LAW360 – Feb 17 – A California judge tossed out a class action alleging the mobile dating app Tinder illegally discriminates based on gender by charging more for men and allowing women more matchups, saying the male plaintiff hadn't "connected the dots" to show how he'd been harmed.
Month: February 2016
MeetMeOutside Out Of Beta
PRNEWSWIRE – Feb 17 – MeetMeOutside (MMO), the dating app for active, fitness-focused singles, launches out of beta this week. MMO has been testing in beta since Sep of 2015.
Indian Matrimony App Maker GetVee Raises More Funding
TECH CIRCLE – Feb 17 – GetVee Technologies, which runs assistant matrimony platform Wedlock and couples-only app Fym, has raised an undisclosed amount from existing investors Lightspeed Venture Partners and others. The money will be utilised for product development, added Gupta. In November 2014, it had raised $1M in a pre-Series A round of funding from Lightspeed Venture Partners.
by Varun Arora
See full article at Tech Circle
This post also appears on InternetDatingInvestments.
Grindr Ranked Fast Company’s 10th Most Innovative Social Media Company
STAR OBSERVER – Feb 17 – The gay hook-up/dating app was listed "for promoting tolerance worldwide" through the implementation of its Grindr for Equality campaign. Also on the Innovative Social Media Company list were Tinder, Periscope, and Facebook, while BuzzFeed took out top place as Fast Company's Most Innovate Company for 2016.
Is Tinder Copying TrulyMadly’s Marketing Strategies?
Allegation #1
In Nov '15, TrulyMadly teamed up with restaurants to provide offers to its users to encourage them to go on a date, called Datelicious. In Jan '16 Tinder India announced a similar offer with Zomato, called 'Tinderlicious'.
Allegation #2
In Aug '15, TrulyMadly started speed dating. In Jan '16, Tinder tied up with Food Walk India for #DinnerWithStrangers initiative.
Allegation #3
Tinder recently did a video with content creators The Viral Fever (TVF) titled 'Eat, Pray…Swipe'. "It was the same script that TVF had pitched us first and my content team had rejected it", claims TrulyMadly. To say Tinder is copying TrulyMadly by getting TVF is stretching it a tad. Also, speed dating originated in Jerusalem in 1974. So, none can claim copyright for the idea. Sumesh Menon, co-founder & CEO of Woo (yet another match-making app) thinks Tinderlicious is just happy coincidence. "They are a big company, globally. We look up to them. But I feel Tinder is just taking shortcuts", says Sachin Bhatia, co-founder & CEO of TrulyMadly.
by Shephali Bhatt
See full article at Brand Equity
Analysts At BTIG Upgraded Match Group Stock From Sell To Neutral
by Martin Blanc
The full article was originally published at BIDNESSETC, but is no longer available.
Sugar Daddies Are Funding Higher Education
HUFFINGTON POST – Feb 16 – Great academic programs get cut, tuition goes up, and students compensate by sleeping with older men for money. Students are forced to find alternative and unconventional methods of funding. According to SeekingArrangement.com, a dating site that connects college students with wealthy benefactors, the University of Texas is the fastest growing campus adopting this relationship.
by Xavier Rotnofsky
See full article at Huffington Post
JDate Creator Has A New Jewish Dating App
TIMES OF ISRAEL – Feb 15 – Joe Shapira, the creator of JDate, developed a new app called Jfiix. Jfiix has been in use among Israelis for ~2 years and has ~250K users there, and three months ago an English version for US Jews was released as well. The app now claims 40K users in the US. Like Tinder, Jfiix offers location-based discovery, a chat function and right/left swiping.
A New Matchmaking Service Works By Body Odor
OBSERVER – Feb 15 – Smell Dating is a new matchmaking service. Users that sign up will be sent a T-shirt. They will wear it for three days and mail it back. Each will then receive 10 samples cut from the T-shirts of other participants to smell at their leisure. Via a website, they can let the service know which scents they like and get phone numbers of the paramours they match with. It costs $25, and it is limited to 100 residents of New York City for now.
App Forecast: ~100 Billion In Revenue By 2020
The full article was originally published at AppAnnie, but is no longer available.