Bumble responds to Tinder lawsuit with full-page New York Times ad
Dating app Bumble has responded to a lawsuit filed against it by Tinder’s parent company Match Group with a full-page New York Times ad.
The ad, which is also running in the Dallas Morning News, is in response to a lawsuit filed by Match Group last week that accuses Bumble of copying Tinder’s "world-changing, card-swipe-based, mutual opt-in premise." Bumble differentiates itself by only letting women make the first move, a feature that Tinder is planning on rolling out as well.
Match Group is also accusing rival Bumble of releasing two features that the dating app's co-founders “learned of and developed confidentially while at Tinder." The two co-founders in question are Chris Gulczynski and Sarah Mick, both of whom helped Bumble founder Whitney Wolfe Herd build the app in its early days after leaving Tinder. Wolfe Herd left Tinder in 2014 shortly before filing a lawsuit against the dating app for sexual harassment, which was settled for a reported $1m.
In response to Match Group’s accusations, Bumble’s full-page ad mocks the company for attempting to buy it, copy it and now sue it.
“We swipe left on your attempted scare tactics, and on these endless games,” reads the ad, a version of which is also posted on Bumble’s blog. “We swipe left on your assumption that a baseless lawsuit would intimidate us. Given your enduring interest in our company, we expected you to know us a bit better by now.”
In the ad, Bumble also states that it "vigorously disputes this lawsuit's baseless claims and looks forward to telling its story in court."
