Match Group Inc has agreed to buy Softbank Group-backed South Korean social media firm Hyperconnect for $1.73 billion, as the owner of Tinder and Hinge looks beyond romantic connections to help users make friends across geographies.

Match last week said Japan had become its second-highest grossing market behind the United States, with revenue in the Asian country surging more than 600% in the past five years.

Hyperconnect is profitable, the companies said, adding that it reported a 50% jump in 2020 revenue to more than $200 million.

Match’s flagship app Tinder, with 66 million average monthly active users, dominated the dating market worldwide with 53.8% of the market share during the final quarter of 2020, according to analytics firm Apptopia.

Read more at: Reuters

By Tiyashi Datta, Noor Zainab Hussain and Ramakrishnan M.

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