INDIAN TELEVISION – Jan 18 – The international music channel to discover great music, announces the launch of their the music based friendship/dating app. Hook syncs with the Facebook account of the user enabling them to log on and start connecting with other users. Once the match is made the user gets notified of the Hook and can start chatting with the matched person.
Month: January 2016
Zoosk Drops 1/3 Of Its Staff
TECH CRUNCH – Jan 14 – Despite $61M in funding, Zoosk is laying off 1/3 of its staff. ~40 people will be let go. Founded in 2007, Zoosk found success by building extensions for MySpace, Facebook, Hi5, and Bebo. It reached 40M registered users and 12M actives by 2009. Zoosk made money by selling subscriptions. The dating app ditched its IPO plans in 2014, and its founders stepped down. Former CFO Kelly Steckelberg became CEO. "To operate as a sustainable, profitable and innovative company, we've made the difficult but necessary decision to reduce our headcount", she commented.
ChristianMingle Partners With World Vision
PRNEWSWIRE – Jan 15 – ChristianMingle will donate 50% of all new subscriptions confirmed through their "Do Something Amazing" landing page to World Vision from January 12 – February 14. World Vision is a Christian humanitarian organization helping kids and families in poverty.
See full article at PR Newswire
CoffeeMeetsBagel’s Somewhat Racist Algorithm
BUZZFEED – Jan 14 – Even when users say "no preference" for ethnicity, CoffeeMeetsBagel dating app tends to show them people of their own race. CoffeeMeetsBagel commented: "If you are a member of a minority group, 'no preference' may end up meaning you'll be matched with people from your own race." Yet, it seems like a relatively common experience, even if users aren't from a minority group. White and Asian women who had no preference were shown mostly Asian men; Latino men were shown only Latina women. Coffee Meets Bagel argues that they actually are hoping for racial matches, even if they don't know it.
by Katie Notopoulos
See full article at BuzzFeed
People Wait 4 Years To End A Bad Relationship
MIRROR.CO.UK – Jan 15 – The average person in a bad relationship waits four years before breaking it off, according to research by eHarmony.co.uk – fear of being alone, pity for their partner and concern over how the rest of the family will be affected are the major reasons. 20% of respondents admit they simply don't love their partner.
FDP Ventures CEO To Speak At iDate In Miami
WEBWIRE – Jan 14 – Tim Taylor, CEO of FDP Ventures will speak on "Date Wars: Rise of the Apps", the rising use of mobile apps in the dating industry, and what dating site owners can do to respond and thrive in this new world. The 43rd International iDate event is on January 25-27, 2016 at the Kovens Conference Center. It is followed by the iDate Cruise, departing on January 28 and returning February 1.
Dating App Once Integrates With Wearables To Show Heart Rate
TECH CRUNCH – Jan 13 – Once, a dating app with ~600K users, announced an integration with Fitbit and Android Wear. Once lets users see their heart rate when they look at their matches. In the next version of the app, the user will be able to opt-in to a feature that will send their heart rate to their match once it's recorded. When you catch sight of your beloved and your heart starts racing, that's because of an adrenaline rush, said Dr. Reginald Ho, a cardiac electrophysiologist.
CEO Of Spark Networks To Speak At iDate
WEBWIRE – Jan 13 – Michael Egan, the CEO of Spark Networks, will be interviewed by Mark Brooks from Online Personals Watch. The main days of the Miami iDate event is on January 26-27, 2016 at the Kovens Conference Center, followed by the iDate Cruise.
Bumble Was Trying To Match People With Underage Users
VANITYFAIR – Jan 13 – A glitch in the dating app Bumble was appearing to limit some adult users to only matching with users between the ages of 13 and 17. For several months, users have been reporting that they're stuck in an uncomfortable, illegal position. Whitney Wolfe, the app's founder said that that issue is a result of back-end confusion that has only impacted ~100 users. Wolfe and her team decided to ban all minors from using the app.
China Videogame Developer Buys Grindr
CANADA JOURNAL – Jan 13 – Beijing Kunlun Tech, which is run by billionaire Zhou Yahui, paid $93M for a 60% controlling stake in the company – a significant sum for what is Grindr's first outside investment. Zhou Yahui, is a relatively unknown name in the tech scene but has made a $2.8B fortune through free-to-play online videogames and an extremely successful IPO on Shenzhen's ChiNext stock exchange.