Is the dating-app market really $6 billion and declining 5.2% for the first time?

That figure is not in any SEC filing. The '~$6B market' is a third-party estimate (Business of Apps), and the headline '5.2% first-ever decline' is a widely-repeated figure that doesn't appear in the 10-Ks. What the filings actually show is narrower and different: Tinder's revenue fell about 4% as-reported (its first annual decline), and Match Group's total revenue was roughly flat. We use the filing figures and flag the market-size number as a secondary estimate.

What share of dating-app revenue is subscriptions vs one-off purchases?

It isn't disclosed. Match Group reports a single 'Direct Revenue' line and does not break out subscription revenue from à-la-carte purchases like boosts and super-likes. Any specific 'X% of revenue is subscriptions' figure cannot be sourced to the filings — so we don't publish one.

How much does it cost a dating app to acquire one user?

No filing discloses a per-user cost of acquisition. The 10-Ks report total selling & marketing expense (for example, Match Group's ~$625.5M), but never a dollar figure for acquiring a single customer. A 'it costs $Y to get one user' number is not in there.

Is a company's market capitalization in its 10-K?

No. Market cap is secondary-market data that moves every day — it is not a figure the company reports in its annual filing. If you want the numbers the company actually stated, use revenue, payers and revenue-per-payer from the 10-K, and treat market cap as a separate, dated data point.

The dating-app numbers that aren't in the filings (and why we won't guess)

The '$6B market, 5.2% first-ever decline' stat isn't in any SEC filing. Here's what dating-app 10-Ks don't disclose — and why we won't fill the gaps with guesses.

A primary-source reference is defined as much by what it refuses to claim as by what it reports. The dating-app industry has a handful of numbers that get repeated everywhere — in headlines, in pitch decks, in other write-ups — that simply are not in the SEC filings they're attributed to. This page lists the most important ones, says what the filings actually contain instead, and explains why we leave the gaps as gaps rather than filling them with an estimate. It's the companion to how to read a dating company's 10-K: that one shows you what is in the document; this one is about its edges.

The "$6 billion, first-ever 5.2% decline" stat

This is the most-repeated dating-industry figure of the past two years, and it's worth being precise about. The claim usually runs: the dating-app market is about $6 billion and just posted its first-ever decline, around −5.2%.

What's in the filings vs. what isn't

The "~$6B market size" is a third-party estimate (commonly Business of Apps), not a figure from any SEC filing. The headline "5.2% first-ever decline" is not in the 10-Ks at all. What the filings do show is narrower: Tinder's revenue fell about −4% as-reported (−5% on an FX-neutral basis) — its first annual decline — and Match Group's total revenue was roughly flat. The popular stat blends a company-level Tinder number, a third-party market estimate, and a round headline figure into one sentence that no single source supports.

The distinction isn't pedantry. "Tinder declined 4% for the first time" is a sourced fact from an audited filing. "The dating-app market declined 5.2% for the first time" is a different, broader claim resting on a market-size estimate that no company reported. The first belongs in a primary-source reference; the second gets a flag every time we mention it. (Where we use a market-size number — for example, to put Match Group's revenue share in context on who owns what — we label it as a third-party estimate, not a filing.)

What's subscriptions vs. one-off purchases — not disclosed

People reasonably want to know how much of a dating app's revenue comes from monthly subscriptions versus one-off purchases — the boosts, super-likes and à-la-carte extras you buy in the moment. The honest answer is that the filings don't tell you.

The 'Direct Revenue' problem

Match Group reports a single "Direct Revenue" line and does not split subscription revenue from à-la-carte purchases. So any specific "X% of revenue is subscriptions" claim cannot be sourced to the filing — it's either an estimate or an assumption dressed as a fact. We don't publish a split, because there isn't one to cite.

This matters for anyone trying to reason about the business model. The shift from "pay monthly to use the app" toward "pay per advantage in the moment" is real and widely discussed — but the filings give you the combined total, not the breakdown, so the precise mix is something the documents will not settle.

What it costs to acquire a user — not disclosed

Another number that gets quoted with surprising confidence: the cost to acquire a single user. It isn't in the filings either.

The 10-Ks disclose total selling & marketing expense — for example, Match Group's roughly $625.5M, Bumble's ~$165.5M, and Grindr's striking ~$11.6M (about 2.6% of revenue, which we dig into in why Grindr is growing while the rest of the industry shrinks). What they never disclose is a per-user acquisition cost — a "$Y to get one customer" figure. You can divide marketing spend by new users to estimate one, but that's your arithmetic, not the company's disclosure, and it quietly assumes every marketing dollar went to acquisition rather than retention or brand. We report the total expense, which is real, and decline to manufacture the per-user figure, which isn't.

Market cap — not in the 10-K at all

This one trips up even careful readers. A company's market capitalization — share price times shares outstanding — is not a figure in its 10-K. It's secondary-market data that changes every trading day.

Reported vs. market-priced

A 10-K contains what the company reported: revenue, net income, payers, revenue-per-payer — audited, fixed for the year. Market cap is what the market is currently pricing the company at — unaudited, and different by the time you finish reading. When you see a dating company's market cap quoted next to its revenue, treat them as two different kinds of number: one the company stated, one the market is guessing at today.

We quote market caps occasionally for context, but always dated and always flagged as secondary — never as something the company "reported."

A whole slice of the market files nothing

Finally, the biggest blank of all: most dating apps aren't public, so they file no 10-K, disclose no revenue, and report no users. Coffee Meets Bagel, Feeld, Muzz, Raya and most niche apps are private. The audited, primary-source picture only exists for the public players — Match Group, Bumble and Grindr — which is exactly why a standing reference has to lean on them and be explicit that the private tail is dark. We map the full field, public and private, on who owns what, but you'll notice the financial figures stop where the public filings do.

Why we flag instead of fill

A reference is only as trustworthy as the things it won't claim. Every one of these gaps could be papered over with a plausible-sounding estimate, and most write-ups do exactly that — which is how a third-party market guess becomes "the industry declined 5.2%," and how a back-of-envelope division becomes "it costs $X to acquire a user." We'd rather the boundary show. When we say a figure "isn't in the filings," that's not an omission to be embarrassed about; it's the most useful thing a primary-source site can tell you — here is exactly where the verifiable record ends. You can read how we handle every figure on our methodology page, and check the filings themselves on the SEC filings page.

The takeaway

Four numbers everyone repeats — a ~$6B market, a 5.2% industry decline, a subscription-vs-extras split, and a per-user acquisition cost — are not in the filings they're attributed to, and market cap isn't in a 10-K at all. The filings give you Tinder's −4%, the single Direct Revenue line, total marketing spend, and audited revenue and payers. Knowing the difference between those two lists is most of what it takes to read this industry honestly. When a number here carries no source flag, it's from an audited filing; when it does, we're telling you where the solid ground stops.