PRESS RELEASE – Nov 10 – Voting for the 2017 iDate Awards is now open and ends on January 8, 2017. The winners will be announced at the iDate Awards ceremony on the night of January 25, 2017 in Miami.
Month: November 2016
eHarmony To Host Speed Dating Event In Australia
BUSINESS INSIDER – Nov 10 – eHarmony is organizing a speed dating event, that will take place at Woolloomooloo in eastern Sydney on November 29. Australian singles will be set up on a series of mini dates. As well as offering up a chance for singles to meet, the night is designed to emulate eHarmony's online matching in real life, to allow the company to evaluate its secret sauce formula. The experiment results will be analysed and written up in a white paper to be published early in the new year.
Maple Match Almost Double Its User Base After Trump Elected As President
MOBILESYRUP – Nov 9 – Americans who are in shock and awe of the upset win by Donald Trump in becoming the 45th President of the United States can find hope in Maple Match. Similar to Tinder and Bumble, Maple Match allows users to connect with a Canadian to marry.
by Ian Hardy
See full article at MobileSyrup
No Hook Ups! – India To Regulate Matrimonial Sites
QUARTZ – Nov 10 – India is planning to set up regulations that will prevent matrimonial websites from being used for casual dating. Users of such sites will be required to verify their identities to ensure that the service is not being misused for casual dating. They will need to share details of any government-recognized identity proof. Matrimonial websites will also be asked to keep records of IP addresses of users.
by Itika Sharma Punit
The full article was originally published at SBS.com, but is no longer available.
Grindr Adds Fields For HIV Status
THE BODY – Nov 9 – Grindr is adding optional HIV-related fields in user profiles, such as HIV status, last HIV test date, and pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) use. Users won't be able to filter who they see in the app based on HIV status. Filling out the HIV status field is entirely optional.
by DJ Davis
See full article at The Body
EliteSingles’ Parent Company Surpasses 40M Global Users
BUSINESSCLOUD.CO.UK – Nov 9 – Affinitas, which also runs Attractive World and eDarling, has reached 40M global registered users. ~500k new members are signing up each month. The announcement follows the company's acquisition of French premium dating site Attractive World in October.
by Jonathan Symcox
See full article at BusinessCloud.co.uk
See all posts on AttractiveWorld
See all posts on EliteSingles
See all posts on eDarling
Taru Kapoor, India Head Of Tinder, Talks About Challenges
BUSINESS WORLD – Nov 9 – India has seen a strong organic growth and is among Tinder's top five growing markets and the largest in Asia. "We believe that the conservative Indian mind set is steadily shifting and it's only a matter of time before it adapts to Tinder's ideology. Before Tinder, women often felt overwhelmed using traditional dating sites because men could message anyone they wanted to – whether the woman was interested in connecting or not. With Tinder, users can only contact one another if they both mutually express interest in connecting," she said. Tinder in India has incredible potential. With ~160M smartphone users, India is one of the largest markets in the world. Indian youth are mobile-first global citizens.
Hinge Not Ready For A Serious Relationship
WASHINGTON POST – Nov 8 – Distancing itself from casual hookups, Hinge now identifies as the go-to "relationship app," targeting "people who are looking for meaningful connections." New Hinge profiles include photos, basic information, and tidbits about users' personalities and interests. Rather than swiping, users interact by "liking" or commenting on photos, or answering icebreaker questions. One major flaw stood out though: Not one of Hinge's icebreaker prompts or questions encourages users to directly explain what they seek in a partner — romantically, sexually or personally. More important, Hinge's sample answers are nearly all indirect, if not trite. If Hinge's goal is to build meaningful connections and committed relationships, then why are their icebreakers so trivial? Comparatively, "older" sites such as OkCupid use direct questions about users' romantic and sexual preferences to build matches based on direct indicators of compatibility.
MeetMe Q3 Results – Revenue Up 20%, Profit Over $4M
PRESS RELEASE – Nov 11 – Here are MeetMe's Q3 financial highlights:
- Total revenue increased 20% YOY to $17.2M
- Mobile revenue is up 39% ($16M)
- Net income increased 316% YOY to $4.4M
Geoff Cook, CEO of MeetMe, stated, "MeetMe's mobile daily active users for the quarter increased 18% YOY while our mobile monthly active users increased 32%. We've completed our acquisition of Skout and have begun executing against our integration plan. Combined with Skout, MeetMe now has ~8M MAU and one of the largest mobile user bases of millennials."
See full article at MeetMe website
Tinder’s Competitors Are Banking On Its Sleazy Image
BUSINESS INSIDER – Nov 5 – When Tinder launched in 2012, every match felt like an adrenaline rush. But those matches are no longer quite as exciting. A 2016 study looked at the user reviews of 97 dating apps and analyzed how their quality scores have changed over the past year. Tinder experienced the largest YOY decline. In a 2016 survey by Consumers' Research, 13% of Tinder users reported relationships lasting longer than one month. Its photo-based interface probably contributed to its hookup image. Apps like Bumble, Hinge, Happn, Coffee Meets Bagel, Siren, Her are not heavily photo-based. Bumble has a similar interface as Tinder, but doesn't have the reputation of being a hookup app. That's because only women can message their matches first on Bumble. Men seem to like the app because women seem to take more initiative in starting a conversation. Siren, which launched in late 2015, abandons the swipe interface entirely. It features a daily question and a feed that displays users' answers.
