Month: September 2016

Tinder Is Testing New “Boost Function”

Posted on September 28, 2016

Tinder boost picMASHABLE – Sep 28 – Tinder has begun trialling a new service called Tinder Boost. It allows paying users to skip the line, appearing as one of the first profiles when someone opens the app. Users can purchase "boosts" any time, and if they already pay for Tinder Plus, they get one free "boost" every week. Tinder is currently testing Tinder Boost amongst users in Australia exclusively.

by Jerico Mandybur
See full article at Mashable

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Summarized by the Courtland Brooks team

Russia Blocks Its Most Popular Gay Site

Posted on September 28, 2016

Gay site banned in russiaTHE DAILY BEAST – Sep 23 – BlueSystem claims ~100k page views a day. Now it's banned throughout the country by the government's telecommunications agency, Roskomnadzor. "The Kremlin is afraid of gays," the BlueSystem team wrote in a post last week on its VKontakte social media page. The BlueSystem site, which can still be accessed outside Russia – and may be available using VPN from inside – published news about human rights violations, court hearings, and the banning of gay parades all across the country.

by Anna Nemtsova
See full article at The Daily Beast

Summarized by the Courtland Brooks team

Bumble Will Let Users Get Verified

Posted on September 28, 2016

Bumble selfies featureTECH CRUNCH – Sep 22 – Bumble, the female-led dating app, is launching photo verification as a way to rid impersonators from the platform. Users will be assigned one of 100 different selfie poses. They then take a picture of themselves mimicking the pose. The picture will be reviewed by a Bumble team. While Verification won't be mandatory for all users, anyone who has had their profile reported as being potentially fake will have to verify within 7 days of being reported. If they don't verify in this time period their profile will be hidden and they will be temporarily denied access to seeing matches.

by Fitz Tepper
See full article at Tech Crunch

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Hinge Will Focus On Serious Relationships

Posted on September 28, 2016

Hinge_apocalypseticket_frontTECH CRUNCH – Sep 27 – Dating app Hinge is launching an entirely new version of the app that will focus on serious relationships. The new app, built from the ground up, will go live on October 11, and it will be a paid app for all users. Hinge is ditching its old app and also the swipe feature.

by Jordan Crook
See full article at Tech Crunch

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BeautifulPeople.com To Open LA Club

Posted on September 28, 2016

Beautifulpeople night clubTHE SUN – Sep 27 – Dating site BeautifulPeople.com is opening an exclusive new club where every guest is vetted to ensure they are attractive enough to enter. Managing director of BeautifulPeople.com Greg Hodge says that they are just following the site's users' wishes, as they are apparently tired of going on nights out surrounded by people they don't consider pretty enough.

by Guy Birchall
See full article at The Sun

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Berkeley International Is Launching In Ireland

Posted on September 28, 2016

Berkeleyinternational logo sep 16IRISHMIRROR – Sep 27 – The elite match-making service is open to those aged 35 and over and costs a minimum of €6k per year to join. The Dublin office joins other key locations around the world including Cannes, Milan, London and New York.

by Anita McSorley
See full article at IrishMirror

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Ashley Madison Is Confident About Its Comeback

Posted on September 28, 2016

Ashleymadison pic sep 16MARKETINGWEEK – Sep 27 – Last summer, a team of hackers released the details of 35M members of Ashley Madison. Since then, Ashley Madison has added 5M new users, according to the company's new CEO Rob Segal. Their latest TV campaign focused on women. "The campaign made us grow our female users by 18%." It has replaced the provocative previous slogan, 'Life's short. Have an affair' to 'Find your moment'. The overarching goal is to make Ashley Madison a female-focused brand that prioritises open relationships rather than affairs.

by Thomas Hobbs
See full article at MarketingWeek

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Tinder Invested In Female-Friendly Network “Hey! Vina”

Posted on September 28, 2016

Vina logoFORBES – Sep 27 – The investment is Tinder's second recent move to expand beyond the dating world and into more platonic networks. In July, the company launched Tinder Social to help groups of people to meet other groups for a night out. Hey! Vina, which was founded by Olivia June Poole, is a mobile app that uses surveys and interests to help women find friends online and then meet in the real world. While Poole gets Tinder's cash and institutional knowledge, Tinder will gain valuable insight on how to build and run a platonic platform as it looks to diversify away from dating.

by Steven Bertoni
See full article at Forbes

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This post also appears on InternetDatingInvestments.

Summarized by the Courtland Brooks team

Peekya – A New Free Dating App

Posted on September 28, 2016

Peekya logoHUFFINGTON POST – Sep 23 – Peekya is a free new app that has the technology and business savvy to give Tinder a run for its money. Peekya was developed by FarSighted Media, a company known for developing both web-based and mobile apps such as PokerRun.org and BuddyBall.org. Peekya has attracted some well-known investors (Francois Einwaechter and Thomas Podstawski – both owning 40% of Peekya). Peekya works with Facebook accounts. Users choose who (male/female/age…), what (hike, dinner, movie…), where, and when and then receive a list of matches.

by Jack Choros
See full article at Huffington Post

Summarized by the Courtland Brooks team

Tinder Now Lets Users Use Music To Find A Date

Posted on September 22, 2016

Tinder spotifyBUSINESS INSIDER – Sep 21 – Tinder and Spotify have announced a partnership that will let users choose any song from Spotify to display as their "anthem," a kind of personal theme song, which potential dates can listen to without leaving the app. They can also opt to have Tinder display their top artists on Spotify. This feature will be available in every Tinder market where Spotify is also present.

by Nathan McAlone
See full article at Business Insider

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Summarized by the Courtland Brooks team