NY TIMES – Mar 10 – Grindr is approaching its fourth anniversary and has amassed ~5M users who spend ~90 minutes each day using the app. Billions of messages fly across the service every year, and 76% of the company’s revenue comes from money generated by Grindr premium users. Jamie Woo, author of the book, Meet Grindr, How One App Changed the Way We Connect, says Grindr’s main purpose is to facilitate hookups that are “spontaneous and intimate". He said the primary appeal of Grindr is its simplicity. The app also focuses on proximity rather than location.
Month: March 2013
Tinder Aims To Make Dating Easier
LA TIMES – Mar 10 – Tinder, a new free dating app that, in a twist on the "hot or not" game, matches users with potential partners in their area without the risk of rejection. Since October, the app has helped make ~20M matches, the company said. Tinder is financially backed by InterActiveCorp's business accelerator Hatch Labs. After downloading the app, Tinder syncs to your existing Facebook profile and integrates public data about you to rate your compatibility based on your shared friends, interests, networks and location. If you're interested in a person, you swipe left; if you're not, you can move on to the next candidate by swiping right. It's all anonymous until both Tinder users say they like each other. Then they can chat using the app.
by Jessica Naziri
See full article at LA Times
The Average Woman Has Average Looks. The Average Man Is Unsightly
WSJ – Mar 10 – OkCupid asks male and female users to rate the attractiveness of members of the opposite sex on a six-point scale, in which 0 is the least attractive and 5 is the most. Th
by James Taranto
See full article at WSJ
Spark Networks Q4 And Full Year 2012 Financial Results
PRESS RELEASE – Mar 8 – SparkNetworks 2012 revenue increased 27% to $61.7M. Q4 '12 revenue totaled $16.3M, also a 27% YOY increase. The Christian Networks segment was the primary driver of that growth. Christian Network 2012 revenue increased 101% to 31.6M and average paying subscribers grew 80% to 168K. Q4 company-wide average paying subscribers grew 31% to 279K. Net loss in the Q4 was $10.5M compared to a net loss of $1.1 in Q4 2011.
The full article was originally published at Spark.net, but is no longer available.
CEO Of Cupid Plc Buys 865,000 Shares At 114p
THE MOTLEY FOOL – Mar 8 – The shares of Cupid climbed 3p to 120p during early trading this morning after CEO Bill Dobbie revealed he had invested £1M in his firm. This week, Cupid's 2012 results showed sales up 51% to £81M.
by Maynard Patton
See full article at The Motley Fool
MeetMe Reports Full Year 2012 Financial Results
PRESS RELEASE – Mar 8 – MeetMe reported $46.7M in revenue in 2012, which represents a 31% increase over the $35.6M of Combined Revenue of Quepasa and myYearbook during the same period of 2011. Q4 Revenue totaled $11.6M, which represents a 23% increase over the $9.5M of Combined Revenue of Quepasa and myYearbook during the same period of 2011. Mobile revenue grew 25% sequentially to $2.2M in the Q4 2012 and 355% compared to the same period of 2011 and 355% compared to the same period of 2011. “This year was foundational for the company,” said John Abbott, CEO of MeetMe. “We look to continue mobile revenue growth in 2013 through a combination of a new mobile subscription product, MeetMe+, and new premium advertising placements in our mobile feed." MeetMe averaged 5.51M monthly active users (MAUs) on the core MeetMe platform in the Q4 2012, an YOY increase of 85%.
This post also appears on SocialNetworkingWatch.
Social App Monetization Kicks In
THE NEXT WEB – Mar 8 – Monthly revenues for the social networking category on the App Store jumped 87% YOY in January, according to a new study from App Annie. The social networking apps category is now the third highest in terms of monthly revenue, behind games and productivity. In terms of downloads, social networking was sixth overall among categories on the App Store in January. According to App Annie, monthly downloads were up 30% YOY and now account for 5% of total downloads. Globally, the list of top social networking apps with respect to downloads was predictably dominated by Facebook, Apple’s Find My Friends, Twitter and Skype. Dating apps like Zoosk, Badoo, Grindr Xtra and eHarmony also proved capable at monetization.
Service Spotlight: Teligence
OPW INTERVIEW – Mar 6 – Teligence knows voice chat, and mobile dating (white label), and has a customer service outsourcing offering as well (On Q). They’ve been busy. Here’s a quick spotlight interview with the GM, Jeff Prete. (Full Disclosure: Teligence is a client of Courtland Brooks)
Tell us about Teligence, what do you do?
We’ve been in the voice-chat industry for 22 years. We’ve branched out into the web and to white label mobile apps.
How big is the business?
We’re $50 Million+ a year in revenues with a high degree of profitability.
If a dating company comes to you and says we want voice chat, can you help?
Yeah, absolutely. Voice chat is the easiest one to set up right now. It's a 22 year old platform that monetizes at a very high rate. You can be up and ready in 2 weeks.
What's the revenue split?
It's 50/50. The more you market it, the less our share is.
You can also help with customer service outsourcing, I understand?
We've got a voice customer service team, 24/7/365 email support as well as content moderation.
Are you multi-language?
English, Spanish, and Portuguese are our strengths. We can staff up and get any other language that we need to.
And I think you have an announcement for us about your white label mobile dating platform?
Yes, Here Media liked our white label dating infrastructure, so we worked with them to launch the new Gay.com website. It looks great – you should check it out. The next step is to launch their dating service on iPhone, Android, Windows Phone, and mobile web. They have a very active community and it’s been great to deliver them the next generation of services in the dating industry.
Are You Interested? Launches New Features
PR NEWSWIRE – Mar 6 – AreYouInterested? has launched of several new 'social' features designed to integrate a user's friends into the online dating experience. AYI users will now be able to view the friends in common when looking for potential dates, search for singles through their friends, and search for singles with mutual or related interests. AYI is also introducing robust interest searching in order to deliver more relevant matches for singles.
See full article at Snap Interactive
See all posts on Snap Interactive
See all posts on AreYouInterested
Cupid Seeks To Salve Fears With Database Audit
HERALD SCOTLAND – Mar 6 – Cupid has ordered a confidence-building independent audit of its member database. The move comes a month after the airing of claims that customers were lured into paying subscriptions to Cupid sites after receiving messages from users who disappeared when they signed up. Cupid will also seek an independent audit of its customers' experiences.
by Tim Sharp
See full article at Herald Scotland