Month: August 2016

Trending Business Q&A With Coffee Meets Bagel COO

Posted on August 31, 2016

Coffeemeetsbagel logo Sep 15BLOOMBERG – Aug 29 – Dawoon Kang, co-founder and COO at Coffee Meets Bagel, discusses how the dating app works, how it differs from other dating sites and the outlook for the company.

Key points:
  • Coffee Meets Bagel is a female focused dating app that delivers quality matches at noon each day.
  • CMB is a freemium app that allows users to buy extras with "coffee beans" virtual currency.
  • The app is not yet profitable but Dawoon said the app is now seeing a double digit monthly revenue growth.
  • CMB plans to expand into China and Korea.

Watch the interview here

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What Makes Match Group’s Business Model So Powerful

Posted on August 31, 2016

Match group jan 16THE MOTLEY FOOL – Aug 28 – Since Match Group went public in November, the stock has bounced between $8 and $17. Still, there are a number of reasons to believe in the long-term potential of the business.

  • It is built on user-generated content
  • Operating leverage
  • Since Match is a subscriber-driven business, its expenses are roughly the same regardless of the number of subscribers. In its most recent quarter, a 21% increase in revenue led to an 82% jump in operating income.
  • High customer need
  • Match's business is as timeless as any business around.

by Jeremy Bowman
See full article at The Motley Fool

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The Truth About Who Will Buy Your Company

Posted on August 30, 2016

Meetmoi andrew weinreich 2016FORBES – Aug 27 – In 1999, Andrew Weinreich sold Six Degrees for $125M. In the following years, he went on to sell three other companies including one to IBM and another (mobile dating app MeetMoi) to Match.com. The one commonality was that in each case, his team knew his eventual buyers long before they made an acquisition offer. "Develop relationships with acquirers long before you want to sell", he said in BuiltToSell interview.

by John Warrilow
See full article at Forbes

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Sex, Lies And Cyber Attacks – Documentary About AshleyMadison

Posted on August 30, 2016

Ashley MadisonCHANNEL 4 – Aug 31 – The premiere of a documentary "Sex, Lies And Cyber Attacks", investigating Ashley Madison, is airing on Channel4 tomorrow (Wednesday Aug 31st at 10pm GMT). AM was hacked last summer and the private details of its ~30M users were made public. When the hackers published internal company emails, there appeared to be a lot more going on behind the scenes.

Watch the documentary here

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Scientists Are Working On Reducing eHarmony’s Questionnaire

Posted on August 29, 2016

HeartsCalculationNEWS.USC.EDU – Aug 26 – Aram Galstyan and Greg Ver Steeg of the USC Information Sciences Institute are applying principles of quantum mechanics to the matchmaking algorithms that run eHarmony. Jonathan Beber, who leads eHarmony's data science, approached the ISI duo with a problem: how to reduce eHarmony's questionnaire; what is the minimum amount of questions eHarmony can ask without losing its predictive compatibility power. What started out with ~500 questions became 145 questions over time. Galstyan and Ver Steeg boiled down the questionnaire with a process called correlation explanation (CorEx). "The idea behind CorEx," Ver Steeg said, "is to ask what are the hidden factors that explain correlations in the data. For example, how different parts of your brain light up at the same time or the way you answer question A always predicts the way you answer question B."

by Daniel Druhora
See full article at News.usc.edu

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Egyptian Police Using Gay Dating Apps To Hunt Gays

Posted on August 29, 2016

Gay coupleTHE JERUSALEM POST – Aug 25 – Egyptian government authorities have reportedly been using gay dating apps to locate and detain members of the LGBT community, according to online lifestyle and entertainment magazine CairoScene. The outlet claimed that the online dating apps, such as Grindr, are jeopardizing the safety of the conservative Muslim country's homosexual population.

by Julie Steigerwald
See full article at The Jerusalem Post

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Shaadi’s Founder Invested In Wedding Planning Platform Shaadisaga

Posted on August 29, 2016

Shaadisaga logoECONOMIC TIMES – Aug 25 – Online wedding planning platform Shaadisaga has raised a pre-Series A round of funding from investors including Shaadi.com founder Anupam Mittal, Freecharge founder Kunal Shah, and ah! Ventures. The amount was undisclosed.

by Mugdha Variyar
See full article at Economic Times

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Modern-Day Dating Apps In India

Posted on August 28, 2016

Dating stats indiaTHE WEEK – Aug 28 – Online platforms are changing the way Indians are finding love today. In the past marriages were arranged mostly through close friends and family members. There was no concept of dating. But today, with the all the dating apps, finding the right life partner often means a heavy investment of time and effort. But on the other side, there are those like web developer Rohan Mehta, 23, "an introverted tech geek" who found that Tinder helped him come out of his shell. "I joined Tinder to become more social and ended up making a few good friends. I even met a girl and we dated for a while." Tinder became available in India in 2013 and launched its operations here this year. Taru Kapoor, the app's India head, says the country is Tinder's fastest-growing market and has an energetic and diverse user base. There are also some home-grown apps like TrulyMadly, Woo and Aisle. All three came into existence with the founding members looking for a solution to their own dating woes. Launched in India in 2014, Woo has got ~3M downloads and is expanding to countries like Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia. Unlike Tinder, Woo is designed to disallow married people from signing up. The founders estimate that the market of singles aged 24 and above is ~20M currently and will grow to 50M in the next three years. Aisle, the 2 years old app calls itself the 'middle path between traditional matrimony sites and casual dating apps'.

by Shalini Singh
See full article at The Week

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DatePlay Raises £200k And Gets Accepted Into Mass Challenge Accelerator

Posted on August 26, 2016

Dateplay screenshotCROWDFUNDINSIDER – Aug 26 – Vana Koutsomitis' dating app, DatePlay, has surpassed £200k in funds on Seedrs. "The Apprentice" runner-up launched the campaign on the funding portal last month to raise £120k. The app is currently in the final stages of production and is set to launch in beta this fall. DatePlay has also been accepted to Mass Challenge, a world-renowned startup accelerator program. The program takes 0% equity in the company and helps foster its growth.

by Samantha Hurst
See full article at CrowdFundInsider

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This post also appears on InternetDatingInvestments.

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Remainder, Dating App For Remain Voters, Flops

Posted on August 26, 2016

Remainder headerHEAT STREET – Aug 25 – Remainder, which seized worldwide press attention after the referendum result, promised to run events and launch a smartphone app, like Tinder but only for the 48% of Brits who voted to stay in the EU. However, a few weeks later, the project has seemingly failed to get anywhere. Donors on Crowdfunder.co.uk handed over £266 but have yet to see any obvious signs of progress.

by Kieran Corcoran
See full article at Heat Street

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