Month: October 2016

International Marriage Agencies: Olga May Actually Be Oleg

Posted on October 11, 2016

International dating site screenshotKYIV POST – Oct 7 – International marriage agencies in Kyiv connect men and women from different countries via webchats and Skype calls. However, on many sites, foreign men are communicating with seductive strangers hiding behind the photographs of a Ukrainian beauty. This Kyiv Post journalist went undercover as a translator for one such agency. Male clients from the US, Australia or Europe pay ~12 cents per 10 minutes of online chat and $1.50 for a personal letter to an international dating website to link up with a gorgeous woman. But all too often the person replying to the heterosexual male seeking love is a translator, sometimes a male one, operating the profile of a real woman. One profile of a young beauty can earn $600-$2,000 per month, and the translator gets 40% of the earnings from each profile they operate.

by Veronika Melkozerova
See full article at Kyiv Post

Summarized by the Courtland Brooks team

President Of Japanese Dating Site Arrested For Creating Fake Profiles

Posted on October 10, 2016

ScamTOKYO REPORTER – Oct 7 – Tokyo Metropolitan Police have arrested the president of a software company FreeWorld whose dating sites are alleged to have defrauded users with fake profiles of celebrities. Over a two-year period ending in 2012, Wing Net collected 11.6B yen in revenue, the majority of which, investigators believe, came through fraudulent behavior.

See full article at Tokyo Reporter

Summarized by the Courtland Brooks team

Dine Dating App Takes Users Offline As Quickly As Possible

Posted on October 10, 2016

Dine screenshotsBUSTLE – Oct 10 – Dating app Dine is introducing a new feature called "Dine Pass" that hooks users up with free drinks. On Dine which launched in March 2016. Users can choose three places in their city that they'd want to go on a date, then the app shows them 2-5 potential matches a day and their picks. On the home screen, users will be shown a selection of first-date-friendly bars and restaurants taking part in the Dine Pass, and if they send or receive a date request for one of those places and go on a date, they get a free drink.

by Laken Howard
See full article at Bustle

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Summarized by the Courtland Brooks team

Tinder Is Branching Out

Posted on October 10, 2016

Tinder logo higher resolutionTHE MOTLEY FOOL – Oct 5 – Tinder has participated in Hey! VINA's $1.4M seed funding round recently and agreed to offer mentoring to the friend-finding app for women. In recent weeks, Tinder has taken other steps to extend its brand, launching Tinder Stacks and Tinder Boost. Tinder Stacks, the app for iMessage, allows members to use Tinder-like swiping for any kind of decision. With Tinder Boost, the company is doubling down on its paid membership model. Boost offers Tinder users the opportunity to pay to get to the front of the line for 30 minutes.

by Jeremy Bowman
See full article at The Motley Fool

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Summarized by the Courtland Brooks team

The Uses Of Tinder Study

Posted on October 10, 2016

Tinder itsamatch picPSYCHOLOGY TODAY – Oct 5 – Research by Sumter, Vandenbosch and Ligtenberg collected responses from 266 current or former users of Tinder (age 18-30) about the usage of Tinder. ~23% of respondents used Tinder on a daily basis, with 20% less than once a month or only once or twice. 45.5% had gone on a face-to-face date following a match on Tinder, with 18% reporting a one-night stand.

by Martin Graff
See full article at Psychology Today

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Summarized by the Courtland Brooks team

MeetMe Closes Skout Acquisition

Posted on October 6, 2016

Meetme skout logosNASDAQ – Oct 5 – The two companies had entered into a cash-stock acquisition deal in June. The deal was valued at $54.6M, of which MeetMe paid $28.5M in cash, and the rest in stock. In May 2016, Skout had 3.5M MAU. Last year, it had garnered $28.5M in revenues. Skout's Q3 2016 revenues are expected to be ~$6.6M. Meetme expects revenues for 2016 to come between $73.5M and $75.5M.

See full article at Nasdaq

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Summarized by the Courtland Brooks team

EliteSingles Is Acquiring French Dating Site Attractive World

Posted on October 5, 2016

Attractiveworld logoCITYAM – Oct 4 – Affinitas GmbH, the parent company of the premium dating service EliteSingles, has acquired French dating site Attractive World. Attractive World also operates in Belgium, Luxembourg and Switzerland. ~2M singles have applied to the site since its creation in 2007.

by Jack Palmer
See full article at CityAM

Update: EliteSingles paid between 10M – 20M Eur for Attractive World. Attractive World was launched in 2007 by Ludovic Huraux. The site raised 5.3M Eur between 2007 – 2011 and claimed profitability in 2013.

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This post also appears on InternetDatingInvestments.

Summarized by the Courtland Brooks team

Hinge Is Bashing Swipe Apps

Posted on October 5, 2016

Hinge dating apocalypse website screenshotWASHINGTON POST – Oct 3 – On Hinge's Dating Apocalypse site, visitors can click through stats about swipe apps like Hinge and Tinder. For example: "81% of Hinge users have never found a long-term relationship on any swiping app"; "only 1 in 500 swipes on Hinge turn into phone numbers exchanged"; and "4 out of 5 Hinge users can't recall the first name of their last right swipe." An FAQ on Hinge's website says "we realized the world of mindless swiping was ruining romance." That's pretty strong language for an app that has been part of the swipe machine since its early days. Hinge's new version for more relationship-minded is set to debut Oct 11th.

by Lisa Bonos
See full article at Washington Post

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Summarized by the Courtland Brooks team

Lovoo To Pay 1.2M Eur In Settlement

Posted on October 3, 2016

Lovoo logo Oct 16GRUENDERSZENE – Sep 28 – Lovoo's executives (Alexander Friede, and brothers Benjamin und Björn Bak) were ordered by Dresden court to pay 1.2M Eur fine for creating ~500 fake female profiles on their dating app to lure male users into paying membership fees. It is estimated that Lovoo made ~1.2M Euros using those fake profiles.

by Marco Weimer
See full article at GruenderSzene

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Summarized by the Courtland Brooks team