Tinder CEO leaves after five months

Smartphone dating application Tinder announced Wednesday the departure of its CEO just five months after he had taken the helm.

Christopher Payne will be leaving the company and founder Sean Rad has been called in to head the organization, Tinder said in a statement.

"It's only been a few months, but there was mutual agreement here that it was not the right long-term fit, and given Tinder's rapid growth trajectory both Christopher and the board thought prompt action was best for everyone," said a director at Tinder, Matt Cohler.

Greg Blatt from the media group IAC has also been named to a new position as executive chairman of Tinder.

Blatt runs The Match Group at IAC, which include dating applications Match and OkCupid.

Tinder, created in 2012, uses geolocation to propose romantic matches for users to quickly scroll through.

The application was in the headlines this week due to a volley of tweets it sent in response to a Vanity Fair article about dating apps and sexual norms.

The company said in a statement it "overreacted" in its lengthy and often sarcastic response to the feature article.

© 2015 AFP