NY TIMES – Apr 23 – A new generation of young Indian professionals has refused to follow the arranged-marriage route, with its emphasis on caste, family ties, wealth and skin color. Parents, while trying to respect their children’s wishes, are trying other measures, like online singles networks such as Floh and TwolyMadlyDeeply. Floh has 500 members, some parents paid $300 annual subscription on their kids’ behalf. Online matchmaking sites have been around in India for quite some time, like Shaadi.com or Bharatmatrimony.com, but they are long shot in a country of a billion-plus people. Many parents disapprove of Indian dating sites as they have a highly skewed to males, and can be crammed with unverified identities. Singles networks like Floh and TwolyMadlyDeeply, with their “verified” memberships, appeal to parents because they promise the exact opposite of digital anonymity. TwolyMadlyDeeply’s members are vetted on the phone before they can join and can only then interact online or through real-time events.
Month: April 2013
Women Are Comfortable Dating Men 30+ Years Older
PR WEB – Apr 23 – According to a recent survey conducted by SugarDaddyForMe.com, 52% of women feel comfortable with dating men 30 years older than themselves. 27% would date a man 40 years older, 13% said they would date a man 50 years older and 7% would be comfortable dating a man a full 60 years older than them. Full results of the survey.
Tastebuds Scores $600K
TECH CRUNCH – Apr 21 – Tastebuds, the startup that matches people based on their musical tastes, is announcing a $600K seed round from Black Ocean, which will be used to launch mobile apps, grow its developer team, as well as formally launching in the U.S. Last May Tastebuds launched a Spotify app, which essentially embeds the service inside of the streaming music site. Tastebuds is free to join, although the company has experimented with a number of premium micro-features, such as “Incognito mode”, which hides your online status and enables you to browse profiles anonymously. It isn’t ruling out a more standard recurring subscription model in the future.
by Steve O'Hear
See full article at Tech Crunch
This post also appears on InternetDatingInvestments.
HowAboutWe Co-Founders Talk About The Lessons They’ve Learned
BUSINESS INSIDER – Apr 21 – When high school teachers and best friends Aaron Schildkrout and Brian Schechter came up with the idea for a new dating site, they were not even living in the same city. They wanted start HowAboutWe in the best possible market – New York.
International Daters Are More Worldly And Willing To Take Risks
PR NEWSWIRE – Apr 21 – Men who only date "the girl next door" tend to be more closed-minded and have less well-paying jobs than men who date international women whom they have met online, according to a recent survey conducted by Harris Interactive on behalf of AnastasiaDate. The average member of AnastasiaDate earns ~$100K a year. "International online dating brings a level of cultural awareness", said Mark Brooks, AnastasiaDate's Chief Strategy Officer. Of respondents who have a preference for dating someone outside of North America, 68% would prefer to date someone who lives in Europe, including Eastern Europe, with Russia and the Ukraine.
The full article was originally published at PR Newswire, but is no longer available.
Tinder App Getting Popular
SCTIMES – Apr 22 – Tinder, a new iPhone dating app, is popular with students at colleges and universities. The app, which uses its members' Facebook information, finds other Tinder users within a 50-mile radius and connects them if there's a mutual interest. AppData ranks Tinder as a top-200 app and estimates the app averages ~100K daily users.
by Ben Katzner
The full article was originally published at SCTimes, but is no longer available.
Successful Match Launches Senior Dating Site
PR WEB – Apr 20 – Successful Match, the company that powers on-line dating sites in the niches of millionaire dating and sugar daddy dating, has launched Agelessfish.com, a new senior dating site for singles 50+.
Mandy Ginsberg Is Now CEO Of Tutor.com
PR NEWSWIRE – Apr 18 – Tutor.com is an online education solution which was acquired by IAC in January 2013. Mandy previously served as CEO of U.S. Match.com. George Cigale, Tutor.com's founder, will remain as Founder and Chairman. Amarnath Thombre, former Match.com Chief Strategy Officer, will assume Ginsberg's responsibilities as President of Match, North America.
The full article was originally published at PR Newswire, but is no longer available.
New Facebook Dating App Available Only To UGA
REDANDBLACK – Apr 18 – New Facebook dating app SetMeUp is finding a love interest through peoples’ interests and mutual friends. Wadhwani, co-founder and CEO of SetMeUp, came up with the idea in 2007 after being inspired while on the UGA campus. Wadhwani is opening the app to UGA students first as a trial run. No one knows who is using the app other than the people connecting with each other. People simply download the app onto Facebook, select friends and search through mutual friends based on compatibility.
by Alex Everhart
See full article at RedandBlack
Iceland Dating App: “Bump The App Before You Bump In Bed”
WORL
DCRUNCH – Apr 18 – Iceland is an island in the far north of Europe, just south of the Arctic Circle, known for musical talents Bjork and Sigur Ros and popular crime writer Arnaldur Indridason. Everyone in Iceland is related. Every Icelander that is in a relationship is actually dating a relative. Three engineers from the Sad Engineer Studios have created an app for quickly identifying the familial connection of someone else. Using “bump technology,” Icelanders can just bump their phones together to access the “Islendingabok” (Book of of Icelanders) database that lists genealogy information about every single Icelander and find out how closely related they are.
The full article was originally published at World Crunch, but is no longer available.