Tinder is taking its speed dating style to the boardroom.
Former Microsoft and eBay executive Chris Payne is out as CEO of the popular dating app after just five months, and co-founder Sean Rad is set to return to the position, Re/code reported Thursday.
“It became clear after a few months that it wasn’t going to become a long-term fit. It’s only been a few months, but everyone came to the realization, the board and Christopher, and all agreed it wouldn’t work out long-term,” Tinder board member and Benchmark partner Matt Cohler said. “Given that, we thought we might as well take action on this sooner than later.”
Rad (pictured above) was replaced by Payne in March and took on the role of president after executives at I.A.C., Tinder’s parent company, grew concerned about controversies that had rocked the app’s team, including the departures of co-founders Justin Mateen and Whitney Wolfe after the latter accused the former of sexual harassment.
Earlier this week, Tinder took a harsh swipe at Vanity Fair when the magazine published a story accusing the app of creating a “dating apocalypse.”
Tinder’s social media team went on a Twitter tirade against the publication after Nancy Jo Sales wrote a story detailing the rise of hook up culture and the effect it is having on society at large.
“@VanityFair Little known fact: sex was invented in 2012 when Tinder was launched,” the team behind the app wrote in their opening salvo against the magazine. “It’s disappointing that @VanityFair thought that the tiny number of people you found for your article represent our entire global userbase.”
Tinder went on to state that many in countries like China and North Korea use the app to meet people because other social media is banned. They also cited the case of a lesbian journalist in Pakistan who used the app to find a partner.
“Tinder creates experiences,” they continued. “We create connections that otherwise never would have been made. 8 billion of them to date, in fact.”
The site became a subject of ridicule on social media and among digital journalists in the immediate aftermath. TechCrunch wrote with derision: “More than likely, a group of folks sat around a table and thought about potential outcomes based on what went down last night. Turns out the tactic chosen was hoping that blaming ‘passion’ and ‘believing in Tinder’ would somehow be a fair excuse for acting like a dipshit in public.”
In a statement the following day, Tinder admitted that it might have overreacted. “Our intention was to highlight the many statistics and amazing stories that are sometimes left unpublished, and, in doing so, we overreacted,” the statement read, according to Vanity Fair.
Tinder was launched in 2012 and by 2014 it was already boasting about one billion “swipes” per day.
Rad and Mateen met when they were 14 years old after fighting over a girl. They attended the University of Southern California together and went on to become Internet entrepreneurs.