Whitney Wolfe Herd: a name, a woman, and the victory of so many people. The CEO of the dating app Bumble, founded in 2014, has been classified by Forbes among the 100 most important persons in 2018. And owning a 21% stake in Bumble, she became the youngest self-made woman billionaire after it went public in February 2021 for ten months. Today she is considered the “the dating queen bee”.
Her fame is due to her promoting her own philosophy: “let us do the first move”.
After being co-founder of Tinder, Herd resigned in April 2014 as a consequence of growing tensions with other company executives. Later that year, she filed a lawsuit not only against the partners for sexual harassment, but also against the entire organisation for being promoters of a discriminative practice and culture. She reportedly received more than a million US dollars as well as stock as part of the settlement.
From here comes her idea of revolutionising the usage of dating apps, giving women a fundamental role, and providing them with an instrument at their disposal in order to make the first move. In fact, Bumble is a digital platform in which the protection of women’s rights has absolute priority. In order to to ensure women’s safety, Bumble’s guidelines seem unusual and disruptive: only women can initiate the match and, after 24 hours, if there is no answer, it wraps. Moreover, with a view to guarantee privacy, exclusively to women is allowed to register themselves even only with their name’s initial letter, and most importantly, a mechanical “screening” of pictures is made as a way to prevent any offensive content or nudity on the app. The purpose of these rigid policies is to impede harassment, violence, and abuse.
Furthermore, despite its huge popularity in Anglo-Saxon countries, Whitney’s ambition doesn’t have any boundaries, expanding in India, also known as one of the most dangerous countries for women due to a high rate of sexual violence and cultural traditions that compromise female’s security. Whitney Herd saw an opportunity to emancipate Indian women, and Bumble’s massive success was a symbol of cultural change in a country dominated by sexist users that would never accept going out with a girl who might not want to kiss them on the first date.
Hence, the dating app is making it possible for millions of Indian girls to get rid of all reputational preconceptions, to the extent that female users send double the messages compared to the rest of the world.
Finally, Whitney Herd is a promoter of a digital revolution where women are preserved while exercising their freedoms and wish to initiate a rendezvous. Not only is Bumble regenerating millions of profits, but it is also the change that a lot of women were waiting for.
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