TECHFIEBER – Apr 9 – German based online flirting app, Lovoo, has reached 10M users. 1.2M users use the app daily and spend ~15 minutes in average on the app. Lovoo is now available in France, USA, Great Britain, Austria, Spain, Switzerland and Brazil.
by Sachiyo Tanaka
See full article at TechFieber
INC – Apr 7 – Joel Simkhai founded Grindr, the location-aware hookup app, five years ago. The app has now 5M active monthly users. 75% of revenue comes from subscriptions to Gridr Xtra, which allows users to see more other nearby users.
Q: What motivated you to start Grindr?
A: In my 20s I tried some more traditional dating sites but location was not part of it.
Q: Did you know how to write software?
A: No, I went into this frantic race to find a developer.
Q: Did you take venture capital?
A: We are all self-funded.
Q: Was not taking investment a strategy from the beginning?
A: I like challenges, and I like the idea that if I'm going to risk something, I'm going to get the reward.
Q: How do you find new users?
A: We've done a little Facebook advertising. It's all really word of mouth and press.
Q: What is Tinder doing differently than Blendr did?
A: I think they figured out some things that I didn't figure out. Girls don't want to be harassed by guys. It's a more controlled harass.
Q: Are you worried about Tinder as competition?
A: It's not an app for gay guys.
Q: Are you still growing?
A: Yes, as people get more iPhones globally. Markets like Brazil are growing well for us now.
Q: Would you consider an exit strategy?
A: I'd take $19 billion. But no, I don't think I'd go public.
by Christine Lagorio-Chafkin
The full article was originally published at Palm Beach Post, but is no longer available.
AFP – Apr 7 - AshleyMadison has launched in South Korea where marital infidelity is a crime punishable by up to two years in prison. Within a week, 46K people had signed up. South Korea’s adultery law is not much of a deterrent, and conviction usually results in a suspended sentence rather than actual jail time. Whereas 216 people were given prison terms under the law in 2004, that figure had dropped to 42 by 2008.
by Giles Hewitt
See full article at Business Insider
VALUEWALK – Apr 7 – A study carried out by the University of Kansas has found that 7% of people who married after initially communicating online had in fact first met through social networks. According to the study, social networking-based relationships were happier than those which began in traditional fashion, such as introductions through friends.
SUNDAYWORLD – Apr 8 - Match.com has promised to allow bisexual members to use its dating service to search for men and women. One customer was previously told to take out two subscriptions.
by Eamon Dillon
The full article was originally published at SundayWorld, but is no longer available.
WEBWIRE – Apr 8 – International Dating Coach Association (IDCA) will be offering dating coach certification program at the next Internet Dating Conference (iDate) in L.A. The certification program will take place on June 4, 2014 at the SLS Hotel in Beverly Hills, CA.
NEWS.COM.AU – Apr 7 –
Q: How you use human experience to influence the design?
A: We built a flow that emulates interactions in the real world.
Q: Does it matter whether your purpose is to hook-up or to find your husband or wife?
A: When people go out, they don't have an outcome in mind. Particularly with millennials, they go with the flow and one thing leads to another.
Q: What is happening on the back end? How do you make sense of all those swipes?
A: We look at users' behaviour and we optimise who we show them based on who they are saying yes or no to. We also look at the depth of the conversations they are having.
Q: Why is Tinder asking as little as possible?
A: It’s one of our philosophies. When I go to a party, I’m not forced to answer questions about what my political beliefs are.
Q: Your app is so situated in what people need & want. Is that a mind frame you’ve always had?
A: Always. I often tell the team: “Throw away any academic approach to user experience." It all comes down to what do people want to do, how do they want to do it, and how do we create a frictionless experience to allow them to do that.
The full article was originally published at News.com.au, but is no longer available.
SBS.COM.AU – Apr 6 – Australians are losing ~$8M a month in online dating scam. Nigeria is certainly the hub. A research shows that for every dollar that goes to Nigeria, there’s another dollar and 4 cents going to one of 41 different countries. Australia has struck up a relationship with the Economic Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in Nigeria and other law enforcement. There have been over 30 arrests in Nigeria, Ghanna and Malaysia. FTC in US has also entered a Memorandum of Understanding with Nigerian law enforcement.
UNCRUNCHED – Apr 6 - OkCupid played a major role in the successful effort to bring down Mozilla CEO Brendan Eich. For OkCupid, it was a PR stunt and OkCupid co-founder Sam Yagan was particularly hypocritical in this. Sam Yagan made a $500 donation to U.S. Congressman Chris Cannon in 2004. Cannon has a special kind of hate for gays.
