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UNITED STATES
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington, D.C. 20549
________________________
FORM 10-K
________________________
(Mark One)
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ANNUAL REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES
EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934 |
For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2022
OR
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o
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TRANSITION REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES
EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934 |
For the transition period from ____ to ____
Commission file number 001-39714
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Grindr Inc.
(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)
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Delaware |
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92-1079067 |
(State or other jurisdiction of
incorporation or organization) |
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(I.R.S. Employer Identification No.) |
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PO Box 69176750 N. San Vincente Blvd., Suite RE 1400
West Hollywood, California
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90069 |
(Address of Principal Executive Offices) |
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(Zip Code) |
(310) 776-6680
Registrant's telephone number, including area code
______________________
Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the
Act:
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Title of each class |
Trading Symbol(s) |
Name of each exchange on which registered |
Common Stock, $0.0001 par value per share |
GRND |
New York Stock Exchange |
Warrants, each whole warrant exercisable for one share of Common
Stock at an exercise price of $11.50 per share |
GRND.WS |
New York Stock Exchange |
Securities registered pursuant to section 12(g) of the Act:
None
Indicate by check mark if the registrant is a well-known seasoned
issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act.
Yes
o
No
x
Indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file
reports pursuant to Section 13 or Section 15(d) of the
Act.
Yes
o
No
x
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant: (1) has filed all
reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the
Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or
for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file
such reports); and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements
for the past 90 days. Yes
x
No
☐
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted
electronically and posted on its corporate web site, if any, every
Interactive Data File required to be submitted and posted pursuant
to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§232.405 of this chapter) during the
preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant
was required to submit and post such files). Yes
x
No
o
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large
accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, a
smaller reporting company or an emerging growth company. See the
definitions of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer,”
“smaller reporting company” and “emerging growth company” in Rule
12b-2 of the Exchange Act. (Check one):
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Large accelerated filer |
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Accelerated filer |
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Non-accelerated filer |
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Smaller reporting company |
x
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Emerging growth company |
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If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the
registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period
for complying with any new or revised financial accounting
standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange
Act.
☐
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has filed a report on
and attestation to its management’s assessment of the effectiveness
of its internal control over financial reporting under Section
404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (15 U.S.C. 7262(b)) by the
registered public accounting firm that prepared or issued its audit
report.
☐
If securities are registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act,
indicate by check mark whether the financial statements of the
registrant included in the filing reflect the correction of an
error to previously issued financial statements.
o
Indicate by check mark whether any of those error corrections are
restatements that required a recovery analysis of incentive-based
compensation received by any of the registrant’s executive officers
during the relevant recovery period pursuant to §
240.10D-1(b).
☐
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company
(as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Act). Yes
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No
x
The aggregate market value of voting stock held by non-affiliates
of the Registrant on June 30, 2022, based on the closing price of
$10.27 for shares of the Registrant’s Common Stock as reported by
the New York Stock Exchange, was approximately $283,452,000. Shares
of Common Stock beneficially owned by each executive officer,
director, and holder of more than 10% of our common stock have been
excluded in that such persons may be deemed to be affiliates. This
determination of affiliate status is not necessarily a conclusive
determination for other purposes.
The registrant had outstanding 173,745,032 shares of common stock
as of March 14, 2023.
DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE
Portions of the Registrant’s Proxy Statement for the 2023 Annual
Meeting of Stockholders are incorporated herein by reference in
Part III of this Annual Report on Form 10-K to the extent stated
herein. Such Proxy Statement will be filed with the Securities and
Exchange Commission within 120 days of the registrant’s fiscal year
ended December 31, 2022.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
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Page |
Special Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements |
2 |
Summary of Risk Factors |
4 |
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INTRODUCTORY NOTE
Grindr Inc., formerly known as Tiga Acquisition Corp. (“Tiga”), was
originally incorporated under the Companies Law of the Cayman
Islands on July 27, 2020, as a special purpose acquisition company
formed for the purpose of effecting a merger, capital stock
exchange, asset acquisition, stock purchase, reorganization or
other similar business combination with one or more target
businesses or entities. On November 18, 2022, we consummated the
transactions contemplated by that certain Agreement and Plan of
Merger, dated as of May 9, 2022 (the “Original Merger Agreement”)
by and among Tiga, Grindr Group LLC, a Delaware limited liability
company (“Legacy Grindr”), Tiga Merger Sub I LLC, a Delaware
limited liability company and direct and wholly-owned subsidiary of
Tiga (“Tiga Merger Sub”), and Tiga Merger Sub II LLC, a Delaware
limited liability company and direct and wholly-owned subsidiary of
Tiga (“Tiga Merger Sub II”), as amended by that certain First
Amendment to Agreement and Plan of Merger, dated as of October 5,
2022, by and among Tiga, Tiga Merger Sub, Legacy Grindr and Tiga
Merger Sub II (together with the Original Merger Agreement, the
“Merger Agreement”). Pursuant to the terms of the Merger Agreement,
we effected a business combination with Legacy Grindr through,
among other transactions, (i) the merger of Tiga Merger Sub I with
and into Legacy Grindr, with Legacy Grindr as the surviving entity
(the “First Merger”), and promptly thereafter and as part of the
same overall transaction as the First Merger, (ii) the merger of
Legacy Grindr with and into Tiga Merger Sub II (the “Second
Merger”), with Tiga Merger Sub II surviving the Second Merger as a
wholly owned subsidiary of Tiga. We refer to the First Merger and
the Second Merger and, collectively with the other transactions
described in the Merger Agreement, as the “Business Combination.”
In connection with the closing of the Business Combination, we
changed our name to Grindr Inc.
Unless the context indicates otherwise, references in this Annual
Report on Form 10-K to the “Company,” “Grindr,” “we,” “us,” “our”
and similar terms refer to Grindr Inc. (f/k/a Tiga Acquisition
Corp.) and its consolidated subsidiaries (including Legacy Grindr).
References to “Tiga” refer to the predecessor company prior to the
consummation of the Business Combination.
SPECIAL NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
Some of the statements contained in this Annual Report on Form 10-K
constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the
federal securities laws. Forward-looking statements relate to
expectations, beliefs, projections, future plans and strategies,
anticipated events or trends and similar expressions concerning
matters that are not historical facts. These forward-looking
statements include statements regarding our intentions, beliefs and
current expectations and projections concerning, among other
things, results of operations, financial condition, liquidity,
prospects, growth, strategies and the markets in which we operate.
In some cases, you can identify these forward-looking statements by
the use of terminology such as “outlook,” “believes,” “expects,”
“potential,” “continues,” “may,” “will,” “should,” “could,”
“seeks,” “approximately,” “predicts,” “intends,” “plans,”
“estimates,” “anticipates” or the negative version of these words
or other comparable words or phrases.
The forward-looking statements contained in this Annual Report on
Form 10-K reflect our current views about the our business and
future events and are subject to numerous known and unknown risks,
uncertainties, assumptions and changes in circumstances that may
cause its actual results to differ significantly from those
expressed in any forward-looking statement. There are no guarantees
that the transactions and events described will happen as described
(or that they will happen at all). The following factors, among
others, could cause actual results and future events to differ
materially from those set forth or contemplated in the
forward-looking statements:
•the
success in retaining or recruiting, or changes required in, our
directors, officers or key employees;
•the
impact of the regulatory environment and complexities with
compliance related to such environment, including maintaining
compliance with privacy and data protection laws and
regulations;
•the
ability to respond to general economic conditions;
•factors
relating to our and our subsidiaries’ business, operations and
financial performance, including:
◦competition
in the dating and social networking products and services
industry;
◦the
ability to maintain and attract users;
◦fluctuation
in quarterly and yearly results;
◦the
ability to adapt to changes in technology and user preferences in a
timely and cost-effective manner;
◦the
ability to protect systems and infrastructures from cyber-attacks
and prevent unauthorized data access;
◦the
dependence on the integrity of third-party systems and
infrastructure; and
◦the
ability to protect our intellectual property rights from
unauthorized use by third parties.
•whether
the concentration of our stock ownership and voting power limits
our stockholders’ ability to influence corporate
matters;
•the
effects of the ongoing coronavirus (“COVID-19”) pandemic, the 2022
mpox outbreak, or other infectious diseases, health epidemics,
pandemics and natural disasters on our business;
•the
ability to maintain the listing of our common stock and public
warrants on the New York Stock Exchange (“NYSE”); and
•the
increasingly competitive environment in which we
operate.
In addition, statements that “Grindr believes” or “we believe” and
similar statements reflect our beliefs and opinions on the relevant
subjects. These statements are based upon information available to
us as of the date of this Annual Report on Form 10-K, and while we
believe such information forms a reasonable basis for such
statements, such information may be limited or incomplete, and such
statements should not be read to indicate that we have conducted an
exhaustive inquiry into, or review of, all potentially available
relevant information. These statements are inherently uncertain and
investors are cautioned not to unduly rely upon these
statements.
While forward-looking statements reflect our good faith beliefs,
they are not guarantees of future performance. Except to the extent
required by applicable law, we are under no obligation (and
expressly disclaim any such
obligation) to update or revise our forward-looking statements
whether as a result of new information, future events, or
otherwise. For a further discussion of these and other factors that
could cause our future results, performance or transactions to
differ significantly from those expressed in any forward-looking
statement, please see the section titled “Risk Factors.” You should
not place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements, which
are based only on information currently available to us (or to
third parties making the forward-looking statements).
Summary of Risk Factors
The following is a summary of some of the risks and uncertainties
that could materially adversely affect our business, financial
condition and results of operations. This summary should be read
together with the more detailed description of each risk factor
disclosed under “Item 1A Risk Factors” contained in Part I of this
Annual Report on Form 10-K.
Risks Related to our Brand, Products and Services, and
Operations
•Our
business depends on the strength and market perception of the
Grindr brand.
•Changes
to our existing products and services, or the development and
introduction of new products and services, could fail to attract or
retain users or generate revenue and profits.
•If
we fail to retain existing users or add new users, or if our users
decrease their level of engagement with our products and services
or do not convert to paying users, our revenue, financial results
and business may be significantly harmed.
•Inappropriate
actions by certain of our users could be attributed to us and
damage our brand or reputation, or subject us to regulatory
inquiries, legal action, or other liabilities, which, in turn,
could materially adversely affect our business.
•Unfavorable
media coverage could materially and adversely affect our business,
brand, or reputation.
•The
online social networking industry in which we operate is highly
competitive, and if we cannot compete effectively our business will
suffer.
•Our
quarterly operating results and other operating metrics may
fluctuate from quarter to quarter, which makes these metrics
difficult to predict.
•The
distribution, marketing of, and access to our products and services
depend, in large part, on third-party platforms and mobile
application stores, among other third-party providers.
•Privacy
concerns relating to our products and services and the use of user
information could negatively impact our user base or user
engagement, which could have a material and adverse effect on our
business, financial condition, and results of
operations.
•We
rely primarily on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store as the
channels for processing of payments. Any deterioration in our
relationship with Apple, Google or other such third parties may
negatively impact our business.
•Adverse
social and political environments for the LGBTQ community in
certain parts of the world, including actions by governments or
other groups, could limit our geographic reach, business expansion,
and user growth, any of which could materially and adversely affect
our business, financial condition, and results of
operation.
Risks Related to Information Technology Systems and Intellectual
Property
•Security
breaches, unauthorized access to or disclosure of our data or user
data, or other data security incidents could expose us to
liability, which could harm our reputation, generate negative
publicity, and materially and adversely affect our
business.
•Our
success depends, in part, on the integrity of our information
technology systems and infrastructures and on our ability to
enhance, expand, and adapt these systems and infrastructures in a
timely and cost-effective manner.
Risks Related to Regulation and Litigation
•We
have identified a material weakness in our internal control over
financial reporting which, if not corrected, could affect the
reliability of our consolidated financial statements, and have
other adverse consequences.
•Our
success depends, in part, on our ability to access, collect, and
use personal data about our users and to comply with applicable
privacy and data protection laws and industry best
practices.
•Investments
in our business may be subject to U.S. foreign investment
regulations.
•Our
business is subject to complex and evolving U.S. and international
laws and regulations
•The
varying and rapidly evolving regulatory framework on privacy and
data protection across jurisdictions could result in claims,
changes to our business practices, monetary penalties, increased
cost of operations, or declines in user growth or engagement, or
otherwise harm our business.
•We
are subject to litigation, regulatory and other government
investigations, and adverse outcomes in such proceedings could have
a materially adverse effect on our business, financial condition,
and results of operation.
•Activities
of our users or content made available by such users could subject
us to liability.
Risks Related to Our Indebtedness
•Our
indebtedness could materially adversely affect our financial
condition, our ability to raise additional capital to fund our
operations, and operate our business.
Risks Related to Ownership of our Securities
•We
have a limited operating history and, as a result, our past results
may not be indicative of future operating performance.
•Our
reported financial results may be adversely affected by changes in
accounting principles generally accepted in the United
States.
•There
is no guarantee that our warrants will be in the money at the time
they become exercisable, and they may expire
worthless.
•The
requirements of being a public company may strain our resources,
divert management’s attention and affect our ability to attract and
retain executive management and qualified board
members.
•We
have incurred and expect to continue to incur significantly
increased costs and devote substantial management time as a result
of operating as a public company.
•We
may be unable to maintain the listing of our securities on
NYSE.
•The
price of our securities may be volatile.
•Future
resales of our Common Stock and/or Warrants may cause the market
price of our securities to drop significantly, even if our business
is doing well.
•Sales
of our Common Stock and/or Warrants or the perception of such
sales, by us or by significant stockholders could cause the market
price for our securities to decline.
•We
may be subject to securities litigation, which is expensive and
could divert management attention.
•Reports
published by analysts or the ceasing of publication of research or
reports about us could adversely affect the price and trading
volume of our securities.
•We
do not intend to pay cash dividends for the foreseeable
future.
General Risk Factors
•A
downturn in the global economy or other adverse macroeconomic
disruptions, including as a result of bank failures, especially in
the U.S. and Europe, where a substantial majority of our revenue is
generated could adversely harm our business.
•Our
employees could engage in misconduct that materially adversely
affects us.
PART I
Item 1. Business
Our Mission
Connect LGBTQ people with one another and the world.
Our Company
We are the world’s largest social network focused on the LGBTQ
community with approximately 12.2 million monthly active users
(“MAUs”) and approximately 788 thousand Paying Users (as defined
below) in 2022. Our Paying Users were over 788 and 601 thousand for
the years ended December 31, 2022 and December 31, 2021,
respectively. According to the Frost & Sullivan Study
commissioned by Grindr, we are the largest and most popular gay
mobile app in the world, with more MAUs than other LGBTQ social
networking applications. We enable our users to find and engage
with each other, share content and experiences, and generally
express themselves. We are a pioneer and leading influence on the
lifestyle trends and discourse among the global LGBTQ community. We
are devoted to providing a platform for social interactions for
this vibrant community and to cultivating a safe and accepting
environment where all are welcome and feel a sense of belonging. As
a result, our platform has become a meaningful part of our users’
social lives and has embedded us at the center of the community as
the preferred channel for broadening their connections and engaging
with like-minded individuals within the LGBTQ
community.
We believe Grindr fulfills crucial needs for the LGBTQ community.
While the broader global landscape of social networks is highly
competitive with many different platforms, there are few global
platforms that focus solely on the LGBTQ community and addressing
their unique needs, including LGBTQ centric social activities or
heightened privacy. For many years and still even today, people
from the LGBTQ community are often discriminated against,
marginalized, and targeted. Few global platforms exist where these
individuals can truly be their authentic selves and feel safe to
express themselves freely. As a result, the queer community often
have a difficult time finding other members of the community with
similar interests, beliefs, or values. This experience can be
isolating and disheartening.
Our platform enables the LGBTQ community to connect with each other
and the world. Our platform has many distinct user segments—a
diverse set of queer genders and sexualities, varied ages and
demographics, various sub-communities, private and discreet users,
and urban and rural users. Our users also have a range of
motivations and use cases. Our platform helps our users find what
they are looking for: casual dating, relationships and love,
community and friendships, travel information, local and discovery,
and beyond. By facilitating the connection of our users around the
world, we believe we have the potential to help our community find
each other and interact, advance global LGBTQ rights, and make the
world a safer place for all LGBTQ people.
Our core product, the Grindr App, has become an integral part of
the daily lives of millions of members of the LGBTQ community
around the world, enabling them to discover and connect with each
other effortlessly and anytime. The Grindr App offers a variety of
location-based social features and functions, including identity
expression (profile, photos, presence), connection (search,
filters, the Cascade, Viewed Me), interaction (chat, media
sharing), trust and safety tools across the experience, and
subscriptions for premium features offering more access and
control. Since our inception in 2009, we have continued to innovate
our technologies to improve the Grindr app, adding new features and
safety elements, which has allowed us to increase our MAUs and
other metrics over the years. The Grindr App has MAUs in over 190
countries and territories, including developed markets such as the
United States, the U.K., France, Spain, and Canada, and emerging
markets such as Brazil, Mexico, India, Chile, and the Philippines,
creating a high barrier to entry for our competitors.
We have attracted a highly engaged, and rapidly growing user base,
as evidenced by the following:
•Approximately
12.2 million MAUs in 2022.
•Approximately
788 thousand Paying Users in 2022. Our Paying Users increased by
31.0% in 2022, as compared to 2021.
•MAUs
in over 190 countries and territories in the world as of December
31, 2022.
•21
supported languages on Android and 9 on iOS as of December 31,
2022.
•On
average, users on our platform sent over 308 million daily messages
in 2022.
•Our
profiles spent an average of 58 minutes per day each on the Grindr
App in December 2022, which ranks us number one among apps focused
on the LGBTQ community, according to the Frost & Sullivan Study
commissioned by Grindr.
Our largest markets are currently North America and Europe, from
which we derived 86.9% of our total revenue for the year ended
December 31, 2022. After North America and Europe,
Asia-Pacific makes up an additional 6.1% of our total revenue, and
the remaining 4.6% and 2.4% are from other regions, including Latin
America (comprising Central America and South America) and
Australia, respectively, for the year ended December 31,
2022.
Our target market is the worldwide LGBTQ community, which comprises
more than 538.4 million people globally that self-identify as
LGBTQ and represented approximately 6.9% of the total global
population as of December 31, 2021, according to the Frost
& Sullivan Study commissioned by Grindr. With the progression
of LGBTQ culture and increase in LGBTQ rights around the world,
this growing and highly engaged community has had an increasingly
stronger voice and has been enabled to pursue more diverse
lifestyles, express its opinions, and advocate for equal rights. We
are dedicated to creating value and a safe and accepting
environment for the LGBTQ community.
We believe we have significant opportunities to leverage our unique
brand to both broaden and deepen our market penetration and offer
products and services that address the growing and changing needs
of the global LGBTQ community. With this broader opportunity in
mind, we have continued to expand our platform, which offers a
unique combination of social networking functions, digital content,
and other initiatives aimed at enriching and empowering the lives
of the LGBTQ community, in the following ways:
•We
help people find meaningful connections, whether it's casual
dating, relationships and love, community and friendships, travel
information, local and discovery, and beyond.
•Our
platform builds community and friendships. Our user experience is
essentially a world without walls, connecting one user to the next,
allowing the community to see each other, many of whom sometimes
feel unseen.
•We
are advancing LGBTQ equality and safety. Our Grindr for Equality
initiative, or G4E, has worked around the world for the safety and
justice for the LGBTQ community. Coordinating with NGOs,
governments, and nonprofits, G4E has worked to change and inform
policy, increase access to vital healthcare services such as HIV
testing, and bring valuable information to millions of people in
over 50 languages.
•We
bring empowerment through partnerships with organizations such as
Aids/Lifecycle, National/Local Pride Organizations, and Voting
Campaigns.
•We
drive social influence with fun and engaging ways on social media
channels to help the general population better understand our
community, plight, and interconnectedness.
We believe our brand and logo have become mainstays of the global
LGBTQ experience. According to the Morning Consult Survey, we are
the best-known gay dating app among Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and
Queer people, with 85.0% brand awareness, as well as the best-known
gay dating app among the general population. The strength of our
brand has allowed us to grow our users virally and organically, as
evidenced by the fact that our customer acquisition spend only
comprised 0.3% of total revenue in 2022. This is a core feature of
our business model. As our user base continues to grow worldwide,
more connections are made, and our user engagement and revenue
increase. These increases enable us to reinvest in our platform,
building more product and safety features and, as a result, attract
more users. This results in powerful network effects, driving user
and revenue growth and reinforcing our brand
awareness.
We currently generate revenue from two revenue streams—Direct
Revenue and Indirect Revenue, both of which are driven by the
Grindr app. Direct Revenue is revenue generated by our Paying Users
who pay for subscriptions or add-ons to access premium features.
While our app is free to use, our premium features enable our users
to customize their ability to experience and use our platform.
Indirect Revenue is generated by third parties who pay us for
access to our users, such as advertising or partnerships. Our
financial model has significant benefits and has experienced rapid
revenue growth and profitability driven predominantly by organic
user acquisition and the viral network effects enabled by our brand
and market position.
•For
the years ended December 31, 2022 and 2021, we
generated:
◦Total
revenue of $195.0 million and $145.8 million, respectively,
representing year-over-year growth of 33.7%;
◦Net
Income of $0.9 million and $5.1 million, respectively. The decrease
for the year ended December 31, 2022 compared to the year ended
December 31, 2021 was $(4.2) million, or (82.4)%; and
◦Adjusted
EBITDA of $85.2 million and $77.1 million, respectively. The
increase for the year ended December 31, 2022 compared to the year
ended December 31, 2021 was $8.1 million, or 10.6%.
For a reconciliation of Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA Margin
to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures,
information about why we consider Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted
EBITDA Margin useful and a discussion of the material risks and
limitations of these measures, see the section titled
“Management’s
Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of
Operations—Non-GAAP Financial Measures.”
The Business Combination
Grindr's predecessor public company was originally incorporated in
the Cayman Islands on September 18, 2017 under the name Tiga
Acquisition Corp. (“Tiga”), a special-purpose acquisition company
for the purpose of effecting a merger, capital stock exchange,
asset acquisition, stock purchase, reorganization or engaging in
any other similar business combination with one or more businesses
or entities. Grindr was originally incorporated in February 2009 as
a California limited liability company, and was subsequently held
by Grindr Group LLC ("Legacy Grindr"), a Delaware limited liability
company which was incorporated in April 2020.
Between November 17, 2022 and November 18, 2022, Legacy Grindr,
Tiga, Tiga Merger Sub I LLC, a Delaware limited liability company
and direct and wholly-owned subsidiary of Tiga (“Tiga Merger Sub”),
and Tiga Merger Sub II LLC, a Delaware limited liability company
and direct and wholly-owned subsidiary of Tiga, consummated the
transactions contemplated by that certain Agreement and Plan of
Merger, dated as of May 9, 2022 (the “Original Merger Agreement”),
by and among Tiga, Legacy Grindr, Tiga Merger Sub, as amended by
that certain First Amendment to Agreement and Plan of Merger, dated
as of October 5, 2022, by and among Tiga, Tiga Merger Sub, Legacy
Grindr and Tiga Merger Sub II (together with the Original Merger
Agreement, the “Merger Agreement”), following its approval at an
extraordinary general meeting of the shareholders of Tiga held on
November 15, 2022. Pursuant to the terms of the Merger Agreement, a
business combination of Legacy Grindr and Tiga was effected
through, among other transactions, (i) the merger of Tiga Merger
Sub I with and into Legacy Grindr, with Legacy Grindr as the
surviving entity (the “First Merger”), and promptly thereafter and
as part of the same overall transaction as the First Merger, (ii)
the merger of Legacy Grindr with and into Tiga Merger Sub II (the
“Second Merger”), with Tiga Merger Sub II surviving the Second
Merger as a wholly owned subsidiary of Tiga. Prior to the closing
of the business combination on November 18, 2022 (“Closing”), Tiga
(i) changed its jurisdiction of incorporation from Cayman Islands
to the State of Delaware by deregistering as an exempted company in
the Cayman Islands and domesticating and continuing as a
corporation incorporated under the laws of the State of Delaware
and (ii) changed its name from Tiga Acquisition Corp. to Grindr
Inc. (the “Business Combination”).
Unless the context indicates otherwise, references in this Annual
Report to Form 10-K to the “Company,” “Grindr,” “we,” “us,” “our”
and similar terms refer to Grindr, Inc. (f/k/a Tiga Acquisition
Corp.) and its consolidated subsidiaries (including Legacy Grindr).
References to “Tiga” refer to the predecessor company prior to
Closing.
Market Overview
The global LGBTQ population has undergone steady growth in recent
years, growing at a compound annual growth rate (“CAGR”) of 6.7%
from 390.0 million in 2016 to 538.4 million in 2021,
according to the Frost & Sullivan Study, which was commissioned
by Grindr, of the global LGBTQ population. The Frost & Sullivan
Study commissioned by Grindr estimated this growth trend will
continue over the next five years, growing at a CAGR of 4.2% and
reaching 659.9 million in 2026.
The global growth of the LGBTQ population is not just driven by
overall population growth, but by the growing social acceptance
level towards the LGBTQ community and the LGBTQ population’s
willingness to express sexual orientation and gender identity. We
believe increasing social acceptance of the LGBTQ community and
more LGBTQ friendly political environments globally will continue
to contribute to the increase in the number of people that
self-identify as LGBTQ. This is evidenced by Frost & Sullivan’s
estimate of the LGBTQ population’s percentage of the total
population, growing from 5.3% in 2016 to 6.9% in 2021 to an
estimated 8.2% by 2026. Additionally, the study also notes the
LGBTQ population estimate may vary from country to country and in
total, based on different cultural backgrounds, the political
system of the country, economic development, and other
factors.
We believe our global addressable market encompasses the entire
LGBTQ population and not just LGBTQ singles, as we are a social
network and our users frequently use our platform and services for
more than just dating. For example, many of our users are in
relationships but continue to use our app for travel or to stay
connected with their friends or the broader LGBTQ
community.
Estimated Self-identified LGBTQ Population and Proportion of Total
Population
According to the Frost & Sullivan Study commissioned by Grindr,
the GBTQ population make up the largest proportion of the overall
LGBTQ population, comprising almost 81% of the total with
434.9 million people in 2021. The Frost & Sullivan Study
commissioned by Grindr estimates the GBTQ population will continue
to grow as a percentage of the overall LGBTQ population, with the
percentage increasing to over 81% by 2026.
Estimated Self-Identified LGBTQ Population, Breakdown by Gender
Identity
The self-identified LGBTQ population skews towards younger
generations. According to the Frost & Sullivan Study
commissioned by Grindr, self-identified LGBTQ 18-24 year olds
are estimated at 10.3% of the total 18-24 year old global
population in 2021, 25-34 year olds are estimated at 8.9%, and
35-49 year olds are estimated at 6.3%, respectively. These
population percentages are expected to grow to 13.4% of the total
18-24 year old global population by 2026, 10.9% for
25-34 year olds, and 7.3% for 35-49 year olds,
respectively.
Social development and rapidly changing points of view brought on
by the growth of the Internet has objectively caused Gen Z,
(18-24 year olds), to be exposed to more ideas, such as gender
awareness and sexual orientation, earlier than previous generations
in the same period. Younger generations are more gender fluid, with
the definition of gender identity becoming more indistinct,
blurring the boundary between the LGBTQ community and the
heterosexual population. These younger generations are more likely
to explore their sexuality, given more social acceptability of
alternative sexual identities today and the ability to express
different sexual identities.
Estimated Self-Identified LGBTQ Population Penetration Rate,
Breakdown by Age Group (Medium Estimate)
According to the Frost & Sullivan Study commissioned by Grindr,
the total self-identified LGBTQ population and self-identified
LGBTQ population penetration rate in most regions is expected to
continue to increase over time. The self-identified LGBTQ
population and penetration rate in North America will grow from
36.9 million and 9.9% in 2021 to 40.7 million and 10.7%
in 2026, respectively. Europe will grow from 61.6 million and
8.2% in 2021 to 74.8 million and 10.0% in 2026, respectively.
Asia will grow from 372.8 million and 8.0% in 2021 to
468.7 million and 9.6% in 2026, respectively. Latin America
will grow from 56.8 million and 8.6% in 2021 to
62.1 million and 9.0% in 2026, respectively.
Estimated Self-identified LGBTQ Population, Breakdown by
Region
Global LGBTQ Social Context
In recent decades, societies around the world have generally become
more socially accepting of, and open to, LGBTQ culture and people,
which has led to greater rights for members of the LGBTQ community.
For example, the Netherlands was the first country to legalize
same-sex marriage in 2000. According to various sources, as of
April 2022, over 75 countries and territories have legalized
same-sex marriage, including jurisdictions in every inhabited
continent across the globe. Additionally, according to the ILGA
World Report, same-sex sexual activities were legal in over 120
countries and territories worldwide, including all of the countries
in North America and Europe and the majority of the countries in
Asia and Latin America.
LGBTQ Population’s Consumption
We believe our user base represents a highly coveted demographic.
According to the Frost & Sullivan Study commissioned by Grindr,
data from the American Community Survey showed that same-sex
couples have a higher median household income than opposite-sex
couples, with male same-sex couples having the highest income.
Educational attainment is an important social phenomenon, which is
strongly linked to later success in terms of income, occupation,
wealth, health, and life satisfaction. In the United States, male
same-sex households are more likely to have at least a bachelor’s
degree than opposite-sex households. In 2020, 57.5% of male
same-sex households had at least a bachelor’s degree compared to
42.4% of opposite-sex households. As individuals, 55.1% of the gay
and bisexual men population have at least a bachelor’s degree
compared to 30.3% of the straight male population.
From a macro-level perspective, the more LGBTQ inclusion a country
has, the more likely it is to be economically developed. LGBTQ
inclusion and economic development are mutually reinforcing, and
LGBTQ legal rights have a continued positive and statistically
significant association with real GDP per capita after controlling
for gender equality. Also, from the perspective of society,
employers who treat LGBTQ people equally in the workplace will
generally see positive business outcomes such as higher
productivity of LGBTQ workers, notable improvements in health,
lower costs, and a lower likelihood of employee
turnover.
Estimated LGBTQ Population GDP at Purchasing Power Parity
(“PPP”)
As the global pandemic caused by COVID-19 gradually improves,
global GDP at purchasing power parity growth resumed upward trends
in 2021 and experienced an estimated increase of 6.5%, according to
the Frost & Sullivan Study commissioned by Grindr.
Correspondingly, the estimated LGBTQ population GDP at PPP has also
seen an increase,
reaching $10.9 billion by the end of 2021. GDP at PPP is the
calculation of GDP taking relative costs and inflation into
account.
Given this high purchasing power and economic potential, the LGBTQ
community is an increasingly attractive demographic for marketers
and advertisers. The scale of purchasing power associated with the
LGBTQ demographic, coupled with a general interest to appeal to a
younger demographic, have caused marketers to increase their focus
on reaching this community. Some of the world’s largest
corporations and brands have launched LGBTQ-themed or focused
advertising campaigns, including Apple, Johnson & Johnson, GM,
Coca-Cola, Campbell’s, American Express, Unilever, Marriott,
Anheuser-Busch, and Hilton, just to name a few.
Our Products and Services
Our flagship product “Grindr,” or the Grindr App, is a mobile
application with location-based connectivity features designed to
help our users find one another and have meaningful interactions
right here and now, or anywhere globally. The app is free to use,
with premium subscription offerings for greater access to other
users and control over the experience.
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Key features of our Grindr App include: |
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Identity expression:
users can create, manage, and control their identity, profile, and
presence on the app.
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Connection:
users can find and be found by those they are interested in; those
nearby right now, or anywhere globally.
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Interaction:
users can chat and interact with any profile instantly, in an open,
fun, and engaging way.
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Trust and Safety:
users receive guidance and tools to be safe across their
experience.
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Premium:
users can pay for greater access to more users and for more control
over how they find one another and interact.
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We launched the Grindr App in 2009 to create a new way for gay men
to find each other and form connections. Our initial differentiator
was a cascade engine to help find other users nearby in an exciting
and highly responsive app experience leading to high engagement and
rapid organic growth. Our initial active user segment of gay men,
our real-time and hyper-local use case of casual dating, and our
industry-defining cascade user interface and open messaging
connection model, combine to create a fun and highly engaging
experience on the app. This engagement engine has fueled our rapid
organic growth over time leading to more users, segments,
geographies, and use cases.
Over time, we evolved into the world’s largest LGBTQ social network
and we enable our users to engage on our platform in a variety of
ways. We believe we have played an integral role in both
establishing, defining, and developing the location-based dating
industry and developing wider mainstream acceptance of LGBTQ
individuals on a global basis.
User and Product Journey
Identity expression: Getting started on Grindr is easy. Users
create an account and profile that represents themselves and their
identity on the platform. They create an account and verify
important information to help maintain a trustworthy and safe
environment on the app. Then they are able to create a rich,
visual, personalized profile with a wide range of data and
information about themselves, their interests, and motivations.
This helps them express who they are, what they seek, and makes it
easy for all to meet one another and form meaningful
connections.
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1. Sign up: New users create an account with their email, or
through social media account authentication (e.g., Facebook,
Google, Apple). |
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2. Age verification: Users verify their age to confirm they are not
a minor, and that they are eligible to use the Grindr
service. |
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3. Human Verification: Users complete a human verification step to
reduce the spam and bot activity on the app, and sign our Terms and
Conditions of Service, as well as our Privacy and Cookie
Policy. |
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4. Profile Photos: Users create a rich profile expressing their
identity, by first adding a visual representation of themselves
through photos and media. |
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5. About Me: Users personalize their profile by adding a display
name and custom “about me” narrative, enlivening their profile and
helping them form more meaningful connections with
others. |
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6. Stats: Users can optionally share key data such as age, height,
tribe, body type, gender identity, ethnicity, relationship status,
and self-reported sexual health information, to help them connect
with others in the queer community. |
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7. Tags: Users express their interests, identity, and community
affiliation by adding tags to their profile. |
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8. Complete Profile: Users’ completed profile is their chosen
representation of themselves and their identity on the platform,
and enables them to find and be found by those they are interested
in. |
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Connecting:
Grindr helps users find meaningful connections easily and
enjoyably. Grindr is unique in its “many-to-many” connection model:
on “the cascade” (a grid of profiles nearby) users can actively
browse many profiles at once, and be found by multiple others
searching for them. They can browse, search, and filter profiles
nearby or anywhere across the globe, based on identity, key
characteristics, and interests. They are notified when others have
viewed or expressed an
interest in them (“taps”).
These connectivity features create multiple avenues to meaningful
interactions quickly, easily, and in a fun and engaging
way.
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1. The Cascade: Users are instantly immersed in the community when
they arrive on The Cascade: Grindr’s industry-defining user
interface – a grid of profiles with location information, creating
many connections quickly and easily. |
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2. Filters: Users can personalize their cascade by filtering for
key characteristics they are interested in. |
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3. Search: Users can find others with specific interests and
community affiliations by searching for others with specific tags
on their profile. |
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4. Tags: Users can find community by browsing custom cascades
composed of profiles sharing the same tags. |
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5. Explore: Users can also explore cascades of other users in
locations across the globe, forming meaningful connections
anywhere. |
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6. Viewed Me: Users can see those who may be interested in them,
having recently viewed their profile. |
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7. Taps: Users can express their interest in others by “tapping”
the profile of someone they have viewed. |
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8. Favorites: Users can maintain meaningful connections by
favoriting profiles, and seeing a custom cascade of all their
favorites anytime. |
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Interacting:
Once users find one another, Grindr helps them form meaningful
connections with a fun and engaging messaging experience. Grindr is
unique in its open messaging model: users can initiate a message
with any profile, regardless of whether interest has been expressed
beforehand, a key aspect of our engagement engine. Within the
messaging feature, users can form meaningful connections and deepen
them over time by sharing rich media and with a variety of
messaging formats.
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1. Open Messaging: users can interact with anyone of interest
through our unique open messaging platform. They can initiate one
or multiple messages from profiles on their cascades, or respond to
messages sent to them. |
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2. Inbox: Users manage the many messages they can send and receive
through the inbox, with a special “taps” section for those who’ve
expressed an interest in them. |
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3. Share Photos: Users can have rich and meaningful interactions by
sharing additional photos with one another through the messaging
feature. |
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4. Albums: Users can further meaningful interactions by creating
private albums, which they can share with select individuals with
whom they have a special connection. |
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5. Share video and audio: Users can also deepen connections by
sharing video or audio with one another through the messaging
feature. |
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6. Live Video Calls: Users can also interact with live video calls
to further get to know one another, or confirm their mutual
interests. |
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7. Group messaging: Multiple users can interact and meet one
another through the group messaging feature. |
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8. Location sharing: When users have built up a trusting
connection, they can choose to share their location and make plans
to meet in real life. |
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Safety and support:
Creating a trustworthy and safe environment is central to the
health of our platform and for our community. Grindr provides users
with a variety of tools, features, proactive assistance, help and
guidance across their experience to maintain the highest standards
of trust and safety.
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1. Sexual health + testing information: Users can express their
sexual health and testing information on their profile, and view
the same information from users who have chosen to share it. They
can also choose to receive testing reminders to help maintain their
health. |
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2. Blocking: Users may block other profiles if they are not having
a positive or meaningful interaction. |
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3. Reporting and proactive monitoring: Users may report behavior
that may violate the terms of the platform. Grindr provides
reactive and proactive moderation services to support the user and
platform safety. |
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4. Help Center: Users are provided with easy access to helpful
safety information at any time in the app and at various points
throughout the service. |
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Premium Services:
The free version of our service provides many of the features above
on a limited basis for a valuable initial experience. Users can pay
a subscription for premium features and services, giving them
greater access to more profiles, and additional control over the
experience of finding others and forming meaningful
connections.
The Grindr free
ad-supported service provides:
•Access
to view 100 profiles on the Nearby Cascade
•Use
of some basic filters to find others
•Use
of all tags to search for users with similar interest
•Tapping
others to express interest
•Viewing
user profiles in the explore tab
•Messaging
openly with anyone from the Nearby Cascade
•Sharing
photos and location information through messages to facilitate
meaningful connections
Grindr XTRA
provides an initial set of premium features for a subscription
fee:
•600
profiles: access to 5x more (up to 600) profiles on our Nearby
Cascade than our free version of the app
•No
ads: removal of banner and interstitial ads, providing XTRA users
with an ad-free experience
•Advanced
filters: e.g. height, weight, body type, relationship status,
online status, photos, and prior chat history
•XTRA
Explore: increased utility of Explore mode, including the ability
to chat with, tap, and favorite users
•Premium
messaging features: e.g. frequently used phrases and message read
receipts
Grindr Unlimited
provides unlimited access, control and customization for a premium
price. Grindr Unlimited includes all of the features of XTRA
plus:
•Unlimited
profiles: allowing users to view unlimited profiles on the Nearby,
Explore, and Tag cascades
•Viewed
Me: allowing users to see who is looking at their
profile
•Incognito:
allowing users to browse without being seen
•Unsend:
allows users to undo sent messages and photos
•Typing
status: allowing users to know when someone is in the process of
messaging them
•Translate:
allowing users to translate messages in different
languages
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XTRA |
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1. 600 Profiles |
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2. No Ads |
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3. Advanced Filters |
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4. Saved phrases and read receipts |
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Unlimited (all XTRA features plus):
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1. Unlimited profiles |
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2. Viewed Me |
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3. Incognito |
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4.Typing status + unsend |
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Social Responsibility—Grindr for Equality
We launched G4E in 2012, with a mission to promote safety, health,
and human rights for LGBTQ people around the world through
collaborations with advocacy groups in various countries. G4E
leverages the Grindr App’s global reach and leadership to conduct
research, spread information, and empower our users in the fight
for LGBTQ rights. We also fund innovative projects through G4E
aimed at improving the welfare of the LGBTQ community, particularly
in regions where protections are either lacking or nonexistent,
such as Russia, Egypt, and India. For example, in India, we worked
with the Indian gender and sexuality organization, Varta Trust, and
Chennai-based not-for-profit Solidarity and Action Against the HIV
Infection in India (SAATHII), to develop an innovative and
one-of-a-kind LGBTQ resource database and online HIV test center
location guide for the country. Through G4E, we work with various
groups worldwide to make HIV testing more accessible, encourage
voting, and fight homophobia, biphobia, and
transphobia.
G4E is a key way for us to connect with and serve the LGBTQ
community and to strengthen our brand affinity within this
community, especially in parts of the world where LGBTQ people are
still highly marginalized. For advocacy groups with limited
budgets, our platform is a helpful tool for them to reach a wider
audience and promote their services and resources. We hope to
continue to increase our financial commitment to G4E, thereby
furthering our continued and active advocacy for, and defense and
support of, the LGBTQ community worldwide.
We encourage members of the LGBTQ community to have a voice,
express their opinions and help fight against oppression. Our
geolocation technology enables us to send messages targeted towards
specific areas and groups of users to keep them updated on the
issues most relevant to them.
Our Competitive Advantages
While the broader global landscape of mobile-based social platforms
is highly competitive with many different players, the number of
players that are specifically addressing the unique needs of the
global LGBTQ community is limited. There are a number of key
factors that drive demand for certain platforms specifically
dedicated to the LGBTQ community versus those that target the
general population. For instance, LGBTQ users have heightened and
special concerns relating to privacy, particularly with respect to
identity protection, making it important that independent online
platforms dedicated to serving LGBTQ users provide a safe and
secure place for users to express themselves. Additionally, general
social platforms are less likely to offer LGBTQ-specific community
opportunities to meet other LGBTQ users, whereas LGBTQ dedicated
social networking platforms substantially improve the ability of
LGBTQ users to find and join LGBTQ centric social activities. As a
result, LGBTQ social networking users tend to show higher
engagement and retention on LGBTQ dedicated platforms.
We believe certain advantages will continue to provide us with
sustainable differentiation and success relative to our
competitors:
•The
Largest Global LGBTQ Focused Mobile Social Platform.
We were established in 2009 as one of the first global social
platforms exclusively addressing the needs of the LGBTQ community.
We built our mobile social platform to address the broadly
underserved LGBTQ community’s need for a comprehensive digital
platform to connect, share, and consume content. Driven by our
first-mover advantage, we have rapidly built the world’s largest
LGBTQ social platform in terms of users in 2021, according to the
Frost & Sullivan Study commissioned by Grindr. In 2022, we had
approximately 12.2 million MAUs and users in over 190 countries and
territories, with our Grindr App available in over 21 language
versions. We have users in several markets as of December 31, 2022,
including developed markets such as the United States, the U.K.,
France, Spain, and Canada, and emerging markets such as Brazil,
Mexico, India, Chile, and the Philippines.
•Large,
Highly Engaged, and Growing User Base.
Our large and highly engaged global user base drives the continuous
growth of our daily operations. The Grindr App had approximately
12.2 million MAUs in 2022. During the same period, our users on
average sent over 260 million chats and each individual user spent
an average of 58 minutes per day on our Grindr app.
•Preeminent
Brand within the LGBTQ Community.
Our brand is one of the most well-known in the LGBTQ community and
has become broadly associated with LGBTQ culture. According to the
Morning Consult Survey, Grindr is the best-known gay dating app
among Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer people, with 85% brand
awareness, and is also the best-known gay dating app among the
general population. We are frequently mentioned by world-class
media, including the BBC, CNN, and other influential media
platforms, and we have more social media followers than most of our
competitors on nearly every platform, which helps to constantly
reinforce the social exposure of our brand. Additionally, our G4E
campaigns have further strengthened our brand awareness and our
position as a leader within the LGBTQ community. Our G4E campaigns
proactively promote justice, health, safety, and other LGBTQ
rights. The various elements of our growing platform combine online
and offline aspects of our users’ social presence to engage our
users in novel and meaningful ways, helping to embed us as a core
part of the LGBTQ culture.
•Organic
and Viral Growth Driven by Network Effects.
As a pioneer in the LGBTQ social networking space, we have
benefited from a substantial first mover advantage and reached a
scale that continues to propel the viral growth of our business,
brand awareness, and user acquisition. Leveraging this strong brand
awareness and
significant user network, our historical growth has been driven
primarily by network effects, including strong word of mouth
referrals and other organic means. The large scale of our user base
offers ample opportunities for potential connections and leads to a
better experience for our users. The superior user experience of
our products and services attracts more users to our platform and
increases our rankings in search engines and app stores. As a
result, we believe we achieve a higher frequency of word-of-mouth
referrals from satisfied users, which further drives our scale
while maintaining low user acquisition costs. In the years ended
December 31, 2022 and 2021, sales and marketing, excluding
personnel-related expenses, comprised 1.5% and 0.9%, respectively,
of our revenue over the same time period.
•Superior
User Experience.
We believe the superior user experience we offer distinguishes us
from our competitors. We have devoted substantial resources to
continuously improving our products and services and enhancing the
user experience. We emphasize technology and product innovations
based on robust data compiled from product usage, competitive
studies, customer feedback, and our industry experience. Our
geolocation technology, grid display interface, complex filter
functions, and other innovative features and functionalities enable
users to discover and connect to each other effortlessly and
seamlessly. Our profiles spent an average of 58 minutes per day
each on the Grindr App in December 2022, which ranks us number one
among apps targeting the LGBTQ community, according to the Frost
& Sullivan Study commissioned by Grindr.
•Strong
Margins and Profitable Business Model.
Our business model generates strong margins and high cash flow
given our revenue model and low paid user acquisition spend. Our
margins have increased over time as a result of scaling revenue and
achievement of cost efficiencies, despite continual investment in
our brand, product, technology, and anti-abuse platform. In the
years ended December 31, 2022 and 2021, our net margin was 0.4% and
3.5% respectively, and our Adjusted EBITDA Margin was 43.5% and
52.8%, respectively.
Our Growth Strategies
We believe there is significant opportunity in our core product
driven by the rising growth of the global LGBTQ population,
especially younger users that are more technology savvy. We believe
we are still in the early stages of our user growth and user
monetization journeys and believe that our brand and global reach
uniquely position us to take advantage of the broader market growth
trends.
Key elements of our growth strategy include:
•Expand
Monetization Capabilities.
We believe we can improve our monetization capabilities by
continuing to optimize and develop our subscription offerings,
introducing more stand-alone premium functions, and further
optimizing our indirect revenue offerings, as described in more
detail below:
•Continue
to optimize and develop our subscription offerings. We plan to
continue to optimize our subscription conversion through features
like introductory offers, discounted trials, and win-back offers.
We plan to continue to develop our subscription offerings by adding
more premium features to our XTRA and Unlimited products and
services, such as more advanced filters and Cascade navigation,
improvements to Viewed Me, and more premium messaging features. We
also expect to continue to optimize subscription pricing
globally.
•Introduce
more stand-alone paid features. We intend to introduce more
stand-alone paid features in addition to existing subscription
services. For example, we plan to allow some premium features to be
purchased on a stand-alone basis, including better profile
positions, appearance management, and other functions.
•Further
optimize our indirect business. We intend to further optimize our
indirect business by leveraging our advertising partnerships, brand
sales team, and self-serve advertising system. We will continue to
experiment and evaluate opportunities to increase indirect revenue
through brand partnerships, unique advertising units, and
merchandise.
•Grow
Our User Base.
We plan to deepen our penetration in our current markets, including
in our key established markets such as the United States and
Europe. We will continue to introduce additional features that
boost user engagement, increase retention, and stimulate existing
users to make word-of-mouth referrals. We also plan to enhance our
marketing initiatives in these core regions. We also plan to grow
our user base by targeting geographic regions outside of our
current core markets that have a large number of untapped potential
users and fast-growing economies. In order to attract users in
these new markets, we may offer innovative and customized products
and services and features adapted to specific market conditions and
demands. To supplement our organic user growth, we plan to
selectively invest in paid online channels, digital video channels
and, where appropriate, offline channels, to further improve our
penetration and market share in certain markets.
•Continue
to Innovate and Develop New Features.
We plan to continue to improve our products and services and
introduce new features and functions for better user experiences
and higher user engagement. These features and functions may be
broadly implemented or strategically targeted at select regions.
For example, we released tags globally in the first quarter of
2022, a feature designed to allow our users to filter and find
people with specific interests highlighted on user profiles. We
evaluate new functions and features in small target audiences and
then
roll out features with high test ratings to the larger global user
base. For example, we recently released private albums first in
Australia and New Zealand. After collecting initial feedback and
improving the product, we released it globally in 2022. We will
also continue to enhance user experiences and engagement by
continuously improving our existing features and functions,
including through optimization of stability, loading speed, and
user interface design.
•Diversify
Our Products and Services and Platform.
We will continue to diversify our offerings both vertically and
horizontally. Our global reach and scale have given us insights
into the unique challenges our user base experiences. We believe
these insights will enable us to diversify our product into other
areas that touch or concern our users. We are in the early stages
of building a web-based product that will allow our privacy-focused
users a way to use our product without downloading an app through
an app ecosystem. Additionally, we are collaborating with several
partners in related industries to explore complementary functions
and products and services to serve the core social interaction
needs of our users.
•Invest
in Machine Learning and Data Science.
We will continue to invest in data to improve our product, protect
our users, fight abuse and spam on our platform, and attract new
users. We believe our efforts in machine learning and data science
will help our users have more successful connections and improve
the overall experience on our platform.
•Pursue
Strategic Investments and Acquisitions.
In addition to organic growth, we also plan to make strategic
investments and acquisitions in targeted markets. We are
continually seeking opportunities for potential strategic
investments in, or acquisitions of, related or complementary
businesses to help build a stronger social ecosystem for the LGBTQ
community.
Technology
Our technology and product development process, designed for the
unique needs of our user base, is what differentiates our platform
from other social networks. Our platform development principle is
“user privacy and protection first” and all technology and product
decisions stem from this key tenet. We have a global team of
engineers, data scientists, and product managers who work closely
with our data privacy team to drive the development of our product
and platform. We aim to build technology that protects our users
and enables them to make connections safely.
Key components of our technology platform include:
•Location-based
Technologies.
We have built a large-scale location search system to connect our
online users’ locations in real-time so they can seamlessly engage
with their hyper-local community. This scale and accuracy of our
system differentiates us from competitors. Our technology manages
millions of users’ real-time locations every second of every day.
We have developed a carefully optimized system capable of handling
thousands of location update requests as well as thousands of
location search requests per second at the same time. The system
powers the main cascade user interface in our Grindr App where a
user sees others who are also using the Grindr App at that moment
based on distance and filter criteria.
•Data
Management, Protection, and Privacy.
We process over ten terabytes of user data generated on our
platform on a daily basis; from that we persist over seven
terabytes of data per day. In order to do this, we have built our
own data warehouse infrastructure on top of world class third-party
platforms. We have also built and deployed tools that allow for
easy data summarization, ad hoc querying, and analysis of large
datasets. These technologies help us provide each user with a
personalized experience.
•Our
Information Security and Data Protection Program closely aligns
with the National Institute of Standards and Technologies’ (“NIST”)
Cybersecurity Framework. In order to protect our data estate we
have devised many procedures and controls to ensure our data is
confidential, available, and maintains integrity. The level of
controls utilized to maintain confidentiality, availability, and
integrity of our data is based upon a data matrix that takes into
account the sensitivity and criticality of the data. Our controls
implore the usage of industry standard one-way hashing, and both
symmetric and asymmetric encryption for data at rest and in
transit.
•Access
to data stores is made available by the usage of a virtual private
network (“VPN”) device and is further gated by role-based access
controls of privileged accounts. If data access is required for
business reasons, it is granted to a specific individual for a
specific data asset. All permission requests are approved by a data
custodian and all access is monitored and reviewed on a regular
basis.
•Large-scale
Infrastructure.
We have invested considerable resources and investments on our
underlying architecture to serve more than a billion daily
application programmable interface (“API”) requests. We have also
invested resources in adopting container technologies, which allow
us to scale our backend systems more easily. We run services in
multiple availability zones (data centers) for redundancy. As a
cloud-first company, everything we build is designed to scale and
run in a stateless environment. Externally, we process over four
billion API requests per day. During January 2023, we processed
over 10.3 billion messages. We believe these systems will easily
continue to scale as we grow.
•Client
first technologies.
Our APIs are designed to support real-time product features
agnostic of the clients (mobile or web). We believe in the approach
of build once and leverage across several clients to deliver
superior uniform user experience. It’s common for users to switch
between devices and other mediums and this system ensures our users
can pick up where they left off.
Commitment to our Community
Our diverse, global community is at the heart of everything we do
at Grindr. While we support free speech and expression, it cannot
be at the expense of our community’s health or well-being. We
balance the right to self-expression with promoting a safe and
inclusive environment. We take proactive measures to help protect
our community and promote safety throughout our users’ journey with
us.
Our app has a suite of safety features, including safety
notifications and messages (translated and customized to the user’s
region), a PIN to help keep our users’ accounts secure, discreet
app icons which allow users to disguise Grindr’s App, a range of
features giving control over the sharing of images or messages and
redacting them, and the ability to mute, block, and report other
users. We also provide video and audio chat so users can become
comfortable with each other before meeting. We also publish a
holistic security guide and safety tips as guidance.
We believe education promotes healthy behavior, so we provide an
extensive help center with resources and FAQ on health, wellness,
community, identity, and safety. We are focused on creating
inclusive and forward-thinking moderation policies and frameworks
that honor the full expression of our users’ gender identity and
support a positive, safe experience for our whole global community.
Our suite of tools and technology utilize a three-pillar approach
to content moderation:
•Automated
Review.
We implement preventative technologies to help mitigate risks of
user misbehavior. We automatically scan profiles upon creation and
conduct ongoing scans for fraudulent behavior or violations of our
Community Guidelines. Our algorithms and automations remove many
malicious profiles before they can interact with our community. We
utilize third party tooling to enhance our automated review
capabilities. In addition, we provide users with a robust appeals
system which allows our users to have a manual human review of any
automated decision.
•Manual
Review.
Our experienced human reviewers play an integral role in our
moderation process. As of December 31, 2022, we utilized a team of
content review personnel dedicated to moderating content on the
Grindr App. We believe empathy with and understanding of our
community is key to making good moderation decisions. In addition
to general moderation training, our moderators regularly receive
specific training on bias, gender, microaggressions, and
discrimination, to help them make as fair and equitable decisions
as possible. In addition to removing and blocking profiles and
illicit content, our moderators reinforce our Community Guidelines
to our users through our in-app warning system, which reminds our
users of our expectations before their behavior
escalates.
•Community
Feedback.
Our engaged user base also helps us maintain a safe, positive, and
inclusive community. Through in-app tools, we encourage users to
report inappropriate content and misbehavior.
Branding and Marketing
We have grown primarily through user-driven organic means given the
strength of our brand awareness and our extensive user base. We
benefit from the network effects and broad global brand awareness
that resulted from first-mover advantage and compound to create a
positive cycle of user-generated, organic growth. Our valuable
brand name and word-of-mouth referrals means we’ve been able to
keep user acquisition costs low, which has allowed us to focus our
marketing efforts to date largely on community centered campaigns
that further our brand reputation while providing opportunities for
monetization through brand partnerships. We regularly evaluate
opportunities across channels and geographies in which we can
invest further to strategically accelerate user and revenue growth.
The combination of our strong brand and extensive and global user
base has been our most effective marketing tool to date and has
enabled us to grow our users.
We also employ paid online and offline marketing initiatives to
enhance our category leading brand reputation within the LGBTQ
community and to accelerate our growth. Key elements of our
branding and marketing strategy include:
•Online
Initiatives.
We attract new users and generate brand awareness through data and
insight-driven content marketing and social media initiatives,
influencer marketing campaigns, and video and brand partnerships.
In addition, we leverage the Grindr App’s internal marketing tools
and capabilities to connect external brands with our user base, and
to drive awareness for our own new features and initiatives. We
also partner with G4E to provide in-kind donations of digital
marketing inventory to LGBTQ community groups around the world. We
regularly reassess growth opportunities across all of our organic,
owned and operated, and paid channels. To date, relatively little
paid online user acquisition has been required for us to grow,
given our brand awareness and word-of-mouth referrals.
•Offline
Initiatives.
We organize and participate in a variety of offline events to
increase brand awareness and underscore commitment to the LGBTQ
community. These events can also provide opportunities for
monetization through sponsorships. Examples include WorldPride
sponsorships in New York and Copenhagen, the Outfest premier of our
first original scripted web series Bridesman, annual activations at
San Francisco’s Folsom Street Fair, and a partnership with GoFundMe
for the Save Our Spaces campaign that supported historic LGBTQ
social venues affected by the pandemic and included hosting more
than 30 Grindr-branded parties at local queer bars across the U.S.
We intend to continue to explore additional offline marketing
opportunities.
Competition
The global LGBTQ social networking market is fast growing and far
from being fully addressed. It is also highly fragmented and
competitive. We compete primarily with other global companies that
provide dating and networking products and services that have LGBTQ
users, such as Tinder and OKCupid, and regional companies that
provide dating and networking products and services for LGBTQ
users, such as Scruff and PlanetRomeo. We also compete with other
companies that provide similar social media platforms offering
connection, sharing, discovery, and communication products and
services to users online, such as Instagram. In addition, while we
compete with other social media platforms, we also face competition
from other traditional means of meeting people, such as in-person
matchmakers, as well as other forms of dating and networking that
involve people meeting offline without the use of dating or
networking products or services altogether. We may also develop and
introduce new products and services which could subject us to
additional competition.
Despite its competitive nature, the social networking industry is
not a winner-take-all market, with users typically using several
different platforms at the same time. We believe very few of our
competitors operate at our scale or level of brand awareness. We
believe our ability to compete successfully depends on various
factors, including, but not limited to:
•our
ability to maintain and further develop our well-established
brand;
•our
ability to continue to engage and grow our user base through
technological innovation and introduction of new products and
services that meet user requirements;
•our
ability to efficiently distribute our products and services to new
and existing users;
•our
ability to improve and maintain superior user experience of our
platform, supported by well-designed products and services and
functions;
•our
ability to monetize our products and services;
•our
safety and security efforts and our ability to protect user data
and to provide users with control over their data;
•our
ability to expand and maintain our global footprint;
•our
ability to navigate the changing regulatory landscape, particularly
the changes in regulations relating to consumer digital media
platforms, privacy and data protection;
•our
ability to attract, retain and motivate talented employees,
particularly software engineers, designers and product managers;
and
•our
ability to cost-effectively manage and grow our
operations.
Employees
We believe our unique culture is one of the keys to our success. We
are especially proud of how inclusive our company culture is,
particularly for members of the LGBTQ community. Our company
culture emphasizes transparency, collaboration, experimentation, a
bias for action, and creating an environment in which everyone can
bring their full and best selves to work. More than half of our
current employees identify as members of the LGBTQ community, which
contributes to our deep understanding of our users and our
user-first mindset and approach.
We demonstrate our commitment to this community by aiming to align
our employee benefits and support to meet the unique needs of our
LGBTQ employees and their dependents. For example, we recently
announced a gender-affirmation offering. This standard-setting
offering provides low-friction assistance to employees who are
transgender, non-binary, or gender non-conforming through social
affirmation, legal affirmation, and surgical affirmation
assistance. Additionally, we have partnered with providers to help
our LGBTQ employees and their dependents find caregivers who they
believe are competent in and compassionate towards the unique
health needs of members of the LGBTQ community. By creating
offerings that address the unique needs of all of our employees, we
are demonstrating our commitment to not just our employees but to
the LGBTQ community in general. We believe we are setting a new
expectation for what are considered fair and equitable benefits,
and we are quickly becoming regarded as best-in-class in this
area.
As of December 31, 2022, we had over 202 full-time employees
globally, of which approximately 60% of employees work in
engineering and product development. While our headquarters is in
West Hollywood, California, our workforce is currently
remote-first. This allows us to find the right talent to serve our
users, regardless of location. We have concentrations of employees
in Los Angeles, the San Francisco Bay Area, Chicago, and New York
City, which allows our employees a mix of in-person and remote
work. This approach continues to be an asset in our recruiting
efforts, especially as other tech companies begin to require
employees to return to the office or take reductions in pay. Our
non-US based employees are located in Taiwan and
Canada.
We will continue to strike a balance between being remote-first
while facilitating in-person meetings to encourage collaboration,
and we will continue to evaluate our location strategy
post-pandemic. We believe that people want to work at a company
that has purpose and aligns with their personal values, and
therefore our ability to recruit talent is aided by our mission and
brand reputation. We compete for talent within the technology
industry.
Intellectual Property
We have developed our proprietary intellectual property over the
past thirteen years. Our patents, trademarks, copyrights, domain
names, trade secrets, and other intellectual property rights
distinguish our products and services from those of our competitors
and contribute to our competitive advantage in the markets in which
we operate. To protect our intellectual property, we rely on a
combination of patent, trademark, copyright and trade secret laws,
confidentiality agreements, non-compete agreements, and
assignment-for-inventions agreements with our employees,
contractors and others and contracts with third parties. We also
regularly monitor any infringement or misappropriation of our
intellectual property rights.
As of December 31, 2022, our intellectual property rights include
the following:
(1) registration of over 80 domain
names;
(2) over 50 trademarks and 4 trademark
applications;
(3) 12 copyright registrations;
and
(4) 6 patents and 1 patent
application.
As of December 31, 2022, we have secured six patents in the United
States, each of which is set to expire in 2031.
We license technology and other intellectual property from our
partners and rely on our license agreements with those partners to
use the intellectual property. Third parties may assert claims
related to intellectual property rights against our partners and
us.
Government Regulation
We are subject to a number of U.S. federal and state laws and
regulations, as well as foreign ones that involve matters that are
important to, or may otherwise impact, our business and that may
affect companies conducting business on the internet, including,
but not limited to, Internet and eCommerce, labor and employment,
anti-discrimination, payments, whistleblowing and worker
confidentiality obligations, product liability, intellectual
property, consumer protection and warnings, marketing, taxation,
privacy, data security, competition, arbitration agreements and
class action waiver provisions, terms of service, and mobile
application and website accessibility. These regulations are often
complex and subject to varying interpretations, in many cases due
to their lack of specificity, and as a result, their application in
practice may change or develop over time through judicial decisions
or as new guidance or interpretations are provided by regulatory
and governing bodies in the United States and abroad, such as
federal, state, and local administrative agencies. Many of these
laws and regulations are subject to change or uncertain
interpretation, and could result in claims, changes to our business
practices, monetary penalties, increased cost of operations,
declines in user growth or engagement, negative publicity, or other
harm to our business. See the section titled “Risk
Factors—Risks Related to Regulation and Litigation—Our business is
subject to complex and evolving U.S. and international laws and
regulations.
Many of these laws and regulations are subject to change or
uncertain interpretation, and could result in claims, changes to
our business practices, monetary penalties, increased cost of
operations, declines in user growth or engagement, negatively
publicity, or other harm to our business.”
As a result, we could be subject to actions based on negligence,
various torts and trademark and copyright infringement, among other
actions. See the sections titled “Risk
Factors—Risks Related to Regulation and Litigation—We are subject
to litigation, regulatory and other government investigations,
enforcement actions, and settlements, and adverse outcomes in such
proceedings could have a materially adverse effect on our business,
financial condition, and results of operation,”
“Risk
Factors—Risks Related to Regulation and Litigation —The varying and
rapidly evolving regulatory framework on privacy and data
protection across jurisdictions could result in claims, changes to
our business practices, monetary penalties, increased cost of
operations, or declines in user growth or engagement, or otherwise
harm our business,”
“Risk Factors—Risks
Related to Regulation and Litigation —Activities of our users or
content made available by such users could subject us to
liability,”
“Risk
Factors—Risks Related to Regulation and Litigation —Online
applications are subject to various laws and regulations relating
to children’s privacy and protection, which if violated, could
subject us to an increased risk of litigation and regulatory
actions,”
and “Risk
Factors—Risks
Related to Information Technology Systems and Intellectual
Property—From time to time, we are party to intellectual
property-related litigations and proceedings that are expensive and
time consuming to defend, and, if resolved adversely, could
materially adversely impact our business, financial condition, and
results of operations.”
In the ordinary course of our business, we may process a
significant volume of personal information and other regulated
information from our users, employees and other third parties.
Accordingly, we are, or may become, subject to numerous privacy and
data protection obligations, including federal, state, local, and
foreign laws, regulations, guidance, and industry standards related
to privacy and data protection. Such obligations may include,
without limitation, the Federal Trade Commission Act, the
Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998, the California
Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (“CCPA”), the California Privacy
Rights Act (“CPRA”) (starting in 2023), the European Union’s
General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679 (“EU GDPR”), the EU
GDPR as it forms part of United Kingdom (“UK”) law by virtue of
section 3 of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 (“UK GDPR”),
and the ePrivacy Directive. In addition, several states within the
United States have enacted or proposed data privacy laws. For
example, Virginia passed the Consumer Data Protection Act, Colorado
passed the Colorado Privacy Act, and Utah passed the Utah Consumer
Privacy Act, all of which become effective in 2023.
The CCPA, CPRA, EU GDPR and UK GDPR are examples of the
increasingly stringent and evolving regulatory frameworks related
to personal data processing that may increase our compliance
obligations and exposure for any noncompliance. For example, the
CCPA imposes obligations on covered businesses to provide specific
disclosures related to a business’s collection, use, and disclosure
of personal data and to respond to certain requests from California
residents related to their personal data (for example, requests to
know of the business’s personal data processing activities, to
delete the individual’s personal data, and to opt out of certain
personal data disclosures). Also, the CCPA provides for civil
penalties and a private right of action for certain data breaches.
In addition, the CPRA was expanded on January 1, 2023. The
CPRA, among other things, gave California residents the ability to
limit use of certain sensitive personal data, establish
restrictions on personal data retention, expand the types of data
breaches that are subject to the CCPA’s private right of action,
and establish a new California Privacy Protection Agency to
implement and enforce the new law. U.S. federal and state consumer
protection laws also require us to publish statements that
accurately and fairly describe how we handle personal data and
choices individuals may have about the way we handle their personal
data.
Foreign data privacy and security laws (including the GDPR and UK
GDPR) impose significant and complex compliance obligations on
entities that are subject to those laws. As one example, the GDPR
applies to any company established in the EEA and to companies
established outside the EEA that process personal data in
connection with the offering of goods or services to data subjects
in the EEA or the monitoring of the behavior of data subjects in
the EEA—the latter of which implicates us as we have no EEA/UK
operations. These obligations may include limiting personal data
processing to only what is necessary for specified, explicit, and
legitimate purposes; increasing transparency obligations to data
subjects; limiting the collection and retention of personal data;
increasing rights for data subjects; requiring the implementation
and maintenance of technical and organizational safeguards for
personal data; and mandating notice of certain personal data
breaches to the relevant supervisory authority(ies) and affected
individuals. Users in the UK and EEA transfer their personal data
directly to us in the United States, and we notify users that
United States may not afford the same privacy protections as their
country of residence. There are also a number of legislative
proposals pending before the U.S. Congress, various state
legislative bodies and foreign governments concerning content
regulation and data protection that could affect us. See the
section titled “Risk
Factors—Risks Related to Regulation and Litigation—The varying and
rapidly evolving regulatory framework on privacy and data
protection across jurisdictions could result in claims, changes to
our business practices, monetary penalties, increased cost of
operations, or declines in user growth or engagement, or otherwise
harm our business.”
We take our data protection obligations seriously as any improper
disclosure, particularly with regard to our customers’ sensitive
personal data, could negatively impact our business and/or our
reputation. See the sections titled “Risk Factors—Risks
Relating to our Business—Security breaches and improper access to
or disclosure of our data or user data, or other hacking and
phishing attacks on our systems, could harm our reputation and
adversely affect our business”
and “—The
processing, storage, use and disclosure of personal data could give
rise to liabilities as a result of governmental regulation,
conflicting legal requirements or differing applications of privacy
regulations.”
Available Information
Our website address is
www.grindr.com.
We make available on our website, free of charge, our Annual
Reports on Form 10-K, our Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and our
Current Reports on Form 8-K and any amendments to those reports
filed or furnished pursuant to Section 13(a) or 15(d) of the
Exchange Act as soon as reasonably practicable after we
electronically file such material with, or furnish it to, the SEC.
The SEC maintains a website that contains reports, proxy and
information statements and other information regarding our filings
at
www.sec.gov.
The information found on our website is not incorporated by
reference into this Annual Report on Form 10-K or any other report
we file with or furnish to the SEC.
Item 1A. Risk Factors
RISK FACTORS
Investing in our securities involves a high degree of risk. Before
you make a decision to buy our securities, in addition to the risks
and uncertainties discussed above under “Special Note Regarding
Forward-Looking Statements,” you should carefully consider the
risks and uncertainties described below together with all of the
other information contained in this Annual Report on Form 10-K,
including our financial statements and related notes appearing at
the end of this Annual Report on Form 10-K and in the section
titled “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition
and Results of Operations,” before deciding to invest in our
securities. If any of the events or developments described below
were to occur, our business, prospects, operating results, and
financial condition could suffer materially, the trading price of
our securities could decline, and you could lose all or part of
your investment. The risks and uncertainties described below are
not the only ones we face. Additional risks and uncertainties not
presently known to us or that we currently believe to be immaterial
may also adversely affect our business.
Risks Related to our Brand, Products and Services, and
Operations
Our business depends on the strength and market perception of the
Grindr brand and if events occur that damage our reputation and
brand, our ability to expand our base of users may be impaired, and
our business could be materially and adversely
affected.
We believe that our brand has significantly contributed to the
success of our business. Our business and financial performance are
highly dependent on the strength and market perception of our
brand. We have achieved significant organic growth mainly through
word-of-mouth referrals to our platform, without relying on
traditional advertising for user acquisition, and therefore we
believe it is critical to ensure that our users remain favorably
inclined toward the Grindr brand. In addition, we believe that
maintaining and enhancing our brand will be critical to expanding
our user base, advertising relationships, and other
partnerships.
Maintaining and enhancing our brand will depend on an array of
factors, including our ability to continue to provide useful, fun,
reliable, trustworthy, and innovative products and services, which
we may not do successfully or as successfully as we hope. Our
products and services may not always appeal to our users, which may
negatively affect our brand and our ability to retain existing
users, upgrade users to paid accounts or add new users. See
“—If
we fail to retain existing users or add new users, or if our users
decrease their level of engagement with our products and services
or do not convert to Paying Users, our revenue, financial results,
and business may be significantly harmed.”
In addition, the actions of our advertisers or partners may
negatively affect our brand if users have a negative impression of
such brands or do not have a positive experience using third-party
products or services that are integrated into our platform. See
“—The
distribution, marketing of, and access to our products and services
depends, in large part, on third-party platforms and mobile
application stores, among other third-party providers. If these
third parties limit, prohibit, fail to operate, or otherwise
interfere with the distribution or use of our products and services
in any material way, it could adversely affect our business,
financial condition, and results of operations.”
Moreover, illicit or inappropriate conduct by users, advertisers,
partners, or bad actors may adversely affect our brand,
particularly if we fail to respond expeditiously to objectionable
content on our platform or otherwise to address user concerns. See
“—Inappropriate
actions by certain of our users could be attributed to us and
damage our brand or reputation, or subject us to regulatory
inquiries, legal action, or other liabilities, which, in turn,
could materially adversely affect our business.”
We have also experienced, and expect to continue to experience,
media, legislative, and regulatory scrutiny, as well as legal
action and regulatory investigations, regarding user privacy and
data protection, interactions between users, and other issues,
which have harmed our reputation and brand and may seriously harm
our reputation and brand in the future. See “—Unfavorable
media coverage could materially and adversely affect our business,
brand, or reputation.”
If events occur that damage our reputation or brand, our business,
financial condition, and results of operations could be materially
and adversely affected.
Changes to our existing products and services, or the development
and introduction of new products and services, could fail to
attract or retain users or generate revenue and
profits.
Our ability to retain, expand, monetize and engage our user base,
and to increase our revenue, depends heavily on our ability to keep
pace with user demands and technological changes in the industry
by, among other things, continuing to evolve our existing products
and services and developing successful new products and services.
We operate in an industry characterized by rapidly changing
technologies in response to evolving industry standards, frequent
new product and service announcements and enhancements, and
changing user demands, and our competitors in the online social
networking industry are constantly developing new technologies and
products and services. Our performance will therefore depend on our
ability to adapt in response to this environment by, among other
things, continuing to improve the speed, performance, features,
ease of use, and reliability of our products and services, in
response to evolving user demands and competitive dynamics. Any
failure to keep pace with rapid technological changes could cause
us to lose market share and thus have a material adverse effect on
our business, financial condition, and results of
operation.
In addition, our ability to retain, expand, monetize and engage our
user base, and to increase our revenue, depends on our ability to
continue to improve our existing products and services and to
develop and introduce successful new products and services, both
independently and together with third parties. We may introduce
significant changes to our existing products and services or
develop and introduce new or unproven products and services,
including using technologies with which we have little or no prior
development or operating experience. While we believe we can
further improve our
monetization capabilities by diversifying our subscription
offerings, introducing more stand-alone premium functions, and
further optimizing our advertising offerings, these efforts may not
ultimately be successful or translate into meaningful additional
revenue. If we do not continue to innovate and provide attractive
products and services to our users, or if we fail to consistently
tailor our products and services to accommodate our users’ changing
demands, we may not be able to retain a large and active user base
or to generate sufficient revenue, operating margin, or other
value, to justify our investments, any of which may materially
adversely affect our business.
We have also invested in, and expect to continue to invest in new
products and services and other initiatives, which may involve
unproven products, services, and technologies, to generate revenue.
We regularly update our Grindr mobile application (the “Grindr
App”) to introduce new features and improve our Grindr App’s
performance. However, there is no guarantee that our investment in
new products and services, new features, and other initiatives will
succeed or generate revenue or other benefits for us. New products,
services, and features may provide temporary increases in
engagement that may ultimately fail to attract and retain users
such that they may not produce the long-term benefits that we
expect. We may also introduce new products, services, features or
terms of service or policies, and seek to find new, effective ways
to show our community new and existing products and services and
alert them to events and opportunities to connect, that our users
do not like, which may negatively affect our brand. If our new or
enhanced brand, products and services or product extensions fail to
engage users, marketers, or developers, or if our business plans
are unsuccessful, we may fail to attract or retain users or to
generate sufficient revenue, operating margin, or other value to
justify our investments, any of which may materially adversely
affect our business.
If we fail to retain existing users or add new users, or if our
users decrease their level of engagement with our products and
services or do not convert to Paying Users, our revenue, financial
results, and business may be significantly harmed.
The size of our user base and our users’ level of engagement are
critical to our success. Our financial performance has been and
will continue to be significantly determined by our success in
adding, retaining, and engaging users of our products and services
and converting users into paying subscribers or premium add-on
payers. We expect that the size of our user base will fluctuate or
decline in one or more markets from time to time. If our user
growth rate slows down, our business performance will become
increasingly dependent on our ability to retain existing users and
enhance user engagement on our platform in current and new markets.
In addition, although we have primarily grown our user base
organically, attracting and retaining additional users for our
products and services may require increasingly large sales and
marketing expenditures. If our platform ceases to be one of the
most frequently used social networking applications for LGBTQ
individuals, or if people do not perceive our products and services
to be useful, reliable, and/or trustworthy, we may not be able to
attract or retain users or otherwise maintain or increase the
frequency, duration, and depth of their engagement.
Several other online social networking companies that achieved
early popularity have since experienced slower growth or declines
in their user bases or levels of engagement. We may experience a
similar erosion of our user base or engagement levels, particularly
as we achieve higher market penetration rates. User engagement can
be difficult to measure, particularly as we introduce new and
different products and services. Any number of factors can
negatively affect user retention, growth, and engagement, including
if:
•users
increasingly engage with competing products or
services;
•user
behavior on any of our products and services change, including
decreases in the quality of the user base and frequency of use of
our products and services;
•our
competitors mimic our products and services or penetrate our
markets (or markets we would like to enter) and therefore harm our
user retention, engagement, and growth;
•users
have difficulty installing, updating, or otherwise accessing our
products and services on mobile devices because of actions by us or
third parties that we rely on to distribute our products and
services;
•we
fail to introduce new and improved products and services that
appeal to our users, or if we make changes to existing products and
services that do not appeal to our users;
•we
are unable to continue to develop products and services that work
with a variety of mobile operating systems, networks, and
smartphones;
•users
are no longer willing to pay for premium (fee-based) subscriptions
or premium add-ons;
•we
are unable to successfully balance our efforts to provide a
compelling user experience with the decisions we make with respect
to the frequency, prominence, and size of advertisements and other
commercial content that we display on our platform;
•we
fail to protect our brand image or reputation;
•we
experience decreases in user sentiment related to the quality of
our products and services, or based upon concerns related to data
privacy and the sharing of user data, safety, security, or
well-being, among other factors;
•we,
or other companies in the industry, are the subject of adverse
media reports or other negative publicity, including because of our
data practices or other companies’ data practices;
•we
fail to keep pace with evolving online, market, and industry trends
(including the introduction of new and enhanced digital
services);
•initiatives
designed to attract and retain users and engagement are
unsuccessful or discontinued;
•we
adopt terms, policies, or procedures concerning user data or
advertising, among other areas, that are perceived negatively by
our users or the general public;
•we
are unable to combat inappropriate or abusive use of our
platform;
•we
fail to address user or regulatory concerns related to privacy,
data security, personal safety, or other factors;
•we
are unable to manage and prioritize information to ensure users are
presented with content that is interesting, useful and relevant to
them;
•we
fail to provide adequate customer service to users, advertisers, or
other partners;
•technical
or other problems prevent us from delivering our products and
services in a rapid and reliable manner or otherwise affect the
user experience, such as security breaches, distributed
denial-of-service attacks or failure to prevent or limit spam or
similar content;
•our
current or future products and services reduce user activity on
Grindr by making it easier for our users to interact and share on
third-party websites;
•third-party
initiatives that may enable greater use of our products and
services, including low cost or discounted data plans, are
discontinued;
•there
is decreased engagement with our products and services because of
changes in prevailing social, cultural, or political preferences in
the markers in which we operate; and
•there
are changes mandated by legislation, regulations, or government
actions.
From time to time, certain of these factors have negatively
affected our user retention, growth, and engagement to varying
degrees. If we are unable to maintain or increase our user base and
user engagement, our revenue and financial results may be
materially adversely affected. In addition, we may not experience
rapid user growth or engagement in countries where, even though
mobile device penetration is high, due to the lack of sufficient
cellular based data networks, consumers rely heavily on Wi-Fi and
may not access our products and services regularly throughout the
day. Any decrease in user retention, growth, or engagement could
render our products and services less attractive to users, which is
likely to have a material and adverse impact on our revenue,
business, financial condition, and results of operations. If our
user growth rate slows or declines, we will become increasingly
dependent on our ability to maintain or increase levels of user
engagement and monetization to drive revenue growth.
Inappropriate actions by certain of our users could be attributed
to us and damage our brand or reputation, or subject us to
regulatory inquiries, legal action, or other liabilities, which, in
turn, could materially adversely affect our business.
Our platform allows users to freely connect and communicate with
other users. Our platform may be misused by individuals or groups
of individuals to engage in illicit or otherwise inappropriate
activities, which may adversely affect the public perception of our
brand and our ability to retain existing users or add new users.
Our content moderation team frequently detects and addresses user
actions that violate our Terms and Conditions of Service,
Communities Guidelines, or other policies applicable to our
platform, which prohibit, among other things, any form of
harassment, hate speech, violence of any kind, and other offensive
content; profile pictures with nudity, pornography, or drugs;
impersonation of another person; minor activity on the platform
(including uploading images depicting minors or communicating with
another user believed to be a minor); and illegal actions such as
the advertising of sexual services or drugs. With a combination of
human moderation and automated tooling, violations are frequently
detected and addressed by our content moderation team, and we
expect to continue to endeavor to detect and address these issues
in the future.
While we have systems and processes in place that aim to monitor
and review the appropriateness of the content generated on our
platform, including our content moderation team, automated tools,
and in-App features that allow users to report illicit or otherwise
inappropriate activity to us, and have adopted policies regarding
the illicit or otherwise inappropriate use of our products and
services, our users have in the past, and could in the future,
nonetheless engage in
activities on our platform that violate our policies or the law.
These safeguards may not be sufficient to ensure the safety of our
users and this may harm our reputation and brand, especially if any
instances of illicit or otherwise inappropriate conduct become
well-publicized, as has occurred in the past.
In addition, while our policies attempt to address the illicit or
otherwise inappropriate use of our products and services, and we
publish and make available resources that provide users with
information designed to help protect users’ digital security,
personal safety (both on, and off, our Grindr App), and self-care,
we do not control what happens if our users decide to meet in
person after connecting on our platform.
Our platform allows users to freely connect and communicate with
other users in the same geographic area or in the other geographic
areas around the world through the “Explore” feature. Users of our
products and services have been, and may in the future be,
physically, financially, emotionally, or otherwise harmed by other
individuals that they have met or may meet through the use of our
products and services. For example, we have in the past received,
and could in the future receive, complaints about users being
assaulted or subjected to other forms of illicit conduct after
meeting other users in person through our products and services.
When one or more of our users suffers or alleges to have suffered
any harm either on our platform or in person after meeting another
user on our platform, we have in the past, and could in the future,
experience legal action, regulatory investigations, or negative
publicity that could damage our brand and reputation. See
“—Risks
Related to Regulation and Litigation—We are subject to litigation,
regulatory and other government investigations, enforcement
actions, and settlements, and adverse outcomes in such proceedings
could have a materially adverse effect on our business, financial
condition, and results of operation.”
Similar events with respect to users of our competitors’ products
and services could result in negative publicity for the overall
social networking industry, or the LGBTQ social networking industry
more specifically, which could in turn negatively affect our
business, financial condition, and results of operation. See
“—Unfavorable
media coverage could materially and adversely affect our business,
brand, or reputation.”
Unfavorable media coverage could materially and adversely affect
our business, brand, or reputation.
We receive a high degree of media coverage around the world, partly
due to the social and cultural sensitivity associated with the
unique demographic group that we serve, all of which has affected,
and could in the future affect, the reputation and market
perception of our brand. Regardless of its accuracy or
authenticity, negative publicity concerning us, including media
coverage regarding the actions of our users on or off our platform,
our Terms and Conditions of Service or privacy practices, the
quality or safety of our products and services, the actions of our
advertisers or other partners, litigation or regulatory activity,
and/or the actions of other companies that provide similar services
to us, could materially and adversely affect our brand, which
could, in turn, materially and adversely affect the size,
engagement, and loyalty of our user base, as well as the number and
quality of advertisers that choose to advertise on our platform.
For example, since at least 2016, multiple news outlets and
research groups have identified ways to allegedly determine the
precise geolocation of users of Grindr and similar services.
Although we do not always use the full precision of the user’s
location, and our users have the choice not to display their
relative location in the Grindr cascade, trilateration, the process
of estimating a user’s location by combining the distance
measurement from three points surrounding a user, is a common risk
in location-based apps and could be perceived as a threat to users’
location privacy in some jurisdictions. These risks have led to
multiple regulatory inquiries. See “Risks
Related to Regulation and Litigation—The varying and rapidly
evolving regulatory framework on privacy and data protection across
jurisdictions could result in claims, changes to our business
practices, monetary penalties, increased cost of operations, or
declines in user growth or engagement, or otherwise harm our
business.”
Additionally, in 2018, negative media reports raised concerns,
leading to multiple regulatory inquiries, regarding our sharing of
user-provided HIV status with service providers that we engaged to
perform analytics services to help us improve the user experience.
Although our users had consented to sharing their profile data with
service providers, we had contractual protections limiting service
provider use of user data, and the user data was shared in
compliance with those contractual obligations and with applicable
law, in response to the media reports and investigations, we
discontinued sharing user-provided HIV status information with
these service providers, among other measures. This unfavorable
media coverage created negative sentiment regarding our brand and
our privacy practices among our current and potential user base,
advertisers, platform partners, and other stakeholders as well as
the general public, some of which continues to this day. See
“—Risks
Related to Regulation and Litigation—The varying and rapidly
evolving regulatory framework on privacy and data protection across
jurisdictions could result in claims, changes to our business
practices, monetary penalties, increased cost of operations, or
declines in user growth or engagement, or otherwise harm our
business.”
Furthermore, in 2021, a religious blog claimed to have used a
“commercially available” data set which contains “signal” data
which allegedly included Grindr’s “data,” among other unidentified
sources, to reveal that a Catholic priest had utilized Grindr’s
app, resulting in that priest resigning his position. Although in
response to the blog we took steps to clarify our data practices
(and to inquire into the potential data sources relied on by the
blog), the blog may have created negative sentiment regarding our
brand and our privacy practices, regardless of the accuracy or
authenticity of the blog.
We cannot assure you that we will be able to defuse negative
publicity about us and/or our services to the satisfaction of our
users, advertisers, platform partners, and other stakeholders. If
we fail to protect our brand or reputation, given our reliance on
the strength of our brand and organic growth, we may experience
material adverse effects to the size, demographics, engagement, and
loyalty of our user base, resulting in decreased revenue, fewer
Grindr App installs (or increased Grindr App uninstalls), fewer
conversions to premium subscription versions of our Grindr App, or
slower user growth rates, among other negative effects. Negative
publicity, especially when it is directly addressed against us, may
also require us to engage in defensive media campaigns which, in
turn, may cause us to increase our marketing expenses
and
divert our management’s attention and may adversely impact our
business and results of operations. If events occur that damage our
brand and reputation and we fail to respond promptly or if we incur
excessive expenses in these types of efforts, our business,
financial condition and results of operations could be materially
and adversely affected. See “—Our
business depends on the strength and market perception of the
Grindr brand. If events occur that damage our reputation and brand,
our ability to expand our base of users may be impaired, and our
business could be materially adversely affected”.
The online social networking industry in which we operate is highly
competitive, and if we cannot compete effectively our business will
suffer.
The online social networking industry is highly competitive, with a
consistent stream of new products and services and entrants. We
compete primarily with other global companies that provide dating
and networking products and services that have LGBTQ users, such as
Tinder and OKCupid, and regional companies that provide dating and
networking products and services for LGBTQ users, such as Scruff
and PlanetRomeo. Some of our competitors may enjoy better
competitive positions in certain geographical regions, user
demographics, or other key areas that we currently serve or may
serve in the future. These advantages could enable these
competitors to offer products and services that are more appealing
to users and potential users than our products and services, or to
respond more quickly and/or cost-effectively than us to new or
changing opportunities. In addition, to the extent that some of our
competitors were first movers in particular geographic regions,
their positions in those regions could create barriers to our
entry.
In addition, within the social networking industry more generally,
costs for users to switch between products and services are low,
and users have a propensity to try new approaches to connecting
with other people and to use multiple products and services at the
same time. As a result, new products and services, entrants, and
business models are likely to continue to emerge. It is possible
that a new product could gain rapid scale at the expense of
existing brands through harnessing a new technology or distribution
channel, or a new or existing distribution channel, creating a new
approach to connecting people or some other means.
Potential competitors include larger companies that could devote
greater resources to the promotion or marketing of their products
and services, take advantage of acquisition or other opportunities
more readily than we do, or develop and expand their products and
services more quickly than we do. Potential competitors also
include established social media companies, which may develop
products and services, features, or services that compete with
ours, and which may have easier access to new markets or potential
users than we do. For example, Facebook recently launched Facebook
Dating in North America, Europe, and other markets around the
globe. Facebook and similar competitors could gain competitive
advantages over Grindr through, for example, their access to
existing large pools of potential users and preexisting information
about those potential users and/or their strong or dominant
positions in one or more markets, or by offering different product
features or products and services at low or no cost to users. Our
competitors may develop products and services, features, or
services similar to ours or that achieve greater market acceptance
than our products and services, features, or services, they may
undertake more far-reaching and successful product development
efforts or marketing campaigns than we do, or they may adopt more
aggressive pricing policies than we do. Any of these efforts, if
successful, may enable our competitors to acquire and engage users
at the expense of our user growth or engagement, which may have a
material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and
results of operation. See “—If
we fail to retain existing users or add new users, or if our users
decrease their level of engagement with our products and services
or do not convert to Paying Users, our revenue, financial results,
and business may be significantly harmed.”
Moreover, in emerging international markets, where mobile devices
often lack large storage capabilities, among other technical
limitations, we may compete with other applications for the limited
space available on a user’s mobile device. We also face competition
from traditional and online media businesses for advertising
budgets. As we introduce new products and services, as our existing
products and services evolve, or as other companies introduce new
products and services, we may become subject to additional
competition.
In addition, we believe that our ability to compete effectively
depends upon many factors both within and beyond our control,
including:
•the
usefulness, ease of use, performance, and reliability of our
products and services compared to our competitors;
•the
size and demographics of our user base;
•the
scale, growth, and engagement of our users with our products and
services relative to those of our competitors;
•our
ability to acquire efficiently new users for our products and
services;
•the
timing and market acceptance of our products and
services;
•our
ability to introduce new, and improve on existing, features,
products and services, and services in response to competition,
user sentiment or requirements, online, market, social, and
industry trends, the ever-evolving technological landscape, and the
ever-changing regulatory landscape (in particular, as it relates to
the regulation of online social networking platforms);
•our
ability to continue monetizing our products and
services;
•the
frequency, size, and relative prominence of the ads and other
commercial content displayed by us or our competitors;
•our
customer service and support efforts;
•the
reputation of our brand for trust and safety and privacy and data
protection, among other things;
•adverse
media reports or other negative publicity;
•the
effectiveness of our advertising and sales teams;
•continued
growth in internet access and smartphone adoption in certain
regions of the world, particularly emerging markets;
•changes
mandated by legislation, regulatory authorities, or litigation,
including settlements and consent decrees, some of which may have a
disproportionate effect on us;
•acquisitions
or consolidations within our industry, which may result in more
formidable competitors;
•our
ability to attract, retain, and motivate talented employees,
particularly software engineers;
•our
ability to protect our intellectual property, including against our
competitors’ possible attempts to mimic or copy aspects of our
Grindr App;
•our
ability to cost-effectively manage and grow our operations;
and
•our
ability to maintain the value and reputation of our brand relative
to our competitors.
If we are not able to effectively compete against our current or
future competitors and products and services that may emerge, our
user base and level of user engagement may decrease, which could
have a material adverse effect on our business, financial
condition, and results of operations.
We have grown rapidly in recent years and certain members of our
management team have joined us recently. If we are unable to manage
our growth effectively, our brand, company culture, and financial
performance may suffer.
Since launching our platform in 2009, we have experienced rapid
growth and demand for our services. We have expanded our operations
rapidly worldwide, and certain members of our management team have
joined us recently. As we grow, our business becomes increasingly
complex and the process of implementing operations at scale takes
time. We have increased our employee headcount, and we expect our
headcount growth to continue for the foreseeable future. To
effectively manage and capitalize on our growth, we must continue
to expand our sales and marketing, focus on innovative product and
content development, and upgrade our information systems and other
processes, among other changes. Our continued growth could strain
our existing resources, and we could experience ongoing operating
difficulties in managing our business across numerous
jurisdictions, including difficulties in hiring, training, and
managing a diverse, remote-first, and growing employee base. We
expect to continue to make investments to maintain and improve the
capacity, capability and reliability of our infrastructure. To the
extent that we do not effectively address capacity constraints as
we grow and continually develop our technology and infrastructure
to accommodate actual and anticipated changes in technology, our
business and results of operations may be negatively affected.
Failure to scale and preserve our company culture with growth could
harm our future success, including our ability to retain and
recruit personnel and to focus on and pursue our corporate
objectives effectively. If our management team does not effectively
manage our growth, we may experience erosion to our brand, the
quality of our products and services may suffer, and our company
culture may be harmed. Moreover, we have been, and may in the
future be, subject to legacy claims or liabilities arising from
policies, systems, and/or controls in earlier periods of our rapid
development.
The rapidly evolving nature of the markets in which we operate
creates substantial uncertainty concerning how these markets may
develop, and reduce our ability to accurately forecast quarterly or
annual revenue and future growth. Failure to manage our future
growth effectively could have a material adverse effect on our
business, financial condition, and operating results.
Our quarterly operating results and other operating metrics may
fluctuate from quarter to quarter, which makes these metrics
difficult to predict.
Our quarterly operating results and other operating metrics have
fluctuated in the past and may continue to fluctuate from quarter
to quarter, which makes them difficult to predict. Our financial
condition and operating results in any given quarter can be
influenced by numerous factors, many of which we cannot predict or
are outside of our control, including:
•fluctuations
in the rate at which we retain existing users and attracts new
users, the level of engagement by our users, or our ability to
convert users from the free version of the platform to premium
(fee-based) subscriptions;
•our
development, improvement, and introduction of new products and
services, services, technology, and features, and the enhancement
of existing products and services, services, technologies, and
features;
•successful
expansion into international markets, particularly in emerging
markets;
•errors
in our forecasting of user demand;
•increases
in engineering, product development, marketing, or other operating
expenses that we may incur to grow and expand operations and to
remain competitive;
•changes
in our relationship with Apple, Google, or other third
parties;
•announcements
by competitors of significant new products and services, services,
licenses, or acquisitions;
•the
diversification and growth of our revenue sources;
•our
ability to maintain gross margins and operating
margins;
•fluctuations
in currency exchange rates and changes in the proportion of our
revenue and expenses denominated in foreign
currencies;
•changes
in our effective tax rate;
•changes
in accounting standards, policies, guidance, interpretations, or
principles;
•the
continued development and upgrading of our technology
platform;
•our
ability to effectively prevent and remediate system failures or
breaches of security or privacy;
•our
ability to obtain, maintain, protect and enforce intellectual
property rights and successfully defend against claims of
infringement, misappropriation, or other violations of third-party
intellectual property;
•adverse
litigation judgments, settlements, or other litigation-related
costs;
•changes
in the legislative or regulatory environment, including with
respect to privacy, intellectual property, consumer product safety,
and advertising, or enforcement by government regulators, including
fines, orders, or consent decrees; and
•changes
in business or macroeconomic conditions, including the impact of
the current COVID-19 outbreak, inflation, lower consumer confidence
in our business or in the social networking industry generally,
recessionary conditions, increased unemployment rates, stagnant or
declining wages, political unrest, armed conflicts, natural
disasters, as well as financial market instability or disruptions
to the banking system due to bank failures, particularly in light
of the recent events that have occurred with respect to Silicon
Valley Bank ("SVB").
Any one of the factors above or the cumulative effect of some of
the factors above may result in significant fluctuations in our
results of operations.
The variability and unpredictability of our quarterly operating
results or other operating metrics could result in our failure to
fully meet the expectations or those of analysts that could cover
us or investors with respect to revenue or other operating results
for a particular period. If we fail to meet or exceed such
expectations, the market price of the stock could fall
substantially, and we could face costly lawsuits, including
securities class action suits.
The distribution, marketing of, and access to our products and
services depend, in large part, on third-party platforms and mobile
application stores, among other third-party providers. If these
third parties limit, prohibit, or fail to operate, or otherwise
interfere with the distribution or use of our products or services
in any material way, it could materially and adversely affect our
business, financial condition, and results of
operations.
We market and distribute our products and services primarily
through the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. We are subject
to the standard terms, conditions, and guidelines of these
platforms for App developers, which govern the promotion and
distribution of our products and services on their respective
platforms, and our ability to market the Grindr brand on any given
property or channel is subject to the policies of the relevant
third party. In addition, there is no guarantee that these popular
mobile platforms will continue to feature or make available our
products, or that we will be
able to comply with the standard terms, conditions, and guidelines
of these platforms, such that our products and services continue to
be available through these platforms. Apple App Store and Google
Play Store have and may continue to impose access restrictions for
users in Russia and other geopolitical regions in relation to the
conflict between Russia and Ukraine or other events that are beyond
Grindr’s control, such as terrorism, public health crises, or
political unrest, which could result in the inability to access and
use our products and services and other negative experiences for
our users and, in turn, harm our user reputation and adversely
affect our business. In addition, there is no guarantee that users
will continue to use our products and services rather than
competing products and services.
We also depend on the interoperability of our products and services
with popular mobile operating systems, networks, technologies,
products and services, and standards that we do not control, such
as the iOS and Android operating systems. Any changes, bugs, or
technical issues in these systems, or changes in our relationships
with third party product or service providers such as our mobile
operating system partners, handset manufacturers, or mobile
carriers, or changes in their agreements, terms of service or
policies that degrade our products and services’ functionality,
reduce or eliminate our ability to update or distribute our
products and services, give preferential treatment to competitive
products and services, limit our ability to deliver, target, or
measure the effectiveness of ads, or charge fees related to the
distribution of our products and services or our delivery of ads,
could impact the usage of our products and services on mobile
devices and have a material adverse effect on our business,
financial condition, and results of operations. For example,
starting with iOS version 14, Apple has required App developers to
ask users for their permission to track them or to access their
device’s advertising identifier (known as the IDFA). Tracking
refers to the act of linking user or device data collected from one
App with user or device data collected from other companies’ Apps,
websites, or offline properties for targeted advertising (e.g.,
personalized ads) or advertising measurement purposes. A low opt-in
rate to grant IDFA by iOS App users will, and may continue to,
significantly limit the ability of advertisers to accurately target
and measure their advertising campaigns at the user level and App
developers may experience increased cost per
registration.
In addition, certain channels have, from time to time, limited or
prohibited advertisements for similar products and services,
including because of poor behavior by other industry participants.
There is no assurance that we will not be limited or prohibited
from using certain current or prospective marketing channels or
providing certain features in the future.
Further, many users historically registered for (and logged into)
our Grindr App exclusively through their Apple IDs, Google
usernames, or Facebook profiles. While we have alternate
authentication methods that allow users to register for (and log
into) our Grindr App using an email address or their mobile phone
numbers, there can be no assurances that users will use these other
methods. Apple, Google, and Facebook have broad discretion to
change their terms and conditions in ways that could limit,
eliminate, or otherwise interfere with our ability to use Apple
IDs, Google usernames, or Facebook profiles as a registration
method or to allow these entities to use such data to gain a
competitive advantage. If Apple, Google, or Facebook did so, our
business, financial condition, and results of operations could be
materially adversely affected. Additionally, if security on Apple,
Google, or Facebook is compromised, if our users are locked out
from their accounts, or if Apple, Google, or Facebook experiences
an outage, our users may be unable to access our products and
services. If our ability to distribute our products and services to
our users is impaired, even if for a temporary period, user growth
and engagement on our service could be materially adversely
affected, even if for a temporary period. Any of these events could
materially adversely affect our business, financial condition, and
results of operations.
Privacy concerns relating to our products and services and the use
of user information could negatively impact our user base or user
engagement, which could have a material and adverse effect on our
business, financial condition, and results of
operations.
We collect user profile, precise user location, and other personal
data from our users to provide them with our products and services
and to better facilitate connections among our users. As discussed
above, despite the increased level of social acceptance of the
LGBTQ community, identification as LGBTQ remains stigmatized,
marginalized, and deemed illegal in certain parts of the world.
Grindr embraces all sexual orientations and gender identities,
including those who identify expressly as straight, gay, bi+ (i.e.,
those open to multiple genders like pansexual, polysexual, queer,
fluid, and flexible), transexual, lesbian, demisexual, among
others. However, certain of our existing and potential users may
prefer not to associate with our platform publicly, not to identify
themselves publicly as LGBTQ, not to have assumptions or
perceptions formed about their sexual orientation or gender
identity, and/or not to have their sexual orientations and gender
identities known by others in the LGBTQ community.
While we will endeavor to monitor adverse legal developments
globally, including legislative action and restrictive regulatory
interpretations related to the processing of personal data,
including special categories of personal data which we collect and
process, and attempt to comply with these legal developments, we
may in the future be subject to more stringent obligations or
claims under such adverse legislation or regulatory
interpretations, which can materially impact our ability to provide
our services in certain locales with restrictive data privacy
regulatory frameworks.
In addition, although our products and services aim to create an
environment inclusive of all people (both within and outside of the
LGBTQ community), our potential users may be reluctant to use our
products and services out of fear of the ramifications of being
associated with our platform or identified or perceived as a
potential member of the LGBTQ community. Concerns about being
identified or perceived in a certain way, as well as concerns about
the collection, use, disclosure, or security of personal
information or chat history or other privacy-related matters, even
if unfounded, could damage our reputation and discourage potential
users from choosing our platform, all of which may adversely affect
our
business, financial condition, and results of operations. See
“—Adverse
social and political environments for the LGBTQ community in
certain parts of the world, including actions by governments or
other groups, could limit our geographic reach, business expansion,
and user growth, any of which could materially and adversely affect
our business, financial condition, and results of
operation.”
Any incidents where our users’ information is accessed without
authorization, or is improperly used, or incidents that otherwise
violate our policies or do not comply with applicable laws and best
practices, could damage our reputation and diminish our competitive
position. Affected users or government authorities could initiate
legal or regulatory actions against us over these incidents, which
could cause us to incur significant expense and liability or result
in orders or consent decrees forcing us to modify our business
practices. In addition, our advertising and other business partners
also have varying expectations and demands with respect to data
privacy and protection measures and practices, and our failure to
fully meet such expectations or demands may cause our advertising
or other business partners to take adverse actions, including
without limitation suspension, termination, or other unexpected
changes in the business relationship which may materially and
adversely affect our financial condition, business outlook, or
reputation. Our success depends, in part, on our ability to access,
collect, and use personal data about our users and to comply with
applicable privacy and data protection laws and industry best
practices. See “—Risks
Related to Regulation and Litigation—Our success depends, in part,
on our ability to access, collect, and use personal data about our
users and to comply with applicable privacy and data protection
laws and industry best practices.”
In addition, from time to time, we receive requests or demands for
information from law enforcement agencies that seek access to our
user content. In some cases, these requests or demands seek
information that we are not able to provide or have determined it
is not appropriate to provide due to technical limitations, privacy
concerns, or retention practices. Maintaining the trust of our
users is important to sustain our user growth, retention, and
engagement. Concerns over our privacy practices, whether actual or
unfounded, could damage our reputation and brand and deter users,
advertisers, and partners from using our products and services, any
of which may adversely affect our business, financial condition,
and results of operations.
We rely primarily on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store as
the channels for processing of payments. In addition, access to our
products and services depends on mobile App stores and other third
parties such as data center service providers, as well as
third-party payment aggregators, computer systems, internet transit
providers and other communications systems and service providers.
Any deterioration in our relationship with Apple, Google or other
such third parties may negatively impact our business.
Our products and services mainly depend on mobile App stores and
the continued services and performance of other third parties such
as data center service providers, third party payment aggregators,
computer systems, internet transit providers, and other
communications systems and service providers. We primarily make our
Grindr App available to users through, and therefore largely depend
upon, the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store. While our
Grindr App is generally free to download from these stores, we
offer our users the opportunity to purchase subscriptions and
premium add-ons. We determine the prices for these subscriptions
and premium add-ons, but at this time, they are primarily processed
through the in-App payment systems provided by Apple and Google. We
also utilize Stripe in order to process payments related to certain
legacy subscriptions. Apple and Google, as well as other third
parties such as Stripe, have broad discretion to make changes to
their operating systems or payment services or change the manner in
which their mobile operating systems function and their respective
terms and conditions applicable to the distribution of our Grindr
App, including the amount of, and requirement to pay, certain fees
associated with purchases required to be facilitated by such third
parties through our Grindr App, and to interpret their respective
terms and conditions in ways that may limit, eliminate, or
otherwise interfere with our products and services, our ability to
distribute our Grindr App through their stores, our ability to
update our Grindr App, including to make bug fixes or other feature
updates or upgrades, the features we provide, the manner in which
we market our in-App products and services, our ability to access
native functionality or other aspects of mobile devices, and our
ability to access information about our users that they
collect.
To the extent such third parties do so, our business, financial
condition, and results of operations could be materially adversely
affected. For example, our business could suffer materially if
Apple or Google, including other third parties, albeit to a lesser
extent, change their standard terms and conditions,
interpretations, or other policies and practices in a way that is
detrimental to us or if they determine that we are in violation of
their standard terms and conditions and prohibit us from
distributing our Grindr App on their platforms.
There can be no assurance that Apple or Google, or any other
similar third party, will not limit, delay, eliminate, or otherwise
interfere with the distribution of our Grindr App, or that we will
not be limited or prohibited from using certain current or
prospective distribution or marketing channels in the future. For
example, either Apple or Google could block or delay the
distribution of a new version of our platform or our products and
services based upon alleged non-compliance with their policies
concerning safety or in-App content, technical performance, or
design, among other issues. In addition, Google could immediately
terminate our Google Play distribution agreement if we experience a
change of control, which would have a material adverse effect on
our business. If Apple or Google took any such actions, or if we
experience a deterioration in either relationship, our business,
financial condition, and results of operations could be materially
adversely affected.
Apple recently announced that it would allow app developers to
process payments for subscriptions and other premium add-ons
outside of Apple’s payment system. However, there can be no
assurance that we will be successful in our effort to process
payments outside of Apple’s payment systems.
In addition, we rely on a wide array of additional third parties in
various other aspects of our operations, including software
developers, computing, storage, and bandwidth service providers,
suppliers of technology infrastructures, mobile application
optimization and analytics firms, sales and marketing channels,
contract engineers, contract content contributors, as well as LGBTQ
rights advocacy organizations around the world. Any deterioration
in our relationships with these third-party suppliers, vendors, and
business partners, or any adverse change in the terms and
conditions governing these relationships, could have a negative
impact on our business, financial condition, and results of
operations.
Our user growth, engagement, and monetization on mobile devices
depend upon effective operation with mobile operating systems,
networks, and standards that we do not control.
To deliver a high-quality user experience, our products and
services must work well across a range of mobile operating systems,
networks, technologies, mobile devices, and standards that we do
not control. We may not be successful in developing relationships
with key participants in the mobile industry or in developing
services that operate effectively with these mobile operating
systems, handset manufacturers, networks, mobiles devices, mobile
carriers, and standards. In addition, any future changes to mobile
operating systems, networks, mobile devices, mobile carriers, or
standards may impact the accessibility, speed, functionality, and
other performance aspects of our products and services. These
issues may, and likely will, occur in the future from time to time.
If users experience issues accessing or using our products and
services, particularly on their mobile devices, or if our users
choose not to access or use our products and services on their
mobile devices, our user growth, retention, and engagement could be
harmed, and our business, financial condition, and results of
operation could be adversely affected.
As discussed above, we market, distribute, and make our products
and services available across several mobile operating systems and
devices (e.g., iOS and Android) and through a number of third-party
publishers and distribution channels (e.g., the Apple App Store and
Google Play Store). There can be no guarantee that popular mobile
devices will continue to feature our products and services, or that
mobile device users will continue to use our products and services
over competing products and services. In addition, if the number of
platforms for which we develop our products and services increases,
our costs and expenses will also increase, as will the risks of
bugs, outages, or other technical issues. Moreover, our products
and services require high-bandwidth data capabilities. If the costs
of data usage increase, our user growth, retention, and engagement
may be seriously harmed.
Adverse social and political environments for the LGBTQ community
in certain parts of the world, including actions by governments or
other groups, could limit our geographic reach, business expansion,
and user growth, any of which could materially and adversely affect
our business, financial condition, and results of
operation.
While there has been substantial progress in the protection of
LGBTQ rights in certain parts of the world, identification as LGBTQ
remains stigmatized, marginalized, and deemed illegal in many parts
of the world. We have faced and may continue to face incidents in
which government authorities in certain countries use our products
and services to entrap and arrest LGBTQ individuals under charges
of “promoting sexual deviancy” and “inciting immorality,” among
others.
In addition, some countries, including Pakistan and the Crimean
Peninsula in Ukraine, have banned our products and services and the
products and services of other companies in the industry that
provide services for and promote the LGBTQ community. Access to our
Grindr App in other countries, such as China, Turkey, Lebanon,
Indonesia, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar, may
only be available through the use of services such as virtual
private networks, or VPNs, or via home wireless networks, thereby
decreasing accessibility to our products and services. Adverse
social and political environments for the LGBTQ community in
anti-LGBTQ countries could limit our geographical reach, business
expansion, and user growth, any of which could materially and
adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of
operation.
In addition, government authorities in various countries may seek
to restrict user access to our products and services, if they
consider us to be in violation of their laws, a threat to public
safety, or for other reasons, including if they consider the
content on our products and services to be immoral or indecent. In
the event that content shown on our products and services is
subject to censorship, access to our products and services may be
restricted (in whole or in part) in one or more countries, we may
be required to or elect to make changes to our operations or other
restrictions may be imposed on our products and services. If our
competitors are able to successfully penetrate new geographic
markets or capture a greater share of existing geographic markets
that we cannot access or where we face other restrictions, our
ability to retain, expand, and engage our user base and qualify
advertisers may be adversely affected, we may not be able to
maintain or grow our revenue as anticipated, and our business,
financial condition, and results of operations could be materially
adversely affected.
Our success depends on the demographics of the community that we
serve and our ability to foresee and respond to changing market and
user demands.
Our success depends heavily upon a variety of factors specific to
the adult LGBTQ community that we serve. Changes in the population
size, gender distribution, disposable income, and other demographic
characteristics of the global LGBTQ
community could have a significant impact on demand for our
products and services and our attractiveness to advertisers who pay
to reach our user base.
In addition, changes in the demographic characteristics of the
LGBTQ community could result in shifts in its members’ demands and
preferences. The significant diversity within the adult LGBTQ
global population further imposes challenges for us to successfully
foresee and respond to the changing preferences and interests of
this community. Should we fail to adequately foresee and respond to
the demands and preferences of the markets we serve, our business,
financial condition, and results of operations would be materially
and adversely affected.
Our growth and monetization strategies may not be successfully
implemented or generate sustainable revenue and
profit.
To sustain our revenue growth, we must effectively monetize our
user base and expand the monetization of our products and services.
Our growth and monetization strategies are constantly evolving. We
plan to offer our users more types of subscription packages,
additional offers to encourage conversion to premium (fee-based)
subscriptions, and stand-alone for-pay features, among other
strategies. In addition, we intend to diversify our advertiser
portfolio and strengthen the performance of our online self-service
advertising system. However, these efforts might not be successful
and may not justify our investment, or we may not be able to pursue
them at all. We have limited and may continue to limit the user
data shared with third-party advertising partners, which could have
a negative effect on our ability to maximize our advertising
revenue. In addition, we are continuously seeking to balance the
growth objectives and monetization strategies with our desire to
provide an optimal user experience, and we may not be successful in
achieving a balance that continues to retain and attract users. If
our growth and monetization strategies do not generate sustainable
revenue, our business, financial condition, and results of
operations could be materially adversely affected.
Our product development, investment, and other business decisions
may not prioritize short-term financial results and may not produce
the long-term benefits that we expect.
We frequently make product development and investment decisions
that may not prioritize short-term financial results, if we believe
that the decisions benefit the aggregate user experience and will
thereby improve our financial performance over the long term. For
example, we launched our Grindr 4 Equality initiative to better
serve the LGBTQ community and strengthen our brand image without
focusing on immediate financial returns. Likewise, we occasionally
launch features that we cannot monetize (and may never be able to
monetize), but those features aim to improve the overall user
experience and thus improve our long-term financial performance by
driving user engagement and retention, among other potential
effects. However, these sorts of decisions may not produce the
long-term benefits that we expect, in which case our user growth
and engagement, our relationships with partners and advertisers,
and our business, financial conditions, and results of operations
could be materially adversely affected.
The failure to attract new advertisers, the loss of existing
advertisers, a deterioration in any of our advertising
relationships, or a reduction in their spending could adversely
harm our business.
We currently generate a material portion of our revenue from
advertising on our products and services, which is included under
our Indirect Revenue. We attract third-party advertisers because of
our extensive LGBTQ user base worldwide, among other factors. Any
decrease or a slower growth in our user base or user engagement may
discourage new or existing advertisers from advertising on our
products and services. The advertisers control their respective
development and operation, and we have little input, if any at all,
on how their platforms operate. In addition, we largely do not have
control over the type of advertisers or the content of their
advertisements on our platform. Any deterioration in our
relationship with these platforms, any changes in how they operate
their platforms or in the requirements regarding the content on our
platform, or any deterioration in the platforms’ relationships with
advertisers that advertise on our platform may materially adversely
affect our advertising revenue. Any loss of existing advertisers or
failure to attract new advertisers will materially adversely affect
our business, financial condition, and results of
operations.
Our advertisers typically do not have long-term advertising
commitments with us. The majority of our advertisers spend only a
relatively small portion of their overall advertising budget with
us. In addition, certain advertisers may view some of our products
and services as controversial, experimental or unproven.
Advertisers will not continue to do business with us, or they will
reduce the prices they are willing to pay to advertise with us, if
we do not deliver ads and other commercial content in an effective
manner, or if they do not believe that their investment in
advertising with us will generate a competitive return relative to
other alternatives. Moreover, we rely on the ability to collect and
disclose data and metrics for our advertisers to attract new
advertisers and retain existing advertisers. Any restriction,
whether by law, regulation, policy, or any other reason, on our
ability to collect and disclose data to our advertisers would
impede our ability to attract and retain advertisers. Our ability
to collect and disclose data may also be adversely affected by
third-parties, such as third-party publishers and platforms. See
“—The
distribution, marketing of, and access to our products and services
depend, in large part, on third-party platforms and mobile
application stores, among other third-party providers. If these
third parties limit, prohibit, or otherwise interfere with the
distribution or use of our products and services in any material
way, it could materially adversely affect our business, financial
condition, and results of operations.”
In addition, we believe that our advertising revenue could also be
adversely affected by many factors both within and beyond our
control, including:
•decreases
in monthly active users and user growth and engagement, including
time spent on our products and services;
•decreased
user access to and engagement with us through our mobile products
and services;
•the
degree to which our users cease or reduce the number of times they
engage with ads placed through our products and
services;
•changes
in our demographics that make us less attractive to
advertisers;
•product
changes or inventory management decisions that we make that reduce
the size, frequency, or prominence of ads and other commercial
content displayed on our products and services;
•our
inability to improve our analytics and measurement solutions that
demonstrate the value of our ads and other commercial
content;
•loss
of advertising market share to our competitors;
•adverse
legal developments relating to advertising, including legislative
action, regulatory developments, and litigation;
•competitive
developments or advertiser perception of the value of our products
and services that change the rates we can charge for advertising or
the volume of advertising on our products and
services;
•adverse
media reports or other negative publicity involving us or other
companies in our industry;
•our
inability to create new products and services that sustain or
increase the value of our ads and other commercial
content;
•changes
in the pricing of online advertising;
•difficulty
and frustration from advertisers who may need to reformat or change
their advertisements to comply with our guidelines;
•the
impact of new technologies that could block or obscure the display
of our ads and other commercial content; and
•the
impact of macroeconomic conditions and conditions in the
advertising industry in general.
The occurrence of any of these or other factors could result in a
reduction in demand for our ads and other commercial content, which
may reduce the prices we receive for our ads and other commercial
content, or cause advertisers to stop advertising with us
altogether, any of which could negatively affect our business,
financial condition, and results of operation.
We may not be able to charge subscription fees or premium add-on
fees at a sufficient level or raise these fees.
We currently offer two premium (fee-based) subscription versions of
our platform, Grindr Xtra and Grindr Unlimited, each of which
offers a wide range of premium services to subscribers through
additional features. Subscribers can choose different subscription
packages for different periods, with deeper discounts typically
being offered to subscribers who select longer subscription
periods. In addition, we at times offer users the option to
purchase certain premium add-ons, such as one-day day pass
memberships to our premium subscription versions of the platform,
among other premium add-on offers. Given the increasing market
competition that we face, the constantly changing user demands and
preferences that we must address, and the uncertainties in the
overall economic environment, we may not be able to charge fees at
a sufficient level or raise fees, especially in emerging
markets.
In addition, our pricing strategies may fail to gain acceptance
among users or compete effectively against our competitors,
especially in emerging markets where we have less of an operating
history. Moreover, we may be unable to convert our users from our
free products and services to our subscription-based products and
services at a sufficient rate, or at all. In any of these events,
our business, financial condition, and results of operations could
be materially adversely affected.
We have significant internationally sourced revenue and plan to
expand our operations abroad in markets in which we have more
limited operating experience. As a result, we may face additional
risks in connection with certain of our international operations
that could adversely affect our financial results.
We have significant internationally sourced revenue and plan to
continue the international expansion of our business, including
through the translation of our products and services. As of
December 31, 2022, we distribute the iOS and Android versions of
our Grindr App in 9 and 21 languages, respectively, and had
registered users in most countries and territories in which the
Apple App Store and Google Play Store operate (except Cuba, China,
Iran, Sudan and Ukraine). Our international revenues represented
37.4% and 35.8% of total revenue for the years ended
December 31, 2022 and 2021, respectively.
We may enter new international markets and expand our operations in
existing international markets, where we have limited or no
experience in marketing, selling, and deploying our products and
services. In addition, some or all of our products or services may
not be permitted or made available in certain markets due to legal
and regulatory complexities and different societal perceptions of
LGBTQ identities. See “—Adverse
social and political environments for the LGBTQ community in
certain parts of the world, including actions by governments or
other groups, could limit our geographic reach, business expansion,
and user growth, any of which could materially and adversely affect
our business, financial condition, and results of
operation.”
If we fail to deploy, manage, or oversee our international
expansion successfully, our business may suffer.
In addition, we believe that operating internationally,
particularly in countries in which we have more limited experience,
exposes us to a number of additional risks both within and beyond
our control, including:
•operational
and compliance challenges caused by distance, language, and
cultural differences;
•political
tensions, social unrests, or economic instability, particularly in
the countries in which we operate;
•differing
levels of social and technological acceptance of our products and
services, or lack of acceptance of them generally;
•low
usage and/or penetration of internet-connected consumer electronic
devices;
•risks
related to the legal and regulatory environment in foreign
jurisdictions, including with respect to privacy, data security and
unexpected changes in laws, regulatory requirements, and
enforcement;
•potential
damage to our brand and reputation due to compliance with local
laws, including potential censorship or requirements to provide
user information to local authorities;
•our
lack of a critical mass of users in certain markets;
•fluctuations
in currency exchange rates;
•higher
levels of credit risk and payment fraud;
•enhanced
difficulties of integrating any foreign acquisitions;
•burdens
of complying with a variety of foreign laws, including multiple tax
jurisdictions;
•competitive
environments that favor local businesses;
•reduced
protection for intellectual property rights in some
countries;
•difficulties
in staffing and managing global operations and the increased
travel, infrastructure, and legal compliance costs associated with
multiple international locations;
•regulations
that might add difficulties in repatriating cash earned outside the
U.S. and otherwise preventing us from freely moving
cash;
•import
and export restrictions and changes in trade
regulations;
•political
unrest, terrorism, military conflict (such as the conflict
involving Russia and Ukraine), war, health and safety epidemics
(such as the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2022 mpox outbreak) or the
threat of any of these events;
•export
controls and economic sanctions administered by the U.S. Department
of Commerce Bureau of Industry and Security and the U.S. Department
of the Treasury Office of Foreign Assets Control and similar
regulatory entities in other jurisdictions;
•compliance
with the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the U.K. Bribery Act,
and similar anti-corruption laws in other jurisdictions;
and
•compliance
with statutory equity requirements and management of tax
consequences.
Moreover, geopolitical tensions in or involving countries in which
we operate, such as Russia, may prevent us from operating in
certain countries or increase our costs of operating in those
countries. See “—A
downturn in the global economy, especially in the United States and
Europe, where a substantial majority of our revenue is generated
could adversely harm our business.”
In addition, if enforcement authorities demand access to our user
data, our failure to comply could lead to our inability to operate
in such countries or other punitive acts. For example, in 2018,
Russia blocked access to the messaging app Telegram after it
refused to provide access to the Russian government to encrypted
messages.
The occurrence of any of these or other factors or our failure to
effectively manage the complexity of our global operations could
materially adversely affect our international operations, which
could, in turn, negatively affect our business, financial
condition, and results of operations.
Our business and results of operations may be materially adversely
affected by the recent COVID-19 pandemic, the 2022 mpox outbreak,
or other similar outbreaks.
Our business could be materially adversely affected by the outbreak
of a widespread health epidemic or pandemic, including the recent
COVID-19 pandemic and newly declared public health emergencies such
as the 2022 mpox outbreak. The COVID-19 pandemic has reached across
the globe, resulting in the implementation of significant
governmental measures, including lockdowns, closures, quarantines,
and travel bans intended to control the spread of the virus. While
some of these measures have been relaxed over the past few months
in various parts of the world, ongoing social distancing measures,
and future prevention and mitigation measures, as well as the
potential for some of these measures to be reinstituted in the
event of repeat waves of the virus, are likely to have an adverse
impact on global economic conditions and consumer confidence and
spending, and could materially adversely affect demand, or our
users’ ability to pay, for our products and services. The 2022 mpox
outbreak has spread to many regions of the world, including to
regions where we conduct our business operations. We have seen
slower active user growth in areas with significant mpox outbreaks.
If the mpox outbreak continues to spread, any resulting fluctuation
in our user base and user activity may have a material adverse
effect on our business operations and financial
results.
A public health epidemic, pandemic or public health emergency,
including COVID-19 and 2022 mpox outbreak, poses the risk that we
or our employees, contractors, vendors, and other business partners
may be prevented or impaired from conducting ordinary course
business activities for an indefinite period, including due to
shutdowns necessitated for the health and well-being of our
employees, the employees of business partners, or shutdowns that
may be requested or mandated by governmental authorities. In
addition, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we have taken
several precautions that may adversely impact employee
productivity, such as moving to a remote-first work environment,
imposing travel restrictions within the U.S. and internationally,
and temporarily closing office locations.
A widespread epidemic, pandemic, or other health crisis could also
cause significant volatility in global markets. The COVID-19
pandemic has caused disruption in financial markets, which if it
continues or intensifies, could reduce our ability to access
capital and thereby negatively impact our liquidity.
We have in the past experienced, and may in the future experience
volatility in our user and revenue growth rates as a result of the
COVID-19 pandemic and the 2022 mpox outbreak. We intend to continue
to execute on our strategic plans and operational initiatives;
however, the uncertainties may result in delays or modifications to
these plans and initiatives. Part of our growth strategy includes
increasing the number of international users and expanding into
additional geographies. The timing and success of our international
expansion may be negatively impacted by COVID-19, the 2022 mpox
outbreak or other disease outbreaks, which could impede our
anticipated growth. As we experience volatility or decline in
growth rates, investors’ perceptions of our business may be
adversely affected, and the trading price of our shares of Common
Stock may decline.
The ultimate extent of the impact of any epidemic, pandemic, or
other health crisis on our business will depend on multiple factors
that are highly uncertain and cannot be predicted, including its
severity, location and duration, and actions taken to contain or
prevent further its spread. In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic and
the 2022 mpox outbreak could increase the magnitude of many of the
other risks described in this Annual Report on Form 10-K and may
have other material adverse effects on our operations that we are
not currently able to predict. If our business and the markets in
which it operates experience a prolonged occurrence of adverse
public health conditions, such as COVID-19, the 2022 mpox outbreak
and other similar outbreaks, it could materially adversely affect
our business, financial condition, and results of
operations.
The forecasts and projections herein are based upon certain
assumptions, analyses, and estimates. If these assumptions,
analyses or estimates prove to be incorrect or inaccurate, our
actual results may differ materially from those forecasted or
projected.
The forecasts and projections, including projected revenue growth,
Adjusted EBITDA Margin and the anticipated market opportunity,
growth and penetration, are subject to significant uncertainty and
are based on certain assumptions, analyses and estimates, including
with reference to third-party forecasts, any or all of which may
prove to be incorrect or inaccurate. These include assumptions,
analyses and estimates about future pricing and future costs, all
of which are subject to a wide variety of business, regulatory and
competitive risks and uncertainties. If these assumptions, analyses
or estimates prove to be incorrect or inaccurate, our actual
results may differ materially from those forecasted or projected,
adversely affecting the value of Common Stock.
We depend on our key personnel and we may not be able to operate or
grow our business effectively if we lose the services of any of our
key personnel or are unable to attract qualified personnel in the
future.
We currently depend on the continued services and performance of
our key personnel, including members of senior management, product
development and revenue teams, engineering personnel, and privacy
and information security employees, among other key staff. In
addition, some of our key technologies and systems have been, or
may be in the future, custom-made for our business by our key
personnel. If one or more of our senior management or other key
employees cannot or chooses not to continue their employment with
us, we might not be able to replace them easily, in a timely
manner, or at all. In addition, the risk that competitors or other
companies may poach our talent increases as we continue to build
our brand and become more well-known. Our key personnel likely have
been, and may continue to be, subject to poaching efforts by our
competitors and other internet and high-growth companies, including
well-capitalized players in the social media and consumer internet
space. The loss of key personnel, including members of management,
product development and revenue teams, engineering personnel, and
privacy and information security employees, could disrupt our
operations and have a material adverse effect on our business,
financial condition, and results of operations.
Our future success will depend upon our continued ability to
identify, hire, develop, motivate, and retain highly skilled
individuals across the globe, with the continued contributions of
our senior management being especially critical to our success. We
face intense competition in the industry for well-qualified, highly
skilled employees and our continued ability to compete effectively
depends, in part, upon our ability to attract and retain new
employees. While we have established programs to attract new
employees and provide incentives to retain existing employees,
particularly our senior management, we cannot guarantee that we
will be able to attract new employees or retain the services of our
senior management or any other key employees in the future.
Additionally, we believe that our culture and core values have
been, and will continue to be, a key contributor to our success and
our ability to foster the innovation, creativity, and teamwork that
we believe we need to support our operations. If we fail to
effectively manage our hiring needs and successfully integrate our
new hires, or if we fail to effectively manage remote work
arrangements resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, among other
factors, our efficiency and ability to meet our forecasts and our
ability to maintain our culture, employee morale, productivity, and
retention could suffer, and our business, financial condition, and
results of operations could be materially adversely
affected.
Finally, effective succession planning will be important to our
future success. If we fail to ensure the effective transfer of
senior management knowledge and to create smooth transitions
involving senior management across our various businesses, our
ability to execute short and long term strategic, financial, and
operating goals, as well as our business, financial condition, and
results of operations generally, could be materially adversely
affected.
We have limited insurance coverage with respect to our business and
operations.
Although we maintain property insurance, professional liability
insurance, technology error and omission/cyber liability insurance,
and commercial general liability insurance, we cannot assure you
that our insurance coverage will be sufficient or that future
coverage will be available at reasonable costs. Accordingly, we may
determine that we cannot obtain insurance on acceptable terms or at
all. However, we have in the past, and may in the future,
experience issues obtaining cyber insurance that provides
third-party reimbursement or obtaining such insurance on favorable
terms.
In addition, our business disruption insurance covers only loss of
business income sustained due to direct physical loss or damage to
property on our premises, and insurance policies covering damage to
our IT infrastructure or information technology systems are
limited. Any disruptions to our IT infrastructures or systems or an
uncovered business disruption event could result in substantial
cost to us and diversion of our resources.
Problems with any insurer, or the general limitations of our
insurance policies, including any applicable retentions or caps,
could result in limited coverage for us and cause us to incur
significant operating expenses. Additionally, if a significant
loss, judgment, claim or other event is not covered by insurance,
the loss and related expenses could harm our business, financial
condition and results of operations. The occurrence of any of these
or other factors could negatively affect our business, financial
condition, and results of operations.
We rely on certain key operating metrics that have not been
independently verified to manage our business, we may periodically
change our metrics, and real or perceived inaccuracies in such
metrics may harm our reputation and negatively affect our
business.
We regularly review metrics, such as MAUs, to evaluate growth
trends, measure our performance, and make strategic decisions. The
MAUs are calculated using unique devices that demonstrate activity
on our Grindr App on a calendar month basis and the devices counted
may not exactly correlate to the number of users of our Grindr App.
The MAUs are also calculated using internal company data gathered
on analytics platforms that we developed or deployed and operate,
and they have not been validated by an independent third party. In
addition, our internal systems measure MAUs by detecting user
activity when users open our Grindr App on their devices,
regardless of whether the users engage in any further activities
using the application, and therefore these metrics cannot measure
the extent to which our users use our products and services, or
accurately estimate the impact that it may have on our financial
results. See “Management’s
Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of
Operations—Key Operating and Financial Metrics”
for more details. While these metrics are based on what we believe
to be reasonable estimates of our user base for the applicable
periods, there are inherent challenges in measuring how our
products and services are used across large populations globally
and in accounting for spam accounts (as opposed to genuine users).
Our user metrics are also affected by technology on certain mobile
devices that automatically runs in the background of our Grindr App
when another phone function is used, and this activity can cause
our system to miscount the user metrics associated with such an
account. The methodologies used to measure these metrics require
significant judgment and are also susceptible to algorithm or other
technical errors. In addition, we are continually seeking to
improve our estimates of our user base, and such estimates may
change due to improvements or changes in our
methodology.
Errors or inaccuracies in our metrics or data could also result in
incorrect business decisions and inefficiencies. For instance, if a
significant understatement or overstatement of MAUs were to occur,
we may expend resources to implement unnecessary business measures
or fail to take required actions to attract a sufficient number of
users to satisfy our growth strategies. We continually seek to
address technical issues in our ability to record such data and
improve our accuracy, but given the complexity of the systems
involved, the rapidly changing nature of mobile devices and
systems, how our platform manages identity, and the way our users
use the Grindr App, we expect these issues to continue. We are
currently exploring and developing an alternative identifier in an
effort to capture different use cases on our platform, such as when
a user logs into their account from multiple devices or when users
periodically uninstall and then reinstall our Grindr App. This
identifier may not be applicable retroactively to historical data.
This technology is still nascent, and it may be some time before we
determine the resultant data is reliable or useful. To the extent
we switch to reporting MAU data in the future based on this
alternative identifier, it may be difficult for investors to
evaluate period over period comparisons of these metrics. We may
periodically change the metrics we use for internal or external
reporting purposes. If advertisers, partners, or investors do not
perceive our user, geographic, or other demographic metrics to be
accurate representations of our user base, or if we discover
material inaccuracies in our user, geographic, or other demographic
metrics, our reputation may be seriously harmed. If customers,
platform partners, or investors do not perceive our user,
geographic, or other demographic metrics to be accurate
representations of our user base or user engagement, or if we
discover material inaccuracies in our user, geographic, or other
demographic metrics, our reputation may be materially adversely
impacted and users, platform partners, and investors may be less
willing to allocate their resources or spending to our Grindr App,
any of which could materially negatively affect our business,
financial condition, and results of operation.
Foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations could materially
adversely affect our results of operations.
We operate in various international markets. During the years ended
December 31, 2022 and 2021, our international revenue
represented 37.4% and 35.8% of our total revenue, respectively. We
translate international revenues into U.S. dollar-denominated
operating results, and during periods of a strengthening U.S.
dollar, our international revenues will be reduced when translated
into U.S. dollars. In addition, as foreign currency exchange rates
fluctuate, the translation of our international revenues into U.S.
dollar-denominated operating results affects the period-over-period
comparability of such results and can result in foreign currency
exchange gains and losses.
We have exposure to foreign currency exchange risk related to
transactions carried out in a currency other than the U.S. dollar,
and investments in foreign subsidiaries with a functional currency
other than the U.S. dollar.
Brexit has caused, and may continue to cause, volatility in
currency exchange rates between the U.S. dollar and the British
pound, or GBP, and the full impact of Brexit remains uncertain. To
the extent that the U.S. dollar strengthens relative to the GBP,
the translation of our international revenues into U.S. dollars
will reduce its U.S. dollar denominated operating results and will
affect their period-over-period comparability. See
“—Risks
Related to Regulation and Litigation—Legal, political, and economic
uncertainty surrounding the exit of the United Kingdom from the
European Union, or Brexit, and the implementation of the trade and
cooperation agreement between the United Kingdom and the European
Union could have a material adverse effect on our
business.”
Significant foreign exchange rate fluctuations, in the case of one
currency or collectively with other currencies, could materially
adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of
operations.
Risks Related to Information Technology Systems and Intellectual
Property
Security breaches, unauthorized access to or disclosure of our data
or user data, other hacking and phishing attacks on our systems, or
other data security incidents could compromise sensitive
information related to our business and/or user personal data
processed by us or on our behalf and expose us to liability, which
could harm our reputation, generate negative publicity, and
materially and adversely affect our business.
Our products and services and the operation of our business involve
the collection, storage, processing, and transmission of data,
including personal data regarding our users. The information
systems that store and process such data are susceptible to
increasing threats of continually evolving cybersecurity risks.
Cyber-attacks by third parties seeking unauthorized access to
confidential or sensitive data, including personal data regarding
our users, or seeking to disrupt our ability to provide services,
have become prevalent in our industry. We may also face attempts to
create false or undesirable user accounts or take other actions for
the purposes of spamming, spreading misinformation or other
objectionable ends. Given our Grindr App's popularity and user
demographics, bad actors may attempt to target or exploit our
systems or users. We face an ever-increasing number of threats to
our information systems from a broad range of potential bad actors,
including foreign governments, criminals, competitors, computer
hackers, cyber terrorists, and politically or socially motivated
groups or individuals, and we have previously experienced various
attempts to access our information systems. These threats include
physical or electronic break-ins, security breaches from
inadvertent or intentional actions by our employees, contractors,
consultants, and/or other third parties with otherwise legitimate
access to our systems, website, or facilities, or from
cyber-attacks by malicious third parties which could breach our
data security and disrupt our systems. The motivations of such
actors may vary, but breaches that compromise our information
technology systems can cause interruptions, delays, or operational
malfunctions, which, in turn, could have a material adverse effect
on our business, financial condition, and results of
operations.
In addition, the risks related to a security breach or disruption,
including through a distributed denial-of-service, or DDoS, attack,
computer and mobile malware, worms, viruses, social engineering
(predominantly spear phishing attacks), attempts to misappropriate
customer information, including credit card information and account
login credentials, and general hacking, have become more prevalent
in our industry and these risks have generally increased as the
number, intensity, and sophistication of attempted attacks and
intrusions from around the world have increased. Ransomware
attacks, including those perpetrated by organized criminal threat
actors, nation-states, and nation-state supported actors, are also
becoming increasingly prevalent and severe and can lead to
significant interruptions in our operations, loss of data and
income, reputational harm, and diversion of funds. Extortion
payments may alleviate the negative impact of a ransomware attack,
but we may be unwilling or unable to make such payments due to, for
example, applicable laws or regulations prohibiting
payments.
Security incidents or disruptions have occurred on our systems in
the past, and they will continue to occur in the future and may be
inherently difficult to detect for long periods of time. As a
result of our market leader position, the size of our user base,
and the types and volume of personal data on our systems, we
believe that we are a particularly attractive target for such
breaches and attacks, including from highly sophisticated,
state-sponsored, or otherwise well-funded actors. Though it is
difficult to determine what, if any, harm may directly result from
any specific interruption or attack, any failure to maintain
performance, reliability, security, and availability of our
products and services and technical infrastructure to the
satisfaction of our users may harm our reputation and our ability
to retain existing users and attract new users, as well as generate
negative publicity.
Although we have devoted and continue to devote significant
resources to protect our data and user data, we cannot assure you
that such measures will provide absolute security and we may also
incur significant costs in protecting against or remediating
cyberattacks. In addition, some of the user data we collected is
stored in facilities provided by third parties which are beyond our
control. Any failure to prevent or mitigate security breaches and
unauthorized access to or disclosure of our data or user data,
including personal information, content, or payment information
from users, or information from marketers, could result in the
loss, modification, disclosure, destruction, or other misuse of
such data, which could subject us to legal liability, including
investigations by regulatory authorities and/or litigation that
could result in liability to third parties, harm our business and
reputation, and diminish our competitive position. We may incur
significant costs in protecting against or remediating such
incidents and as cybersecurity incidents continue to evolve, we may
be required to expend significant additional resources to continue
to modify or enhance our protective measure or to investigate and
remediate any information security vulnerabilities. Our efforts to
protect our confidential and sensitive data, the data of our users
or other personal information we receive, and to disable
undesirable activities on our platform, may also be unsuccessful
due to software bugs or other technical malfunctions; employee,
contractor, or vendor error or malfeasance, including defects or
vulnerabilities in our service providers’ information technology
systems or offerings; government surveillance; breaches of physical
security of our facilities or technical infrastructure; or other
threats that may surface or evolve.
In addition, third parties may attempt to fraudulently induce
employees or users to disclose information to gain access to our
data or our users’ data. Although we have developed systems and
processes that are designed to protect our data and user data, to
prevent data loss, to disable undesirable accounts and activities
on our platform, and to prevent or detect security breaches, we
cannot assure you that such measures will be successful, that we
will be able to anticipate or detect all cyber-attacks or other
breaches, that we will be able to react to cyber-attacks or other
breaches in a timely manner, or that our remediation efforts will
be successful. We may also incur significant legal and financial
exposure, including legal claims, higher transaction fees, and
regulatory fines and penalties because of any compromise or breach
of our systems or
data security, or the systems and data security of our third-party
providers. Any of the foregoing could have a material adverse
effect on our business, financial condition, and results of
operations.
Moreover, supply-chain attacks have increased in frequency and
severity, and we cannot guarantee that third parties and
infrastructure in our supply chain have not been compromised or
that they do not contain exploitable defects or bugs that could
result in a breach of or disruption to our information technology
systems (including our products and services) or the third-party
information technology systems that support us and our services.
Some of our partners may receive or store information provided by
us or by our users through mobile or web applications integrated
with our Grindr App, and we use third-party service providers to
store, transmit, and otherwise process certain confidential,
sensitive, or personal information on our behalf. If these third
parties fail to adopt or adhere to adequate data security
practices, or in the event of a breach of their networks, our data
or our users’ data may be improperly accessed, used, or disclosed,
which could subject us to legal liability. We cannot control such
third parties and cannot guarantee that a security breach will not
occur on their systems. Although we may have contractual
protections with our third-party service providers, contractors,
and consultants, any actual or perceived security breach could harm
our reputation and brand, expose us to potential liability or
require us to expend significant resources on data security and in
responding to any such actual or perceived breach. Any contractual
protections we may have from our third-party service providers,
contractors, or consultants may not be sufficient to adequately
protect us from any such liabilities and losses, and we may be
unable to enforce any such contractual protections.
While our insurance policies include liability coverage for certain
of these matters, if we experience a significant security incident,
we could be subject to liability or other damages that exceed our
insurance coverage and we cannot be certain that such insurance
policies will continue to be available to us on economically
reasonable terms, or at all, or that any insurer will not deny
coverage as to any future claim. See “—Risks
Related to our Brand, Products and Services, and Operations—We have
limited insurance coverage with respect to our business and
operations.”
The successful assertion of one or more large claims against us
that exceed available insurance coverage, or the occurrence of
changes in our insurance policies, including premium increases or
the imposition of large deductible or coinsurance requirements,
could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial
condition, and results of operations.
The occurrence of any of these or other factors could negatively
affect our business, financial condition, and results of
operations.
Our success depends, in part, on the integrity of our information
technology systems and infrastructures and on our ability to
enhance, expand, and adapt these systems and infrastructures in a
timely and cost-effective manner.
Our reputation and ability to attract, retain, and serve users
depends on the reliable performance of our products and services
and our underlying technology infrastructure. Our products and
services and systems rely on highly technical and complex software
and hardware, and they depend on the ability of such software and
hardware to store, retrieve, process, and manage immense amounts of
data. While we have not experienced any material outages in the
recent past, we have in the past experienced performance delays and
other glitches, and we expect to face similar issues in the future.
In addition, our systems may not be adequately designed with the
necessary reliability and redundancy to avoid performance delays,
other glitches, or outages that could make some or all of our
systems or data temporarily unavailable and prevent our products
and services from functioning properly for our users. Any such
interruption could arise for any number of reasons, including human
errors, and could materially and adversely affect our business,
financial condition, and results of operations.
Moreover, our systems and infrastructures are vulnerable to damage
from fire, power loss, hardware and operating software errors,
cyber-attacks, technical limitations, telecommunications failures,
acts of God, and similar events. While we have back-up systems in
place for certain aspects of our operations, not all of our systems
and infrastructures have redundancies or back-up systems. In
addition, disaster recovery planning can never account for all
possible eventualities and our property and business interruption
insurance coverage may not be adequate to compensate us fully for
any losses that we may suffer. Any interruptions or outages,
regardless of the cause, could negatively impact our users’
experiences with our products and services, tarnish our reputations
and decrease demand for our products and services, and result in
significant negative publicity, any of which could materially
adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of
operations. Moreover, even if detected, the resolution of such
interruptions may take a long time, during which customers may not
be able to access, or may have limited access to, our products and
services.
We also continually work to expand and enhance the efficiency and
scalability of our technology and network systems to improve the
experience of our users, accommodate substantial increases in the
volume of traffic to our various products and services, ensure
acceptable load times for our products and services, and keep up
with changes in technology and user preferences. Any failure to do
so in a timely and cost-effective manner could materially adversely
affect our users’ experience with our various products and
services, thereby negatively impacting the demand for our products
and services, and could increase our costs, any of which could
materially adversely affect our business, financial condition, and
results of operations.
If the security of personal and confidential or sensitive user
information that we maintain and store is breached, or otherwise
accessed by unauthorized persons, it may be costly to remediate
such breach, it may generate negative publicity, and our reputation
could be harmed.
We receive, process, store, and transmit a significant amount of
personal information regarding our users and other confidential or
sensitive information, including user-to-user communications, and
personal information of our employees and users, and enable our
users to share their personal information, including some which may
be interpreted as special or sensitive information under certain
privacy and data protection regulations, with each other through
their public Grindr profiles or private in-App messages. In some
cases, we engage third-party service providers to store this
information. We continuously develop and maintain systems to
protect the security, integrity, and confidentiality of this
information, but we have experienced past incidents of inadvertent
or unauthorized use or disclosure of such information. See
“—Risks
Related to our Brand, Products and Services, and
Operations—Unfavorable media coverage could materially and
adversely affect our business, brand, or
reputation.”
In addition, we may in the future experience additional incidents
of inadvertent or unauthorized use or disclosure of information, or
third parties may gain unauthorized access to information despite
our efforts. When such incidents occur, we may not be able to
remedy them, we may be required by law to notify regulators and
individuals whose personal information was used or disclosed
without authorization, we may be subject to claims against us,
including government enforcement actions or investigations, fines
and litigation, we may be subject to negative publicity, and we may
have to expend significant capital and other resources to mitigate
the impact of such events, including developing and implementing
protections to prevent future events of this nature from occurring.
When breaches of our or our third-party service providers’ and
partners’ information technology systems occur or unauthorized
access to any of the confidential, sensitive, or other personal
information that we collect or process occurs, the perception of
the effectiveness of our security measures, the security measures
of our partners, and our reputation may be harmed, we may lose
current and potential users and the recognition of our brand and
our brand’s competitive positions may be diminished, any of which
could materially adversely affect our business, financial
condition, and results of operations.
The occurrence of any of these or other factors could negatively
affect our business, financial condition, and results of
operations.
We are subject to risks related to credit card payments, including
data security breaches and fraud that we or third parties
experience or additional regulation, any of which could materially
adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of
operations.
In addition to purchases through the Apple App Store and the Google
Play Store, we accept payment from our users through certain other
online payment service providers, and we expect to explore and
implement additional payment mechanisms based in part upon Apple’s
recent announcement that it would allow app developers to process
payments for subscriptions and other premium add-ons outside of
Apple’s payment system. See “—Risks
Related to our Brand, Products and Services, and Operations—We rely
primarily on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store as the
channels for processing of payments. In addition, access to our
products and services depends on mobile app stores and other third
parties such as data center service providers, as well as third
party payment aggregators, computer systems, internet transit
providers and other communications systems and service providers.
Any deterioration in our relationship with Apple, Google either of
them or other such third parties may negatively impact our
business.”
The ability to process credit card information or other account
charges on a real-time basis without having to proactively reach
out to the consumer each time we process an auto-renewal payment or
a payment for the purchase of a premium feature on any of our
products and services will be critical to our success and to a
seamless experience for our users. When we experience or a third
party experiences a data security breach involving credit card
information, affected cardholders will often cancel their credit
cards. In the case of a breach experienced by a third party, the
more sizable the third party’s customer base and the greater the
number of credit card accounts impacted, the more likely it is that
our users would be impacted by such a breach. To the extent our
users are ever affected by such a breach experienced by us or a
third party, affected users would need to be contacted to obtain
new credit card information and process any pending transactions.
It is likely that we would not be able to reach all affected users,
and even if we could, some users’ new credit card information may
not be obtained and some pending transactions may not be processed,
which could materially adversely affect our business, financial
condition, and results of operations.
In addition, even if our users are not directly impacted by a given
data security breach, they may lose confidence in the ability of
service providers to protect their personal information generally,
which could cause them to stop using their credit cards online and
choose alternative payment methods that are not as convenient for
us or restrict our ability to process payments without significant
cost or user effort.
Moreover, if we fail to adequately prevent fraudulent credit card
transactions, we may face litigation, fines, governmental
enforcement action, civil liability, diminished public perception
of our security measures, significantly higher credit card-related
costs and substantial remediation costs, or refusal by credit card
processors to continue to process payments on our behalf, any of
which could materially adversely affect our business, financial
condition, and results of operations.
Finally, the passage or adoption of any legislation or regulation
affecting the ability of service providers to periodically charge
consumers for, among other things, recurring subscription payments
may materially adversely affect our business, financial condition,
and results of operations. In addition, many U.S. states are
considering similar legislation or regulation,
or changes to existing legislation or regulation governing
subscription payments. While we will monitor and attempt to comply
with these legal developments, we may in the future be subject to
claims under such legislation or regulation.
The occurrence of any of these or other factors could negatively
affect our business, financial condition, and results of
operations.
Our success depends, in part, on the integrity of third-party
systems and infrastructures and on continued and unimpeded access
to our products and services on the internet.
We rely on third parties, primarily data center and cloud-based,
hosted web service providers, such as Amazon Web Services, as well
as software development services, computer systems, internet
transit providers, and other communications systems and service
providers, in connection with the provision of our products and
services generally, as well as to facilitate and process certain
transactions with our users. See “—Risks
Related to our Brand, Products and Services, and Operations—The
distribution, marketing of, and access to our products and services
depends, in large part, on third-party platforms and mobile
application stores, among other third-party providers. If these
third parties limit, prohibit, or otherwise interfere with the
distribution or use of our products and services in any material
way, it could adversely affect our business, financial condition,
and results of operations.”
We have no control over any of these third parties or their
operations. While we seek actively reduce risk by trying to
minimize reliance on any single third party or our operations, and
by creating back-up systems where possible, we cannot guarantee
that third-party providers will not experience system
interruptions, outages or delays, or deterioration in the
performance.
Problems or insolvency experienced by any of these third-party
providers, the telecommunications network providers with which we
or they contract, the systems through which telecommunications
providers allocate capacity among their customers, or any other
providers or related services, could also materially and adversely
affect us. Any changes in service levels at our data centers or any
interruptions, outages, or delays in our systems or those of our
third-party providers, or deterioration in the performance of these
systems, could impair our ability to provide our products and
services or process transactions with our users, which could
materially adversely impact our business, financial condition, and
results of operations. In addition, if we need to migrate our
business to different third-party providers because of any such
problems or insolvency, it could impact our ability to retain our
existing users or add new users, among other materially adverse
effects. See “—Risks
Related to our Brand, Products and Services, and Operations—If we
fail to retain existing users or add new users, or if our users
decrease their level of engagement with our products and services
or do not convert to Paying Users, our revenue, financial results,
and business may be significantly harmed.”
The occurrence of any of these or other factors could negatively
affect our business, financial condition, and results of
operations.
Our products and services and internal systems rely on highly
technical software and, if it contains undetected errors or
vulnerabilities, we could be subject to liability and our business
could be materially adversely affected.
As explained above, our products and services and internal systems
rely on highly technical and complex software, including software
developed or maintained internally and/or by third parties. In
addition, our products and services and internal systems depend on
the ability of such software to store, retrieve, process, and
manage immense amounts of data. The software on which we rely has
contained, and may now and in the future contain, undetected
errors, bugs, or vulnerabilities. Some errors may only be
discovered after the code has been released for external or
internal use and can manifest in any number of ways in our products
and services, including through diminished performance, security
vulnerabilities, malfunctions, or even permanently disabled
products and services. Errors, bugs, vulnerabilities, or other
defects within the software on which we rely have in the past, and
may in the future, result in a negative experience for users and
marketers who use our products and services, delay product
introductions or enhancements, result in targeting, measurement, or
billing errors, compromise our ability to protect the data of our
users and/or our intellectual property, result in negative
publicity, or lead to reductions in our ability to provide some or
all of our services. In addition, any errors, bugs,
vulnerabilities, or defects discovered in the software on which we
rely, and any associated degradations or interruptions of service,
could result in damage to our reputation, loss of users, loss of
revenue, or liability for damages, any of which could adversely
affect our business, financial condition, and results of
operations.
We could also face claims for product liability, tort, breach of
warranty, or other causes of action. Although our Terms and
Conditions of Service contain provisions relating to warranty
disclaimers and liability limitations, among other provisions our
Terms and Conditions of Service or, these contractual terms may not
be upheld or enforceable in all jurisdictions in which we
distribute our products and services, and they may not offer us any
protections from liability in potential legal action. In addition,
defending a lawsuit, regardless of its merit, is costly and may
divert management’s attention and seriously harm our reputation and
our business. Moreover, if our liability insurance coverage proves
inadequate or future coverage is unavailable on acceptable terms or
at all, our business could be adversely affected. See
“—Risks
Related to our Brand, Products and Services, and Operations—We have
limited insurance coverage with respect to our business and
operations.”
The occurrence of any of these or other factors could negatively
affect our business, financial condition, and results of
operations.
From time to time, we are party to intellectual property-related
litigations and proceedings that are expensive and time consuming
to defend, and, if resolved adversely, could materially adversely
impact our business, financial condition, and results of
operations.
We may become party to disputes from time to time over rights and
obligations concerning our intellectual property or intellectual
property held by third parties, and we may not prevail in these
disputes. Companies on the internet, technology, and social media
industries are frequently involved in litigation based upon
allegations of infringement of intellectual property rights, unfair
competition, invasion of privacy, defamation, and other violations
of other parties’ rights. Many companies in these industries,
including many of our competitors, have substantially larger
intellectual property portfolios than we do (and substantially more
resources), which could make us a target for litigation as we may
not be able to assert counterclaims against parties that sue us for
infringement, misappropriation, or other violations of patent or
other intellectual property rights. In addition, various
“non-practicing entities” that own patents and other intellectual
property rights often attempt to assert claims to extract value
from technology companies. Given that these patent holding
companies or other adverse intellectual property rights holders
typically have no relevant product revenue, our own issued or
pending patents and other intellectual property rights may provide
little or no deterrence to these rights holders in bringing
intellectual property rights claims against us. From time to time
we receive claims from third parties which allege that we have
infringed upon their intellectual property rights, and we have also
been a party to several patent infringement litigations from such
third parties. Further, from time to time we may introduce new
products and services, product features and services, including in
areas where we currently do not have an offering, which could
increase our exposure to patent and other intellectual property
claims from competitors and non-practicing entities. In addition,
some of our agreements with third-party partners require us to
indemnify them for certain intellectual property claims asserted
against them, which could require us to incur considerable costs in
defending such claims and may require us to pay significant damages
in the event of an adverse ruling. Such third-party partners may
also discontinue their relationships with us because of injunctions
or otherwise, which could result in loss of revenue and adversely
impact our business operations.
In addition, although we try to ensure that our employees and
consultants do not use the proprietary information or know-how of
others in their work for us, we may be subject to claims that we or
our employees or consultants have inadvertently or otherwise used
or disclosed intellectual property, including trade secrets,
software code or other proprietary information, of a former
employer or other third parties. Litigation may be necessary to
defend against these claims and, if we fail in defending any such
claims, in addition to paying monetary damages, we may lose
valuable intellectual property rights or personnel. Furthermore,
although we generally require our employees and contractors who may
be involved in the conception or development of intellectual
property to execute agreements assigning such intellectual property
to us, we may be unsuccessful in executing such an agreement with
each party who, in fact, conceives or develops intellectual
property that we regard as our own. Moreover, any such assignment
of intellectual property rights may not be self-executing, the
assignment agreements may be breached or the agreements may not
effectively assign ownership of relevant intellectual property
rights to us, and we may be forced to bring claims against third
parties, or defend claims that they may bring against us, to
determine the ownership of what we regard as our intellectual
property.
As we face increasing competition and develop new products and
services, we expect the number of patent and other intellectual
property claims against us may grow. There may be intellectual
property or other rights held by others, including issued or
pending patents, that cover significant aspects of our products and
services, and we cannot be sure that we are not infringing or
violating, and have not infringed or violated, any third-party
intellectual property rights or that we will not be held to have
done so or be accused of doing so in the future.
Any litigation of this nature, regardless of outcome or merit,
could result in substantial costs and diversion of management and
technical resources. Some of our competitors have substantially
greater resources than we do and can sustain the costs of complex
intellectual property litigation to a greater degree and for longer
periods of time than we could. The outcome of any litigation is
inherently uncertain, and there can be no assurances that favorable
final outcomes will be obtained in all cases. In addition, third
parties may seek, and we may become subject to, preliminary or
provisional rulings during any such litigation, including potential
preliminary injunctions requiring us to cease some or all of our
operations. We may decide to settle such lawsuits and disputes on
terms that are unfavorable to us or that require us to make
material changes to our business. Similarly, if any litigation to
which we are a party is resolved adversely, we may be subject to an
unfavorable judgment that may not be reversed upon appeal,
including being subject to a permanent injunction and being
required to pay substantial monetary damages, including treble
damages and attorneys’ fees, if we are found to have willfully
infringed a party’s intellectual property rights. The terms of such
a settlement or judgment may require us to cease some or all of our
operations or pay substantial amounts to the other party. In
addition, we may have to seek a license to continue practices found
to be in violation of a third-party’s rights. If we are required or
choose to enter into royalty or licensing arrangements, such
arrangements may not be available on reasonable terms, or at all,
and may significantly increase our operating costs and expenses.
Such arrangements may also only be available on a non-exclusive
basis such that third parties, including our competitors, could
have access to the same licensed technology to compete with us. As
a result, we may also be required to develop or procure alternative
non-infringing technology, which could require significant effort,
time and expense or discontinue use of the technology or practices,
which could negatively affect the user experience or may not be
feasible. There also can be no assurance that we would be able to
develop or license suitable alternative technology to permit us to
continue offering the affected products or services. If we cannot
develop or license alternative technology for any allegedly
infringing aspect of our business, we would be forced to limit our
products and services and may be unable to compete effectively.
Furthermore, because of the substantial amount of discovery
required in connection with intellectual property litigation, there
is a risk that some of our confidential information could be
compromised by disclosure during this type of litigation. Any of
the foregoing, and any unfavorable resolution of such disputes and
litigation, would materially and adversely impact our business,
financial condition, and results of operations.
The occurrence of any of these or other factors could negatively
affect our business, financial condition, and results of
operations.
We may fail to adequately protect our intellectual property rights
or to prevent third parties from making unauthorized use of such
rights, and our registered intellectual property is subject to
challenge.
Our intellectual property is a material asset of our business, and
our success depends in part on our ability to protect our
proprietary rights and intellectual property. For example, we
heavily rely upon our trademarks, designs, copyrights, and related
domain names, social media handles, and logos to market our brand
and to build and maintain brand loyalty and recognition. We rely
upon patented and patent-pending proprietary technologies and trade
secrets, as well as a combination of laws, and contractual
restrictions, including confidentiality agreements with employees,
customers, users, suppliers, affiliates, and others, to establish,
protect, and enforce our various intellectual property rights. For
example, we have generally registered and continue to apply to
register and renew, or secure by contract where appropriate,
trademarks and service marks as they are developed and used, and
reserve, register, and renew domain names and social media handles
as we deem appropriate. If our trademarks and trade names are not
adequately protected, then we may not be able to build and maintain
name recognition in our markets of interest and our business may be
adversely affected. In addition, effective intellectual property
protection may not be available or may not be sought in every
country in which our products and services are made available, or
in every class of goods and services in which we operate, and
contractual disputes may affect the use of marks governed by
private contract. Our registered or unregistered trademarks or
trade names may be challenged, infringed, circumvented, declared
generic, or determined to be infringing on other marks. Our
competitors may also adopt trade names or trademarks like ours,
thereby impeding our ability to build brand identity and possibly
leading to market confusion. Similarly, not every variation of a
domain name or social media handle may be available or be
registered by us, even if available. The occurrence of any of these
events could result in the erosion of our brand and limit our
ability to market our brand using our various domain names and
social media handles, as well as impede our ability to effectively
compete against competitors with similar technologies or products
and services, any of which could materially adversely affect our
business, financial condition, and results of
operations.
We cannot guarantee that our efforts to obtain and maintain
intellectual property rights are adequate, that we have secured, or
will be able to secure, appropriate permissions or protections for
all of the intellectual property rights we use or rely on. Even in
cases where we seek intellectual property registration or other
protections, there is no assurance that the resulting registration,
issuance or other protection will effectively protect every
significant feature of our products and services. Moreover, even if
we can obtain intellectual property rights, any challenge to our
intellectual property rights could result in them being narrowed in
scope or declared invalid or unenforceable. In addition, third
parties may also knowingly or unknowingly infringe our proprietary
rights, third parties may challenge proprietary rights held by us,
and pending and future trademark and patent applications may not be
approved. Other parties may also independently develop technologies
that are substantially similar or superior to ours and we may not
be able to stop such parties from using such independently
developed technologies from competing with us. These circumstances
make it challenging for us to protect our intellectual property
rights and may materially adversely impact our
business.
In addition, our intellectual property rights and the enforcement
or defense of such rights may be affected by developments or
uncertainty in laws and regulations relating to intellectual
property rights. Moreover, many companies have encountered, and may
in the future encounter, significant problems in protecting and
defending intellectual property rights in foreign jurisdictions,
particularly in emerging markets. The legal systems of some foreign
jurisdictions may not favor the enforcement of patents, trade
secrets, and other intellectual property protection, which could
make it difficult for us to stop the infringement,
misappropriation, or other violation of our intellectual property
or marketing of competing products and services in violation of our
intellectual property rights generally.
We also may be forced to bring claims against third parties to
determine the ownership of what we regard as our intellectual
property or to enforce our intellectual property against
infringement, misappropriation, or other violations by third
parties. However, the measures we take to protect our intellectual
property from unauthorized use by others may not be effective and
there can be no assurance that our intellectual property rights
will be sufficient to protect against others offering products or
services that are substantially similar or superior to ours and
that compete with our business. We may not prevail in any
intellectual property-related proceedings that we initiate against
third parties. In addition, in any such proceedings or in
proceedings before patent, trademark, and copyright agencies, our
asserted intellectual property could be found to be invalid or
unenforceable, in which case we could lose valuable intellectual
property rights. Moreover, even if we are successful in enforcing
our intellectual property against third parties, the damages or
other remedies awarded, if any, may not be commercially meaningful.
Regardless of whether any such proceedings are resolved in our
favor, such proceedings could cause us to incur significant
expenses and could disrupt our business and distract our personnel
from their normal responsibilities. Accordingly, our efforts to
enforce our intellectual property rights around the world may be
inadequate to obtain a significant commercial advantage from the
intellectual property that we develop or license.
In addition, despite any measures we take to protect our
intellectual property, our intellectual property rights may still
not be protected in a meaningful manner, challenges to contractual
rights could arise, or third parties could copy or otherwise obtain
and use our intellectual property without authorization. The
occurrence of any of these events could result in the erosion of
our brand and limit our ability to market our products and services
using our intellectual property, as well as impede our ability to
effectively compete against competitors with similar technologies,
any of which could adversely affect our business, financial
condition, and results of operations. The occurrence of any of
these or other factors could negatively affect our business,
financial condition, and results of operations.
We have obtained certain patents that are material to the operation
of our applications, e.g., our patent titled “Systems and methods
for providing location-based cascading displays” (the “Cascade
Patent”). However, we cannot offer any assurances that the Cascade
Patent or any other patent we may obtain in the future may be found
valid or enforceable if challenged or otherwise threatened by third
parties. Any successful opposition to these patents or any other
patents owned by or, if applicable in the future, licensed to us
could deprive us of rights necessary for the successful
commercialization of products and services that we may develop.
Since patent applications in the United States and most other
countries are confidential for a period of time after filing (in
most cases 18 months after the filing of the priority application),
we cannot be certain that we were the first to file on the
technologies covered in several of the patent applications related
to our technologies or products and services. Furthermore, a
derivation proceeding can be provoked by a third party, or
instituted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office
(“USPTO”), to determine who was the first to invent any of the
subject matter covered by the patent claims of our
applications.
Patent law can be highly uncertain and involve complex legal and
factual questions for which important principles remain unresolved.
In the United States and in many international jurisdictions,
policy regarding the breadth of claims allowed in patents can be
inconsistent and/or unclear. The United States Supreme Court and
the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit have made, and will
likely continue to make, changes in how the patent laws of the
United States are interpreted. Similarly, international courts and
governments have made, and will continue to make, changes in how
the patent laws in their respective countries are interpreted. We
cannot predict future changes in the interpretation of patent laws
by United States and international judicial bodies or changes to
patent laws that might be enacted into law by United States and
international legislative bodies.
Moreover, in the United States, the Leahy-Smith America Invents
Act, or the Leahy-Smith Act, enacted in September 2011, brought
significant changes to the United States patent system, including a
change from a “first to invent” system to a “first to file” system.
Other changes in the Leahy-Smith Act affect the way patent
applications are prosecuted, redefine prior art and may affect
patent litigation. The USPTO developed new regulations and
procedures to govern administration of the Leahy-Smith Act, and
many of the substantive changes to patent law associated with the
Leahy-Smith Act became effective on March 16, 2013. The
Leahy-Smith Act and its implementation could increase the
uncertainties and costs surrounding the prosecution of our patent
applications and the enforcement or defense of our issued patents,
which could have a material adverse effect on our business and
financial condition.
Our use of “open-source” software could subject our proprietary
software to general release, adversely affect our ability to sell
our products and services, and subject us to possible legal
action.
From time to time, we make software source code and other
technology we develop available for licensing under open-source
licenses. In addition, we or third parties include open-source
software in connection with a portion of our products and services,
and we expect to continue to use open-source software in the
future. Open-source software is generally licensed by its authors
or other third parties under open-source licenses. From time to
time, companies that use third-party open-source software have
faced claims challenging the use of such open-source software and
requesting compliance with the open-source software license
terms.
Furthermore, from time to time, we may face claims from others
challenging our use of open-source software, claiming ownership of,
or seeking to enforce the license terms applicable to such
open-source software, including by demanding release of the
open-source software, derivative works, or the proprietary source
code that we have developed using such software. We may also be
subject to suits by parties claiming ownership of what we believe
to be open-source software or claiming non-compliance with the
applicable open-source licensing terms. These claims could result
in litigation and could require us to make our software source code
freely available, seek licenses from third parties to continue
offering our products and services for certain uses, or cease
offering the products and services associated with the open-source
software unless and until we can re-engineer them to avoid
infringement, any of which may materially adversely affect our
business, financial condition, and results of operations. In
addition, if the license terms for the open-source code change, we
may be forced to re-engineer our software or incur additional
costs, which could be very costly. Moreover, the terms of many
open-source licenses to which we are subject have not been
interpreted by U.S. or foreign courts. Accordingly, we face a risk
that open-source software licenses could be construed in a manner
that imposes unanticipated conditions or restrictions on our
ability to market or provide our products and
services.
In addition, the use of third-party open-source software typically
exposes us to greater risks than the use of third-party commercial
software because open-source licensors generally do not provide
warranties or controls on the functionality or origin of the
software. Use of open-source software may also present additional
security risks because the public availability of such software may
make it easier for hackers and other third parties to determine how
to compromise our platform.
The occurrence of any of these or other factors could negatively
affect our business, financial condition, and results of
operations.
If the use of third-party cookies or other tracking technology is
rejected by our users, restricted by third parties outside of our
control, or otherwise subject to unfavorable regulation, our
performance could be negatively impacted and we could incur revenue
loss.
We employ a number of technologies that collect information about
our users. For instance, we use third-party Software Development
Kits (“SDKs”) within our Grindr App. SDKs are industry-standard
technology which allows app developers to develop applications for
specific platforms. SDKs also allow app developers to enhance app
functionality and offer features such as advertising, account
creation via third-party platforms (e.g., Login with Google), and
user analytics. Similar to SDKs on our mobile app, we utilize small
text files, commonly referred to as “cookies,” placed through a
browser on a user’s machine which corresponds to a data set that we
keep on our servers, to gather relevant data when users visit our
website. Our cookies collect personal information regarding the
user’s visits and experiences, such as location-based information
about the user’s device through the use of our cookies and other
tracking technologies. We use these technologies to provide a more
seamless user experience and collect, aggregate and/or detect and
prevent irregular or fraudulent activities. However, users may
delete or block cookies in their internet browsers, and users can
decline consent for certain non-essential SDKs via our mobile
consent management platform (“CMP”). In addition, companies such as
Google have disclosed their intention to move away from third-party
cookies to another form of persistent unique identifier, or ID, to
identify individual internet users or internet-connected devices.
If our cookies cannot function as designed or companies do not use
shared IDs across the entire ecosystem, then our ability to
recognize, record or track users could be negatively affected,
which may reduce the effectiveness of our services and marketing
efforts.
We may also experience challenges in obtaining appropriate consent
to our use of cookies from users, which may adversely affect our
operations and business. In addition, we may not be able to develop
or implement additional tools that compensate for the lack of data
associated with cookies. Even if we are able to do so, such
additional tools may be subject to further regulation, time
consuming to develop or costly to obtain, and less effective than
the current use of cookies, which may, in turn, materially and
adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial
condition.
Risks Related to Regulation and Litigation
We have identified a material weakness in our internal control over
financial reporting which, if not corrected, could affect the
reliability of our consolidated financial statements, and have
other adverse consequences.
As discussed elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, we
completed the Business Combination on November 18, 2022. Prior to
the Business Combination, we were a special purpose acquisition
company formed for the purpose of effecting a merger, capital stock
exchange, asset acquisition, stock purchase, reorganization or
other similar business combination with one or more operating
businesses. As a result, previously existing internal controls are
no longer applicable or comprehensive enough as of the assessment
date as our operations prior to the Business Combination were
insignificant compared to those of the consolidated entity
post-Business Combination. The design of internal controls over
financial reporting for the Company post-Business Combination has
required and will continue to require significant time and
resources from management and other personnel. As a result,
management was unable, without incurring unreasonable effort or
expense to conduct an assessment of our internal control over
financial reporting as of December 31, 2022. Accordingly, we are
excluding management’s report on internal control over financial
reporting pursuant to Section 215.02 of the SEC Division of
Corporation Finance's Regulation S-K Compliance & Disclosure
Interpretations.
A material weakness is a deficiency or combination of deficiencies
in internal control over financial reporting such that there is a
reasonable possibility that a material misstatement of our
consolidated financial statements would not be prevented or
detected on a timely basis. As of December 31, 2022, a material
weakness in our internal control over financial reporting was
identified in relation to the accuracy and timeliness of our
financial statement closing process. In connection with the
Business Combination, we began to implement actions to remediate
the material weakness and our planned measures include the
following:
•hiring
additional personnel to bolster our accounting capabilities and
capacity;
•designing
and implementing appropriate modules in our financial systems to
automate manual reconciliations and calculations; and
•evaluating,
designing and implementing the internal controls and procedures
with respect to the closing process, including the measures stated
above, to limit human judgment and clerical errors and enhance
adequacy of reviews to assure timely and accurate financial
reporting.
We believe all the remediation efforts taken as a whole will result
in comprehensive financial reporting reviews and a reduction in
manual processes to ensure a timely close and accurate financial
reporting. However, we cannot assure you the measures we are taking
to remediate the material weakness will be sufficient or that they
will prevent future material weaknesses. Additional material
weaknesses or failure to maintain effective internal control over
financial reporting could cause us to fail to meet our reporting
obligations as a public company and may result in a restatement of
our financial statements for prior periods.
If not remediated, this material weakness could result in further
material misstatements to our annual or interim consolidated
financial statements that might not be prevented or detected on a
timely basis, or in delayed filing of required periodic reports. If
we are unable to assert that our internal control over financial
reporting is effective, or if our Independent Registered Public
Accounting Firm is unable to express an unqualified opinion as to
the effectiveness of the internal control over financial reporting,
investors may lose confidence in the accuracy and completeness of
our financial reports, the market price of the stock could be
adversely affected, and we could become subject to litigation or
investigations by the NYSE, the SEC, or other regulatory
authorities, which could require additional financial and
management resources.
Our success depends, in part, on our ability to access, collect,
and use personal data about our users and to comply with applicable
privacy and data protection laws and industry best
practices.
We and other companies in the industry have been criticized by
consumer protection groups, privacy groups, governmental bodies,
and other individuals and entities for certain data practices or
for perceptions about data practices. Increased attention to or
regulation of data utilization practices, including self-regulation
or findings under existing laws that limit our ability to collect,
transfer, and use information and other data, could have a material
adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of
operation. In addition, if we or our third-party vendors were to
disclose data about our users in an objectionable manner, if we or
our third-party vendors are perceived to have disclosed data about
our users in an objectionable manner, or if we or our third-party
vendors fail to comply with applicable privacy and data protection
laws and industry best practices, our business reputation could be
materially adversely affected. We may receive negative publicity,
and we could face potential legal claims or regulatory
investigations that could impact our operating results. We and/or
our third-party vendors have in the past been subject to such
matters and we expect to face similar issues in the
future.
In addition, we may become subject to additional and/or more
stringent legal obligations concerning our treatment of user data
and other personal information, such as laws regarding data
collection, localization and/or restrictions on data transfers,
particularly internationally. Recent legal developments in Europe
have created complexity and uncertainty regarding transfers of
personal data subject to the GDPR and UK GDPR to organizations
established in third countries, including the U.S.
European data protection legislation, including the GDPR and the
United Kingdom’s GDPR (i.e., the GDPR as it continues to form part
of the law of the United Kingdom after its withdrawal from the
European Union, by virtue of section 3 of the EU (Withdrawal) Act
2018 and as subsequently amended) (“U.K. GDPR”)), generally
restricts the transfer of personal information from Europe,
including the European Economic Area, United Kingdom. and
Switzerland, to the United States and most other countries unless
the parties to the transfer have implemented specific safeguards to
protect the transferred personal information. One of the primary
safeguards allowing U.S. organizations to import personal
information from the EEA and the United Kingdom, as in the case of
certain data collection by us, has been certification to the
EU-U.S. Privacy Shield frameworks administered by the U.S.
Department of Commerce. However, in July 2020, the Court of Justice
of the European Union (“CJEU”) issued a decision invalidating the
EU-U.S. Privacy Shield framework. The same decision also raised
questions about whether one of the primary alternatives to the
EU-U.S. Privacy Shield, namely, the European Commission’s Standard
Contractual Clauses (“SCCs”), can lawfully be used for personal
information transfers from the EEA to the United States or most
other countries. The CJEU stated that controllers or processors,
acting as exporters, are responsible for verifying, on a
case-by-case basis and, where appropriate, in collaboration with
the importer in the third country, if the law or practice of the
third country impinges on the effectiveness of the appropriate
safeguards offered by the data transfer tool. In those cases, the
CJEU still leaves open the possibility for exporters to implement
supplementary measures that fill these gaps in the protection and
bring it up to the level required by European data protection
legislation. The CJEU does not specify which measures these could
be. However, the CJEU underlines that exporters will need to
identify them on a case-by-case basis.
To align with the CJEU’s decision in respect of the E.U.-U.S.
Privacy Shield, on September 8, 2020, the United Kingdom’s
government similarly invalidated the use of the EU-U.S. Privacy
Shield as a mechanism for lawful personal data transfers from the
United Kingdom to the U.S. under the UK GDPR and the Swiss Federal
Data Protection and Information Commissioner announced that the
Swiss-U.S. Privacy Shield regime was also inadequate for the
purposes of personal data transfers from Switzerland to the U.S.
entities who had self-certified under the Swiss Privacy
Shield.
On June 4, 2021, the European Commission adopted new SCCs,
which impose additional obligations on companies relating to data
transfers, including the obligation to conduct a transfer impact
assessment (“TIA”) and depending on a party’s role in the transfer,
to implement additional security measures and to update internal
privacy practices. The United Kingdom has also adopted the
international data transfer agreement (“IDTA”), the international
data transfer addendum to the European Commission’s SCCs
(“Addendum”) and a document setting out transitional provisions,
which came into force on March 21, 2022. The IDTA and Addendum
replaced the SCCs as a transfer tool to comply with Article 46 of
the UK GDPR when making restricted transfers from the United
Kingdom.
Where we elect to rely on the SCCs, the IDTA or the Addendum for
data transfers, we may be required to incur significant time and
resources to update our contractual arrangements, to perform TIAs
and to comply with new obligations. The SCCs, the IDTA or the
Addendum may increase the legal risks and liabilities associated
with cross-border data transfers, and result in material increased
compliance and operational costs. At present, there are few, if
any, viable
alternatives to the SCCs, the IDTA or the Addendum, which are
mechanisms on which we have relied for onward transfers of personal
information from the EEA and the United Kingdom to third countries.
If we are unable to implement a valid solution for personal
information transfers from the EEA and the United Kingdom, we may
face increased exposure to regulatory actions, substantial fines,
and injunctions against processing or transferring personal
information from the EEA and the United Kingdom to third countries,
and we may be required to increase our data processing capabilities
in multiple jurisdictions at significant expense. Inability to
collect personal information from EEA or UK users or to transfer
their personal information to the United States or other countries
may decrease demand for our products and services, as some of our
users are established in the EEA and the United Kingdom, therefore,
they may seek alternatives that do not involve their personal
information being processed or transferred out of Europe.
Limitations on our ability to import personal information to the
United States and other countries where our key vendors are
established may decrease the functionality or effectiveness of our
products and services and adversely impact our marketing efforts,
plans and activities. European Union regulators and the UK
Information Commissioner’s Office (“ICO”) may aggressively enforce
these laws restricting data transfers to the U.S. and other
countries without a legally sound transfer mechanism, and it is
possible that European Union regulators and the ICO could prevent
us from transferring any personal data out of the European Union or
the United Kingdom to certain countries like the U.S. or to our
vendors established in countries not offering an adequate level of
protection.
These and related developments may require us to review and amend
the legal mechanisms by which we make and/or receive personal data
transfers to/in the United States and other third countries. In
particular, we are undertaking a process to enhance its Data
Processing Agreement to ensure it complies with the GDPR and UK
GDPR data transfer requirements, which includes the EU SCCs issued
by the European Commission and the IDTA and the Addendum issued by
the ICO. Furthermore, these and related developments, including the
obligation to perform TIAs in certain scenarios, may oblige us to
suspend or prevent us to transfer personal information to third
parties if we are unable to implement effective supplementary
measures. As supervisory authorities issue further guidance on
personal data export mechanisms, including circumstances where we
need to perform a TIA and the SCCs, IDTA or the Addendum may need
to be supplemented with additional safeguards, and/or start taking
enforcement action, we could suffer additional costs, complaints
and/or regulatory investigations or fines if our compliance efforts
are not deemed sufficient with the most recent regulatory guidance
on measures regarding supplement transfer tools. In addition, if we
are otherwise unable to transfer personal data between and among
countries and regions in which we operate and/or use key vendors,
it could affect the manner in which we provide our solutions, the
geographical location or segregation of our relevant systems and
operations, reduce demand for our solutions and this could
adversely affect our financial results.
In the event any court blocks personal data transfers to or from a
particular jurisdiction, this could give rise to operational
interruption in the performance of services for customers, greater
costs to implement permissible alternative data transfer
mechanisms, regulatory liabilities, or reputational harm and
negative publicity. Failure to comply with the evolving
interpretation of privacy and data protection laws could subject us
to liability, and to the extent that we need to alter our business
model or practices to adapt to these obligations, or to respond to
inquiries regarding our compliance with privacy and data protection
laws, we could incur additional and significant expenses, which may
in turn materially adversely affect our business, financial
condition, and results of operations.
Privacy activist groups have also previously provided, and may
continue to provide, resources to support individuals who wish to
pursue privacy claims or put pressure on companies to change data
processing practices. High-profile brands such as ours risk being
targeted by such groups and, due to the nature of the data that we
hold, there is a risk that, if a user became disgruntled with our
data processing practices, they could leverage support from such
privacy activist groups to take legal action, cause the initiation
of regulatory investigation, or gain publicity for their cause.
There is also a risk that these groups will seek to challenge our
practices, particularly in relation to our consent practices,
third-party advertising practices, and/or international data
transfers, among other data and privacy practices. Any such
campaign could require significant resources to mount a response,
it could disrupt our operations or distract management, and it
could lead to negative publicity and potential investigation from
regulators, among other negative effects, any of which may
materially adversely affect our business, financial condition, and
results of operations.
The occurrence of any of these or other factors could negatively
affect our business, financial condition, and results of
operations.
Investments in our business may be subject to U.S. foreign
investment regulations which may impose conditions on or limit
certain investors’ ability to purchase our stock, potentially
making the stock less attractive to investors. Our future
investments in U.S. companies may also be subject to U.S. foreign
investment regulations.
The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (“CFIUS”)
is an interagency body of the U.S. government authorized to review
certain foreign investment transactions in U.S. businesses
(“Covered Transactions”) in order to determine the effect of such
transactions on the national security of the United States. If a
Covered Transaction could pose a risk to the national security of
the United States, CFIUS can recommend that the President of the
United States address such risks by suspending, prohibiting, or
unwinding the transaction. CFIUS could also enter into a negotiated
mitigation agreement with the parties to a Covered Transaction in
order to address U.S. national security concerns raised by the
Covered Transaction. As widely reported in media coverage, we have
previously been the subject of CFIUS scrutiny in connection with a
prior Covered Transaction.
Certain investments in our business by foreign investors may be
Covered Transactions subject to CFIUS jurisdiction for review
depending on the nationality of the foreign investor, the structure
of the transaction, and the governance and voting interests to be
acquired. Submission of a notification to CFIUS with respect to a
Covered Transaction related to our business could result in
significant transaction delays, as CFIUS’ review of a Covered
Transaction can last between thirty days and several months,
depending on the form of the filing, the complexity of the
transaction, the nationality and identity of the parties, and the
underlying national security risks associated with the Covered
Transaction.
In the event CFIUS reviews a Covered Transaction relating to our
business, there can be no assurances that the relevant foreign
investor will be able to maintain, or proceed with, participation
in the Covered Transaction on terms acceptable to such foreign
investor. Potential restrictions on the ability of foreign persons
to invest in us could affect the price that an investor may be
willing to pay for our shares of Common Stock. In some
circumstances, moreover, we may choose not to pursue certain
investments or other transactions, which are otherwise attractive,
solely or in part based on an evaluation of the associated CFIUS
risks.
The parties to the Merger Agreement sought CFIUS approval for the
Business Combination. On March 6, 2023, CFIUS concluded its review
of the Business Combination and determined that there are no
unresolved national security concerns. As part of the resolution of
the CFIUS review, we entered into a National Security Agreement
(“NSA”) with certain CFIUS monitoring agencies (“CMAs”). Pursuant
to the NSA, we have agreed to protect our data, including by
implementing a data security plan, appointing a security officer,
and periodically meeting with and reporting to the CMAs. Our
operating results may be negatively affected by increased
compliance costs associated with the NSA measures and if we fail to
comply with our obligations under the NSA, we may be subject to
potential penalties.
Our business is subject to complex and evolving U.S. and
international laws and regulations. Many of these laws and
regulations are subject to change or uncertain interpretation, and
could result in claims, changes to our business practices, monetary
penalties, increased cost of operations, declines in user growth or
engagement, negative publicity, or other harm to our
business.
We are subject to a variety of laws and regulations in the U.S. and
other jurisdictions that involve matters that may impact our
business, including broadband internet access, online commerce,
advertising, user privacy, data protection, content moderation,
intermediary liability, online terms and agreements, protection of
minors, consumer protection, sex trafficking, and taxation, among
other areas. The introduction of new products and services,
expansion of our activities in certain jurisdictions, or other
actions that we may take may subject us to additional laws,
regulations, or other scrutiny by governmental agencies and other
entities. In addition, foreign laws and regulations can impose
different obligations or be more restrictive than those imposed
upon us in the U.S., which may harm our business or subject us to
liability.
These U.S. federal, state, and municipal and foreign laws and
regulations, which in some cases can be enforced by private parties
in addition to government entities, are constantly evolving and can
be subject to significant change. For example, as explained above,
the Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act of 2017, or FOSTA, provides
potential civil remedies for certain victims of online sex
trafficking crimes. See “—Risks
Related to our Brand, Products and Services, and
Operations—Inappropriate actions by certain of our users could be
attributed to us and damage our brand or reputation, or subject us
to regulatory inquiries, legal action, or other liabilities, which,
in turn, could materially adversely affect our
business.”
In addition, as explained above, the introduction of new products
and services, expansion of our activities in certain jurisdictions,
or other actions that we may take may subject us to additional
laws, regulations, or other scrutiny by governmental agencies and
other entities. The application, interpretation, and enforcement of
these laws and regulations are often uncertain, particularly in the
new and rapidly evolving industry in which we operate. In addition,
these laws and regulations may be interpreted and applied
inconsistently from state-to-state and country-to-country, and they
may be inconsistent with our current policies and practices. These
laws and regulations, as well as any associated inquiries, legal
action, investigations, or any other government actions, may be
costly to comply with and may delay or impede the development of
new products and services, result in negative publicity, increase
our operating costs, require significant management time and
attention, and subject us to liability to remedies that may harm
our business, including fines, demands, or orders that we modify or
cease existing business practices. For example, a variety of laws
and regulations govern the ability of users to cancel subscriptions
and auto-payment renewals. Likewise, a variety of laws and
regulations govern the application and enforcement of arbitration
clauses and limitations on liability, like those set forth in our
Terms and Conditions of Service. We have in the past and may in the
future be subject to claims under a variety of U.S. and
international laws and regulations that could materially adversely
affect our business, financial condition, and results of
operation.
In addition, the promulgation of new laws or regulations, or the
new interpretation of existing laws and regulations, that restrict
or otherwise unfavorably impact our business, or our ability to
provide our products and services, could require us to change
certain aspects of our business and operations to ensure
compliance, which could decrease demand for our products and
services, reduce revenues, increase costs, and subject us to
additional liabilities. For example, in February 2019, the
Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport of the
United Kingdom indicated in public comments that his office intends
to inquire as to the measures utilized by online dating platforms
to prevent access by underage users. In addition, in April 2019,
the United Kingdom published proposed legislation which would
establish a new regulatory body to establish duties of care for
internet companies and to assess compliance with these duties of
care. Under the proposed law, failure to comply could result in
fines, blocking of services, and personal liability for senior
management. There have also been calls for legislation to limit or
remove the protections afforded technology platforms under the
Communications Decency Act in the United States and under the
e-Commerce Directive in the European Union. To the
extent this or other initiatives require us to implement any new or
more stringent measures, our business, financial condition, and
results of operations could be materially adversely
affected.
In addition, concerns about harms and the use of dating products
and services and social networking platforms for such illegal and
harmful conduct have produced and could continue to produce future
legislation or other governmental action. For example, in January
2020, the Committee on Oversight Subcommittee on Economic and
Consumer Policy of the U.S. House of Representatives launched an
investigation into the online dating industry’s user safety
policies, including certain of our practices relating to the
identification and removal of registered sex offenders and underage
individuals from our platforms. As set forth above, the United
Kingdom and European Union have also been considering legislation
on this topic, with the United Kingdom having released its Online
Harms White Paper which resulted in the United Kingdom’s Online
Safety Bill, and the European Union introducing the Digital
Services Act, which in each case, would expose platforms to similar
or more expansive liability. See “—Risks
Related to Regulation and Litigation—The varying and rapidly
evolving regulatory framework on privacy and data protection across
jurisdictions could result in claims, changes to our business
practices, monetary penalties, increased cost of operations, or
declines in user growth or engagement, or otherwise harm our
business.”
Any proposed legislation on these or other topics could expose
platforms to liability similar to existing legislation in other
jurisdictions or, in some cases, more expansive liability. For
instance, the Digital Services Act proposed in the European Union
intends to limit or remove protections afforded to online platforms
under the e-Commerce Directive. Likewise, proposed legislation in
the United States, including the EARN IT Act, the PACT Act, the BAD
ADS Act, and others, purport to limit or remove the critical
protections provided to technology platforms under the
Communications Decency Act, which protects technology platforms
from civil liability for certain type of content and actions of the
platform’s users. The Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”)
also is considering a Trump Administration petition to adopt rules
limiting the protection available under the Communications Decency
Act. There is no schedule for action by the FCC on the petition,
although the Democratic members of the FCC, who now control its
agenda, have indicated that they oppose the proposal. In addition,
there are pending cases before the judiciary that may result in
changes to the protections afforded to internet platforms,
including a lawsuit by former President Trump that, if successful,
would greatly limit the scope of the Communications Decency Act
protections. If these proposed or similar laws are passed, if
future legislation or governmental action is proposed or taken to
address concerns regarding such harms, and if existing protections
are limited or removed, changes could be required to our products
and services that could restrict or impose additional costs upon
the conduct of our business, subject us to additional liability, or
cause users to abandon our products or services, any of which may
materially adversely affect our business, financial condition, and
results of operations.
In addition, we depend on the ability of our users to access the
internet. Many users receive internet access from companies that
have significant market power in the broadband and internet access
marketplace, including incumbent telephone companies, cable
companies, mobile communications companies, government-owned
service providers, device manufacturers and operating system
providers, any of which could take actions that degrade, disrupt,
or increase the cost of user access to our products or services,
which would, in turn, negatively impact our business. The adoption
of any laws or regulations that adversely affect access to, or the
growth, popularity, or use of, the internet, including laws
governing internet neutrality, could decrease the demand for, or
the usage of, our products and services and increase our cost of
doing business, which would, in turn, negatively impact our
business. For example, the FCC has, in the past, adopted “open
internet rules” to prohibit mobile providers in the United States
from impeding access to most content, or otherwise unfairly
discriminating against content providers like us. These rules also
prohibited mobile providers from entering into arrangements with
specific content providers for faster or better access over their
data networks. While those rules largely were repealed in an order
adopted in December 2017, and that order generally was affirmed by
a federal appeals court, petitions for reconsideration of the order
remain pending at the FCC, and Democratic control of the Executive
Branch, Congress, and the FCC following the 2020 elections
increases the likelihood of legislative or FCC action to reverse
the 2017 decision or adopt new network neutrality rules. In
addition, a number of states have adopted or are adopting or
considering legislation or executive actions that would regulate
the conduct of broadband providers. The European Union similarly
requires equal access to internet content. If the FCC, Congress,
the European Union, or the courts modify these open internet rules,
mobile providers may be able to limit our users’ ability to access
our products and services or make our products and services a less
attractive alternative to our competitors’ products and services.
If that occurred, our business would be seriously harmed.
Additionally, as part of its Digital Single Market initiative, the
European Union may impose network security, disability access, or
911-like obligations on “over-the-top” services such as those
provided by us, which could increase our costs and, in turn,
negatively impact our business. Any of these developments may
adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of
operations.
Moreover, the adoption of any laws or regulations that adversely
affect the popularity or growth in use of the internet or our
products and services, including laws or regulations that undermine
open and neutrally administered internet access, could decrease
user demand for our service offerings and increase our cost of
doing business. For example, in December 2017, the FCC adopted an
order reversing net neutrality protections in the United States,
including the repeal of specific rules against blocking, throttling
or “paid prioritization” of content or services by internet service
providers. Numerous parties filed judicial challenges to the order,
and on October 1, 2019, the United States Court of Appeals for
the District of Columbia Circuit released a decision that rejected
nearly all of the challenges to the new rules, but reversed the
FCC’s decision to prohibit all state and local regulation targeted
at broadband internet service, requiring case-by-case
determinations as to whether state and local regulation conflicts
with the FCC’s rules. The court also required the FCC to reexamine
three issues from the order but allowed the order to remain in
effect, while the FCC conducted that review. On
October 27, 2020, the FCC adopted an order concluding that the
three issues remanded by the court did not provide a basis to alter
its conclusions in the 2018 order. Petitions for reconsideration of
this decision are pending. Democratic control of the Executive
Branch, Congress, and the FCC following the 2020 elections
increases the likelihood of legislative or FCC action to reverse
the 2018 decision or adopt new network neutrality rules. In
addition, a number of states have adopted or are adopting or
considering legislation or executive actions that would regulate
the conduct of broadband providers. A federal court judge denied a
request for injunction against California’s state-specific network
neutrality law, and as a result, California began enforcing that
law on March 25, 2021. On March 10, 2021, trade
associations representing internet service providers appealed the
district court’s ruling denying the preliminary injunction, and the
appeal was denied on January 28, 2022. The trade associations
have sought rehearing with the full court of appeal. Nevertheless,
to the extent internet service providers engage in such blocking,
throttling or “paid prioritization” of content, or engaged in
similar actions because of the reversal of net neutrality
protections, our business, financial condition, and results of
operations could be materially adversely affected.
In addition, concerns about various sorts of harms and the use of
similar products and services and social networking platforms for
illicit or otherwise inappropriate conduct, such as romance scams
and financial fraud, could result in future legislation or other
governmental action that affects the overall social networking
industry. For example, in April 2018, FOSTA became effective in the
U.S. FOSTA created new federal crimes against entities that operate
websites that promote or facilitate sex trafficking, as well as
civil remedies for certain victims of online sex trafficking
crimes. In addition, FOSTA eliminated any immunity under the
Communications Decency Act of 1996 from certain civil claims and
state criminal prosecutions. U.S. legislators have proposed several
additional bills that would reduce or eliminate platform liability
protections. In addition, the European Union and the United Kingdom
have launched consultations aimed at considering potential
legislation to address online harms, and the United Kingdom has
released an Online Harms White Paper regarding proposed legislation
that would expose platforms to more expansive liability than FOSTA.
If these proposed laws are passed, or if future legislation or
governmental action is proposed or taken to address concerns
regarding these sorts of harms, changes could be required to our
products and services that could restrict or impose additional
costs upon our business and/or cause users to abandon our products
and services, and we may be subject to legal action.
In addition, the international nature of our business exposes us to
compliance obligations and related risks under economic sanctions,
export controls and anti-corruption laws administered and enforced
by various governments. We are subject to rules and regulations of
the United States and other jurisdictions relating to export
controls and economic sanctions, including economic sanctions
administered by the Office of Foreign Assets Control of the U.S.
Department of the Treasury, as well as the Export Administration
Regulations administered by the Bureau of Industry and Security of
the U.S. Department of Commerce. Economic sanctions and export
controls laws and regulations restrict the ability of persons
subject to their jurisdiction to invest in, or otherwise engage in
dealings with or involving, certain individuals, entities,
governments or countries (collectively, “Sanction Targets”),
including individuals and entities resident, domiciled or
incorporated in Cuba, Syria, North Korea, Iran or the Crimea
Region, the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic or Luhansk People’s
Republic located in Ukraine, unless such activities are authorized
pursuant to regulatory authorizations or general or specific
licenses. These regulations may limit our ability to market, sell,
distribute, or otherwise transfer our products and services or
technology to certain countries or persons. Changes in our products
and services and technology or changes in export controls or
economic sanctions laws and regulations may create delays in the
introduction of our products and services into international
markets or, in some cases, prevent the provision or expansion of
our business and our products and services to or for certain
countries, governments or persons altogether.
Pursuant to the applicable economic sanctions and export controls
laws and regulations of the United States and other relevant
jurisdictions, we may be obliged to limit business activities, may
incur costs in order to implement and maintain compliance programs,
and may be subject to investigations, enforcement actions or
penalties relating to actual or alleged instances of noncompliance
with such laws and regulations. It may also be necessary for us to
take certain actions in order to maintain compliance with, or
satisfy obligations under, economic sanctions and export controls,
which could have an adverse effect on the business and results of
operation. We maintain policies and procedures that we believe to
be adequate and customary to support our compliance with applicable
economic sanctions and export controls. We can provide no
assurances, however, that our products and services are not
provided inadvertently in violation of such laws, despite the
precautions we take.
We are also subject to the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of
1977, as amended, (commonly known as the FCPA), the U.S. domestic
bribery statute contained in 18 U.S.C. § 201, (commonly known as
the U.S. Travel Act), the United Kingdom Bribery Act 2010,
(commonly known as the Bribery Act), and other anti-corruption,
anti-bribery, and similar laws in the United States and other
countries in which we conduct activities. Anti-corruption and
anti-bribery laws generally prohibit companies and their employees,
agents, intermediaries and other third parties from directly or
indirectly promising, authorizing, making or offering improper
payments or other benefits to government officials and others in
the private sector. We may be held liable for the corrupt or other
illegal activities of third-party business partners and
intermediaries, or our employees, representatives, contractors, and
other third parties, even if we do not explicitly authorize such
activities. We maintain policies and procedures that we believe to
be adequate and customary to support our compliance with applicable
anti-corruption and anti-bribery laws. However, there can be no
assurance that our implementation of such policies and procedures
will prevent, at all times, all Grindr employees, representatives,
contractors, partners, agents, intermediaries or other third
parties that we engage to interact with government officials or
commercial counterparties on its behalf, from taking actions in the
future in violation of our polices or applicable anti-corruption or
anti-bribery laws and regulations.
In recent years, U.S. and other governments have increased their
oversight and enforcement activities with respect to these economic
sanctions, export controls and anti-corruption laws and regulations
and it is expected that the relevant agencies will continue to
increase such investigative and enforcement activities. A violation
of these laws or regulations, including through certain dealings
with Sanction Targets, could result in severe criminal or civil
penalties and reputational harm, which could negatively affect our
business, financial condition, and results of
operations.
The varying and rapidly evolving regulatory framework on privacy
and data protection across jurisdictions could result in claims,
changes to our business practices, monetary penalties, increased
cost of operations, or declines in user growth or engagement, or
otherwise harm our business.
As discussed above, we process a significant volume of personal
information and other regulated information from our users,
employees and other third parties. The many countries in which we
operate impose numerous laws regarding data security, privacy, and
the storage, sharing, use, processing, disclosure, and protection
of this kind of information. In addition, the scope of these laws
is constantly changing, and in some cases, they may be
inconsistent, conflicting, and subject to differing
interpretations, as new laws of this nature are proposed and
adopted. At any time one of the numerous regulators to which we are
subject could argue that we are non-compliant with its country’s
data protection regulation or that we have not sufficiently
operationalized all of our legal obligations with all such varying
laws. In addition, these laws are becoming increasingly rigorous
and could be interpreted and applied in ways that may have a
material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and
results of operations. We have experienced enforcement actions
related to certain of these laws, we have ongoing enforcement
actions related to certain of these laws, and future enforcement
actions are likely to continue for the foreseeable
future.
In recent years, there has been an increase in attention to and
regulation of data protection and data privacy across the globe,
including in the United States, the European Union and the United
Kingdom. We are subject to the European Union’s General Data
Protection Regulation (“GDPR”), that became effective in May 2018
and the UK GDPR (i.e., the GDPR as it continues to form part of the
law of the United Kingdom by virtue of section 3 of the EU
(Withdrawal) Act 2018 and subsequently amended); the California
Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA”), which took effect in January 2020;
and the Brazilian General Data Protection Law (“LGPD”), which
entered into effect in September 2020 and imposes requirements
similar to the GDPR on products and services offered to users in
Brazil. LGPD penalties may include fines of up to 2% of the
organization’s revenue in Brazil in the previous year or
50 million reais (approximately $9.3 million U.S.
dollars). In addition, China’s Personal Information Protection Law
of the P.R.C. (“PIPL”), which became effective in November 2021,
has many aspects that are similar to the GDPR. The PIPL sets rules
for the processing activities such as collection, use, sharing,
transfer, and disclosure of personal information in China. If we
fail to comply with the requirements of the PIPL, we could incur
severe penalties, including a fine of up to RMB50 million or
5% of our annual turnover in the preceding year and revocation of
our license to do business in China. Other comprehensive data
privacy or data protection laws or regulations have been passed or
are under consideration in other jurisdictions, including India and
Japan, as well as various U.S. states. Laws such as these give rise
to an increasingly complex set of compliance obligations on us, as
well as on many of our service providers. These obligations
include, without limitation, imposing restrictions on our ability
to gather personal data, providing individuals with the ability to
opt out of personal data collection, imposing obligations on our
ability to share data with others, and potentially subject us to
fines, lawsuits, and regulatory scrutiny.
The GDPR and the UK GDPR greatly increased the jurisdictional reach
of the European Union and United Kingdom’s laws and added a broad
array of requirements related to the handling of personal data.
Under the GDPR, European Union member states must enact, and many
have enacted, certain implementing legislation that adds to and/or
further interprets the GDPR’s requirements and potentially extends
our obligations and potential liability for failing to meet these
obligations. The GDPR and the UK GDPR also include obligations and
restrictions concerning the consent and rights of individuals to
whom the personal data relates, the transfer of personal data out
of the European Economic Area and the United Kingdom, security
breach notifications, and the security and confidentiality of
personal data more generally. In addition, individuals have a right
to compensation under the GDPR and the UK GDPR for financial or
non-financial losses.
Under the GDPR and the UK GDPR we may be subject to fines of up to
€20 million/£17,500,000 or up to 4% of the total worldwide
annual group turnover of the preceding financial year (whichever is
higher), as well as face claims from individuals based on the GDPR
and UK GDPR’s private right of action. The GDPR and UK GDPR have
been, and will continue to be, interpreted respectively by European
Union data protection regulators and the ICO, which may require
that we make changes to our business practices, which could be
time-consuming and expensive, and could generate additional risks
and liabilities.
We are also subject to evolving European Union and United Kingdom
privacy laws on cookies and e-marketing. In the European Union and
the United Kingdom, regulators are increasingly focusing on
compliance with requirements in the online behavioral advertising
ecosystem, and current national laws that implement the ePrivacy
Directive are highly likely to be replaced by an EU regulation
known as the ePrivacy Regulation which will significantly increase
fines for non-compliance when implemented. In the European Union
and the United Kingdom, informed consent is required for the
placement of a cookie or similar technologies on a user’s device
and/or for the access to data stored on a user’s device, and for
direct electronic marketing. The GDPR and the UK GDPR also impose
conditions on obtaining valid consent, such as a prohibition on
pre-checked consents and a requirement to ensure separate consents
are sought for each type of cookie or similar technology. While the
text of the ePrivacy Regulation is still under development, a
recent European court decision, regulators’ recent guidance and
recent campaigns by a not-for-profit organization are driving
increased attention to cookies and tracking technologies. If
regulators start to enforce the strict approach in recent guidance,
this could lead to substantial costs, require significant systems
changes, limit the effectiveness of our marketing activities,
divert the attention of our
technology personnel, adversely affect our margins, increase costs
and subject us to additional liabilities. Regulation of cookies and
similar technologies, and any decline of cookies or similar online
tracking technologies as a means to identify and potentially target
users, may lead to broader restrictions and impairments on our
marketing and personalization activities and may negatively impact
our efforts to understand users. We treat data protection and
privacy, compliance seriously. However, to the extent we are
determined to be not in compliance with the GDPR, UK GDPR or
e-Privacy legislation, such determination could materially
adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of
operations.
Because we do not have a main establishment in the European Union,
we are subject to inquiries from any of the EU data protection
regulators. Over the last few years, we have received and responded
to inquiries from the Norwegian Data Protection Authority, the
Spanish Data Protection Authority, the Slovenian Data Protection
Authority, and the Austrian Data Protection Authority, among other
non-EU data protection authorities, including the ICO and various
U.S. regulators. For example, in January 2021, the Norwegian Data
Protection Authority (“Datatilsynet”) notified us of its
preliminary decision that we had disclosed personal data to third
parties without a legal basis in violation of Article 6(1) GDPR and
that we disclosed special categories of personal data to third
parties without a valid exemption from the prohibition in Article
9(1) GDPR. In addition, Datatilsynet notified us of their
preliminary intent to impose an administrative fine for these
alleged violations of NOK 100,000,000 (approximately $11,700,300).
We responded to the preliminary decision on March 8, 2021, by
contesting the draft findings and the proposed fine. On
December 13, 2021, Datatilsynet issued a final administrative
fine against us in the reduced amount of NOK 65,000,000
(approximately $7,375,187.30). We submitted our appeal to the
Datatilsynet’s fine and decision on February 14, 2022 and will
consider our options as that matter unfolds. Although we are
challenging the administrative fine imposed by Datatilsynet, the
proceeding has caused us to incur significant expense, we have been
the subject of negative publicity, and the existence of the
proceeding has, and may continue to, negatively impact our efforts
to retain existing users and add new users and deteriorated our
relationships with advertisers and other third parties. The
ultimate outcome of this proceeding may materially adversely affect
our business, financial condition, and result of
operations.
In addition, Brexit (as defined below) and ongoing developments in
the United Kingdom could result in the application of new data
privacy and protection laws and standards to our activities in the
United Kingdom and our handling of personal data of users located
in the United Kingdom. The relationship between the United Kingdom
and the European Union in relation to certain aspects of data
protection law remains unclear, and it is unclear how UK data
protection laws and regulations will develop in the medium to
longer term, and how data transfers to the United Kingdom from the
EEA will be regulated in the long term. For example, though the
European Commission has adopted an adequacy decision in favor of
the United Kingdom, enabling data transfers from the EEA to the
United Kingdom, the decision will automatically expire in June 2025
unless the European Commission re-assesses and renews/ extends that
decision, and remains under review by the Commission during this
period. As a consequence of Brexit, we are exposed to two parallel
regimes (the GDPR and the UK GDPR), each of which potentially
authorizes similar, but separate, fines and other potentially
divergent enforcement actions for the same alleged violations.
Other countries have also passed or are considering passing laws
requiring local data residency and/or restricting the international
transfer of data. As set forth above, over the last few years, we
have received and responded to inquiries from the ICO.
In addition, multiple legislative proposals concerning privacy and
the protection of user information are being considered by both
U.S. state and federal legislatures, and certain U.S. state
legislatures, such as California, have already passed and enacted
privacy legislation. For example, the CCPA requires covered
companies to provide new disclosures to California consumers
(including employees), and provide such consumers new data
protection and privacy rights, including the ability to opt-out of
certain sales of personal information. In addition, the CCPA allows
for statutory fines for noncompliance (up to $7,500 per violation),
as well as a private right of action for certain data breaches that
result in the loss of personal information. This private right of
action may increase the likelihood of, and risks associated with,
data breach litigation. Moreover, the California Privacy Rights Act
of 2020 (“CPRA”), which becomes operative on January 1, 2023
(with a look back for certain obligations to January 2022), will
significantly modify the CCPA. For example, the CPRA will expand
consumers’ rights with respect to certain sensitive personal
information, among other modifications. The CPRA also creates a new
state agency that will be vested with the authority to implement
and enforce the CPRA.
New legislation proposed or enacted in various other U.S. states
imposes or has the potential to impose additional obligations on
companies that collect, store, use, retain, disclose, transfer, and
otherwise process sensitive and personal information, and will
continue to shape the data privacy environment nationally. For
example, Virginia passed its Consumer Data Protection Act, Colorado
passed the Colorado Privacy Act, and Utah passed the Utah Consumer
Privacy Act, all of which differ from the CPRA and become effective
in 2023. State laws are changing rapidly and there is discussion in
Congress of a new federal data protection and privacy law, which if
enacted, would be applicable to us. Moreover, governmental agencies
like the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Federal Trade
Commission have adopted, or are considering adopting, laws and
regulations concerning personal information and data security. For
example, the Federal Trade Commission has increased its focus on
privacy and data security practices at digital companies, as
evident from its imposition of a $5 billion fine against
Facebook for privacy violations and increasing fines against
companies found to be in violation of the Children’s Online Privacy
Protection Act (“COPPA”).
As discussed above, the myriad, overlapping international and U.S.
privacy and data breach laws are not consistent, and compliance in
the event of a widespread data breach is difficult and may be
costly. Moreover, states have been frequently amending existing
laws, requiring constant attention to ever-changing legal and
regulatory requirements. In addition to government regulation,
privacy advocates and industry groups have from time to time
proposed, and may in the future continue to propose,
self-regulatory standards. These and other industry standards may
legally or contractually apply to us, or we may elect to comply
with such standards to keep pace with best practices in the
industry. We expect that there
will continue to be new proposed laws and regulations concerning
data privacy and security, and we cannot yet determine the impact
such future laws, regulations, and standards may have on our
business. Because the interpretation and application of data
protection laws, regulations, standards, and other obligations are
still uncertain, and often contradictory and in flux, it is
possible that the scope and requirements of these laws may be
interpreted and applied in a manner that is inconsistent with our
practices and our efforts to comply with the evolving data
protection rules may be unsuccessful. To the extent we are
determined to be not in compliance with any U.S. laws, such
determination could materially adversely affect our business,
financial condition, and results of operations.
In 2018 and 2019, after media reports regarding our data sharing
practices, multiple State Attorneys General (the “Multistate”)
informed us that they had opened investigations into our sharing of
user-shared HIV status with two service providers that performed
analytics services and helped us improve the user experience, and
into our practices around the security and processing of user
geolocation information. Since that time, we have responded to
multiple requests for information and discontinued the sharing of
user-shared HIV status. In October 2022, we were advised by the
Multistate that the investigation had been closed without action
and with no further action anticipated. While this particular
investigation concluded in our favor, we may in the future be the
subject of similar types of investigations or proceedings, which
could result in substantial costs and a diversion of our
management’s attention and resources. Any adverse determination of
such investigation or proceeding may materially adversely affect
our business, financial condition, and result of operations,
particularly if penalties are levied.
We make public statements about our use and disclosure of personal
information through our Privacy Policy, information provided on our
website, and through blog posts and press statements. Although we
endeavor to comply with our blog posts, public statements, and
documentation regarding our use and disclosure of personal
information, we may at times fail to do so or be alleged to have
failed to do so. We may be subject to potential government or legal
action if such policies or statements are found to be deceptive,
unfair, or misrepresentative of our actual practices. In addition,
from time to time, concerns may be expressed about whether our
products and services compromise the privacy of our users and
others. Any concerns about our data privacy and security practices
(even if unfounded), or any failure, real or perceived, by us to
comply with our posted privacy policies or with any legal or
regulatory requirements, standards, certifications or orders, or
other privacy or consumer protection-related laws and regulations
applicable to us, could cause our users to reduce or stop their use
of our products and services.
While we make great effort to comply with industry standards and
applicable laws and regulations relating to privacy and data
protection in all material respects, there can be no assurance that
we will not be subject to claims that we have violated applicable
laws, regulations, or industry standards, that we will be able to
successfully defend against such claims, or that we will not be
subject to significant fines and penalties in the event of a
finding of non-compliance with any applicable laws or industry
standards. We have been subject to these types of claims in the
past and we may be subject to additional claims in the future.
Moreover, if state-level privacy and data protection laws continue
to be introduced with inconsistent or conflicting standards and
there is no federal law to preempt such laws, compliance with such
laws could be difficult to achieve and noncompliance could lead to
fines and penalties in these jurisdictions.
Furthermore, enforcement actions and investigations by regulatory
authorities related to data security incidents and privacy
violations continue to increase. We have in the past received, and
may continue to receive in the future, inquiries from various
international and U.S. regulators regarding our data privacy
practices, some of which remain ongoing. Any failure or perceived
failure by us (or the third parties with whom we have contracted to
process such information) to comply with applicable privacy and
security laws, policies or related contractual obligations, or any
compromise of security that results in unauthorized access, or the
use or transmission of, personal user information, could result in
a variety of claims against us, including governmental enforcement
actions and investigations, class action privacy litigation in
certain jurisdictions, and/or proceedings by data protection
authorities, among other potential legal action. We could also be
subject to significant fines, other litigation, claims of breach of
contract and indemnity by third parties, and negative publicity.
When such events occur, our reputation may be harmed, we may lose
current and potential users, the competitive positions of our brand
might be diminished, and we could incur additional costs and
expenses, any of which could materially adversely affect our
business, financial condition, and results of operations. In
addition, if our practices are not consistent or viewed as not
consistent with legal and regulatory requirements, including
changes in laws, regulations, and standards, or new interpretations
or applications of existing laws, regulations, and standards, we
may become subject to audits, inquiries, whistleblower complaints,
negative publicity, investigations, loss of export privileges, or
severe criminal or civil sanctions, any of which may have a
material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and
results of operations.
We are subject to litigation, regulatory and other government
investigations, enforcement actions, and settlements, and adverse
outcomes in such proceedings could have a materially adverse effect
on our business, financial condition, and results of
operation.
We are, have been, and may from time to time become, subject to
litigation and various legal proceedings that involve claims for
substantial amounts of money or for other relief that might
necessitate changes to our business or operations, including
litigation and proceedings related to intellectual property
matters, privacy and consumer protection laws, class action
lawsuits, litigation by former employees, legal claims brought by
our users, and other matters. In addition, we are, have been, and
may from time to time become, subject to investigations or
inquiries from regulators and government entities, both
domestically and internationally, regarding our compliance with
laws and regulations, many of which are evolving and subject to
interpretation. See “—Risks
Related to our Brand, Products and Services, and Operations—The
varying and rapidly evolving regulatory framework on privacy and
data protection across jurisdictions could result in
claims, changes to our business practices, monetary penalties,
increased cost of operations, or declines in user growth or
engagement, or otherwise harm our business.”
As set forth above, we have an ongoing regulatory inquiry before
Datatilsynet and active civil litigation in the U.S. and
internationally. As we continue to grow and expand our operations,
we have been and expect to continue to be the subject of
investigations, inquiries, data requests, actions, and audits in
the U.S., Europe, or in other parts of the world, particularly in
the areas of privacy, data protection, law enforcement, consumer
protection, and competition.
The defense of these actions is time consuming and expensive,
disruptive to our operations, and a distraction for management. We
evaluate these litigation claims and legal proceedings to assess
the likelihood of unfavorable outcomes and to estimate, if
possible, potential losses. Based on these assessments and
estimates, we may establish reserves and/or disclose the relevant
litigation claims or legal proceedings, as and when required or
appropriate. These assessments and estimates are based on
information available to management at the time of such assessment
or estimation and involve a significant amount of judgment. As a
result, actual outcomes or losses could differ materially from
those envisioned by our current assessments and estimates. Our
failure to successfully defend or settle any of these litigation or
legal proceedings could result in liability that, to the extent not
covered by our insurance, could have a material adverse effect on
our business, financial condition, and results of
operations.
We may be held liable for information or content displayed on,
retrieved from, or transmitted over our platform, as well as
interactions that result from the use of our platform.
We have faced and may continue to face claims relating to
information or content that is displayed on, retrieved from, or
transmitted over our platform by our users or otherwise. In
particular, the nature of our business exposes us to claims related
to defamation, civil rights infringement, negligence, copyright or
trademark infringement, invasion of privacy, discrimination, and
personal injury, among other claims brought by users based upon
interactions they have on or off the platform. Such proceedings
have, and could cause us to incur significant expense, become the
subject of negative publicity, and negatively impact our efforts to
retain existing users or add new users as well as our relationships
with advertisers and other third parties.
The risk of these or similar claims is enhanced in certain
jurisdictions outside of the U.S. where our protection from
liability for third-party actions may be unclear or nonexistent,
where there are decreased legislative protections for the LGBTQ
community, and where we may be less protected under local laws than
we are in the U.S. We could incur significant costs in
investigating and defending against claims arising from information
displayed on, retrieved from, or transmitted over our platform,
even if we ultimately are not held liable. If any of these events
occurs, our revenue could be adversely affected, or we could incur
significant additional expense, any of which could have a material
adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of
operations.
Activities of our users or content made available by such users
could subject us to liability.
We provide products and services that enable our users to exchange
information and engage in various online activities, so our
products and services include substantial user-generated content.
For instance, users can provide information in their Grindr App
public profiles, share images via their profile and in messages
with other Grindr App users and generate audio and video messages.
User content or activity may be infringing, illegal, hostile,
offensive, unethical, or inappropriate or may violate our terms of
service. We have in the past been, and may be in the future,
subject to lawsuits arising from the conduct of our users, or
subject to other regulatory enforcement actions relating to their
contents or actions. Even if claims against us are ultimately
unsuccessful, defending against such claims will increase our legal
expenses and divert management’s attention from the operation of
our business, which could materially and adversely impact our
business and results of operations, and our brand, reputation, and
financial results may be harmed.
We and other intermediate online service providers rely primarily
on two sets of laws in the U.S. to shield us from legal liability
with respect to user activity. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act
(“DMCA”), provides service providers a safe harbor from monetary
damages for copyright infringement claims, provided that service
providers comply with various requirements designed to stop or
discourage infringement on their platforms by their users. Section
230 of the Communications Decency Act (“CDA”), protects providers
of an interactive computer service from liability with respect to
most types of content provided over their service by others,
including users. Both the DMCA safe harbor and Section 230 of the
CDA face regular calls for revision, including without limitation
in a number of CDA reform bills currently being considered by
legislators. Furthermore, recent litigation involving cloud hosting
companies has created uncertainty with respect to the applicability
of DMCA protections to companies that host substantial amounts of
user content. For these reasons and others, now or in the future,
the DMCA, CDA, and similar provisions may be interpreted as not
applying to us or may provide us with incomplete or insufficient
protection from claims.
We do not fully monitor the contents or activities of our users, so
inappropriate content may be posted or activities executed before
we are able to take protective action, which could subject us to
legal liability. Even if we comply with legal obligations to remove
or disable content, we may continue to allow use of our products or
services by individuals or entities who others find hostile,
offensive, or inappropriate. The activities or content of our users
may lead us to experience adverse political, business and
reputational consequences, especially if such use is high profile.
Conversely, actions we take in response to the activities of our
users, up to and including banning them from using our products,
services, or properties, may harm our brand and
reputation.
In addition to liability based on our activities in the United
States, we may also be deemed subject to laws in other countries
that may not have the same protections or that may impose more
onerous obligations on us, which may impose additional liability or
expense on us, including additional theories of intermediary
liability. For example, in 2019, the European Union approved a
copyright directive that will impose additional obligations on
online platforms, and failure to comply could give rise to
significant liability. Other recent laws in Germany (extremist
content), Australia (violent content), India (intermediary
liability) and Singapore (online falsehoods), as well as other new
similar laws, may also expose cloud-computing companies like us to
significant liability. We may incur additional costs to comply with
these new laws, which may have an adverse effect on our business,
results of operations, and financial condition. Potential
litigation could expose us to claims for damages and affect our
operations.
Online applications are subject to various laws and regulations
relating to children’s privacy and protection, which if violated,
could subject us to an increased risk of litigation and regulatory
actions.
In recent years, a variety of laws and regulations have been
adopted aimed at protecting children using the internet, including
the COPPA and Article 8 of the GDPR and the UK GDPR. We implement
certain precautions designed to prevent minors from gaining access
to our product and services, and we use a combination of human and
automated tooling to identify and block accounts that may be
associated with minors. Despite these and other measures, minors
may gain access to our products and services and there can be no
assurances that the measures we take will be sufficient to
eliminate minors’ potential access which could result in
allegations of COPPA and related violations, which could expose us
to significant liability, penalties, reputational harm, and loss of
revenue, among other things. We have been in the past, and may be
in the future, subject to litigation or allegations relating to our
products and services being accessed by minors. Additionally, new
regulations are being considered in various jurisdictions to
require the monitoring of user content or the verification of
users’ identities and age. Any such new regulations, or changes to
existing regulations, could increase the cost of our operations and
expose us to significant liability, penalties, reputational harm,
and loss of revenue, among other things. Our policy and practice
are that when we learn that Child Sexual Abuse Materials (“CSAM”)
have been transmitted on the platform, we ban the user, remove the
content, and submit a report to the National Center for Missing and
Exploited Children. However, we may not always identify
circumstances in which CSAM is transmitted on the
platform.
The occurrence of any of these or other factors could negatively
affect our business, financial condition, and results of
operations.
We are subject to taxation-related risks in multiple jurisdictions
and may have exposure to greater than anticipated tax
liabilities.
We are a U.S.-based multinational company subject to taxes in
multiple U.S. and foreign tax jurisdictions. Our income tax
obligations are based on our corporate operating structure and
third party and intercompany arrangements, including the way we
develop, value, manage, protect and use our intellectual property
and the valuations of our intercompany transactions. The tax laws
applicable to our international business activities, including the
laws of the U.S., Canada and other jurisdictions, are subject to
change and uncertain interpretation. The taxing authorities of the
jurisdictions in which we operate may challenge our methodologies
for valuing developed technology, intercompany arrangements, or
transfer pricing, which could increase our worldwide effective tax
rate and the amount of taxes we pay and seriously harm our
business. In addition, our future income taxes could be adversely
affected by earnings being lower than anticipated in jurisdictions
that have lower statutory tax rates and higher than anticipated in
jurisdictions that have higher statutory tax rates, by changes in
the valuation of our deferred tax assets and liabilities, or by
changes in tax laws, regulations, or accounting principles. Taxing
authorities may also determine that the way we operate our business
is not consistent with how we report our income, which could
increase our effective tax rate and the amount of taxes we pay and
harm our business. We are subject to regular review and audit by
U.S. federal and state and foreign tax authorities. Any adverse
outcome from a review or audit could have a negative effect on our
business, financial condition, results of operation and cash
flows.
In addition, tax laws are frequently being re-examined and
evaluated globally. New laws and interpretations of the law are
considered for financial statement purposes in the quarter or year
in which they become applicable. Tax authorities are increasingly
scrutinizing the tax positions of companies. Many countries in the
European Union, as well as several other countries and
organizations such as the Organization for Economic Cooperation and
Development and the European Commission, are actively considering
changes to existing tax laws that, if enacted, could increase our
tax obligations in countries where we conduct our business. These
proposals include changes to the existing framework to calculate
income taxes, as well as proposals to change or impose new types of
non-income taxes, such as taxes based on a percentage of revenue.
For example, several countries in the European Union have proposed
or enacted taxes applicable to digital services, which includes
business activities on social media platforms and online
marketplaces and would likely apply to our business. Many questions
remain about the enactment, form, and application of these digital
services taxes. The interpretation and implementation of the
various digital services taxes (especially if there is
inconsistency in the application of these taxes across tax
jurisdictions) could have a materially adverse impact on our
business, results of operations, and cash flows. For example,
recently published Treasury Regulations may limit or eliminate the
availability of foreign tax credits for some or all of any digital
services taxes we pay in non-U.S. jurisdictions, thereby increasing
our overall tax burden. Moreover, if the U.S., Canada or other
foreign tax authorities change applicable tax laws, our overall
taxes could increase, and our business, financial condition or
results of operations may be adversely impacted.
In addition, the determination of our worldwide provision for
income taxes and other tax liabilities requires significant
judgment by management, and there are many transactions where the
ultimate tax determination is uncertain. Although we believe that
our estimates are reasonable and consistent with the tax laws in
the jurisdictions in which we conduct our business, the ultimate
tax outcome may differ from the amounts recorded in our financial
statements and our positions may be challenged by jurisdictional
tax authorities, any of which may materially affect our financial
results in the period or periods for which such determination is
made. Therefore, our future income tax obligations could be
volatile and difficult to predict due to changes in tax laws,
regulation or accounting principles.
Legal, political, and economic uncertainty surrounding the exit of
the United Kingdom from the European Union, or Brexit, and the
implementation of the trade and cooperation agreement between the
United Kingdom and the European Union could have a material adverse
effect on our business.
Because we conduct business in the United Kingdom and the European
Union, we face risks associated with the potential uncertainty and
disruptions related to the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from
the European Union, commonly referred to as “Brexit.” Although the
United Kingdom and the European Union have entered into a trade and
cooperation agreement (the “Trade and Cooperation Agreement”), the
long-term nature of the United Kingdom’s relationship with the
European Union following the Brexit and the implementation and
application of the Trade and Cooperation Agreement remain
uncertain, including with respect to volatility in exchange rates
and interest rates, disruptions to the free movement of data,
goods, services, people and capital between the United Kingdom and
the European Union, and potential material changes to the
regulatory regime applicable to our operations in the United
Kingdom. The uncertainty concerning the United Kingdom’s future
legal, political, and economic relationship with the European Union
could adversely affect political, regulatory, economic, or market
conditions in the European Union, the United Kingdom and worldwide,
and could contribute to instability in global political
institutions, regulatory agencies, and financial markets. These
developments, or the perception that any of them could occur, have
had, and may continue to have, a material adverse effect on global
economic conditions and the stability of global financial markets,
and they could significantly reduce global market liquidity and
limit the ability of key market participants to operate in certain
financial markets. Brexit could also lead to a period of
considerable uncertainty in relation to the United Kingdom
financial and banking markets, as well as to the regulatory process
in Europe. Asset valuations, currency exchange rates, and credit
ratings may also be subject to increased market
volatility.
As a result of Brexit, we may also face new regulatory costs and
challenges that could have a material adverse effect on our
operations. For example, as of January 1, 2021, the United
Kingdom lost the benefits of global trade agreements negotiated by
the European Union on behalf of its members, which may result in
increased trade barriers that could make our ability to conduct
business in areas that are subject to such global trade agreements
more difficult. In addition, Brexit could lead to legal uncertainty
and potentially divergent national laws and regulations as the
United Kingdom determines which laws of the European Union to
replace or replicate. For example, Brexit could lead to potentially
divergent laws and regulations, such as with respect to data
protection and data transfer laws, that could be costly and
difficult for us to comply with. There may continue to be economic
uncertainty surrounding the consequences of Brexit that adversely
impact customer confidence resulting in customers reducing their
spending budgets on our services. While we continue to monitor
these developments, the full effect of Brexit on our operations is
uncertain and our business, financial condition, and results of
operations could be materially and adversely affected.
Risks Related to Our Indebtedness
Our indebtedness could materially adversely affect our financial
condition, our ability to raise additional capital to fund our
operations, operate our business, react to changes in the economy
or our industry, meet our obligations under our outstanding
indebtedness, including significant operating and financial
restrictions imposed on us by our debt agreements, and it could
divert our cash flow from operations for debt
payments.
As of December 31, 2022, we had total outstanding indebtedness
(net) of approximately $360.6 million, consisting of
outstanding borrowings under our senior secured credit facilities.
In November 2022, we incurred an additional $170.8 million in
indebtedness under the senior secured credit facilities. See Note
11 to our consolidated financial statements for the year ended
December 31, 2022 included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form
10-K for further information.
In June 2020, as part of San Vicente Holdings LLC’s (“SVH”)
indirect acquisition of approximately 98.6% interest in Legacy
Grindr (and its subsidiaries) from Kunlun Grindr Holdings Limited
(“Kunlun”), San Vicente Acquisition LLC, an indirect subsidiary of
SVH (“SV Acquisition”) agreed to pay what, after adjustments
provided for in the acquisition agreement, amounted to a
$230.0 million deferred consideration payment liability to
Kunlun, payable on the second and third anniversary of the closing
date (the “Deferred Payment”). In connection with the acquisition,
SV Acquisition assigned the obligations for the Deferred Payment to
Legacy Grindr, and subsequently, through a series of assumption
agreements, SV Acquisition re-assumed the obligations for the
Deferred Payment. In June 2022, Legacy Grindr declared a
distribution of $83.3 million to its members, including an
affiliate of SV Acquisition, on a pro rata basis. Legacy Grindr
paid this distribution in June and July 2022. SV Acquisition’s
affiliate, San Vicente Group Holdings LLC (“SV Group Holdings”),
received its ratable share of this distribution, being
$75.0 million, and distributed that amount through
intermediate holding companies to SV Acquisition, which then paid
such amount to Kunlun in partial satisfaction of the Deferred
Payment obligation, thereby reducing such obligation to
$155.0 million. The cash transfer to Kunlun was effected by
Legacy Grindr at the instruction of SV Group Holdings. The Deferred
Payment obligation was fully repaid within ten (10) business
days
of Closing. See the section titled “
Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and
Results of Operations—Financing Arrangements”
that appears elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K for
further information. The obligations under the Credit Agreement are
subject to automatic acceleration upon a voluntary or involuntary
bankruptcy event of default, and are subject to acceleration at the
election of the lenders upon the continuance of any other event of
default, including a material adverse change in the business,
operations or conditions of the Company.
The Credit Agreement that governs our senior secured credit
facilities imposes significant operating and financial restrictions
on us. These restrictions will limit our ability and/or the ability
of our subsidiaries to, among other things:
•incur
or guarantee additional debt;
•incur
certain liens;
•effect
change of control events;
•make
certain investments;
•make
certain payments or other distributions;
•declare
or pay dividends;
•enter
into transactions with affiliates;
•prepay,
redeem or repurchase any subordinated indebtedness or enter into
amendments to certain subordinated indebtedness in a manner
materially adverse to the lenders; and
•transfer
or sell assets.
In addition, the Credit Agreement requires us to maintain a total
leverage ratio of no greater than 3.25 to 1.00. As a result of
these and other restrictions, we may be limited as to how we
conduct business, and we may be unable to raise additional debt or
equity financing to compete effectively or to take advantage of new
business opportunities. The terms of any future indebtedness that
we may incur could include similar or more restrictive covenants.
We cannot assure you that we will be able to maintain compliance
with these covenants in the future and, if we fail to do so, that
we will be able to obtain waivers from the lenders and/or amend the
covenants. Our failure to comply with the restrictive or financial
covenants described above, as well as the terms of any future
indebtedness could result in an event of default, which, if not
cured or waived, could result in us being required to repay these
borrowings before their due date. If we are forced to refinance
these borrowings on less favorable terms or if it is unable to
refinance these borrowings, our business, financial condition, and
results of operations could be materially adversely
affected.
Furthermore, we may be able to incur substantial additional
indebtedness in the future. The terms of the credit agreements
governing our indebtedness limit, but do not prohibit, us from
incurring additional indebtedness, and the additional indebtedness
incurred in compliance with these restrictions could be
substantial. These restrictions will also not prevent us from
incurring obligations that do not constitute “Indebtedness” as
defined in the agreements governing our indebtedness. If new
indebtedness is added to our current debt levels, the related risks
that we now face could intensify.
The obligations under the Credit Agreement are subject to automatic
acceleration upon a voluntary or involuntary bankruptcy event of
default, and are subject to acceleration at the election of the
lenders upon the continuance of any other event of default,
including a material adverse change in the business, operations or
conditions of the Company. A default interest rate of an additional
2.0% per annum will apply on all outstanding obligations during the
occurrence and continuance of an event of default. The Credit
Agreement includes restrictive non-financial and financial
covenants, including the requirement to maintain a total leverage
ratio no greater than 3.25:1.00. See the section titled
“Management's
Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of
Operations—Financing Arrangements”
that appears elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K for
further information.
Risks Related to Ownership of our Securities
We have a limited operating history and, as a result, our past
results may not be indicative of future operating
performance.
As explained above, our management team has limited history working
together, which makes it difficult to forecast our future results.
See “—Risks
Related to our Brand, Products and Services, and Operations—We have
grown rapidly in recent years and certain members of our management
team have joined us recently. If we are unable to manage our
operations or growth effectively, our brand, company culture, and
financial performance may suffer.”
You should not rely on our past annual or quarterly operating
results as indicators of future performance. In addition, you
should consider and evaluate our prospects in light of the risks
and uncertainties frequently encountered by companies in rapidly
evolving markets like ours, as well as the information included
elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
Our reported financial results may be adversely affected by changes
in accounting principles generally accepted in the United
States.
Generally accepted accounting principles in the United States are
subject to interpretation by the Financial Accounting Standards
Board (“FASB”), the American Institute of Certified Public
Accountants, the SEC and various bodies formed to promulgate and
interpret appropriate accounting principles. A change in these
principles or interpretations could have a significant effect on
our reported financial results, and could affect the reporting of
transactions completed before the announcement of a
change.
There is no guarantee that our warrants will be in the money at the
time they become exercisable, and they may expire
worthless.
The exercise price for our warrants, which consist of certain
private placement warrants, public warrants and warrants originally
issued to certain equityholders of Legacy Grindr (collectively, the
“Warrants”) is $11.50 per warrant. We believe the likelihood that
warrant holders will exercise their warrants, and therefore the
amount of cash proceeds that we would receive, is dependent upon
the trading price of our Common Stock. If the trading price for our
Common Stock is less than $11.50 per share, we believe holders
of our Warrants will be unlikely to exercise their warrants. There
is no guarantee that the Warrants will be in the money following
the time they become exercisable and prior to their expiration, and
as such, the warrants may expire worthless.
The requirements of being a public company may strain our
resources, divert management’s attention and affect our ability to
attract and retain executive management and qualified board
members.
As a public company, we are subject to the reporting requirements
of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange
Act”), the listing standards of NYSE and other applicable
securities rules and regulations. The requirements of these rules
and regulations will continue to increase our legal, accounting and
financial compliance costs, make some activities more difficult,
time-consuming, and costly, and place significant strain on our
personnel, systems and resources. Furthermore, several members of
our management team do not have prior experience in running a
public company. The Exchange Act requires, among other things, that
we file annual, quarterly and current reports with respect to our
business and results of operations. As a result of the complexity
involved in complying with the rules and regulations applicable to
public companies, our management’s attention may be diverted from
other business concerns, which could harm our business, results of
operations and financial condition. Although we have already hired
additional employees to assist us in complying with these
requirements, we may need to hire more employees in the future or
engage outside consultants, which will increase our operating
expenses. In addition, changing laws, regulations and standards
relating to corporate governance and public disclosure are creating
uncertainty for public companies, increasing legal and financial
compliance costs and making some activities more time-consuming.
These laws, regulations and standards are subject to varying
interpretations, in many cases due to their lack of specificity,
and, as a result, their application in practice may evolve over
time as new guidance is provided by regulatory and governing
bodies. This could result in continuing uncertainty regarding
compliance matters and higher costs necessitated by ongoing
revisions to disclosure and governance practices. We intend to
invest substantial resources to comply with evolving laws,
regulations and standards, and this investment may result in
increased general and administrative expenses and a diversion of
management’s time and attention from business operations to
compliance activities. If our efforts to comply with new laws,
regulations and standards differ from the activities intended by
regulatory or governing bodies due to ambiguities related to their
application and practice, regulatory authorities may initiate legal
proceedings against us and our business may be harmed. We also
expect that being a public company that is subject to these new
rules and regulations will make it more expensive for us to obtain
director and officer liability insurance, and we may be required to
accept reduced coverage or incur substantially higher costs to
obtain coverage. These factors could also make it more difficult
for us to attract and retain qualified members of our board of
directors (the “Board”), particularly members who can serve on our
audit committee, and qualified executive officers. As a result of
the disclosure obligations required of a public company, our
business and financial condition will become more visible, which
may result in an increased risk of threatened or actual litigation,
including by competitors and other third parties. If such claims
are successful, our business, results of operations and financial
condition would be harmed, and even if the claims do not result in
litigation or are resolved in our favor, these claims, and the time
and resources necessary to resolve them, would divert the resources
of our management and harm our business, results of operations and
financial condition.
We have incurred and expect to continue to
incur significantly increased costs and devote substantial
management time as a result of operating as a public
company.
As a public company, we will incur significant legal, accounting
and other expenses that we would not incur as a private company.
For example, we are subject to the reporting requirements of the
Exchange Act, and are required to comply with the applicable
requirements of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and the Dodd-Frank Wall
Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, as well as rules and
regulations of the SEC and NYSE, including the establishment and
maintenance of effective disclosure and financial controls, changes
in corporate governance practices and required filing of annual,
quarterly and current reports with respect to our business and
results of operations. Any failure to develop or maintain effective
controls or any difficulties encountered in their implementation or
improvement could harm our results
of operations or cause us to fail to meet our reporting
obligations. Our compliance with these requirements increases our
legal and financial compliance costs and makes some activities more
time-consuming and costly. In addition, our management and other
personnel need to divert attention from operational and other
business matters to devote substantial time to these public company
requirements. In particular, we incur significant expenses and
devote substantial management effort toward ensuring compliance
with the requirements of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act,
which will increase when we are no longer an emerging growth
company. We are in the process of hiring additional accounting
personnel and, as a public company, may need to hire additional
accounting and financial staff with appropriate public company
experience and technical accounting knowledge and may need to
establish an internal audit function.
Operating as a public company makes it more expensive for us to
obtain director and officer liability insurance, and we may be
required to accept reduced coverage or incur substantially higher
costs to obtain same or similar coverage. This could also make it
more difficult for us to attract and retain qualified people to
serve on our Board, board committees or as executive
officers.
NYSE may be unable to maintain the listing of our securities on
NYSE, which could limit investors’ ability to make transactions in
our securities and subject us to additional trading
restrictions.
In connection with the Business Combination, in order to continue
to obtain the listing of our securities on NYSE, we were required
to demonstrate compliance with NYSE’s initial listing requirements,
which are more rigorous than NYSE’s continued listing requirements.
Although we successfully had our securities listed on NYSE, we may
be unable to maintain the listing of its securities in the
future.
If we fail to maintain our listing, and if NYSE or another national
securities exchange ceases to list our securities on its exchange,
our shareholders could face significant material adverse
consequences, including:
•a
limited availability of market quotations for our
securities;
•reduced
liquidity for our securities;
•a
determination that our Common Stock is a “penny stock” which will
require brokers trading our Common Stock to adhere to more
stringent rules and possibly result in a reduced level of trading
activity in the secondary trading market for our
securities;
•a
limited amount of news and analyst coverage; and
•a
decreased ability to issue additional securities or obtain
additional financing in the future.
The National Securities Markets Improvement Act of 1996, which is a
federal statute, prevents or preempts the states from regulating
the sale of certain securities, which are referred to as “covered
securities.” If our securities are no longer listed on the NYSE,
such securities would not qualify as covered securities and we
would be subject to regulation in each state in which it offers its
securities because states are not preempted from regulating the
sale of securities that are not covered securities.
The price of our securities may be volatile.
The price of our securities may fluctuate due to a variety of
factors, including:
•changes
in the industry in which we operate;
•the
success of competitive services or technologies;
•developments
involving our competitors;
•regulatory
or legal developments in the United States and other
countries;
•developments
or disputes concerning our intellectual property or other
proprietary rights;
•the
recruitment or departure of key personnel;
•actual
or anticipated changes in estimates as to financial results,
development timelines or recommendations by securities
analysts;
•variations
in our financial results or those of companies that are perceived
to be similar to us;
•general
economic, industry and market conditions, such as the effects of
the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2022 mpox outbreak, recessions, interest
rates, inflation, international currency fluctuations, political
instability and acts of war or terrorism; and
•the
other factors described in this “Risk
Factors”
section.
These market and industry factors may materially reduce the market
price of our Common Stock regardless of our operating performance,
including our businesses acquired in the Business
Combination.
Future resales of our Common Stock and/or Warrants may cause the
market price of our securities to drop significantly, even if our
business is doing well.
Pursuant to that certain Amended and Restated Registration Rights
Agreement entered into at Closing by and among Grindr, the Sponsor,
the independent directors of Tiga and certain former members of
Grindr (the “A&R Registration Rights Agreement”), the Sponsor
and Tiga's founders, including their respective affiliates, are
contractually restricted from selling or transferring any shares of
Common Stock (the “Lock-up Shares”), other than (i) any
transfer to an affiliate of a holder, (ii) distribution to
profit interest holders or other equity holders in such holder or
(iii) as a pledge in a bona fide transaction to third parties
as collateral to secure obligations under lending arrangements with
third parties. Such restrictions began at Closing and end on the
earliest of (i) 365 days after the date of the Closing;
(ii) the first day after the date on which the closing price
of the Common Stock equals or exceeds $12.00 per share
(as adjusted for stock splits, stock dividends, reorganizations,
recapitalizations and the like) for any 20 trading days within any
30-trading day period commencing at least 150 days after the date
of the Closing; or (iii) the date on which we complete a
liquidation, merger, capital stock exchange, reorganization or
other similar transaction that results in all of our public
shareholders having the right to exchange their Common Stock for
cash, securities or other property.
However, following the expiration of such lockup, the Sponsor and
Tiga's founders, including their respective affiliates, will not be
restricted from selling shares of our Common Stock and/or Warrants
held by them, other than by applicable securities laws.
Additionally, neither the forward purchase shareholders nor the
Legacy Grindr unitholders party to the A&R Registration Rights
Agreement will be restricted from selling any of their shares of
Common Stock following the closing of the Business Combination. As
such, sales of a substantial number of shares of Common Stock in
the public market could occur at any time. These sales, or the
perception in the market that the holders of a large number of
shares intend to sell shares, could reduce the market price of our
Common Stock. The Lock-up Shares may be sold after the expiration
of the applicable lock-up period under the A&R Registration
Rights Agreements. As restrictions on resale end and registration
statements (filed after the Closing to provide for the resale of
such shares from time to time) are available for use, the sale or
possibility of sale of these shares could have the effect of
increasing the volatility in our share price or the market price of
our Common Stock could decline if the holders of currently
restricted shares sell them or are perceived by the market as
intending to sell them.
In addition, we may issue additional shares of our Common Stock or
other equity securities without the approval of investors, which
would reduce investors’ proportionate ownership interests and may
depress the market price of our Common Stock.
Sales of our Common Stock and/or Warrants or the perception of such
sales, by us or by significant stockholders, in the public market
or otherwise, could cause the market price for our securities to
decline, even though certain significant stockholders would still
realize a profit on sales at lower prices. Resales of the
significant volumes of our securities may cause the market price of
such securities to drop significantly, even if our business is
doing well.
We have previously filed a Registration Statement on Form S-1 (the
“Prospectus”) in order to register the resale under the Securities
Act of the Common Stock and certain warrants held by certain
holders, including the founders of Tiga, certain affiliates of Tiga
and the Legacy Grindr unitholders. We will not receive any of the
proceeds from such sales, except with respect to amounts received
by us upon exercise of warrants, which depends on the relative
price of our Common Stock and the extent to which such warrants are
exercised for cash. If the warrants are out of the money, the
warrant holders may not exercise their warrants.
The sale of our Common Stock in the public market or otherwise or
the perception that such sales could occur, could harm the
prevailing market price of our Common Stock. These sales, or the
possibility that these sales may occur, also might make it more
difficult for us to sell equity securities in the future at a time
and at a price that we deem appropriate. Resales of our Common
Stock may cause the market price of our securities to drop
significantly, even if our business is doing well. In addition,
certain significant stockholders hold a disproportionately large
portion of our outstanding Common Stock. For example, our two
largest stockholders, G. Raymond Zage, III and James Fu Bin Lu, who
beneficially own approximately 72.7% of our issued and outstanding
Common Stock in the aggregate as of March 14, 2023, are able to
sell all of their securities held for so long as the Prospectus is
in effect, subject to any applicable lock-up restrictions. Such
restrictions began at the Closing and end on the earliest of
(i) 365 days after the date of the Closing; (ii) the
first day after the date on which the closing price of the Common
Stock equals or exceeds $12.00 per share (as adjusted for
stock splits, stock dividends, reorganizations, recapitalizations
and the like) for any 20 trading days within any 30-trading day
period
commencing at least 150 days after the date of the Closing; or
(iii) the date on which we complete a liquidation, merger,
capital stock exchange, reorganization or other similar transaction
that results in all of our public stockholders having the right to
exchange their Common Stock for cash, securities or other property.
See “—Future
resales of our Common Stock and/or Warrants may cause the market
price of our securities to drop significantly, even if our business
is doing well”
in this “Risk
Factors”
section and “Security
Ownership of Certain Beneficial Owners and Management and Related
Stockholder Matters”
in this Annual Report on Form 10-K for more information on lock-up
restrictions. Even if the trading price of our Common Stock falls
to or significantly below the current trading price, the
significant stockholders may still have an incentive to sell and
profit due to the nominal purchase prices paid by such significant
stockholders, which are significantly lower than the purchase
prices paid by other securityholders. Certain of our significant
stockholders acquired the Common Stock at prices that are
significantly lower than the current trading price of our Common
Stock. The founders of Tiga paid approximately
$0.0036 per share for each share of Common Stock and
$1.00 per private placement warrant for each private placement
warrant being offered pursuant to the Prospectus. While such
stockholders may experience a positive rate of return based on the
current trading price of our Common Stock, other securityholders
may not experience a similar rate of return on the securities they
purchased due to differences in the purchase prices and the trading
price at the time of such sales.
Additionally, a portion of our Common Stock, including Common Stock
held by Messrs. Zage and Lu, are subject to a lock-up and
restricted from immediate resale; however, upon expiration of their
respective lock-up periods, the sale of shares of such Common Stock
or the perception that such sales may occur, could cause the market
price of our Common Stock to drop significantly.
We may be subject to securities litigation, which is expensive and
could divert management attention.
The market price of our securities may be volatile and, in the
past, companies that have experienced volatility in the market
price of their securities have been subject to securities class
action litigation. We may be the target of this type of litigation
in the future. Securities litigation against us could result in
substantial costs and divert management’s attention from other
business concerns, which could seriously harm our
business.
Reports published by analysts or the ceasing of publication of
research or reports about us, including projections in those
reports that differ from our actual results, could adversely affect
the price and trading volume of our securities.
Securities research analysts may establish and publish their own
research and reports, including periodic projections, for our
stock, and the trading market for our stock will be influenced by
such research and reports or the lack thereof. These research and
reports may vary widely and may not accurately predict the results
we actually achieve. Our share price may decline if its actual
results do not match the projections of these securities research
analysts. Similarly, if one or more of the analysts who write
reports on Grindr downgrades our stock or publishes inaccurate or
unfavorable research about our business, our stock price could
decline. If one or more of these analysts ceases coverage of Grindr
or fails to publish reports on Grindr regularly, our securities
price or trading volume could decline. While we expect research
analyst coverage to continue, if analysts cease to continue
coverage of Grindr, we could use visibility in the financial
markets, and the market price and volume for our securities could
be adversely affected.
We do not intend to pay cash dividends for the foreseeable
future.
We intend to retain our future earnings, if any, to finance the
further development and expansion of our business and do not intend
to pay cash dividends in the foreseeable future. Any future
determination to pay dividends will be at the discretion of our
Board and will depend on our financial condition, results of
operations, capital requirements and future agreements and
financing instruments, business prospects and such other factors as
our Board deems relevant. As a result, you may not receive any
return on an investment in our Common Stock unless you sell our
Common Stock for a price greater than that which you paid for
it.
General Risk Factors
A downturn in the global economy or other adverse macroeconomic
disruptions, especially in the U.S. and Europe, where a substantial
majority of our revenue is generated could adversely harm our
business.
Our performance depends, at least in part, on global economic
conditions and their impact on levels of spending by our
subscribers and advertisers. A decline in general economic
conditions, including but not limited to recent inflationary
movements, especially in the U.S. and Europe, where we generate a
substantial majority of our revenue, may adversely affect levels of
consumer discretionary spending, the demands for our products and
services, as well as advertising expenditures, any of which could
materially adversely affect our business, financial condition, and
results of operations.
In addition, given the cyclical nature of the global economy, a
recessionary period may occur in the future, which could negatively
affect our business, financial condition, and results of
operations. The ongoing U.S.-China trade tension and other
international diplomatic issues, as well as geopolitical conflicts,
including the military conflict involving Russia and Ukraine, and
the economic sanctions imposed on Russia, present additional
uncertainties for the U.S. and global economies. In addition, the
Company’s operations and access to capital may be impacted by
disruptions to the banking
system and financial market volatility resulting from bank
failures, particularly in light of the recent events that have
occurred with respect to SVB. There can be no assurances that
future economic conditions in the U.S. or elsewhere around the
world will be favorable to our business.
Our employees could engage in misconduct that materially adversely
affects us.
Our employees could engage in misconduct that could have a
materially adverse effect on us. We may not be able to prevent or
detect misconduct by our employees, either personal or in the
course of their duties on behalf of us, and the precautions we take
to prevent and detect this activity may not be effective. See
“—Risks
Related to Regulation and Litigation—Online applications are
subject to various laws and regulations relating to children’s
privacy and protection, which if violated, could subject us to an
increased risk of litigation and regulatory
actions.”
If any of our employees were to engage in or be accused of
misconduct, we could be exposed to legal liability, negative
publicity, our business and reputation could be materially
adversely affected, and we could fail to retain key employees. See
“—Risks
Related to our Brand, Products and Services, and
Operations—Unfavorable media coverage could materially and
adversely affect our business, brand, or
reputation.”
Item 1B. Unresolved Staff Comments
None.
Item 2. Properties
We currently maintain our headquarters at 750 N. San Vicente Blvd.,
Suite RE 1400 West Hollywood, California 90069, where we lease and
occupy approximately 25,000 square feet of office space pursuant to
an operating lease that expires in 2026. We also lease space at
several co-working locations across the United States and globally,
including in Brooklyn, Chicago, and Taipei, Taiwan.
We consider our current office space adequate to meet our ongoing
needs, particularly in light of our recently adopted work from
anywhere remote policy. However, from time to time we may evaluate
additional or substitute office spaces. We believe that we will be
able to obtain additional facilities, as needed, on commercially
reasonable terms.
Item 3. Legal Proceedings
In the ordinary course of business, we are involved in various
claims, lawsuits, government investigations, settlements and
proceedings relating to our operations. Although the results of the
claims, lawsuits, government investigations, and proceedings in
which we are involved cannot be predicted with certainty, we do not
believe the final outcome of certain matters will have a material
adverse effect on our business, financial condition, or results of
operations, other than those proceedings for which it is too early
to determine the materiality and probability of outcome.
Information relating to various commitments and contingencies is
described in Note 13 to our consolidated financial statements
included in Part II, Item 8 in this Annual Report on Form 10-K and
the information discussed therein is incorporated by reference into
this Part I, Item 3.
In the future, we may be subject to additional legal proceedings,
the scope and severity of which is unknown and which could
adversely affect our business. In addition, from time to time,
others may assert claims against us and we may assert claims and
legal proceedings against other parties, including in the form of
letters and other forms of communication.
The results of any current or future legal proceedings cannot be
predicted with certainty and, regardless of the outcome, can have
an adverse impact on us because of defense and settlement costs,
diversion of management resources and other factors.
For more information, see the section titled “Risk
Factors—Risks Related to Regulation and Litigation—We are subject
to litigation, regulatory and other government investigations,
enforcement actions, and settlements, and adverse outcomes in such
proceedings could have a materially adverse effect on our business,
financial condition, and results of operation.”
Item 4. Mine Safety Disclosures
Not applicable.
PART II
Item 5. Market for Registrant's Common Equity, Related Stockholder
Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities
Market Information
Our Common Stock and Public Warrants are listed on NYSE under
symbols “GRND” and “GRND.WS”, respectively.
Holders
As of close of business on March 14, 2023, there were 14 holders of
record of our Common Stock, 3 holders of record of our Private
Warrants and 1 holder of record of our Public Warrants. The actual
number of holders of our Common Stock and Public Warrants is
greater than the number of record holders, and includes holders who
are beneficial owners, but whose shares or warrants are held in
street name by brokers or other nominees.
Dividend Policy
We have never declared or paid any dividends on our Common Stock
and do not anticipate paying any dividends on our Common Stock in
the foreseeable future. Any future determination to pay dividends
will be at the discretion of our Board and will depend on our
financial condition, results of operations, capital requirements
and future agreements and financing instruments, business prospects
and such other factors as our Board deems relevant.
Securities Authorized for Issuance Under Equity Compensation
Plans
Information about our equity compensation plans in Item 12 of Part
III of this Annual Report on Form 10-K is incorporated herein by
reference.
Recent Sales of Unregistered Equity Securities
None.
Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities
None.
Item 6. [Reserved.]
Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition
and Results of Operations
MANAGEMENT’S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL
CONDITION
AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS
The following discussion and analysis of our financial condition
and results of operations should be read in conjunction with the
consolidated financial statements and related notes included
elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. In addition to the
audited consolidated financial information, the following
discussion contains forward-looking statements that reflect our
plans, estimates, beliefs and expectations that involve risks and
uncertainties. Our actual results and the timing of events could
differ materially from those discussed in these forward-looking
statements. Factors that could cause or contribute to these
differences include those discussed below and elsewhere in this
Annual Report on Form 10-K, particularly in Item 1A. “Risk Factors”
and “Special Note Regarding Forward-Looking
Statements.”
Overview
Grindr is the world’s largest social network focused on the LGBTQ
community with approximately 12.2 million MAUs and
approximately 788 thousand Paying Users in 2022. Our Paying Users
were over 788 and 601 thousand for the years ended December 31,
2022 and 2021, respectively. According to the Frost & Sullivan
study commissioned by Grindr in 2021 and 2022, Grindr is the
largest and most popular gay mobile app in the world, with more
MAUs than other LGBTQ social networking applications. Our mission
is to connect queer people with one another and the world. Since
our inception in 2009 as a casual dating app for gay men, we have
evolved into a global LGBTQ social network platform serving and
addressing the needs of the entire LGBTQ queer community. We
believe Grindr is a vital utility for the LGBTQ community and our
users, as evidenced by our user engagement. Our users are some of
the most engaged, spending, on average, 61 minutes per day on our
platform in 2021 compared to 10-20 minutes on dating apps,
according to the Frost & Sullivan Study commissioned by Grindr,
and 25-35 minutes on social networking apps, according to
Statista.
We have grown significantly over the years since our product
launch. In 2022, we generated $195.0 million of revenue,
representing a year-over-year growth of 33.7% as compared to the
2021 period, and had approximately 788 thousand Paying Users, which
is 31% higher than our Paying Users from 2021. We have users in
over 190 countries or territories and support 21 languages on our
platform. On average, profiles on our platform sent over
308 million daily messages in 2022.
Despite our growth, we believe we are just beginning to scratch the
surface of our market opportunity and financial potential.
According to the Frost & Sullivan Study commissioned by Grindr,
the LGBTQ population is growing faster than the overall population
and younger generations are driving this growth. We expect this
trend to continue as social norms shift, more progressive attitudes
surface, and people become more comfortable expressing themselves
openly. As this group grows, gains influence, and becomes more
digitally connected, we believe we are well positioned to continue
to be the leading platform for this group to connect with each
other. The Frost & Sullivan Study commissioned by Grindr
estimates the global LGBTQ population at 538.4 million in 2022
with approximately $10.9 trillion of GDP at purchasing power
parity. In 2022, our MAUs and revenue imply we have only captured
more than 2.0% of the LGBTQ population and less than 0.01% of the
spend. As the world’s largest social network focused on the LGBTQ
community, we have significant opportunities to grow both our users
and our revenue through new products and services and additional
monetization features.
On June 10, 2020, Grindr was acquired by San Vicente Group Holdings
LLC ("SVH"). Prior to the June 10, 2020 acquisition by SVH, we
experienced many years of user, revenue, and Adjusted EBITDA
growth. As a result of our growth, our infrastructure and systems
were not keeping pace, just like many high growth tech companies in
similar situations. Following the June 10, 2020 acquisition by SVH,
we spent the next several months focused on reassessing strategic
priorities, updating our technology infrastructure, upgrading our
data systems, stabilizing our product, and optimizing our cost
structure. As a result, by 2022 we had a nimbler company with
modern tools that resulted in a better and more stable product.
This positioned us to take advantage of growth opportunities in
2022 and beyond.
The Grindr mobile application ("Grindr App") is free to download
and provides certain services and features to Grindr's users for
free, and then offers a variety of additional controls and features
for users who subscribe to our premium products and services,
Grindr XTRA and Grindr Unlimited. A substantial portion of our
revenues are derived directly from users in the form of recurring
subscription fees, providing our users access to a bundle of
features for the period of their subscription, or add-ons to access
premium features. Leveraging strong brand awareness and significant
user network stemming from our first mover advantage in the LGBTQ
social networking space, our historical growth in number of users
has been driven primarily by word-of-mouth referrals or other
organic means.
While we have users in over 190 countries and territories, our core
markets are currently North America and Europe, from which we
derived 86.9% and 89.5% of our total revenues for the years ended
December 31, 2022 and 2021,
respectively. We intend to grow our user base and revenues by
providing innovative and customized products and services and
features to users in targeted geographic regions outside of our
current core markets that have a large number of untapped potential
users, favorable regulatory environments, and fast-growing
economies.
In addition to our revenue generated from subscription fees and
premium add-ons, we generate a portion of our revenues from both
first-party and third-party advertising. Our advertising business
provides advertisers with the unique opportunity to directly target
and reach the LGBTQ community, which is characterized by a
higher-than-average proportion of well-educated, brand-conscious
individuals with substantial aggregate global purchasing power.
Advertisers on our Grindr App span across many different
industries, including healthcare, gaming, travel, automotive, and
consumer goods. We offer a diverse range of advertising initiatives
to advertisers, such as in-app banners, full-screen interstitials,
and other customized units, typically sold on an impressions basis.
Additionally, we contract with a variety of third-party
advertisement sales platforms to market and sell digital and mobile
advertising inventory on our Grindr App. We will continue to
evaluate opportunities to increase inventory with unique
advertising units and offerings.
Consolidated Results for the Years Ended December 31, 2022 and
2021
For the years ended December 31, 2022 and 2021, we
generated:
•Revenue
of $195.0 million and $145.8 million, respectively. The increase
for the year ended December 31, 2022 compared to the year ended
December 31, 2021 was $49.2 million, or 33.7%.
•Net
income of $0.9 million and $5.1 million, respectively. The decrease
for the year ended December 31, 2022 compared to the year ended
December 31, 2021 was $(4.2) million, or (82.4)%.
•Adjusted
EBITDA of $85.2 million and $77.1 million, respectively. The
increase for the year ended December 31, 2022 compared to the year
ended December 31, 2021 was $8.1 million, or 10.6%. See
“Management’s
Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Result of
Operations—Non-GAAP Financial Measures—Adjusted EBITDA”
for more details on the calculations and
reconciliations.
The Business Combination and Public Company Costs
On May 9, 2022, Grindr, Tiga and Merger Sub I entered into the
Merger Agreement pursuant to which Grindr was merged with and into
Merger Sub I, with Grindr surviving the First Merger as a wholly
owned subsidiary of Tiga, and promptly afterwards and as part of
the same overall transaction as the First Merger, the merger of
such surviving company with and into Merger Sub II, with Merger Sub
II being the surviving entity of the Second Merger, in accordance
with the terms and conditions of the Merger Agreement. The
transaction was completed on November 18, 2022 (the "Business
Combination") and provided Grindr with $105.1 million of gross
proceeds, including $5.1 million from the trust account, $50.0
million from the sale of forward purchase shares and forward
purchase warrants and an additional $50.0 million from the sale of
backstop shares and backstop warrants, prior to the payment of
outstanding expenses, payment of outstanding obligations (including
the deferred payment previously outstanding to Kunlun Group
Holdings Limited ("Kunlun") and the distribution made by Grindr to
its unitholders prior to the Closing). In connection with the
Business Combination, the Company increased its secured senior loan
by $170.2 million, and Catapult GP II paid approximately
$12.0 million to Grindr to partially repay the outstanding
Catapult loan. See Note 3 to Grindr's audited consolidated
financial statements included elsewhere in this Annual Report on
Form 10-K for additional information. Grindr was deemed the
accounting predecessor and the combined entity is the successor
registrant with the SEC, meaning that Grindr’s consolidated
financial statements for previous periods will be disclosed in
Grindr’s future periodic reports filed with the SEC.
While the legal acquirer in the Merger Agreement was Tiga, for
financial accounting and reporting purposes under U.S. GAAP, Legacy
Grindr was the accounting acquirer and the Business Combination was
accounted for as a “reverse recapitalization.” A reverse
recapitalization (i.e., a capital transaction involving the
issuance of stock by Tiga for the stock of Grindr) did not result
in a new basis of accounting, and the consolidated financial
statements of the combined entity represent the continuation of the
consolidated financial statements of Legacy Grindr in many
respects. Accordingly, the consolidated assets, liabilities and
results of operations of Legacy Grindr became the historical
consolidated financial statements of Grindr, and Tiga’s assets,
liabilities, and results of operations were consolidated with
Legacy Grindr beginning on the acquisition date. Operations prior
to the Business Combination are presented as those of Legacy Grindr
and will be presented as such in future reports. The net assets of
Tiga were recognized at historical cost (which was consistent with
carrying value), with no goodwill or other intangible assets
recorded upon execution of the Business Combination.
As a consequence of the Business Combination, Grindr became the
successor to an SEC-registered and NYSE-listed company, which
required Grindr to hire additional personnel and implement
procedures and processes to address public company regulatory
requirements and customary practices. Grindr expects to incur
additional annual expenses as a public
company for, among other things, directors’ and officers’ liability
insurance, director fees and additional internal and external
accounting, legal and administrative resources, including increased
audit and legal fees. The Company is classified as an Emerging
Growth Company, as defined under the Jumpstart Our Business Act
(the “Jobs Act”), which was enacted on April 5, 2012. As a
result of the Business Combination, the Company is provided certain
disclosure and regulatory relief, provided by the SEC, as an
Emerging Growth Company and Smaller Reporting Company.
Grindr’s future results of consolidated operations and financial
position may not be comparable to historical results as a result of
the Business Combination.
How We Generate Revenue
We currently generate revenue from two revenue streams—Direct
Revenue and Indirect Revenue. Direct Revenue is revenue generated
by our users who pay for subscriptions or add-ons to access premium
features. Indirect Revenue is generated by third parties who pay us
for access to our users, such as advertising or
partnerships.
Direct Revenue is driven predominately by our subscription revenue
and premium add-ons. Our current subscription offerings are Grindr
XTRA and Grindr Unlimited. Our subscription revenue has grown
through organic user acquisition and the viral network effects
enabled by our brand and market position. We utilize a freemium
model to drive increased user acquisition, subscriber conversions,
and monetization on the Grindr App. Many of our users choose to pay
for premium features and functionalities, such as access to more
user profiles, ad-free environments, advanced filters, unlimited
blocks and favorites, and the ability to send multiple photos at
the same time, to enhance their user experience. By continuously
introducing new premium features, we continue to increase our
Paying Users and average revenue per paying user.
For the years ended December 31, 2022 and 2021, our Direct Revenue
accounted for 83.7%% and 79.6%% of our total revenue, respectively,
our Adjusted Direct Revenue (as defined below) accounted for 83.7%
and 80.2% of our total revenue, respectively.
Indirect Revenue primarily consists of revenue generated by third
parties who pay us for access to our users, including advertising,
partnerships, merchandise, and other non-direct revenue. Our
advertising business provides advertisers with the unique
opportunity to directly target and reach the LGBTQ community, which
generally consists of well-educated individuals with significant
global purchasing power. We have attracted advertisers from a
diverse array of industries, including healthcare, gaming, travel,
automotive, and consumer goods. We offer a diverse range of
advertising initiatives to advertisers, such as in-app banners,
full-screen interstitials, rewarded video, and other customized
units, typically on a CPM basis. We contract with a variety of
third-party ad platforms to market and sell digital and mobile
advertising inventory on our Grindr App. In exchange for
facilitating the advertising process, we pay the relevant
third-party ad platform a share of the revenue derived from the
advertisements they place on the Grindr App. We intend to continue
to grow our Indirect Revenue through advertising, partnerships,
merchandise, and other non-direct initiatives.
Operating and Financial Metrics
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
(in thousands, except Adjusted ARPPU, ARPPU and ARPU) |
Year Ended December 31, 2022
|
|
Year Ended December 31, 2021
|
Key Operating Metrics |
|
|
|
Average Paying Users |
788 |
|
601 |
Adjusted Average Direct Revenue per Paying User ("Adjusted
ARPPU") |
$ |
17.28 |
|
|
$ |
16.21 |
|
Average Direct Revenue per Paying User ("ARPPU") |
$ |
17.28 |
|
|
$ |
16.08 |
|
Monthly Active Users |
12,246 |
|
10,799 |
Average Total Revenue per User ("ARPU") |
$ |
1.33 |
|
|
$ |
1.13 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
($ in thousands) |
Year Ended December 31, 2022
|
|
Year Ended December 31, 2021
|
Key Financial and Non-GAAP Metrics(1)
|
|
|
|
Revenue |
$ |
195,015 |
|
|
$ |
145,833 |
|
Adjusted Direct Revenue |
$ |
163,308 |
|
|
$ |
116,931 |
|
Indirect Revenue |
31,707 |
|
|
29,802 |
|
Net income |
$ |
852 |
|
|
$ |
5,064 |
|
Net income margin |
0.4 |
% |
|
3.5 |
% |
Adjusted EBITDA |
$ |
85,192 |
|
|
$ |
77,054 |
|
Adjusted EBITDA Margin |
43.7 |
% |
|
52.8 |
% |
Net cash provided by operating activities |
$ |
50,644 |
|
|
$ |
34,430 |
|
(1)See
“Management’s
Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of
Operations—Non-GAAP Financial Measures”
for additional information and a reconciliation of net income to
Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA Margin and reconciliation of
Direct Revenue to Adjusted Direct Revenue.
•Paying
Users. A Paying User is a user that has purchased or renewed a
Grindr subscription and/or purchased a premium add-on on the Grindr
App. We calculate Paying Users as a monthly average, by counting
the number of Paying Users in each month and then dividing by the
number of months in the relevant measurement period. Paying Users
is a primary metric that we use to judge the health of our business
and our ability to convert users to purchasers of our premium
features. We are focused on building new products and services and
improving on existing products and services, as well as launching
new pricing tiers and subscription plans, to drive payer
conversion.
•ARPPU.
We calculate average revenue per Paying User (“ARPPU”) based on
Direct Revenue in any measurement period, divided by Paying Users
in such a period divided by the number of months in the
period.
•Adjusted
ARPPU. We calculate adjusted ARPPU based on Adjusted Direct Revenue
(excluding purchase accounting adjustments) in any measurement
period, divided by Paying Users in such a period divided by the
number of months in the period.
•MAUs.
A MAU, or Monthly Active User, is a unique device that demonstrated
activity on the Grindr App over the course of the specified period.
Activity on the app is defined as opening the app, chatting with
another user, or viewing the cascade of other users. We also
exclude devices where all linked profiles have been banned for
spam. We calculate MAUs as a monthly average, by counting the
number of MAUs in each month and then dividing by the number of
months in the relevant period. We use MAUs to measure the number of
active users on our platform on a monthly basis and to understand
the pool of users we can potentially convert to Paying
Users.
•ARPU.
We calculate average total revenue per user (“ARPU”) based on Total
Revenue in any measurement period, divided by our MAUs in such a
period divided by the number of months in the period. As we expand
our monetization product offerings, develop new verticals, and grow
our community of users, we believe we can continue to increase our
ARPU.
Non-GAAP Profitability
We use net income and net cash provided by operating activities to
assess our profitability and liquidity, respectively. In addition
to net income and net cash provided by operating activities, we
also use the following measure:
•Adjusted
EBITDA. We define Adjusted EBITDA as net income excluding income
tax (benefit) provision, interest expense, depreciation and
amortization, stock-based compensation expense, non-core
expenses/losses (gains). Non-core expenses/losses (gains) include
purchase accounting adjustments related to deferred revenue,
transaction-related costs, asset impairments, management fees,
interest income from the related party loan to Catapult GP II, and
change in fair value of warrant liability. Adjusted EBITDA Margin
represents Adjusted EBITDA as a percentage of revenue.
•Adjusted
Direct Revenue. We define Adjusted Direct Revenue as Direct Revenue
adjusted for the release of the fair value adjustment of deferred
revenue into revenue of the acquired deferred revenue due to the
June 10, 2020, acquisition by SVH.
Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA Margin and Adjusted Direct Revenue
are key measures we use to assess our financial performance and are
also used for internal planning and forecasting purposes. We
believe Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA Margin and Adjusted Direct
Revenue are helpful to investors, analysts, and other interested
parties because they can assist in providing a more consistent and
comparable overview of our operations across our historical
financial periods. In addition, these measures are frequently used
by analysts, investors, and other interested parties to evaluate
and assess performance.
See “Management’s
Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of
Operations—Non-GAAP
Financial Measures”
for additional information and a reconciliation of net income to
Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA Margin and reconciliation of
Direct Revenue to Adjusted Direct Revenue.
Key Factors Affecting our Performance
Our results of operations and financial condition have been, and
will continue to be, affected by a number of factors that present
significant opportunities for us but also pose risks and
challenges, including those discussed below and in Item 1A.
"Risk
Factors"
in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
Growth in User Base and Paying Users
We acquire new users through investments in marketing and brand as
well as through word of mouth from existing users and others. We
convert these users to Paying Users by introducing premium features
which maximize the probability of developing meaningful
connections, improve the experience, and provide more control. For
the years ended December 31, 2022 and 2021, we had over 788
thousand and 601 thousand Paying Users, respectively, representing
an increase of 31.0% year over year. We grow Paying Users by
acquiring new users and converting new and existing users to
purchasers of one of our subscription plans or in-app offerings. As
we scale and our community grows larger, we are able to facilitate
more meaningful interactions as a result of the wider selection of
potential connections. This in turn increases our brand awareness
and increases conversion to one of our premium products and
services. Our revenue growth primarily depends on growth in Paying
Users. While we believe we are in the early days of our
opportunity, at some point we may face challenges increasing our
Paying Users, including competition from alternative products and
services and lower adoption of certain product
features.
Expansion into New Geographic Markets
We are focused on growing our platform globally, including through
entering new markets and investing in under-penetrated markets.
Expanding into new geographies will require increased costs related
to marketing, as well as localization of product features and
services. Potential risks to our expansion into new geographies
will include competition and compliance with foreign laws and
regulations. As we expand into certain new geographies, we may see
an increase in users who prefer to access premium features through
our add-on options rather than through our subscription packages,
which could impact our ARPPU. We may also see a lower propensity to
pay as we enter certain new markets with additional competitors and
cost and revenue profiles.
Growth in ARPPU
We have developed a sophisticated understanding of the value our
users derive from becoming Paying Users on our platform. We
continually develop new monetization features and improve existing
features in order to increase adoption of premium add-ons and our
subscription programs. Many variables will impact our ARPPU,
including the number of Paying Users, mix of monetization offerings
on our platform, effect of demographic shifts, geographic
differences on all of these variables, and changes in mobile app
store policies. Our pricing is in local currency and may vary
between markets. As foreign currency exchange rates change,
translation of the statements of operations into U.S. dollars could
negatively impact revenue and distort year-over-year comparability
of operating results. To the extent our ARPPU growth slows, our
revenue growth will become increasingly dependent on our ability to
increase our Paying Users.
Investing in Growth While Driving Long-Term
Profitability
Key investment areas for our platform include machine learning
capabilities, including continually improving our technology;
features that prioritize security and privacy; and new premium
offerings that add incremental value to Paying Users.
Attracting and Retaining Talent
Our business relies on our ability to attract and retain our
talent, including engineers, data scientists, product designers and
product developers. As of December 31, 2022, we had
202
full-time and part-time employees; of which employees,
approximately
60%
work in engineering and product development. We believe that people
want to work at a company that has purpose and aligns with their
personal values, and therefore our ability to recruit talent is
aided by our mission and brand reputation. We compete for talent
within the technology industry.
Factors Affecting the Comparability of Our Results
General macroeconomic trends and events.
General economic trends and events, including pandemics,
demographic changes, employment rates, job growth, user confidence,
and disposable income, have a substantial effect on both our users’
ability and desire to purchase premium subscriptions and
advertisers’ ability and willingness to advertise on our network,
thereby affecting both of our major revenue streams and our
financial results over time and the year-over-year comparability of
operating results. For instance, we believe the COVID-19 pandemic
was a factor that suppressed user activity, particularly between
March 2020 to July 2020, when in-person engagement across the
markets in which we operate was severely impacted, and caused some
users to be less active or cancel their subscriptions.
Governmental regulations.
New governmental policies and regulations can affect our business
in meaningful ways, even when such policies and regulations are not
specifically related to the LGBTQ community. For example, the
implementation of GDPR in Europe has given end-users more control
over how their data and personal information are utilized and has
thereby adversely affected our European advertisers’ ability to
specifically target these users. This new regulation has had a
stagnating effect on our indirect revenue growth trajectory in
Europe. The implementation of similar regulations in other regions
of the world, or new regulations that affect our ability to
monetize the data received from our users, could have a significant
impact on our operating results and ability to grow our
business.
Temporary variability in general advertising spend.
Our ability to maintain consistently high advertiser demand for our
platform can be affected by seasonal or temporary trends in
advertisers’ appetites to engage with our users or our brand. For
example, events that result in temporary positive or negative
publicity for our company (even if unfounded) may play a
significant role in our advertisers’ desire to continue to
advertise on our platform. Further, general economic conditions may
lead to changes in advertising spending in general, which could
have a significant impact on our results of operations. Such
fluctuations in advertising demand are often unpredictable and
likely temporary, but could have a significant impact on the
financial condition of our business.
International market pricing and changes in foreign exchange
rates.
The Grindr App has MAUs in over
190 countries
and territories. Our international revenues represented 37.4% and
35.8% of total revenue for years ended December 31, 2022 and 2021,
respectively. We vary our pricing to align with local market
conditions and our international businesses typically earn revenues
in local currencies. In addition, some of the parties we work with
utilize internally generated foreign exchange rates that may differ
from other foreign exchange rates, which could impact our results
of operations.
Key Components of Our Results of Operations
Revenues
We currently generate revenue from two revenue streams—Direct
Revenue and Indirect Revenue. Direct Revenue is revenue generated
by our users who pay for subscriptions or premium add-ons to access
premium features. Indirect Revenue is generated by third parties
who pay us for access to our users, such as advertising and
partnerships. As we continue to expand and diversify our revenue
streams, we anticipate increasing monetization from premium
add-ons, contributing to increase in revenues over
time.
Direct Revenues.
Direct Revenues are reported gross of fees for subscriptions and
premium add-ons as we are the primary party obligated in our
transactions with customers and therefore, we act as the principal.
Our subscription revenues are generated through the sale of monthly
subscriptions that are currently offered in one, three, six and
twelve-month subscription periods. Subscribers pay in advance,
primarily through third party partners, including iTunes, Google
Play, and Stripe, according to our terms and conditions.
Subscription revenues, net of taxes and chargebacks, are recognized
on a monthly basis over the term of the subscription.
Indirect Revenues.
Indirect Revenues primarily consists of revenue generated by third
parties who pay us for access to our users, including advertising,
partnerships, and merchandise.
Our advertising business provides advertisers with the unique
opportunity to directly target and reach the LGBTQ community, which
generally consists of well-educated individuals with significant
global purchasing power. We have attracted advertisers from a
diverse array of industries, including healthcare, gaming, travel,
automotive, and consumer goods. We offer a diverse range of
advertising initiatives to advertisers, such as in-app banners,
full-screen interstitials, rewarded video, and other customized
units, typically on a CPM basis. We contract with a variety of
third-party ad
platforms to market and sell digital and mobile advertising
inventory on our Grindr App. In exchange for facilitating the
advertising process, we pay the relevant third-party ad platform a
share of the revenue derived from the advertisements they place on
the Grindr App.
Cost of Revenue and Operating Expenses
Cost of Revenue.
Cost of revenue consists primarily of the distribution fees which
we pay to Apple and Google, infrastructure costs associated with
supporting the Grindr App and our advertising efforts, which stem
largely from our use of Amazon Web Services, and costs associated
with content moderation, which involve our outsourced teams in
Honduras and the Philippines ensuring that users are complying with
our community standards.
Selling, General, and Administrative Expenses.
Selling, general and administrative expenses consists primarily of
sales and marketing expenditures, compensation and other
employee-related costs for our employees, costs related to outside
consultants and general administrative expenses, including for our
facilities, information technology and infrastructure support. We
plan to continue to expand sales and marketing efforts to attract
new users, retain existing users and increase monetization of both
our new and existing users.
Product Development Expense.
Product development expense consists primarily of employee-related
and contractor costs for personnel engaged in the design,
development, testing and enhancement of product offerings,
features, and related technology.
Depreciation and Amortization.
Depreciation is primarily related to computers, equipment,
furniture, fixtures, and leasehold improvements. Amortization is
primarily related to capitalized software, acquired intangible
assets (customer relationships, technology, etc.) as well as
trademarks, patents, and copyrights.
Other (Expense) Income
Interest (Expense) Income, Net.
Interest (expense) income, net consists of interest income received
on related party loans, interest expense incurred in connection
with our long-term debt and loss on extinguishment of Deferred
Payment (defined below).
Other (Expense) Income, Net.
Other (expense) income, net consists of realized exchange rate
gains or losses, unrealized exchange rate gains or losses,
charitable contributions and transaction costs allocated to
warrants.
Income Tax (Benefit) Provision.
Income tax (benefit) provision represents the income tax expense
associated with our operations based on the tax laws of the
jurisdictions in which we operate. Foreign jurisdictions have
different statutory tax rates than the United States. Our effective
tax rates will vary depending on the relative proportion of foreign
to domestic income, changes in the valuation of our deferred tax
assets and liabilities, and changes in tax laws.
Results of Operations
Year Ended December 31, 2022 Compared to Year Ended December 31,
2021
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Results of Operations |
|
|
|
|
|
($ in thousands) |
|
Year Ended December 31, 2022
|
|
% of
Total
Revenue
|
Year Ended December 31, 2021
|
|
% of
Total
Revenue
|
Consolidated Statements of Operations and Comprehensive
Income
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Revenue |
|
$ |
195,015 |
|
|
100.0 |
% |
$ |
145,833 |
|
|
100.0 |
% |
Operating costs and expenses |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Cost of revenue (exclusive of depreciation and amortization shown
separately below)
|
|
51,280 |
|
|
26.3 |
% |
37,358 |
|
|
25.6 |
% |
Selling, general and administrative expense |
|
75,295 |
|
|
38.6 |
% |
30,618 |
|
|
21.0 |
% |
Product development expense |
|
17,900 |
|
|
9.2 |
% |
10,913 |
|
|
7.5 |
% |
Depreciation and amortization |
|
37,505 |
|
|
19.2 |
% |
43,234 |
|
|
29.6 |
% |
Total operating costs and expenses |
|
181,980 |
|
|
93.3 |
% |
122,123 |
|
|
83.7 |
% |
Income from operations |
|
13,035 |
|
|
6.7 |
% |
23,710 |
|
|
16.3 |
% |
Other expense |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Interest expense, net |
|
(31,538) |
|
|
(16.2) |
% |
(18,698) |
|
|
(12.8) |
% |
Other (expense) income, net |
|
(2,799) |
|
|
(1.4) |
% |
1,288 |
|
|
0.9 |
% |
Change in fair value of warrant liability |
|
21,295 |
|
|
10.9 |
% |
— |
|
|
— |
% |
Total other expense |
|
(13,042) |
|
|
(6.7) |
% |
(17,410) |
|
|
(11.9) |
% |
Net (loss) income before income tax |
|
(7) |
|
|
— |
% |
6,300 |
|
|
4.3 |
% |
Income tax (benefit) provision |
|
(859) |
|
|
(0.4) |
% |
1,236 |
|
|
0.8 |
% |
Net income
|
|
$ |
852 |
|
|
0.4 |
% |
$ |
5,064 |
|
|
3.5 |
% |
Net income per share |
|
$ |
0.01 |
|
|
|
$ |
0.03 |
|
|
|
Revenues
Revenues for the years ended December 31, 2022 and 2021 were $195.0
million and $145.8 million, respectively. The $49.2 million
increase, or 33.7% growth rate was primarily due to an increase in
Direct Revenue of $47.3 million, or 41%, to $163.3 million and an
increase in Indirect Revenue of $1.9 million, or 6.4%, to $31.7
million. The increase in Direct Revenue was driven by both an
increase in ARPPU and Paying Users. ARPPU increased by 7.5%, or
$1.20, to $17.28 in 2022 from $16.08 in the year ended December 31,
2021. Our ARPPU increased as we improved product mix with growth in
our Unlimited tier and optimized pricing on legacy plans during the
year ended December 31, 2022. In 2022, Paying Users increased by
187 thousand to 788 thousand, from 601 thousand in
December 31, 2021, as we increased Paying User penetration of
our overall user base as a result of launching new premium add-ons
and features to drive greater subscription conversion. The increase
in Indirect Revenue was primarily driven by year-over-year growth
in advertising revenue.
Revenues from operations in the United States increased by
$28.4 million, or 30.3%, in the year ended December 31, 2022
as compared to the year ended December 31, 2021. During this same
period, revenues from operations in the United Kingdom increased by
$3.6 million, or 33.6%, and revenues from operations in the
remainder of the world increased by $17.2 million, or 41.4%.
These changes are consistent with revenue changes previously
noted.
Cost of revenue
Cost of revenue for the years ended December 31, 2022 and 2021 was
$51.3 million and $37.4 million, respectively. Cost of revenue
increased by $13.9 million, or 37.2%, in the year ended
December 31, 2022 as compared to the year ended December 31, 2021.
This increase was primarily due to growth in distribution fees
(consistent with direct revenue growth) and increased
infrastructure costs associated with our primary information
systems vendors.
Selling, general and administrative expense
Selling, general and administrative expense for the years ended
December 31, 2022 and 2021 was $75.3 million and
$30.6 million, respectively. Selling, general and
administrative expenses increased $44.7 million, or 146.1% in the
year ended December 31, 2022 as compared to the year ended December
31, 2021, primarily due to stock-based compensation expense
increase of approximately $23.7 million resulting from the Series P
unit modification that occurred in the second
quarter of 2022, as well as approximately $6.0 million increase of
full-time employee-related expenses associated with headcount
growth, and approximately $7.0 million increase in spending for
outside service fees for audit, tax, legal, recruiting, and other
consulting services. The increase was also due to higher branding
and marketing costs, as well as other general and administrative
expenses, such as general liability insurance, office software, and
business travel and entertainment.
Product development expense
Product development expense for the years ended December 31, 2022
and 2021 was $17.9 million and $10.9 million, respectively.
Product development expense increased $7.0 million, or 64.2%,
in the year ended December 31, 2022 as compared to the year ended
December 31, 2021, due to higher contractor expenses and increased
full-time employee-related expenses.
Depreciation and amortization
Depreciation and amortization for the years ended December 31, 2022
and 2021 was $37.5 million and $43.2 million, respectively.
Depreciation and amortization decreased $5.7 million, or 13%,
in the year ended December 31, 2022 as compared to the year ended
December 31, 2021, due to acquired intangibles amortization from
our acquisition in June 2020 and as certain intangible assets were
amortized under an accelerated amortization schedule, with higher
amounts expensed in 2021.
Interest expense, net
Interest expense, net for the years ended December 31, 2022 and
2021 was $31.5 million and $18.7 million,
respectively.
Interest expense, net increased by $12.8 million in the year
ended December 31, 2022 as compared to the year ended December 31,
2021, primarily due to the additional interest expense associated
with raising additional debt as well as rising interest rates and
loss on extinguishment of debt in connection with the Business
Combination.
Interest income for the years ended December 31, 2022 and 2021
primarily relates to a $30 million promissory note from Catapult GP
II in conjunction with the common units purchased on April 27,
2021. Total promissory note bears interest at 10.0% per annum.
Total amount of interest income related to the note for the years
ended December 31, 2022 and 2021 were $2.8 million and
$2.0 million, respectively. See Note 9 and Note 20 to Grindr’s
audited consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in
this Annual Report on Form 10-K for additional
information.
Interest expense relates primarily to the Company's credit
agreement. Total amount of interest expense related to the credit
agreement for the years ended December 31, 2022 and 2021 were $22.7
million and $20.7 million, respectively. See Note 11 to
Grindr’s audited consolidated financial statements for additional
information included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K
for additional information.
We agreed to settle the Deferred Payment (defined below) with
Kunlun. The difference between the assumed carrying value of the
Deferred Payment at the time of settlement and the $155.0 million
obligation is recognized in the amount of $11.9 million, which has
been recorded as a loss on extinguishment of debt included in
Interest expense, net in the consolidated statements of operations
and comprehensive income in the period it was extinguished. See
Note 3 to our audited consolidated financial statements included
elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K for additional
information.
Other (expense) income, net
Other income (expense), net for the years ended December 31, 2022
and 2021 was $(2.8) million and $1.3 million,
respectively.
Other income (expense), net decreased by $4.1 million in the year
ended December 31, 2022 as compared to the year ended December 31,
2021, primarily due to transaction costs allocated to warrants
related to the Business Combination as other expense in 2022.
Additionally, we had other income of $1.5 million for loan
forgiveness for our Paycheck Protection Program Loan in October
2021. See Note 11 to our audited consolidated financial statements
included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K for
additional information
Change in fair value of warrant liability
Change in fair value of warrant liability represents the change in
the fair value of our Warrants between measurement dates. The
Warrants remained unexercised and were remeasured to fair value of
$17.9 million as of December 31, 2022, resulting in a gain of
$21.3 million for the year ended December 31, 2022 recognized in
the consolidated statements of operations and comprehensive
income.
Income tax provision (benefit)
We recorded income tax provision (benefit) as follows:
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Year Ended December 31, 2022
|
|
Year Ended December 31, 2021
|
Current income tax provision: |
|
|
|
Federal |
$ |
8,696 |
|
|
$ |
4,828 |
|
State |
1,647 |
|
|
711 |
|
International |
17 |
|
|
9 |
|
Total current tax provision: |
10,360 |
|
|
5,548 |
|
Deferred income tax benefit: |
|
|
|
Federal |
(9,791) |
|
|
(4,436) |
|
State |
(1,428) |
|
|
124 |
|
International |
— |
|
|
— |
|
Total deferred tax benefit: |
(11,219) |
|
|
(4,312) |
|
Total income tax (benefit) provision |
$ |
(859) |
|
|
$ |
1,236 |
|
Legacy Grindr restructured immediately prior to the Business
Combination. The restructuring created two tax periods, one for
Legacy Grindr through the restructuring, and one for Grindr through
the remainder of the year. The decrease in income tax (benefit)
provision is primary due to the tax effect on the increase in
stock-based compensation and decrease in foreign derived intangible
income deduction and research tax credit in Legacy Grindr’s short
tax period, and the tax effect on the change in fair value of
warrant liability in Grindr’s short tax period resulting in a
taxable loss position.
Our effective tax rates in fiscal 2022 and future periods may
fluctuate, as a result of changes in our forecasts where losses
cannot be benefited due to the existence of valuation allowances on
our deferred tax assets, changes in actual results versus our
estimates, or changes in tax laws, regulations, accounting
principles, or interpretations thereof.
Net income
Net income for the years ended December 31, 2022 and 2021 was $0.9
million and $5.1 million, respectively. Net income decreased
by $4.2 million for the reasons explained above.
Non-GAAP Financial Measures
To supplement our consolidated financial statements, which are
prepared and presented in accordance with GAAP, we use Adjusted
Direct Revenue and Adjusted EBITDA, as described below, to
understand and evaluate our core operating performance. These
non-GAAP financial measures, which may differ from similarly titled
measures used by other companies, is presented to enhance
investors’ overall understanding of our financial performance and
should not be considered a substitute for, or superior to, the
financial information prepared and presented in accordance with
GAAP.
Adjusted Direct Revenue
We define Adjusted Direct Revenue as Direct Revenue adjusted for
the release of the fair value adjustment of deferred revenue into
revenue of the acquired deferred revenue due to the June 10, 2020
acquisition (See
Note 3 to Grindr’s audited consolidated financial statements
included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K for
additional information).
The following table presents the reconciliation of Direct Revenue
to Adjusted Direct Revenue for the years ended December 31, 2022
and 2021.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
($ in thousands) |
Year Ended December 31, 2022 |
|
Year Ended December 31, 2021 |
Reconciliation of Direct Revenue to Adjusted Direct
Revenue
|
|
|
|
Direct Revenue |
$ |
163,308 |
|
|
$ |
116,031 |
|
Adjustments |
— |
|
|
900 |
|
Adjusted Direct Revenue |
$ |
163,308 |
|
|
$ |
116,931 |
|
Adjusted EBITDA
The primary financial measure we use is Adjusted EBITDA. EBITDA is
defined as earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and
amortization. We define Adjusted EBITDA as net income excluding
income tax provision, interest expense, depreciation and
amortization, stock-based compensation expense, non-core
expenses/losses (gains), including purchase accounting adjustments
related to deferred revenue, transaction-related costs, litigation
related costs, management fees, change in fair value of warrant
liability and interest income from the related party loan to
Catapult GP II. Our management uses this measure internally to
evaluate the performance of our business and this measure is one of
the primary metrics by which our internal budgets are based and by
which management is compensated. We exclude the above items as some
are non-cash in nature, and others are non-recurring that they may
not be representative of normal operating results. This non-GAAP
financial measure adjusts for the impact of items that we do not
consider indicative of the operational performance of our business.
While we believe that this non-GAAP financial measure is useful in
evaluating our business, this information should be considered as
supplemental in nature and is not meant as a substitute for the
related financial information prepared and presented in accordance
with GAAP.
Adjusted EBITDA Margin is calculated by dividing Adjusted EBITDA
for a period by revenue for the same period.
The following table presents the reconciliation of net income to
Adjusted EBITDA for, the years ended December 31, 2022 and
2021.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
($ in thousands) |
Year Ended December 31, 2022 |
|
Year Ended December 31, 2021 |
Reconciliation of net income to adjusted EBITDA |
|
|
|
Net income |
$ |
852 |
|
|
$ |
5,064 |
|
Interest expense, net
(1)
|
31,538 |
|
|
18,698 |
|
Income tax (benefit) expense |
(859) |
|
|
1,236 |
|
Depreciation and amortization |
37,505 |
|
|
43,234 |
|
Transaction-related costs
(2)
|
6,499 |
|
|
3,854 |
|
Litigation related costs
(3)
|
1,722 |
|
|
1,913 |
|
Stock-based compensation expense |
28,586 |
|
|
2,485 |
|
Management fees
(4)
|
644 |
|
|
728 |
|
Purchase accounting adjustment |
— |
|
|
900 |
|
Other income
(5)
|
— |
|
|
(1,058) |
|
Change in fair value of warrant liability
(6)
|
(21,295) |
|
|
— |
|
Adjusted EBITDA |
$ |
85,192 |
|
|
$ |
77,054 |
|
Revenue |
$ |
195,015 |
|
|
$ |
145,833 |
|
Adjusted EBITDA Margin |
43.7 |
% |
|
52.8 |
% |
_________________
(1)Interest
expense, net for the year ended December 31, 2022 included the loss
on extinguishment of Deferred Payment (defined below).
(2)Transaction-related
costs consist of legal, tax, accounting, consulting, and other
professional fees related to the Business Combination and other
potential acquisitions, that are non-recurring in
nature.
(3)For
the years ended December 31, 2022 and December 31, 2021, litigation
related costs primarily represent external legal fees associated
with the outstanding litigation or regulatory matters such as the
potential Datatilsynet fine or the CFIUS review of the Business
Combination, which are unrelated to Grindr’s core ongoing business
operations.
(4)Management
fees represent administrative costs associated with SVH's
administrative role in managing financial relationships and
providing directive on strategic and operational decisions, which
ceased to continue after the Closing.
(5)For
the year ended December 31, 2021, other income primarily represents
costs incurred from reorganization events that are unrelated to
Grindr's core ongoing business operations, including severance and
employment related costs of $0.5 million, offset by PPP Loan
forgiveness income of $1.5 million.
(6)Change
in fair value of warrant liability relates to our warrants that
were remeasured to fair value of $17.9 million as of
December 31, 2022, resulting in a gain of $21.3 million for
the year ended December 31, 2022.
Adjusted EBITDA increased by $8.1 million, or 10.6%, in the year
ended December 31, 2022 as compared to the year ended December 31,
2021, primarily due to an increase in revenue, which was partially
offset by an increase in higher operating expenses (excluding
one-time, non-recurring, and other expenses, as outlined in the
Adjusted EBITDA definition).
Liquidity and Capital Resources
We measure liquidity in terms of our ability to fund the cash
requirement of our business operations, including
working capital and capital expenditure needs, contractual
obligations and other commitments, with cash flows
from
operations and other sources of funding. Our current working
capital needs relate mainly to the monthly cash flow
requirements of our operational and selling, general and
administrative expenses. Our ability to expand and grow
our
business will depend on many factors, including our working capital
needs and the evolution of our operating cash flows.
We had $10.1 million in cash and cash equivalents, including
restricted cash, as of December 31, 2022.
Cash Flows for the Years Ended December 31, 2022 and
2021
The following table summarizes our total cash and cash
equivalent:
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
($ in thousands) |
Year Ended December 31, 2022 |
|
Year Ended December 31, 2021 |
Cash and cash equivalents, including restricted cash (as of the end
of period)
|
$ |
10,117 |
|
|
$ |
17,170 |
|
Net cash provided by (used in): |
|
|
|
Operating activities |
$ |
50,644 |
|
|
$ |
34,430 |
|
Investing activities |
(5,585) |
|
|
(3,797) |
|
Financing activities |
(52,112) |
|
|
(56,249) |
|
Net change in cash and cash equivalents |
$ |
(7,053) |
|
|
$ |
(25,616) |
|
Cash flows provided by operating activities
Net cash provided by operating activities are primarily dependent
on our revenues affected by timing of receipts from subscription
and advertising sales. It is also dependent on managing our
operating expenses, such as salaries and employee-related costs,
selling and marketing expenses, transaction costs, and other
general and administrative expenses. We expect to maintain strong
operating cash flows given our historical performance. We will
continue to invest in the right resources to support longer term
profitable growth. Our operating cash flows should continue to
cover our operating and financing costs.
During the year ended December 31, 2022, our operations provided
$50.6 million of cash, which was primarily attributable to net
income of $0.9 million, an increase of $37.5 million in
depreciation and amortization, an increase of $11.9 million in loss
in extinguishment of Deferred Payment (defined below), a decrease
of $21.3 million in the fair value change in warrant liability and
an increase of $19.3 million in other non-cash adjustments.
Cash flows provided by operating activities were further
attributable to a decrease of $2.5 million from changes in
operating assets and liabilities.
During the year ended December 31, 2021, our operations provided
$34.4 million of cash, which was primarily attributable to net
income of $5.1 million, an increase of $43.2 million in
depreciation and amortization and a decrease of $2.9 million
in other non-cash adjustments. Cash flows provided by operating
activities were further attributable to a decrease of
$10.9 million from changes in operating assets and
liabilities.
Cash flows used in investing activities
Net cash used in investing activities in the year ended December
31, 2022 consisted of additions to capitalized software of
$5.2 million as well as purchases of property and equipment of
$0.4 million.
Net cash used in investing activities in the year ended December
31, 2021 consisted of additions to capitalized software of
$3.5 million as well as purchases of property and equipment of
$0.3 million. We expect our capital investments to increase
over time as we further enhance our platform and product. However,
historically this has not been significant, as it has primarily
comprised capitalized engineering labor costs and computer hardware
costs for employees. Other increases could come from potential
acquisitions or other platform extensions.
Cash flows used in by financing activities
Net cash used in financing activities in the year ended December
31, 2022 consisted of $5.2 million in proceeds from the issuance of
Common Stock in the Business Combination, $100.0 million in
exercise of the Forward Purchase Agreement to Tiga,
$2.0 million in proceeds from exercise of employee stock
options, $230.8 million in proceeds from issuance of debt, $1.8
million in payment of related party note payable, $155.0 million in
payment of deferred purchase price to Kunlun, $196.3 million in
distributions paid, $3.5 million related to principal paydown of
our long-term debt as well as $5.1 million in debt issuance
costs.
Net cash used in financing activities in the year ended December
31, 2021 consisted of $1.4 million in proceeds from exercise
of employee stock options, $56.6 million related to principal
paydown of our long-term debt as well as $1.0 million in debt
issuance costs.
Sources of Liquidity
Since our inception, we have financed our operations and capital
expenditures primarily through cash flows generated by operations,
a senior secured credit facility, the private sales of equity
securities, and recently, the public sales of equity securities as
a result of the Business Combination.
To the extent existing cash and investments and cash from
operations are not sufficient to fund future activities, we may
need to raise additional funds. We may seek to raise additional
funds through equity, equity-linked or debt financings. If we raise
additional funds through the incurrence of indebtedness, such
indebtedness may have rights that are senior to holders of our
equity securities and could contain covenants that restrict
operations. Any additional equity financing may be dilutive to
existing stockholders. We may enter into investment or acquisition
transactions in the future, which could require us to seek
additional equity financing, incur indebtedness, or use cash
resources.
Financing Arrangements
Through December 31, 2022, we completed the following
transactions:
Deferred Payment
In June 2020, as part of SVH’s indirect acquisition of
approximately 98.6% interest in Grindr (and its subsidiaries) from
Kunlun, SV Acquisition agreed to pay what, after adjustments
provided for in the acquisition
agreement, amounted to a $230.0 million deferred consideration
payment liability to Kunlun, payable on the second and third
anniversary of the closing date (the “Deferred Payment”). In
connection with the acquisition, SV Acquisition assigned the
obligations for the Deferred Payment to Grindr, and subsequently,
through a series of assumption agreements, SV Acquisition
re-assumed the obligations for the Deferred Payment. In June 2022,
Grindr declared and then paid a distribution of $83.3 million to
its members, including an affiliate of SV Acquisition, on a pro
rata basis. Grindr paid this distribution in June and July 2022. SV
Acquisition’s affiliate, SV Group Holdings, received its ratable
share of this distribution, being $75.0 million, and distributed
that amount through intermediate holding companies to SV
Acquisition, which then paid such amount to Kunlun in partial
satisfaction of the Deferred Payment obligation, thereby reducing
such obligation to $155.0 million. The cash transfer to Kunlun was
effected by Grindr at the instruction of SV Group Holdings.
Substantially simultaneously with Closing, the remaining Deferred
Payment obligation was fully repaid. For further information on the
Deferred Payment, refer to Note 3 of our audited consolidated
financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2022 included
elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K for additional
information.
Fortress Credit Corp. Loan
On June 10, 2020, Grindr Gap LLC (f/k/a San Vicente Gap LLC),
Grindr Capital LLC (f/k/a San Vicente Capital LLC) (the
“Borrower”), Fortress Credit Corp. (“Fortress”) and the other
credit parties and lenders party thereto entered into
a credit agreement (the “Credit Agreement”), which permitted the
Borrower to borrow up to $192.0 million through a senior secured
credit facility. The full amount of $192.0 million was drawn on
June 10, 2020. If amounts are repaid, they may not be reborrowed.
The Borrower used such proceeds to pay part of the total purchase
consideration in connection with the SV Acquisition and related
fees and other transaction costs. The Borrower, Fortress and the
other credit parties and lenders entered into Amendment No. 2 to
the Credit Agreement on June 13, 2022, which permitted the Borrower
to borrow an additional $60.0 million through several supplemental
term loans (the “Supplemental Term Loans”). The full amount of the
Supplemental Term Loans was drawn on June 13, 2022. Amounts paid or
repaid in respect of the Supplemental Term Loans may not be
reborrowed. The proceeds of the Supplemental Term Loans were used
by the Borrower to fund a restricted payment permitted under the
Credit Agreement, the proceeds of which (after taking into account
minority interests) were in turn paid to Kunlun in partial
satisfaction of the Deferred Payment and to pay fees and other
transaction costs incurred in connection with such payment (the
“Supplemental Term Loan Payment”). The Borrower, Fortress and the
other credit parties and lenders entered into Amendment No. 3 to
the Credit Agreement on November 14, 2022, which permitted the
Borrower to borrow an additional $170.8 million through several
supplemental term loans (the “Supplemental Term Loans II”). The
full amount of the Supplemental Term Loans II was drawn on November
14, 2022 (in the amount of $140.8 million) and November 17, 2022
(in the amount of $30.0 million).
The Borrower is a direct subsidiary of Grindr Gap, LLC, which is a
direct subsidiary of Legacy Grindr. Legacy Grindr is a direct
subsidiary of Grindr Inc. Borrowings under the Credit Agreement are
guaranteed by all of the subsidiaries of Legacy Grindr (other than
the Borrower and Grindr Canada Inc.) and are collateralized by the
capital stock and/or certain assets of all of the subsidiaries of
Legacy Grindr. Borrowings under the Credit Agreement are repayable
in full on various dates ranging from May 17, 2024 to November 14,
2027 based on the drawdown dates of the loans with quarterly
mandatory principal repayments equal to 0.5% of the original
principal amount of the relevant loans. The Borrower is also
required (among other things) to make mandatory prepayments of the
Credit Agreement equal to a defined percentage rate (determined
based on our leverage ratio) of excess cash flow. Borrowings under
the Credit Agreement are index rate loans or Term SOFR loans, at
the Borrower’s discretion. Index rate loans bear interest at the
index rate plus applicable margin based on the consolidated total
leverage ratio, currently 7.0%. Term SOFR loans bear interest at
Term SOFR (as defined in the Credit Agreement) plus an applicable
margin based on the consolidated total leverage ratio, currently
8.0%, in each case, except for $30.0 million of the Supplemental
Term Loans II for which the applicable margin is currently 3.2% for
index rate loans and 4.2% for Term SOFR loans.
The Credit Agreement also required the Borrower to make a lump-sum
principal repayment in the amount of $48.0 million plus related
accrued interest on or before February 28, 2021. This repayment
date was amended to November 30, 2021 by an amendment to the Credit
Agreement entered into on February 25, 2021. In addition to this
mandatory repayment, the Borrower was required to pay a premium of
10.0% of the principal repayment, or $4.8 million together with the
mandatory lump-sum principal repayment. The repayment was made in
November 2021.
The obligations under the Credit Agreement are subject to
acceleration at the election of the required lenders during the
continuance of any event of default. A default interest rate of an
additional 2.0% per annum will apply on all outstanding obligations
after the occurrence of an event of default. The Credit Agreement
includes restrictive non-financial and financial covenants,
including the requirement to maintain a total leverage ratio no
greater than a specified level, currently 4.50:1.00.
See Note 13 to our audited consolidated financial statements for
the year ended December 31, 2022 included elsewhere in this Annual
Report on Form 10-K for further information. A portion of the
borrowings under the Credit Agreement were used to pay the Deferred
Payment.
Contractual obligations and contingencies
Our principal commitments consist of obligations under the Credit
Agreement and operating leases for office space. See Note 11 and
Note 13 to our audited consolidated financial statements included
elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K for additional
information.
Off-balance sheet arrangements
We have no significant off-balance sheet arrangements.
Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates
We have based our estimates on historical experience and on various
other assumptions that are believed to be reasonable under the
circumstances, the results of which form the basis for making
judgments about the carrying values of assets and liabilities that
are not readily apparent from other sources. Due to the inherent
uncertainty involved in making these estimates, actual results
reported in future periods could differ from our
estimates.
We believe that the following critical accounting policy reflects
the more significant estimates, assumptions, and judgments used in
the preparation of our consolidated financial statements. These
estimates, judgments, and assumptions impact the reported amount of
assets, liabilities, revenues, and expenses and the related
disclosure of contingent assets and
liabilities as of the date of the consolidated financial
statements. Because of the size of the financial statement elements
to which they relate, some of our accounting policies and estimates
have a more significant impact on our consolidated financial
statements than others. What follows is a discussion of our more
significant accounting policy and estimate. For additional
information, see the disclosure included in Note 2 to our
consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this Form
10-K.
Stock-based Compensation
Prior to the Business Combination
We granted stock options and restricted stock awards to employees
that vest based solely on continued service, or service conditions
under the 2020 Equity Incentive Plan ("2020 Plan"). The fair value
of each option award containing service conditions is estimated on
the grant date using the Black-Scholes option-pricing model. We
recognized stock-based compensation expense on a straight-line
basis of the requisite service periods of the awards, which is
generally four years. In addition, we also granted service-based
and performance-based profit units. Refer to Note 17 of our audited
consolidated financial statements elsewhere in this Annual Report
on Form 10-K for additional information on stock-based compensation
awards.
Determining the fair value of service-based stock-based awards at
the grant date requires judgment. We estimated the fair value of
our stock options granted using the Black-Scholes option-pricing
model. Our use of the Black-Scholes option-pricing model required
the input of subjective assumptions, such as the fair value of the
Common Stock, the expected term of the option, the expected
volatility of the price of our Common Stock, risk-free interest
rates, the expected dividend yield of our Common Stock, and the
expected term option holders will retain their vested awards before
exercising them. The assumptions used in our valuation models
represent management’s best estimates. The assumptions and
estimates are as follows:
•Fair
value of Common Stock.
The fair value of our Common Stock was estimated because our Common
Stock had not yet been publicly traded prior to the Business
Combination.
•Expected
term.
The expected option term represented the period that the options
were expected to be outstanding and is based on historical
experience of similar awards, giving consideration to the
contractual terms, vesting schedules and expectations of future
employee behavior.
•Expected
volatility.
The expected volatility was based on the historical and implied
volatility of comparable publicly traded companies’ Common Stock
over a similar expected term.
•Expected
dividend yield.
The expected dividend yield was zero as we had never declared or
paid cash dividends.
In addition, given the absence of a public trading market, Legacy
Grindr’s Board of Managers, along with management, exercised
reasonable judgment and considered numerous objective and
subjective factors to determine the fair value of our Common Stock
including, but not limited to: (i) contemporaneous valuations
performed by an independent valuation specialist (ii) our operating
and financial performance (iii) issuances of preferred and
ordinary units (iv) the valuation of comparable companies;
(v) current condition of capital markets and the likelihood of
achieving a liquidity event, such as an initial public offering and
(vi) the lack of marketability of its Common
Stock.
Subsequent to the Business Combination
Immediately prior to the completion of the Business Combination,
Legacy Grindr's compensation plan was terminated and each option
outstanding and unexercised at the effective time of the Closing
was converted into the right to receive an option to purchase our
Common Stock upon substantially the same terms and conditions as
the unit options immediately prior to the Business Combination. In
addition, all vested profit units were exchanged for our Common
Stock.
In connection with our Business Combination, on November 18,
2022, the Board of Directors adopted the 2022 Equity Incentive Plan
(the “2022 Plan”), which permits the grant of incentive awards,
nonstatutory stock options, stock appreciation rights, restricted
stock awards, restricted stock unit awards, performance awards, and
other awards.
We measure the fair value of restricted stock units containing
service conditions based on the fair value on the grant date of our
Common Stock as of the date of grant. Compensation expense for
restricted stock units with time-based vesting conditions is
recognized on a straight-line basis over the requisite service
period.
We measure the fair value of restricted stock units that are
subject to market conditions and are liability-classified using a
Monte Carlo simulation model. Our use of the Monte Carlo simulation
model requires estimates, including the expected term, the expected
volatility, the risk-free interest rate, and the dividend yield.
Prior to vesting, compensation expense is recognized over the
derived service period. At the end of each financial reporting
period prior to the vesting date, the fair value of these awards is
remeasured using a Monte Carlo simulation model.
Recently Issued and Adopted Accounting Pronouncements
For a discussion of recent accounting pronouncements, see Note 2 to
our audited consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in
this Annual Report on Form 10-K for additional
information.
Item 7A. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market
Risk
We are a smaller reporting company as defined by Item 10 of
Regulation S-K and are not required to provide the information
otherwise required under this item.
Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data
INDEX TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
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|
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Page |
Report of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm (PCAOB ID:
42)
|
|
Consolidated Balance Sheets |
|
Consolidated Statements of Operations and Comprehensive
Income |
|
Consolidated Statements of Stockholders' Equity |
|
Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows |
|
Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements |
|
REPORT OF INDEPENDENT REGISTERED PUBLIC ACCOUNTING
FIRM
To the Stockholders and the Board of Directors of Grindr
Inc.
Opinion on the Financial Statements
We have audited the accompanying consolidated balance sheets of
Grindr Inc. and Subsidiaries (the "Company") as of December 31,
2022 and 2021, the related consolidated statements of operations
and comprehensive income, stockholders' equity and cash flows for
each of the two years in