By Dhirendra Tripathi
Investing.com – Bumble Inc. (NASDAQ:BMBL) stock surged 19% in premarket trade after the company said 2022 revenue could rise by more than 23%, an optimistic forecast, given the company’s exposure to Russia and its decision to leave the Russian market.
Bumble has a large portion of its engineering talent in Russia and its Badoo app gets 12% of its monthly users from the country, according to Bloomberg. The company employs 120 people in Moscow, the wire agency said.
The company behind the namesake dating app said revenue in the current year could come in between $934 million and $944 million compared to almost $767 million it clocked in 2021.
This is even as the company removes all its apps from the Apple App Store and Google Play Store in Russia and Belarus.
The full-year forecast includes a loss of about $22 million in revenue from Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus, which will mostly impact Bumble’s Badoo app. Combined sales from the three countries made up about 2.8% of Bumble’s annual revenue.
Adjusted margins at the basic operating level could erode slightly to come in between 26.5% and 27% compared to 27.1% in 2021, according to the company.
The COVID-19 pandemic boosted the use of dating apps as people confined to their homes used virtual platforms to meet new people and develop new relationships, personal and professional. Now even as economies reopen, the pandemic-led surge in users is still holding up and users are only paying more.
Total paying users grew 11% to 2.98 million even as users of Badoo declined. Total average revenue per user rose by $2.81 to near $23.
In the fourth quarter, revenue jumped about 26% to top $208 million while net loss nearly halved to go below $15 million.