WGNO – May 12 – Former 1990s Saints player, Quinn Early, created a new app called "Stroovy" with his partner, Rebecca Isner. He calls it, "Yelp for online daters." Users can read reviews on potential partners or write reviews about a good date or not so desirable one. This app, which launched in late March, can also act like a "wingman" or "wingwoman."
Month: May 2016
Tinder CEO Sean Rad: “Getting Fired Turned Out Great”
OkCupid To Take Legal Action After Data Of Its 70K Users Released
THE INQUIRER – May 13 – OkCupid is suffering after a security researcher released profile data on 70K of its users without permission. The researcher, Aarhus University student Emil Kirkegaard, scraped the data, which was otherwise available to OkCupid users, for study. He then released the results of the study along with personal details of those users. Aarhus University has distanced itself from the student's work in the face of a lot of criticism. OkCupid is firing up some lawyers and thinking of aiming them at someone. "This is a clear violation of our terms of service, and the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, and we're exploring legal options," the company said in a statement.
Tinder For Elites Launched In Singapore
TECHLY.COM.AU – May 13 – Singapore's launched a dating app similar to Tinder but only for elites – and it's called Ivory. At this stage people can only apply for the 'waitlist'. The app rings a few alarm bells. The country has developed into an economic powerhouse with high standards of living, endless malls and questionable human rights policies. Singapore is also characterized by rampant income inequality, so why not invent an app that solidifies it?
by Dan Wighton
See full article at Techly.com.au
Thinking Digital’s Herb Kim Backs Dating App Start-up With Friends Reunited Founder
CHRONICLE LIVE – May 6 – Thinking Digital founder Herb Kim has made his first angel investment, contributing to a six-figure funding at a start-up dating app company – M14. M14 allows users to set up and run their own dating or social apps. M14 is already responsible for Bristlr, a niche dating site for beard lovers. Others to invest in the funding round included Friends Reunited founder Steve Pankhurst; former match.com managing directors Jason Stockwood and Sam Bedford; Doug Scott from PotentialVC; and IXIS founder Chris Haslam.
by Robert Gibson
See full article at Chronicle Live
This post also appears on InternetDatingInvestments.
DateTix Launches In China And Singapore
FINFEED – May 13 – DateTix has announced a 30% bump in monthly active users – just as the dating app starts to launch in Shenzhen and Singapore. Its Hong Kong users have now reached ~8300.
Happn Is Launching A New “See You There” Feature
BUSINESS INSIDER – May 12 – The new feature will allow Happn users to state on their profiles that they are interested in doing a particular activity for the next few hours. Activities range from grabbing a bite to eat, going for a run, or catching a movie. If two people are interested in doing the same activity then a "Crush" (match) will be formed.
A Hacker Is Selling 57M Accounts On The Dark Web
TECH INSIDER – May 13 – A hacker known as Peace is offering up a database for sale on the dark web that contains information on 57M people, but there's a big mystery concerning where it's from. Peace said it came from Zoosk but the site denies being hacked. "None of the full user records in the sample data set was a direct match to a Zoosk user," said Zoosk's spokesperson.
Teen Dating Site Left Its Users Private Messages Exposed To Anyone
MOTHERBOARD – May 12 – The youth dating site OurTeenNetwork claims to be the "best rated teen dating and social networking site," created "for the safety of online teen dating and socializing." But despite those claims, until this week, anyone on the Internet could read the private messages exchanged between users. Any user on the site is assigned a unique, non random ID, such as 16164. The problem is that every private conversation uses those IDs, making a simple, guessable link such as ourteennetwork.com/conversation/ID1/ID2. Until this week, by guessing the ID numbers, any registered users could read other people's messages, and even type new messages—effectively pretending to be either one of the users. The site's founder said: "he built the site in haste :("
by Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai
See full article at Motherboard
Badoo Now Allows Its Users To Add Videos To Their Profile
BUSINESS INSIDER – May 11 – The feature, available through Badoo's iOS and Android apps, allows users to upload 15-second video clips. Before going live, the videos will be assessed by one of Badoo's 5K moderators.