TECH CRUNCH – May 20 – PlentyofFish was the victim of a DSoS attack that affected ~1M users for 5 hours. The 40 GBps attack, which affected the company's website and mobile apps, was much larger than the 8 GBps attack which took Meetup.com offline last month. The attacker demanded $2k to stop the attack. POF has successfully mitigated the attack and is back online.
Month: May 2014
Dating Apps: Millenials Crave Speed, Simplicity
ASSOCIATED PRESS – May 20 – Dating apps are on the rise, particularly among millenials who crave speed and simplicity in their search for love. Tinder users swipe through photos, left for no, right for yes. Mutual right swipes result in a match and the users can message. Hinge matches users with friends of friends. Coffee Meets Bagel offers only 1 match per day at noon. According to Pew, 9% of U.S. adults have used a dating app or service. It jumps to 38% of those identifying as 'single and looking.' The largest group of users is between 25 and 44. IBIS estimates the dating industry will hit $2.2B in revenue this year.
See full article at DailyMail.co.uk
See all posts on Coffee Meets Bagel
See all posts on Tinder
See all posts on Hinge
Dating & Social Networking Domain Auction
WEBWIRE – May 20 – Above.com will be hosting a dating and social networking domain auction, which opens to the public May 29 and ends June 5, 2014. The online auction coincides with the 38th iDate Conference on June 4-6 in Beverly Hills.
Loveflutter Relaunches As A Quirky Tinder
TECH CRUNCH – May 19 – Loveflutter soft-launched in New York and the UK last year as an app that matched users based on shared interests using Google-owned Freebase. The app is rebooting with a mobile-first approach, which asks users to provide a quirky fact about themselves to provide the extra human factor beyond photos. The app also provides suggestions on places to meet. Early Twitter investor Jeff Pulver as an adviser.
MyGirlFund Offers Internet Girlfriends For Money
BUZZFEED – May 20 – MyGirlFund originally launched as an interactive porn site, but has evolved through user behavior into a place for men to pay for internet girlfriends. Many customers of the site forgo the sexual side of the site and are merely looking for companionship. According to MyGirlFund, 57% of members said that they are more open and honest in online relationships. The site has over 15,000 male members served by over 9,000 women, who earn upwards of $55K/year.
Facebook “Ask” Button Next To Relationship Status Is Invasive
DAILYMAIL.CO.UK – May 20 – A new Facebook button that lets users ask their friends if they're single or taken has been branded 'invasive' and 'naggy'. The 'ask' button appears on the profiles of users who have left their relationship status blank. Some users say the button provides an easy way to express their interest in one another.
by Margot Peppers
See full article at DailyMail.co.uk
Mark Brooks: Facebook is inching into the dating domain. (Thanks to Nick at Spamalytics for forwarding this link to us.)
This post also appears on SocialNetworkingWatch.
Online Dating Services Get Into Matchmaking Big Leagues
USA TODAY – May 20 - Match.com and Three Day Rule announce partnership to get Match into high-dollar matchmaking. eHarmony launched eH+ ($5k service) matchmaking in Jan. "They've got very significant market shares. Between them, they own the industry, and where do they go from there?" dating industry analyst Mark Brooks says. "They have two problems — a limited number of people left to reach and a limited price point."
Matchmaking has exploded in the past few years. Bravo's The Millionaire Matchmaker and other copycats have targeted the professional who has plenty of money but not enough time to hunt for a relationship. Traditional dating sites, which have millions of daters, haven't tried to reach this profitable market until now. Match.com gets a cut from each customer at Three Day Rule, says Sam Yagan, CEO of Match Group. Three Day Rule has matchmakers in New York, L.A., Chicago and San Francisco and will add matchmakers in Dallas, Boston and Washington by the end of the year. Six months costs $5k.
Experian Hitwise Rankings: POF Back At #1
OPW – May 16 – We have just updated Experian Hitwise USA online dating rankings. POF is #1 again with 14% of market share, moving Zoosk down to #2 with 11.5% of market share, followed by Match.com (9% of market share).
Lulu Now Allows Men To See Their Ratings
BUZZFEED – May 17 – Boyfriend-rating app, Lulu, used to be for women only. It allowed them to rate their male Facebook friends. The latest update to the app will now allow men to see an overview of their rating, the number of women who have rated him, and a summary of the hashtags used to describe him.
by Katie Notopoulos & Katie Heaney
See full article at BuzzFeed
Broad And Popular Niches Are Taking Off
VOX.COM – May 17 – Jerry Miller created Farmers Only, which now boasts 1.5M members. 70-80% are in the agriculture industry now. Farmers Only is one of the more successful niche dating sites. Other niche sites are VeggieDate, a site that connects vegetarians and vegans; The Atlasphere that connects fans of Ayn Rand; Trek Passions, OkComrade, and GlutenFreeSingles. Scruff, a gay location-based dating app which was inspired by gay men with facial hair, has a user base of 6M worldwide.
by Alex Abad-Santos
See full article at Vox.com
See all posts on FarmersOnly
See all posts on Scruff
See all posts on VeggieDate