Second quarter revenue fell 15.2% to $210.5 million, and the dating app operator halved its selling and marketing budget across the first six months of 2026 while shifting money toward product and technology.

Bumble Inc. today reported financial results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2026, disclosing total revenue of $210.5 million against $248.2 million a year earlier. The Austin company also filed a Form 8-K with the Securities and Exchange Commission on August 5, 2026, furnishing the release under Item 2.02 and signed by Chief Financial Officer Kevin D. Cook.

The headline decline is the part investors will price. The part that concerns media buyers sits four lines further down the income statement. Selling and marketing expense came in at $29.2 million for the quarter, down 9.0% from $32.1 million. Across the first half, the same line fell to $56.2 million from $91.8 million, a reduction of 38.8%. Almost all of that contraction happened in the first quarter, where spend dropped to roughly $27.0 million from $59.7 million, a cut of about 54.9% year on year.

A large app advertiser spends less, then signals a turn

Dating applications have historically ranked among the heaviest buyers of mobile install inventory, and a category participant of Bumble's size reducing its promotional budget by more than a third in six months registers across the demand side. The company does not disclose channel-level allocation, so the split between paid social, app store search, connected television and offline brand work is not visible from the filings.

What the filings do show is a company that spent less on acquisition while spending more on engineering. Product development expense rose to $35.5 million in the quarter from $32.5 million, an increase of 9.3%. Measured against revenue, product development climbed to 16.9% from 13.1%, while selling and marketing rose to 13.9% from 12.9% because revenue shrank faster than the budget did. Over the half year, the marketing ratio tells a cleaner story: 13.3% of revenue in 2026 against 18.5% in 2025.

Cook framed the second half differently. "We delivered second quarter revenue and Adjusted EBITDA at the higher end or above our guidance ranges, as we continue to execute with financial discipline," said Kevin Cook, CFO of Bumble Inc. "We are now deliberately investing across product, technology, and brand as we prepare to deliver on our innovation roadmap and position the company for long-term growth."

Brand appears in that sentence alongside product and technology. The guidance attached to the quarter carries the arithmetic that supports it.

Guidance implies a margin step down

For the third quarter ending September 30, 2026, Bumble anticipates total revenue of $205 million to $213 million, including Bumble App revenue of $167 million to $173 million, and Adjusted EBITDA of $56 million to $60 million. The revenue band sits 13.4% to 16.7% below the $246 million the company recorded in the third quarter of 2025, according to the quarterly series published in its supplemental presentation.

The profitability line moves further. Adjusted EBITDA guidance of $56 million to $60 million compares with $83.1 million in the third quarter of 2025, a decline of 27.8% to 32.6%. Applied against the revenue range, the guidance implies an Adjusted EBITDA margin between roughly 26% and 29%, against 34.6% delivered in the quarter just reported and 38.9% in the first quarter of 2026. Spending is going back in somewhere, and the margin guidance is where that decision becomes legible.

Revenue: both apps down, one line includes advertising

Bumble App revenue decreased 14.7% to $171.7 million from $201.4 million. Badoo App and Other revenue fell 17.1% to $38.8 million from $46.8 million. That second line matters for advertising professionals beyond its size, because BadooApp and Other Revenue is defined in the release as covering Badoo subscriptions and in-app purchases, purchases on other owned apps, purchases on third-party apps using Bumble technology, and advertising, partnerships or affiliates revenue in the relevant period.

Bumble does not break out how much of that $38.8 million comes from advertising. It does, however, exclude advertising and partnership revenue entirely from its key operating metrics, alongside revenue from the discontinued Official app. The company applies the same treatment to BFF, the friendship app relaunched under that name in the United States in September 2025 after launching as Bumble For Friends in 2023. According to Bumble, it has not sought to generate revenue from BFF, which is therefore excluded from key operating metrics as of June 30, 2026. An audience product carrying no monetization mandate is, in practice, unbuilt inventory.

Sequentially, the revenue picture has flattened rather than continued falling. The supplemental presentation charts quarterly revenue at $248 million, $246 million, $224 million, $212 million and $211 million across the five quarters from the second quarter of 2025. The step from the first quarter of 2026 to the second was 0.9%. Annual revenue moved from $1,072 million in fiscal 2024 to $966 million in fiscal 2025, a 10% decline. Bumble notes that the sum of individual metrics may not always equal indicated totals due to rounding, which accounts for small gaps between the percentages in its infographic and those computed from the statements.

Users fall, price holds

Total paying users decreased 16.4% to 3,157,200 from 3,777,200, a loss of 620,000 across twelve months. Bumble App paying users fell to 2,077,100 from 2,499,800, down 422,700. Badoo App and Other paying users dropped to 1,080,100 from 1,277,400, down 197,300.

The quarterly sequence is more informative than the annual comparison. Bumble App paying users moved 2,500 thousand, 2,344 thousand, 2,185 thousand, 2,082 thousand and 2,077 thousand across the five quarters, with sequential losses of 156,000, then 159,000, then 103,000, then 5,000. Badoo followed the same shape: sequential declines of 47,000, 95,000, 52,000 and 4,000. The bleeding has slowed to near zero on a quarter over quarter basis, which is a different condition from growth but a materially different one from a year ago.

Pricing moved the other way. Total average revenue per paying user rose 1.2% to $21.96 from $21.69. Bumble App ARPPU increased to $27.55 from $26.85, up roughly 3%, though it has drifted down from $28.27 in the third quarter of 2025. Badoo App and Other ARPPU fell to $11.21 from $11.57, a decline of about 3%.

A shrinking base paying marginally more per head is a familiar pattern in subscription businesses, and it constrains what marketing can do. Reacquisition at scale requires spend the company has been withholding; monetization of the existing base has limited headroom when the per-user figure is already inching rather than climbing.

Impairment, goodwill and a refinanced balance sheet

Net loss was $127.9 million, or 60.7% of revenue, and included a $169.3 million impairment charge against goodwill and indefinite-lived intangible assets. The comparable quarter carried a net loss of $367.0 million including a $404.9 million impairment. Net loss attributable to Bumble Inc. shareholders was $110.1 million, with basic and diluted loss per share of $0.84 against $2.45 a year earlier.

Goodwill on the balance sheet fell to $603.5 million at June 30, 2026 from $732.7 million at December 31, 2025, a reduction of $129.3 million. Intangible assets net declined to $311.7 million from $351.5 million. Total assets stood at $1,220.2 million against $1,425.1 million at the end of 2025. Accumulated deficit reached $1,459.1 million.

This is the third material writedown in five quarters. The supplemental reconciliation records impairment charges of $404.9 million in the second quarter of 2025, $630.5 million in the fourth quarter of 2025, and $169.3 million in the quarter just reported, with nothing in the two intervening quarters. Adjusted EBITDA excludes all of them, which is why the same five-quarter series shows $94.6 million, $83.1 million, $71.6 million, $82.6 million and $72.9 million while net earnings swing between a $599.8 million loss and a $52.6 million profit.

Financing activity reshaped the debt stack in the period. Bumble drew $456.0 million net in term loan proceeds, repaid $589.1 million of term loans, and paid $7.0 million in debt issuance costs, booking a $1.5 million loss on extinguishment tied to repayment of the Term Loans under the 2020 Credit Agreement and termination of the 2020 Revolving Credit Facility. Transaction and other costs of $1.2 million in the quarter relate primarily to that April 2026 refinancing. Net cash used in financing activities was $143.0 million for the quarter.

Total debt stood at $451.0 million as of June 30, 2026, against cash and cash equivalents of $154.0 million. Long-term debt net fell to $398.9 million from $582.7 million, while the current portion rose to $52.2 million from $5.8 million.

Cash generation held up better than the profit line suggests. Net cash provided by operating activities was $53.6 million for the quarter against $71.2 million, and $130.9 million for the half against $114.5 million. Free cash flow reached $51.1 million in the quarter and $124.9 million across six months, with half-year free cash flow conversion of 80.3% against 68.3%. Capital expenditures totalled $2.5 million in the quarter.

Cost of revenue and the platform tax

Cost of revenue dropped to $54.0 million from $74.3 million, a 27.4% reduction that outpaced the revenue decline. As a share of revenue it fell to 25.6% from 29.9%. For a subscription app operator, that line is dominated by app store commissions, and its movement tracks both lower gross billings and the shifting economics of in-app purchase distribution.

Bumble lists distribution through third parties, "such as Apple App Store or Google Play Store, and offset related fees" among the risk factors that could cause actual results to differ from expectations. The dating category has been at the centre of that fight: the Rotterdam District Court confirmed the Dutch competition authority was right to find that dating app providers were forced onto Apple's own payment system and charged commissions of 15% to 30%. In the United States, Apple was ordered to eliminate commissions on external purchases after a contempt ruling, and payment providers moved quickly to help developers route around the fee.

Restructuring costs of $0.8 million in the quarter, against $12.2 million a year earlier, relate to discontinuing the Fruitz and Official apps and to the 2025 Restructuring Plan. Stock-based compensation ran to $9.5 million for the quarter and $20.3 million for the half, up from $5.8 million and $10.0 million, with the largest increases in general and administrative and product development.

Why this matters for the marketing community

Three threads run through the numbers for anyone buying or selling advertising.

First, demand-side capacity. A category advertiser that spent $91.8 million on selling and marketing in the first half of 2025 spent $56.2 million in the first half of 2026. Whatever share of that reduction came out of paid media left the mobile ecosystem. Cook's language about investing in brand, together with third-quarter Adjusted EBITDA guidance running 28% to 33% below the prior-year quarter, points to some of it returning.

Second, supply-side potential. Advertising, partnership and affiliate revenue sits inside a Badoo line that fell 17.1%, and BFF operates without a revenue mandate at all. Neither is quantified publicly. Both represent audience that currently carries either minimal or no advertising monetization.

Third, targeting constraints. Dating falls inside the sensitive interest categories where Google restricts personalized targeting in Demand Gen and Discovery campaigns, a constraint that shapes how any operator in the category can reach prospects on the largest video and discovery surfaces.

The category's leadership churn also continues to touch the advertising industry directly. Whitney Wolfe Herd, who founded Bumble in 2014, is again serving as Chief Executive Officer. Her predecessor in the role, Lidiane Jones, became chief executive of Integral Ad Science on July 7, 2026, taking over one of the sector's principal media quality measurement businesses.

Wolfe Herd described a product agenda rather than a marketing one. "We are executing against a clear roadmap of exciting new ways for our members to experience Bumble," said Whitney Wolfe Herd, Founder & CEO of Bumble Inc. "This next chapter is designed to enable our healthier, more engaged member base to connect more intuitively and move more confidently and quickly to in-person dates. There is more happening at Bumble today than at any point in years - we are completing our platform migration, transforming our matching algorithms, giving members new ways to start a conversation, expanding how they meet in real life, and building toward new group experiences - all converging into the reimagined Bumble we expect to bring to members."

A live webcast of the earnings call was scheduled for 4:30 p.m. Eastern Time today, August 5, 2026.

Timeline

Summary

Who: Bumble Inc., parent of the Bumble, Badoo and BFF apps, led by Founder and Chief Executive Officer Whitney Wolfe Herd and Chief Financial Officer Kevin Cook. The results affect mobile advertising sellers, app measurement providers and agencies serving the dating category, alongside shareholders of the Nasdaq-listed company.

What: Second quarter 2026 revenue of $210.5 million, down 15.2%; a net loss of $127.9 million including a $169.3 million impairment charge; Adjusted EBITDA of $72.9 million at a 34.6% margin; total paying users down 620,000 to 3.16 million; and first-half selling and marketing expense of $56.2 million against $91.8 million a year earlier.

When: Results for the quarter ended June 30, 2026, announced August 5, 2026, with a Form 8-K filed the same day and an earnings call at 4:30 p.m. Eastern Time. Third quarter guidance covers the period ending September 30, 2026.

Where: Austin, Texas, where Bumble Inc. maintains its principal executive offices, with products distributed globally through the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.

Why: Paying user counts have fallen for five consecutive quarters while average revenue per paying user rose only 1.2%, leaving revenue contraction largely unoffset. Bumble reduced acquisition spending sharply through the first half while raising product development outlay, and its third quarter Adjusted EBITDA guidance of $56 million to $60 million implies a margin near 26% to 29%, consistent with renewed investment in product, technology and brand.