THE GUARDIAN – May 8 - Tinder has rejected research that estimated that 42% of its users are either married or in a relationship. "The results of this tiny, 681 person study in the UK is a totally inaccurate depiction of Tinder’s user base", said Tinder's spokesman. "The largest age group on Tinder (over 50% of users) is 18-24. More than 93% of UK residents in that age range have never been married, according to the UK's office of National Statistics. Simple logic should reveal that it's essentially impossible for any of these claims to be accurate." GlobalWebIndex has defended its methodology. "Our data is based on interviews with a panel of ~170K Internet users worldwide."
Month: May 2015
eHarmony Ramps Up Analytics for New Job Matching Business
WSJ – May 8 – The new eHarmony service, called Elevated Careers, is expected to launch late this year. To prepare, eHarmony brought in Hadoop for analyzing massive datasets and a search engine from Elastic, as well as other technology upgrades. Job hunters fill out three questionnaires about their values, personality and experiences with corporate culture. Employers with open jobs, meanwhile, are profiled based on external data and information supplied by current and former employees.
MeetMe Q1 Results: Mobile Revenue Up 76%, Record EBITDA ($3.1M)
BUSINESSWIRE – May 8 – Total Q1 revenue was $11.6M, up 22% YOY. Mobile revenue ($8.2M) represented 71% of total revenue. Adjusted EBITDA was $3.1M, compared to a loss of $500K in Q1 2014. Net income was $722K compared to a net loss of $3.4M in Q1 2014. Mobile monthly users grew 44%. "We believe this significant growth in traffic reflects our success in growing Chat engagement", said CEO Geoff Cook.
The full article was originally published at SeekingAlpha, but is no longer available.
How A Nerd Who Got His First Kiss At 21 Built A $30M Dating Empire
NEXT SHARK – One of the best ways to create a great product is to simply come up with a solution for your own biggest problem. For entrepreneur Brandon Wade, his problem was relationships. "In 11th grade, I wanted to approach a beautiful girl at school. I didn't know how to do it. My dad said: Just do it! So I walked up to her and I tripped and fell. I stepped on her foot as I was standing up. She was laughing the whole way." Seeing that his father's advice didn't work, he consulted his mother, who said: "Just focus on school and study. Someday you'll be successful, and all the girls will be there." With that in mind, Wade continued working hard and eventually went to MIT for college.
Q: What inspired you to create SeekingArrangement.com?
A: "After college, I was successful but I was still awkward. It was time to take matters into my own hands. SeekingArrangement was born.
Q: Did you aspire to start a company before college?
A: At MIT, my first goal was to become a millionaire by the time I turned 25. I was very entrepreneurial. One of the businesses I launched back in 1999 raised $10M from VCs. I've failed many times, and I picked myself right back up and restarted again.
Q: Regardless of SeekingArrangement, would you say your mom’s initial advice was correct?
A: It's not necessarily about wealth, it's about confidence. Wealth makes you more attractive and therefore gives you the opportunity to build up your confidence.
Q: What challenges did you face building SeekingArrangement?
A: We have experienced a lot of issues with HR in the past two years.
Q: How have mobile sites like Tinder affected your business?
A: I think Tinder is at a very high level raising the tide for everyone.
by Benny Luo
See full article at NextShark
Barry Diller Discloses IAC Owns 60% Of Tinder
CNBC – May 8 – In an interview with CNBC Barry Diller tried to dampen 'crazy speculation' about Tinder by saying "lets not get crazy." He also disclosed that IAC owns 60% of Tinder.
Courtland Brooks Future Think – Africa To Be Top Dating Market In 2035!
COURTLAND BROOKS – May 7 – Where's the next big Internet dating opportunity? In 20 years most of the worlds working population will live in Africa. Internet dating businesses do well in countries with sizable working populations. Africa is currently home to 7 of the worlds 10 fastest growing economies.
"By 2035 the number of Africans joining the working age population will exceed that from the rest of the world combined."
Top 5 working age (15-64) populations in Africa in 2035.
- Nigeria – 174.2 million
- Ethiopia – 95.8 million
- Egypt – 71.7 million
- Democratic Republic of Congo – 66.9 million
- Tanzania – 51.3 million (up 188% from 2015)
KPMG recommends these as the top 3 African nations for investing in.
- South Africa
- Nigeria
- Angola
Perhaps you should use a market research group to do a digital market study for Africa for you.
Read the full article on the Courtland Brooks blog.
Post by Mark Brooks @
Spark Networks Q1 Results – Revenue Down 19%, Net Income $723K
MARKETWIRED – May 6 – Q1 2015 revenue was $13.5M, a decrease of 19% YOY and a 5% decrease from the prior quarter. The decrease was primarily driven by a 25% decrease in average paying subscribers. Direct marketing expenses were $6.1M, a decrease of 47% YOY. Net income was $723K, compared to a net loss of $2.9M in Q1 2014.
The full article was originally published at Spark.net, but is no longer available.
LUXY Dating App Offers Kardashian Town Millions To Change Name
DAILYCALLER – May 7 – Hidden Hills, home to the Kardashians, Denise Richards, Jennifer Lopez, LeAnn Rimes and Britney Spears, is offered $3.45M to change its name to "Luxy". Luxy dating app explains that it is "literally trying to put itself on the map." The app describes itself as "Tinder minus the poor people."
One Third Of Tinder Users Are Married
TELEGRAPH.CO.UK – May 7 – 30% of Tinder users are married, according to a research by GlobalWebIndex. Men outnumber women 6:4, and the majority of users (45%) are aged between 25-34. ~38% are aged 16-24, while 1% are between 55-64. A quarter of Tinder users said they'd paid for an online dating service in the last month.
White Label Dating Offer Ex-DIY Partners 100% Rev Share And £1K Cash
WLD – May 6 - White Label Dating are offering all DIY Dating partners 100% revenue share and up to £1K bounty when they transfer their portfolio to the them by May 31, 2015. This initiative follows reports that DIY Dating are no longer in operation.