really where Badoo shines. You can get on the app. If you have fifteen minutes of a break, you can immediately start talking with someone. Because of the scale that Badoo has, it's seen a lot of success over the years, you know, within this demographic. Especially with some of the macro challenges that we saw coming out of COVID, and then, with the war in Ukraine, we saw this user base was hit pretty hard from a macro perspective, and so we saw challenges in Badoo. Last year, we embarked on this sort of multi-quarter strategy of rebooting the product experience. You know, because Badoo had been around for a while, the product had gotten quite cluttered.
We have done a lot of work to simplify the core user experience on the app. It looks much cleaner. It looks much fresher. We did a big sort of brand redesign in terms of what the app looks like. We have also done work from a marketing perspective to just sort of refresh the brand, and it's really started to pay dividends in terms of, you know, the users are coming back to the app. We've started to see the rate of decline stabilize, and now we've started to see growth again, so we've been very pleased with the work that we've done on Badoo. One of the key things that we are going to be talking about for Badoo is around what we call revenue rearchitecture of the monetization experience on Badoo.
Part of that involves, you know, us looking at, again, the value that we are offering across the different subscription tiers and rebalancing that. It's very similar to what we are thinking about for Bumble, but we already have, you know, six, nine months of experience because we've already done that on Badoo, and we are launching that now in Q3, and that includes us, you know, testing a lower subscription tier which acts as an entry point for Badoo, and it's really resonating well. There's a lot of research and a lot of testing that our revenue teams have done, and this also includes, you know, rebalancing the pricing that exists within the different tiers.
So we're very excited about what this means for Badoo because, again, it's going back to the basics, and it's fixing, you know, what really used to be the core value proposition of Badoo, so we're excited about that.
It sounds like that roadmap may be informing the roadmap for Bumble.
We are definitely taking a lot of learnings, especially on the revenue side, from what we've learned over the last six months, and definitely taking it to Bumble.
Okay, got it. And I wanted to ask, and I forgot the kind of timeline for this revamp, but how do you think about that, and what are some of the goalposts that people should be looking for as you kinda go through it?
Yeah. So, you know, we are thinking about the revamp as a, it's a sort of multi-quarter strategy. We don't have a specific timeline to give everyone yet. Our goal really is to come back every quarter and update investors on our progress. Internally, we are very heavily focused, at least in the beginning, on metrics that are going to go towards engagement and retention. And obviously, that's. It's hard because it's not data that, you know, you see externally. So our goal is to come back and provide more updates to everyone around what we are seeing in terms of improvements. Because ultimately, focusing on retention, engagement, things like that, are ultimately going to be really beneficial in driving word of mouth, which then will drive top-of-the-funnel growth again.
So that's what we are focused on internally, and our, you know, plan is to sort of come back and give everyone an update on those numbers.
Okay. I think there was, there's at least a minority view from investors out there on the part of what you guys have seen is driven by a competitive environment.
Mm-hmm.
Can you talk to what you're seeing in the competitive environment? Have you seen things change, you know, how you view it, and kinda how you operate with that context?
Sure. So listen, I think, you know, competition for, you know, dating apps has always been, you know, since Bumble started, so competition is not something that's, you know, new to us. As we've talked about in the past, you know, people use multiple apps, dating apps, and that continues to be the case, and you know, Bumble still, you know, is the number two most downloaded dating app in the world, right, so we are still a top dating app, for millions of users across the world, and that has not changed. Our brand continues to be one of the top brands, not just for dating, but just for women, you know, across the board, right, so we feel very, very good, competitively around, you know, how we are positioned.
So, you know, nothing that I would point out as something that is happening that's directly impacting us. I think where we are heavily focused on is ultimately, as consumers have the pick of apps that they wanna choose, we wanna be top of mind for them because we want to be the best app that provides the best user experience for the customers. That's really our goal, and that's what we are focused on, and that's in our control, right?
Yeah.
We are, as we like to say, we are competitor-aware, but that's, you know, not where we are focusing our attentions. We are focusing our attentions on our experience.
Right.
Ultimately, because of how strong a brand we have, you know, it's very easy for us to get people to the app. We just have to make sure that we provide them the best product experience.
Okay. So that's a good segue into the broader portfolio outside of Badoo. But your strategy over the years to build not just a dating ecosystem, but also around that with friendships and also post-relationship. So BFF has been a big effort, and you recently acquired Geneva, which was pre-revenue, correct?
Yeah.
But may talk about Geneva, BFF, and that kind of, what you're trying to accomplish, and also how big that non-dating part of, I don't know-
Yeah
... doesn't need to be quantified in revenue necessarily-
Yeah
but what that opportunity could be for you.
Sure, so, you know, we have, we're very, very bullish about what we are calling the larger connection space. You know, our Bumble's mission is to build healthy and equitable relationships for all, right? We happen to be today in the sort of romantic relationships category. That's where we started, but that's certainly not where we expect to eventually end up.
Right.
You know, we, from a relationship perspective, we wanna meet customers where they are in their journey. If you look at someone as a person and their experience, you know, relationships span sort of several different arenas, right? You can have your romantic relationships, you have relationships that you have with your friends, you have relationships that you have with your business partners, colleagues, whatever the case may be. You have more casual relationships that you may have with, you know, you have a running mate that you run with. You may not be best friends with them, but that's a relationship that you have. So, you know, we wanna just be a platform where people come to for relationships wherever you may be, you know, in that journey.
And eventually, in the long term, we want it to be a seamless experience, where we are able to move you across our apps in a way that just feels very authentic and feels very organic. And, you know, Geneva and BFF are extremely important to sort of this vision for us because, you know, as you look at the statistics out there in terms of, you know, connections and loneliness, you know, the numbers are quite staggering, right? In terms of people feeling that they are more connected online than they've ever been, but they are more disconnected in real life than they've ever been, right? So our goal is not for you to meet on the app and just stay on the app. Our goal is, you meet someone on the app, and we immediately get you to meet them in real life, right?
So from a friendship perspective, that's really our focus, and that's where Geneva becomes really interesting because they had built up a phenomenal tech platform that enables, you know, meetings in real life at scale, and so we are very excited about sort of, you know, integrating them with our company, and, you know, we'll talk more about the exciting roadmap that the Geneva platform has, but we're very, very excited about that. The last thing I will say is, you know, there's a lot of talk about like Gen Z and whether Gen Z is dating, et cetera, et cetera. You know, a lot of users that are Gen Z for us will tell us that for them, romantic relationships often start with friendships, and then they turn into, you know, romantic relationships.
This also becomes an on-ramp back into dating for us because you meet someone on BFF, or you meet someone on Geneva, and then eventually you sort of move them back into the date experience.
Yeah.
Again, this is a very comprehensive vision for how we expect relationships to manifest, you know, over the long term.
Got it. And I know you're exploring or adjusting the monetization model, but I think you've mentioned in the past the monetization model for friendship and non-romantic part-
Right
... is a little bit different. So how do you-
Yeah, absolutely. That's a great point. You know, today we are predominantly a subscription revenue-based business. You know, people often ask us about how we think about advertising in the core dating experience, and it's definitely an area of focus for us. But we wanna be thoughtful about how we think about advertising on the dating app, because obviously dating can be a very personal experience, and we wanna make sure that it feels authentic and natural to the experience that two people have. But where something like advertising or sponsorships or partnerships become really interesting is in the non-dating space.
Because as you think about it, you're bringing people together for a common purpose, you know, whether you're a wine enthusiast or you're a running enthusiast or whatever the case may be, you're effectively bringing together a cohort of people that have a common sort of interest and goal in mind. And it's a perfect ground for us to get an advertiser into because, again, it can feel much more organic and authentic. So we are very interested in exploring our revenue options outside subscriptions as we continue to scale the user base for some of these non-dating experiences.
Okay. Let's talk international for a second. Maybe on your roadmap, there's a number of countries that you're more focused on near-term. What's the opportunity? And as you kinda think about the roadmap in international, what's different about what you need to do? How are you approaching it differently, and what's the broader opportunity? Can you see those markets eventually kinda catching up in terms of, you know, penetration of online dating the way the U.S. and Western markets have?
Yeah. Absolutely. I think if you look at the dating category overall, a lot of the non-US and sort of maybe non-Western markets are still in very early stages of secular changes, cultural changes in terms of how they are approaching online dating. Even in the last ten years, we've seen, you know, pretty big growth rates in even markets like India, for example, which have been more sort of traditional historically, and so we are very, very bullish about us continuing to be a big force in those markets. I would say that international is still, you know, an early opportunity for us. We have a lot of strength in markets like Western Europe. We've talked in the past quite a bit about markets like Germany, where we are growing really well.
But, you know, a lot of those markets are still very early in our overall growth. We are seeing strong user presence in a lot of those markets. Monetization is still at an early stage.
Right.
So you'll see us continue to push, and international has been an area of strength for us, so that's been great. Markets like India, as an example, are high user-based markets, potentially lower people markets, but the volume is so high that there is so much more that we can do in terms of acquiring users. We've always been very good at you know taking a nuanced approach to marketing in international markets, while still keeping the core ethos of what Bumble stands for. So if you go to India today, Bumble is, again, known as the women's brand that puts women at the center of relationships, but how we show up for the Indian market is very nuanced and is catered to them. But again, you know, the core USP of Bumble stays the same.
So we've been very good at, like, taking, you know, the core experience of women making the first move, but then tailoring it to different markets. And, you know, what women's empowerment stands for also varies quite a bit based on, you know, which market you're in. In a market like Western Europe, where, you know, people may say, "I already feel quite empowered," that can mean something very different, versus a market like India, where, you know, we may be much more sort of proactive about how we talk about women's empowerment.
Got it. Is the local competitive environment different region by region, or is it largely the same players you're seeing on a global basis?
We do see, obviously, some of the bigger players in a lot of these markets as well. But we also in some markets see local players that cater very specifically to the local needs of the market, so it varies quite a bit.
Right.
I think the thing that we've done really well is take, again, the message of what Bumble stands for, and that's really resonating in every market. It doesn't matter whether it's a Western market or, you know, a market in Asia, the core women's experience aspect has resonated everywhere.
Okay, great, and then to wrap it all up, just to talk about the margin level-
Mm-hmm.
The right level of investment as you kind of embark on this year. You were previously targeting 300 basis points of expansion. You pulled that back to 200, but still expanding margins in a period where you're making a big investment into the product. So what's the right way to think about the margin profile? You know, why not more, why not less, or how to think about that, as you work your way through this process?
Sure. You know, we, we've said in the past, you know, I think our commitment to expanding margins in the sort of medium to long term, you know, has not changed. We're obviously, you know, going to provide more information about what it means, you know, in the more near term. We've given our guidance for this year. We feel really good about the dollars that, you know, we have allocated towards our product and technical investment, 'cause that is really at the center of, you know, what is going to drive the reset that we are talking about. We also feel really good about the marketing dollars that we've allocated. Again, our goal is to get our dollars to work harder, to work more.
We're being very diligent in our spend, in terms of the things that are not moving the needle, and you'll see us be quite ruthless about cutting back on things that are not working, but our goal is obviously to focus on growth-
Mm
... so we wanna make sure that we continue to invest for that. And the margin profile that we've given you for this year very much, you know, is towards that goal.
Got it. That's our time.
Great.
Thank you, Anu.
Okay.
I appreciate you joining us.
Thanks.
Thanks, everyone.