Feb 1 (Reuters) - Match Group Inc on Wednesday
joined a growing list of U.S. companies that are cutting jobs to
rein in costs after it announced plans to lay off about 8% of
its workforce, or about 200 employees, as spending on its dating
apps slows.The company gave a lackluster quarterly revenue forecast a
day earlier that it blamed on a tough economy, a strong dollar
and "significant" poor product execution at Tinder. Product
delays have also hit its Hinge app at a time when competition is
rising from rival Bumble Inc.The job cuts were mainly in areas such as recruiting, the
company said in an email. The cuts have already taken place in
the United States and are being implemented in other countries.Match incurred about $3 million in severance and similar
costs during the fourth quarter and said it was expecting
additional costs of about $6 million in 2023. It said the moves
would help improve margins in the second half of the year.Shares of Texas-based Match were down 7.7%.The layoffs come as other tech firms from Microsoft Corp
to Amazon.com Inc shed tens of thousands of
jobs to brace for a possible recession."In addition to the cuts, we expect Match to place greater
emphasis on marketing its Tinder and Hinge brands, core areas of
growth for 2023," CFRA Research analyst Angelo Zino said.Match, which has primarily relied on word-of-mouth
advertising, said Tinder will be launching its first global
marketing campaign in the current quarter to improve brand
perception.It forecast first-quarter revenue between $790 million and
$800 million, lower than analysts' estimates of $817.3 million,
according to Refinitiv data. The company also reported its
first-ever quarterly revenue decline.(Reporting by Vansh Agarwal and Shreyaa Narayanan in Bengaluru;
Editing by Vinay Dwivedi and Anil D'Silva)