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The Bumble Trading Inc. website on a smartphone arranged in the Brooklyn borough of New York, U.S., on Monday, Jan. 4, 2021.
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Dating apps have been operating on the same model for years: Users throw in a handful of pictures and fill out a bio. For the most part, people look at those profiles and swipe left to deny, or right to express interest. If two people swipe right, they match and could end up on a date.

But now that’s changing.

The pandemic has caused a level of disruption that’s allowed companies to consider what the future of dating apps without mindless swiping might look like.

Look to Bumble, for example, which has a “Night In” trivia option. The feature lets users set up a virtual trivia date if they match with someone. It also allows users to send matches voice memos, a feature that went viral on TikTok earlier this year.

And Tinder, Match Group‘s largest dating app, has “Swipe Night,” a live, interactive dating feature where singles follow a storyline together. During a set period of time, people try to figure out who committed the made-up crime. At the end of each episode, members work with another participant through “Fast Chat,” where they’ll be able to talk about the story, analyze different clues, and help solve the mystery together. They can also later choose to match.

The addition of videos and audio will let people interact in a way that hasn’t been done yet with online dating, with the hopes they’ll spend more time on the apps (bringing in more money) and form better connections that could draw more people online.

The companies have hinted that there’s more to come in terms of social elements and more interactive features, but haven’t said exactly what’s on their product roadmaps. Potential features could include a Clubhouse-like audio chat or more ways to integrate friends into the experience.

“While swiping left and right has meaningfully changed how singles connect, we think users want more control over that experience,” Citi senior analyst Nicholas Jones told CNBC in an email. “To maintain a healthy and engaged network, BMBL will need to continue to innovate to provide users the experience they are looking for.”

Users have made it clear they’re interested in meeting up over video as a way to break the ice or check a date’s “vibes” before seeing them in person. Tinder said that nearly of users had a video chat with a match during the pandemic, while 40% planned to continue using video even when the pandemic is over.

Singles know what they’re looking for

Bumble said that coming out of the pandemic, people are “much clearer” with what they’re looking for from a relationship.

“We are really trying to give them the tools to do that and make the experience better for the more serious and intentional types of relationships that our users are talking about,” Bumble President Tariq Shaukat said on the company’s most recent earnings call. “So, a lot of what we’ve done in Q2 as well as the plan for Q3 and Q4 is really focused on activities like that in addition to new monetization features.”

Bumble, as mentioned, has Night In and the option to send things like pictures, voice notes and GIFs to matches. But the company could introduce things like video to users’ profiles or new ways to discover users outside of swiping right and left.

Tinder also added videos in-app and announced a “discover” section that mimics social media feeds. Users can see potential matches who share similar interests with them, like if someone has pets or is into skydiving.

Tinder said the changes are an effort to give Gen Z users what they want.

“Gen Z is using Tinder on their terms; bios alone don’t always tell enough of the story to get to a Like or a Nope,” the company said in June. Tinder is focused on the moment when someone is ready to swipe left or right on another user, CEO Jim Lanzone later explained to CNBC.

“That’s a really rich area for innovation,” he said. “This is the beginning of something.”

Lanzone joined Tinder last year after leading CBS Interactive, where he developed the company’s push into streaming. The executive’s hire was a clear indication Tinder wants to push more into video. But this time, he said, the focus is on making connections, not entertainment.

“Tinder itself is likely the number one generator of new relationships in the country, and probably marriages as well, on top of all the other connections that we make. And that’s not always something you can decide on the fly from just from someone’s photo or bio, though those are important, and Tinder, obviously, was a pioneer in moving category that way,” Lanzone added. “But we have this really rich roadmap now of, years probably, of innovation.”

Tinder’s parent company is also making broader moves. Earlier this summer, Match closed its $1.7 billion acquisition of Hyperconnect, a social networking company that’s credited with building “the first mobile version” of WebRTC. That will allow the company to focus on its research & development, adding more live chat features and video experiences to its apps.

Match COO Gary Swidler said on the company’s most recent earnings call that it expects at least two of its brands to use Hyperconnect tech before the end of the year, while a number of other brands will implement its tech by the end of 2022. The company hasn’t detailed exactly what the additions would look like, but it could include things like live broadcast or even more chat additions.

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Google’s $85 billion capital spend spurred by cloud, AI demand

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July 23, 2025

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Google's billion capital spend spurred by cloud, AI demand

Sundar Pichai, CEO of Alphabet Inc., during Stanford’s 2024 Business, Government, and Society forum in Stanford, California, April 3, 2024.

Justin Sullivan | Getty Images

Google is going to spend $10 billion more this year than it previously expected due to the growing demand for cloud services, which has created a backlog, executives said Wednesday.

As part of its second quarter earnings, the company increased its forecast for capital expenditures in 2025 to $85 billion due to “strong and growing demand for our Cloud products and services” as it continues to expand infrastructure to power more AI services that use its cloud technology. That’s up from the $75 billion projection that Google provided in February, which was already above the $58.84 billion that Wall Street expected at the time.

The increased forecast comes as demand for cloud services surges across the tech industry as AI services increase in popularity. As a result, companies are doubling down on infrastructure to keep pace with demand and are planning multi‑year buildouts of data centers.

In its second quarter earnings, Google reported that cloud revenues increased by 32% to $13.6 billion in the period. The demand is so high for Google’s cloud services that it now amounts to a $106 billion backlog, Alphabet finance chief Anat Ashkenazi said during the company’s post-earnings conference call.

“It’s a tight supply environment,” she said.

The vast majority of Alphabet’s capital spend was invested in technical infrastructure during the second quarter, with approximately two-thirds of investments going to servers and one-third in data center and networking equipment, Ashkenazi said.

She added that the updated outlook reflects additional investment in servers, the timing of delivery of servers and “an acceleration in the pace of data center construction, primarily to meet Cloud customer demand.”

Ashkenazi said that despite the company’s “improved” pace of getting servers up and running, investors should expect further increase in capital spend in 2026 “due to the demand as well as growth opportunities across the company.” She didn’t specify what those opportunities are but said the company will provide more details on a future earnings call.

“We’re increasing capacity with every quarter that goes by,” Ashkenazi said. 

Due to the increased spend, Google will have to record more expenses over time, which will make profits look smaller, she said.

“Obviously, we’re working hard to bring more capacity online,” Ashkenazi said.

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Nvidia supplier SK Hynix second-quarter profit and revenue hit record highs, topping estimates

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July 23, 2025

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Nvidia supplier SK Hynix second-quarter profit and revenue hit record highs, topping estimates

The SK Hynix Inc. logo is displayed on a glass door at the company’s office in Seoul, South Korea, on Monday, Jan. 27, 2014. SK Hynix aims to select a U.S. site for its advanced chip packaging plant and break ground there around the first quarter of next year.

SeongJoon Cho | Bloomberg | Getty Images

South Korea’s SK Hynix on Thursday posted record operating profit and revenue in the second quarter on sustained demand for its high bandwidth memory technology used in generative AI chipsets. 

Here are SK Hynix’s second-quarter results compared with LSEG SmartEstimates, which are weighted toward forecasts from analysts who are more consistently accurate: 

  • Revenue: 22.23 trillion won ($16.17 billion) vs. 20.56 trillion won
  • Operating profit: 9.21 trillion won vs. 9 trillion won

Revenue rose about 35% in the June quarter compared with the same period a year earlier, while operating profit rose nearly 69%, year on year.

On a quarter-on-quarter basis, revenue rose 26%, while operating profit jumped 24%.

The company said in a statement that it enjoyed strong demand and favorable pricing conditions in the first half of the year. SK Hynix added that there was a low likelihood of sharp demand corrections for the rest of 2025, due to stable customer inventory levels and expected demand from new product launches.

SK Hynix is a leading supplier of dynamic random access memory — a type of semiconductor memory commonly found in PCs, workstations and servers that is used to store data and program code.

Much of the company’s recent success can be credited to its business in high bandwidth memory, or HBM — a type of DRAM used in artificial intelligence servers. 

SK Hynix has established itself as the global leader in HBM, supplying clients such as U.S. AI darling Nvidia. In the first quarter, this had seen the company overtake rival Samsung Electronics in the global DRAM market for the first time, according to Counterpoint Research.

A report from Counterpoint Research earlier this month estimated that SK Hynix had tied Samsung’s combined DRAM and NAND revenues in the second quarter, with both vying for the top position in the global memory market. NAND is a type of flash memory that is commonly used in storage devices. 

Samsung and US.-based memory maker Micron Technology are both seeking to catch up to SK Hynix in the HBM space. However, analysts expect SK Hynix’s dominance to persist in the short-term.

“As of now, I believe SK Hynix still holds its leadership in the HBM race … despite Samsung’s and Micron’s catch‑up efforts,” said Ray Wang, research director of semiconductors, supply chain and emerging technology at The Futurum Group. 

“I expect this edge to persist through the rest of 2025 and extend into 2026,” he added.

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IBM shares drop despite earnings beat

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July 23, 2025

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IBM shares drop despite earnings beat

IBM CEO Arvind Krishna appears at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Jan. 16, 2024.

Stefan Wermuth | Bloomberg | Getty Images

IBM shares fell as much as 5% in extended trading on Wednesday after the tech conglomerate issued second-quarter results that topped Wall Street projections.

Here’s how the company did in comparison with LSEG consensus:

  • Earnings per share: $2.80 adjusted vs. $2.64 expected
  • Revenue: $16.98 billion vs. $16.59 billion

IBM’s revenue increased nearly 8% year over year in the quarter, according to a statement. Growth in the first quarter was below 1%. Net income, which includes costs related to acquisitions, rose to $2.19 billion, or $2.31 per share, from $1.83 billion, or $1.96 per share, a year ago.

Software revenue climbed about 10% to $7.39 billion, exceeding the $7.43 billion consensus among analysts surveyed by StreetAccount. Hybrid cloud revenue, including Red Hat, showed 16% growth. The software unit’s gross margin of 83.9% was barely narrower than StreetAccount’s 84.0% consensus.

Revenue from consulting rose almost 3% to $5.31 billion, higher than StreetAccount’s $5.16 billion consensus. Infrastructure revenue went up 14% to $4.14 billion, above the $3.75 billion StreetAccount average estimate.

During the quarter, IBM announced the next-generation z17 mainframe computer and the acquisition of data and artificial intelligence consulting firm Hakkoda.

IBM called for over $13.5 billion in 2025 free cash flow, similar to a projection from April. The company still sees at least 5% revenue growth at constant currency for the year.

As of Wednesday’s close, IBM shares were up 28% so far in 2025, while the S&P 500 index has gained around 8% in the same period.

Executives will discuss the results with analysts on a conference call starting at 5 p.m. ET.

This is breaking news. Please check back for updates.

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