MARKETWIRED – May 26 – SparkLabs Global Ventures, a global seed-stage fund, invested in Latin American dating startup – Dating LATAM. The startup's MiMediaManzana.com site currently has ~300K registered users. It started originally in Peru and is now in Mexico, Colombia, and Chile.
See full article at MarketWatch
This post also appears on InternetDatingInvestments.
THEHINDUBUSINESSLINE – May 25 – Shaadi, the Mumbai-based site, a part of People Group, is exploring opportunities in the South-East Asian markets like Vietnam and Malaysia, besides developed and unorthodox markets like the US. "We are looking to make at least 2-3 acquisitions overseas in the next few years," said Anupam Mittal, Founder and CEO of People Group. He also added that the company has set aside ₹60-70 crore for these acquisitions.
DAILYMAIL.COM – May 25 – Only 1,596 of the 26,939 users with a UK email address identified as female. That means the ratio of male to female AFF members in the UK is 16:1. ~4M users of AdultFriendFinder had highly sensitive information, including birthdays, ZIP codes, sexual orientations and email and IP addresses, exposed during the hack.
by Evan Bleier
See full article at DailyMail.co.uk
MIRROR.CO.UK – May 21 – Part Tinder, part Hot or Not, dating app Ten lets users rate each other’s attractiveness on a scale of 1 to 10 and only matches people in the same 'league'. Users can't see their overall ratings. The iPhone app is based on the theory that people who are similarly attractive form more successful relationships.
MIRROR.CO.UK – May 21 – Last week, Hinge decided to include Facebook relationship status in the profiles. ~450 men abandoned the app over the course of one weekend. A Hinge spokesman said: "We see a natural attrition rate week to week, but this was 40% higher than normal for men. Women, on the other hand seemed to appreciate the news, with 26% more than normal joining."
BUZZFEED – May 22 – The League, which promotes exclusivity and has been described as "Tinder for elitists," asks its top members to sign a contract where they have to promise not to use any other dating apps. Members who sign the contract, which appears to operate on the honor system, are promised benefits like seeing the highest-performing profiles first, getting the first shot at "new talent," and getting 10 VIP invites for people to cut the waitlist.
FORBES – May 25 – Ma Baoli, who goes by the alias Geng Le, had been a policeman in the northern Hebei province for almost 20 years. He was forced to quit the job in 2012, when people found out he had secretly moderated Danlan, a gay website, at night. China has no anti- discrimination law in place, meaning a lot of people, especially those working for government, choose to hide their sexual orientation. Ma Baoli started Blued, a dating app similar to Grindr. Now Blued boasts ~20M users, including ~6M abroad. Last year Ma raised $30M at a valuation of $300M. This year he will start talking to investors for a new round. International expansion is on his mind. The goal is listing on the NASDAQ within five years.
BBC – May 25 - AshleyMadison attempts to raise $200M in an IPO in London – which would value it at ~$1B. This isn't the first time Avid Life Media, Ashley Madison's parent company, have sought an IPO. In 2011, the company attempted to list in Toronto, but was forced to withdraw its offering. European investors might be willing to overlook a few things if the top line figures look good. But some potential investors have questioned the firm's numbers, after former staff and users have complained of a plethora of fake profiles on the site. The company admits many people sign up and never actually do anything. And of course, there is the competition. Gleeden, a French infidelity service that launched in 2009, says it has 2.6M members, primarily in Europe. Manuel Montevidoni, the CFO of Gleeden said: "I don't understand why Ashley Madison is looking for financing." But he supports Ashley Madison's efforts, mostly because it brings public awareness to the ubiquity of infidelity.
by Kim Gittleson
See full article at BBC
NEWS.COM.AU – May 25 – Coffee Meets Bagel, the dating app that turned down a $30M offer from Mark Cuban on the US TV series Shark Tank, is launching in Australia. Coffee Meets Bagel introduces users to one match every day and they have 24 hours to pass or like their counterpart.
by Jennifer Dudley-Nicholson
See full article at News.com.au
OPW – May 25 – BeehiveID is hosting a webinar called “Traditional Fraud Prevention is Costing you Customers” on June 4th. There will be two sessions – at 9AM CST and 3PM CST. BeehiveID helps ensure that people online are who they say they are in person. It analyzes an individual's social media history, their friends and posts to determine whether a genuine person or a spambot is posting. In this webinar, BeehiveID we will examine transactional tools traditionally used to fight fraud – how they work, and where they fall short. BeehiveID team will show you how person based data can be a much more effective barrier to fraud, as well as a critical tool for building safe online communities.