DATING ADVICE – June 7 – The dating industry moves so fast these days, it can be hard to keep up. Online Personals Watch makes it easier by bringing concise and quick headlines to busy Internet dating professionals. Since 2004, Online Personals Watch has served as a go-to news resource for people making an impact in the dating industry. An expert on the business side of online dating, Mark Brooks and his wife, Irena, summarize important news stories and interview CEOs and luminaries to provide a complete daily reference of the business of love. Mark has over 15 years experience working for dating websites and apps. While Irena runs OPW, Mark runs a boutique consultancy for Internet dating companies. His clients have included PlentyofFish, Meetme, Dating Factory, and Global Personals. He's also keynoted at the industry's leading Internet Dating Conference every year since 2005. Currently he's getting his master's degree in behavioral science at the London School of Economics. He's excited to help guide the industry to achieve its true potential.
Month: June 2016
Interview With Lija Wilson, Co-Founder Of Troozi
What's Troozi's founding story?
Me and my co-founder Nikhil Jain met when we were working at RSVP. We formulated a rapid growth plan and tried to destigmatise online dating in Australia. RSVP moved from a #3 position in market to becoming the clear market leader in Australia over a 3 year period. We spent ~7 years working on RSVP before independently leaving to pursue other startup interests. Jain turned his focus to India. India posed an incredibly exciting opportunity for launching a new product focused on urban singles and younger women keen to expand their social circles.
Why did you feel there was an opening in the market?
India's middle class was exploding and more and more young singles were turning to online in the search for connections, friends, fun and love interest in urban centres. Australia in comparison was a very small market and had reached a state of maturity.
Mobile is the most exciting opportunity for the future of Troozi. India has just overtaken the US in smart phone users, now ranking as the 2nd largest market in the world.
Troozi has focused on building its social presence which has been very successful in appealing to the female user base. Troozi now has members all over the country and Indian singles in the US, Australia and the UAE have also jumped on board.
How many active members do you have at this stage?
We don't disclose our active member figures publicly but our engagement numbers continue to perform well and our churn rate is very small, members are checking their accounts frequently.
Are you focused on women more than men?
Yes, in our marketing efforts and product planning.
How fast is the Indian dating market growing?
India is still showing strong and rapid growth in online dating, forecasts have the addressable market at ~115 M people and conservative estimates suggest this will surpass 200M by the end of 2017.
Obviously, the growth is being largely driven by mobile usage. In 2015, 100M smart phones were shipped to India, up 23% YOY.
How are the use patterns changing?
Users are becoming more and more comfortable with dating profiles and putting themselves out.
What kind of funding are you looking for at this stage?
We will most likely start to roadshow Troozi for our next raise mid year and our next stage of growth. Our plans for how much investment we will go out and seek to secure will directly to relate to our plans to hit some key milestones this quarter.
What are your plans for 2016-2017 for Troozi?
Our plans for mobile iteration continue to be the priority.
Post by Mark Brooks @ Courtland Brooks.
Dus App For South Asian Singles
HUFFINGTON POST – June 7 – Available on both iOS and Android platforms, Dus provides a digital space that enables users to converse with like-minded Desis and break the ice with fun and engaging mini-games. All the while, users have the ability to hide their online presence from lurking friends and family, and ultimately escape cultural confines when it comes to forming independent relationships.
Dating Sites Luring Chinese Commodities Traders
FOREX LIVE – Jun 7 – Users are lured into trading commodities by someone they meet on the site, thinking they are developing a personal relationship. They often end up losing tens of thousands of yuan before realizing the relationship is strictly business. "This has become the biggest type of scam on our site over the past year," a top executive at a leading Chinese online dating company said.
Lulu Is Dead
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Post by Mark Brooks @ Courtland Brooks.
Mobile Dating Conference 2016
OPW – June 6 – I'm in L.A. from Wednesday this week to speak at, and cover the Mobile Dating Conference.
Here's the breakout for the attendees.
- 71% Dating Operators and Owners
- 14% Marketing Companies
- 12% Other
- 7% Payment Processors
That's a high proportion of dating site owners and operators, which means we'll have some great conversations. See the agenda. Verizon, Meetme, Diverse (Japan), Zoosk, Jiayuan, Spark Networks, The League…and that's just day 1 !!?!
The event is in L.A. Thursday and Friday, 9-10th June, with a pre-conference day on Wednesday 8th June. If you've not booked yet, you can register at the door. See you there.
Post by Mark Brooks @ Courtland Brooks.
Blued Now Twice As Big As Grindr
GAY STAR NEWS – Jun 4 – The China-based gay social networking app has announced that it has completed its latest rounds of investor financing and has a value of $300M with 27M registered users. 20% of those are now outside of China. It is one of the most-downloaded social networking apps in App Store. Blued is aiming for a stock market flotation within the next 1-2 years but which stock market it hopes to list on remains unknown.
Tinder Projects Paid Subscribers Will Double In 2016
BLOOMBERG – Jun 3 – Tinder expects its paid subscribers to double by the end of the year, according to a new note from Cowen and Company. With a la carte revenue from new features performing better-than-expected through the Q1 2016, management has space "to 'take some swings' by tweaking or adding to the product, which hasn't changed substantively since the rollout of the 'Super-likes' last November," according to the analysts. The company currently has over a million subscribers, users spend roughly 35 min/day on the app and swipe left or right 140 times, leading analysts to believe advertising could be a substantial source of revenue in the future.
by Julie Verhage
The full article was originally published at Bloomberg, but is no longer available.
Dating Apps With Highest % Of Women
BUSINESS INSIDER – Jun 3 – SurveyMonkey Intelligence looked at the numbers to see which dating apps have the highest proportion of women. Christian Mingle scored the top spot, with women-friendly apps like Coffee Meets Bagel and Bumble also scoring high. Tinder and Happn ranked lower, while, unsurprisingly, gay app Grindr fell in last place.
POF Killer Sentenced To Life
MIRROR.CO.UK – Jun 3 – Carl Langdell received a life sentence and will serve a minimum of 26 years for the murder of Katie Locke who he met on Plenty Of Fish. The murder took place on their first date in the early hours at a Hertfordshire hotel, where he strangled the young teacher, before having sex with her dead body.