Here’s how Bumble plans on winning the dating app wars (and why they just passed on $450M)

Bumble, the "women-first dating app," recently swiped left on a $450 million acquisition offer, Forbes reported this week.

It's unclear what the exact reasons were. Bumble declined to comment on the report. The rumor mill looked to who the offer came from: Match Group, which also own dozens of dating apps including Match.com, OKCupid, and Tinder.

That last name is where things get awkward. Tinder is one of the reasons why Whitney Wolfe created Bumble. She was a cofounder of Tinder and served as its VP of marketing. Two years after launch, she left and sued the parent company, InterActive Corp, alleging sexual harassment and sex discrimination.

This isn't just a story about bad blood. There's also the fact that just like many of Bumble's 20-something-year-old users, there's no need to settle at this stage.

Bumble is profitable and growing. The app is adding 50,000 users a day. Last week, the team moved to a new office in Austin, Texas, where 40 people now work. Bumble has 70 employees worldwide with offices in London, Australia, and Germany and plans to open one in New York City next year.

To put it simply: Bumble is doing quite well without being under the same roof as Tinder. Under Wolfe's direction, Bumble has a lot more to do in the future. The company will release an app redesign in the fall, where users can swap between Bumble for dating, Bumble BFF for friendship, and Bumble Bizz for networking, according to a source familiar with the company's plans.

In short, Bumble is looking at some big next steps.

Bumble is not the biggest dating app overall. It has had 20 million downloads since its launch in December 2014. Meanwhile, Tinder has had more than 50 million downloads over the past 12 months, according to data from Apptopia.

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But Bumble does rank the highest in a different category. The app has had the fastest growing daily active user base worldwide over the last year, according to Apptopia.

Tinder also ranks first in terms of revenue in the lifestyle category on Google Play and Apple's App Store. Bumble has been locked in as number two over the last year, according to Apptopia.

While Tinder may be bigger overall, Bumble hasn't stopped growing either. New markets for the app include Australia and Europe. Wolfe is expanding her team in the United States to do more engineering, sales, and marketing.

Bumble and Tinder aren't completely interchangeable anyway. Bumble is unique by only allowing women to make the first move for heterosexual matches, and several users told Mashable that they preferred Bumble's design and that they see a higher bar of people.

"Bumble is among my favorite of the [dating] apps," said blogger Cait Weingartner. "I'm more likely to actually meet up in person with someone on Bumble."

Regardless of preference, it can be good to have diversity. "For me, all the dating apps are so flawed that I feel like I need to try my luck on all of them for the greatest chance of luck," an active user of both Tinder and Bumble told me.

This isn't the first time we've seen an upstart turn down a big acquisition offer from a giant. Snap CEO Evan Spiegel famously turned down billion-dollar bids from both Facebook and Google. He now runs a publicly traded company, which isn't having the best time on the stock market but still grants him control over company decisions.

Wolfe also has retained power in Bumble. She has a 20 percent stake in the company while Badoo, one of the largest dating networks, owns 79 percent. Why give that much up? Wolfe hasn't needed to fundraise beyond that, and her company can rely on Badoo's backend infrastructure.

Marketing Bumble hasn't been difficult for Wolfe. They frequently have traditional outdoor ads in big cities like New York, Los Angeles, and London.

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Bumble pays for digital and social marketing as well. Wolfe has an intriguing founder story and unique product that lands her and her company stories in major media outlets.

"As a company, they do a lot to lean into the feminist narrative," Weingartner said. "It's more than people who are just looking for sex. They do a nice job of weeding out anything weird."

Perhaps one day Wolfe will sell Bumble to a different parent company, or she will take it public.

For now, the $450 million price tag is something Wolfe isn't accepting. Back in July 2016, a source close to the company told Time that they estimate Bumble to be worth up to $500 million. It's now one year later, and Bumble isn't looking back.