Just under a year ago, Bumble made a splash with its initial public offering, selling a unique women-first dating platform led by a woman. But it was a short-lived love affair for investors: After an initial pop in early February 2021, shares have since fallen about two-thirds. At its peak, Bumble boasted an over $9 billion market capitalization—a fifth of dating giant

Match Group’s

MTCH -2.22%

at that time, despite the fact that Match’s portfolio, including its then-announced Hyperconnect acquisition, included over a dozen apps compared with Bumble’s two.

In the end, the market decided both dating companies were overvalued in a prolonged pandemic that was keeping would-be lovers at home.

Match’s shares are down roughly a third since Bumble’s IPO. Perhaps that selloff is a hint as to how Wall Street values big acquisitions in the lifestyle space that have yet to be globally proven. Match announced its roughly $1.7 billion acquisition (its largest ever) of South Korea-based Hyperconnect just days before Bumble went public. Hyperconnect, also very popular with the Gen Z crowd, was a huge bet on social discovery and a new vertical for Match, which historically had focused on facilitating romantic connections. The goal was to use its resources to bolster Hyperconnect’s growth while applying some of Hyperconnect’s audio and video technology to other Match properties.

But Match’s high hopes for a meaningful revenue boost from the acquisition didn’t immediately come to pass. Third-quarter revenue for Hyperconnect missed Match’s guidance right out of the gate. And some of the best Match could offer about Hyperconnect in its fourth-quarter shareholder letter last week was that its portfolio was “moving in the right direction.”

In Bumble’s favor, much of Hyperconnect’s recent woes seem to have been geographical in nature, due to the pandemic. That means Bumble could have an easier time monetizing a new property where lockdowns are less-austere. It also is a step in the right direction for a company that probably needs to grow externally if it wants to compete.

Bumble’s namesake app remains the No. 2 dating app globally, second to Match’s Tinder, which generated $1.7 billion in revenue last year and still managed to grow at 20% annually in each of the last three quarters of the year. The Bumble app was on track to generate under $510 million in revenue for the full year. Meanwhile, recent data shared by Match show its relationship app Hinge has been gaining ground on Bumble’s namesake app in several key countries since New Year’s Day.

Whereas Match said Hyperconnect’s two brands combined had over 570 million payers as of the second quarter, we still don’t know exactly how big Fruitz is globally. App Annie data show that, as of Feb. 3, it was the fifth-highest “freemium” lifestyle app on iOS in terms of downloads in France. Tinder was No. 1.

Just don’t say “Je t’aime” too soon.

Write to Laura Forman at laura.forman@wsj.com