Risk Factors Dashboard
Once a year, publicly traded companies issue a comprehensive report of their business, called a 10-K. A component mandated in the 10-K is the ‘Risk Factors’ section, where companies disclose any major potential risks that they may face. This dashboard highlights all major changes and additions in new 10K reports, allowing investors to quickly identify new potential risks and opportunities.
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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. If we cannot provide reliable financial reports or prevent fraud, our business and operating results could be harmed, investors could lose confidence in our reported financial information, and the trading price of our common stock could decline significantly. 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
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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;
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•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
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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
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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);
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•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. The failure to secure additional financing could have a material adverse effect on the continued development or growth of the target business.
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:
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•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
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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
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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.
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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.