Match Group (NASDAQ:MTCH) shares soared 27% on Wednesday after the owner of popular dating app Tinder reported a rise in paying users and better-than-expected quarterly revenue.
The results, issued late on Tuesday, showed the dating and educational website operator which also owns Match.com and OkCupid, gets the majority of its revenue from membership fees and paid features.
Tinder surpassed 1mln paid members during the quarter.
The company said its average paid-member count jumped 36% to 5.1mln in the first quarter ended March 31 - boosted by the acquisition of PlentyOfFish.
Match Group, majority owned by media mogul Barry Diller's IAC/InterActiveCorp, agreed to buy Vancouver-based PlentyOfFish for $575mln in July last year.
The Dallas-based company's dating business, its biggest, which includes apps such as Tinder, recorded a 24 percent rise in revenue to $260.4mln.
Total revenue rose 21.4 percent to $285.3mln, beating the average analyst estimate of $281.8 million, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Conversely, revenue from the company's non-dating business, which includes educational websites Princeton Review and Tutor.com, was flat at $24.9 million.
Match shares were last seen up 23% at $13.72 on Wednesday.