Month: October 2015

UAE Dating Still In The Dark

Posted on October 24, 2015

Screen Shot 2015-10-24 at 6.07.44 PMOPW – Oct 24 – I'm in Dubai for a few days, and thought I'd see which dating sites are available here in the UAE from my hotel.   

Blocked in Dubai
Adopteunmec, ArabLounge, Badoo, Chemistry, CoffeeMeetsBagel, eHarmony, FarmersOnly, Flirt.com, Meetic, Nirvam.it, Oasis, Person.com, POF, SeniorPeopleMeet, Teamo.ru, Twoo, Zoosk, …yup, most all the dating sites I try are no go in Dubai.

Available in Dubai
BharatMatrimony, Inchallah, Jeevansathi, Shaadi
…aha, and I see ShopAMan.de, Skout and Tinder made it. How so?

I'm happy to see OnlinePersonalsWatch.com is available. I don't really understand why eHarmony and Teamo.ru are blocked however. That's an oversight, surely.

Post by Mark Brooks @ Courtland Brooks Internet Dating Marketing Consulting

Sued Ashley Madison In Trouble If They Rely On Terms And Conditions

Posted on October 23, 2015

Ashleymadison logo new apr 2010FORBES – Oct 23 – Ashley Madison is being sued in Canada, the US, and likely in other countries. These class-action lawsuits, seeking ~$500M in damages, will take years. A majority of the focus will be on the "Terms and Conditions" and “Privacy Policy". Recently, a federal judge in California granted Lyft’s motion to dismiss a class action lawsuit filed against it by its drivers. The reason? A provision in Lyft’s Terms of Service waives class actions and forced arbitration. Ashley Madison, however, might not be as lucky: some self-imposed update procedures are likely to get those Terms and Conditions completely thrown out. Ashley Madison's Terms and Conditions are intended to protect Ashley Madison. In summary they state:

  • It's not our problem if your data gets hacked.
  • We are not liable for damages, and you can’t sue us for more than $5K.
  • You may be interacting with fembots.
  • If you sue us, you must do it via arbitration and you may not do it as part of a class action lawsuit.

Ashley Madison gives itself the right to update its Terms and Conditions at anytime, and expects users to check for updates. This won't work in California. Safeway was just ordered to pay out $31M in a class action lawsuit, due in a part to never having provided conspicuous notice of changes to its own online Terms and Conditions.

by Brian Powers
See full article at Forbes

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Summarized by Courtland Brooks Internet Dating Marketing Consulting

Paktor Looks To Go Global, Hires VP Of Marketing

Posted on October 22, 2015

Paktor_Jose Ruano_Miguel MangasMARKETING INTERACTIVE – Oct 22 – Singaporean start-up mobile dating app Paktor has added Jose Ruano and Miguel Mangas to the senior leadership team as it looks to go global. Paktor was founded in July 2013 and has 5M users. Earlier this year, Paktor secured SG$10M ($7M) in a series B funding.

by Rezwana Manjur
See full article at Marketing Interactive

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Summarized by Courtland Brooks Internet Dating Marketing Consulting

Candidate Is A Smarter Social Dating App

Posted on October 21, 2015

Candidate screenshotAPPADVICE – Oct 20 – Candidate is a new dating app that works like a question and answer game. A mystery host creates a game of questions and evaluates the answers of the other participants. The winner of the contest and the mystery host will then be able to communicate and see each other’s profiles.

by Joe White
See full article at AppAdvice

Summarized by Courtland Brooks Internet Dating Marketing Consulting

FriendFinder Might Sell Penthouse

Posted on October 21, 2015

Ffn logoNYPOST – Oct 20 – Adult magazine Penthouse, at one time a top-selling rival to Playboy, is going to be sold again by its current owner, FriendFinder Networks.

by Keith J. Kelly
See full article at NYPost

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Gay Dating App Scruff Launches New Feature For Travelers

Posted on October 21, 2015

Scruff ventureNYTIMES – Oct 20 – Scruff, a gay dating app, got inspired by Tinder's passport feature. Scruff's users can now taps on Venture, a list of two dozen cities and see profiles of locals, people currently visiting and people who will be visiting the city soon. Users can set up their own trips in advance and make contact with others before they visit.

by Steven McElroy
See full article at NYTimes

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How Zoosk Uses Creative Testing To Improve Mobile User Acquisition

Posted on October 21, 2015

Zoosk logo may 15VENTUREBEAT – Oct 20 – Chris Nguyen is marketing manager of Zoosk, a global dating platform with 35M profiles. "Test as much as possible: creatives, landing pages, everything," he says. "Test everything and see what works." Mobile UA creative testing has become a time-tested science for him for which tiny changes are measured and optimized against the entire funnel — from click-thru, to profile creation and subscription. For Zoosk, an important metric is profile completions. "We want to know, does the creative change we’re making actually encourage users to complete their profile?"

See full article at VentureBeat

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Summarized by Courtland Brooks Internet Dating Marketing Consulting

Squad Is Like Tinder For Groups

Posted on October 21, 2015

Squad beta logoTECH CRUNCH – Oct 20 – Squad, a New York base startup, is officially launching its iOS app today, it's also announcing a raise of $1.7M in seed funding. According to founder and CEO Adam Liebman, squad is designed to facilitate more casual group meetups. Dating and hookup is not its main goal. He said the idea came from a trip to Montreal, where he "hacked Tinder" by turning his profile into a group profile that allowed him and his friends to meet new people while traveling. The Squad app is free. Liebman said the current focus is on "creating a great product," but eventually, he plans to make money through ads.

by Anthony Ha
See full article at Tech Crunch

This post also appears on InternetDatingInvestments.

Summarized by Courtland Brooks Internet Dating Marketing Consulting

Clone Factory Rocket Internet: Waiting For Lift-off

Posted on October 20, 2015

Rocketinternet logoFT.COM – Oct 20 – With a €5B market cap, Rocket is Europe's most valuable technology company. Investors' faith in Rocket is built on the idea of replicating successful Internet businesses, and set them up in new markets. (eDarling – clone of eHarmony). Rocket was launched in 2007, and has grown to employ 30k people. The company went public a year ago (the €6.7B IPO was the largest in Germany since 2007), and attracted funds from high-profile names. It reported loss €46M this year. Rocket owns hundreds of shell companies, as well as minority stakes in businesses that are not consolidated into the parent. Mr Samwer, Rocket's founder and CEO, acknowledges the complexity but suggests it reflects the nature of the business. Since the listing, Rocket has raised ~€600M in February and €550M in July.

by Sarah Gordon & Dan McCrum
See full article at Financial Times

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Gregory Franchina Unloaded 72K Stock Of Spark Networks

Posted on October 19, 2015

Sparknetworks logo new Jan 13FINANCIAL MAGAZINE – Oct 15 – Chief Information Officer of Spark Networks, Mr. Gregory Franchina, sold 72,079 shares, totalling $247,959. He also sold 84,824 shares valued at $275,729 in the last 30 days. Since March 16, 2015, the stock had 0 insider buys, and 7 selling transactions for $332,013 net activity.

by Sally Goff
The full article was originally published at Financial Magazine, but is no longer available.

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Summarized by Courtland Brooks Internet Dating Marketing Consulting