Sad news for the large swaths of “single-and-ready-to-mingles” across Russia: there’s now one less dating app willing to foster romance while Vladimir Putin continues to go method with his Joseph Stalin impersonation.
Bumble, the female-first dating service launched by Whitney Wolfe Herd in 2014, announced this week that the company would be “discontinuing its operations in Russia, as well as removing all of its apps from the Apple App Store and Google Play Store in Russia and Belarus” in response to Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. The popular dating app had previously tweeted in support of the Internation Rescue Committee currently helping women and children flee Ukraine amidst the fighting.
We stand with women everywhere, every day. Bumble is supporting the International Rescue Committee (@RESCUEorg) in assisting women and families affected by the crisis in Ukraine. Visit https://t.co/1EWRafcUGK to learn how you can help. #womenshistorymonth pic.twitter.com/ZnPI2tfMx5
— Bumble (@bumble) March 4, 2022
According to a press release and The Washington Post, the company stands to lose $2 million of revenue due to the decision, with most of those losses coming after it removes its Badoo App from stores. What makes this story even more interesting is that Russian billionaire Andrey Andreev is credited with helping launch Bumble, as well as with creating Badoo. In 2019, after a Forbes investigation singled him out as one of the primary reasons for the reportedly toxic work environment at the company’s headquarters in London, Andreev sold his stake.
Bumble now joins a growing list of companies refusing to do business in Russia, a list that includes Starbucks, McDonald’s, Coca-Cola, Pizza Hut, and more.
(Via The Washington Post)