March 2017 – Page 6 – Online Personals Watch

50% More Indians Now Look To Find Dates Online

Posted on March 13, 2017

BGR – Mar 13 – When it comes to using online search tools, 50% more Indians are now using the Internet to find prospective dating partners, Google has revealed in its 'Year in Search' report. Dating related searches grew by 50%, along with a 53% increase in downloads for dating apps. Indians were interested not just in dating but also in wedding affiliated categories like 'photographers', 'wedding planning', 'bridal wear'. Google saw a 30% jump. India emerged as the second largest Internet and smartphone economy in the world with ~350M connected citizens and 220M smartphone users.

See full article at BGR

Summarized by the Courtland Brooks team

Tinder Matched 250k Transgender Users

Posted on March 13, 2017

LBQT NATION – Mar 13 – Tinder unveiled the new gender identity options last November and now claims it has matched ~250K transgender users.

by Erin Rook
See full article at LBQT Nation

See all posts on Tinder

Summarized by the Courtland Brooks team

eHarmony Seeks Buyer For Job Matching Site Elevated Careers

Posted on March 13, 2017

SHRM – Mar 13 – Ten months after eHarmony launched Elevated Careers, a site for job seekers, it is putting that site up for sale, citing lack of experience in the HR technology market. With Elevated Careers, the company had hoped to use its special matching algorithm to match job seekers with jobs and companies. The Elevated Careers site displays the message "Under renovation. Coming back soon!"

by Aliah D. Wright
See full article at SHRM

See all posts on eHarmony

Summarized by the Courtland Brooks team

Tinder Users Are Finding More Matches Thanks To Spotify

Posted on March 11, 2017

TECH TIMES – Mar 2 – According to new data, those who have connected Spotify to their profile have received an average of 84% more matches. Tinder and Spotify joined forces back in September to release "Anthems," the feature that allows users to sync their music streaming service account to the dating app to display their favorite songs on their profiles. Anthems allows users to swipe left or right for others based on the types of music they are into.

by Lauren Keating
See full article at Tech Times

See all posts on Tinder

Summarized by the Courtland Brooks team

Internet Dating Jobs Listing Update – March 2017

Posted on March 10, 2017

OPW – Mar 10 - The new Internet dating jobs listing is live on the Internet Dating Jobs blog.

Below see a couple of this month's most interesting offers:

FriendFinder Networks
Director of Customer Acquisition

Match.com, Chemistry.com, People Media
VP, Community Operations

Meetic
Director of CRM

MeetMe
Director of External Financial Reporting

Parship.de
Art Director

Scruff
COO

Snap Interactive
VP of Product and Marketing

To see more open positions go here.

Do you have an idating industry job offer which is not included? Please, send it to petra@courtlandbrooks.com and we will add it to the list.

Post by Courtland Brooks team

eHarmony CEO Talks About The Australian Market

Posted on March 10, 2017

FINANCIAL REVIEW – Mar 9 – Grant Langston is the first CEO who's recorded half-a-dozen albums, toured Europe with his band, the Supermodels, played as a warm-up act to Ben Harper and written music for TV and film, including the HBO series True Blood. Langston balances his musical career with being CEO of eHarmony. Australia is eHarmony's second-largest market and accounts for ~9% of its revenue. The site has 750k paid subscribers here. "It's been neglected for too long," he says. According to IBISWorld, Australian online dating revenues have doubled in the past decade to $147M but this counts only revenue for Australian companies such as RSVP, not foreign sites such as eHarmony or Match.com. "The biggest challenge eHarmony has had is resting on its laurels," says Langston. "I arrived with a long list of things I wanted to do". People are more price sensitive now than they were 10 years ago. We want to be on the side of providing so much value that the price was worth it." The questionnaire continues to distinguish eHarmony from other sites. eHarmony is now exploring humour questions and Facebook data as other information that could be added to the way it matches couples. In the future, Langston expects there could be matches made based on DNA.

by Anne Hyland
See full article at Financial Review

See all posts on eHarmony

Summarized by the Courtland Brooks team

BharatMatrimony Wants To Become The Uber Of Wedding Photography

Posted on March 9, 2017

MONEYCONTROL – Mar 8 – Chennai-based online matchmaking portal BharatMatrimony will now supply service providers such as caterers, make-up artists, photographers required to organize an Indian wedding. "The services currently contribute less than 10% of the company's business. However, we expect a three-fold growth during 2018 financial year," said Murugavel Janakiraman, Founder and CEO of BharatMatrimony. Bharatmatrimony currently claims to be getting ~300 bookings for wedding photography. The company will hire 150 photographers. 50M people are looking for life partners at anytime in India. Online match-making represents only 10% of the market. There is so much opportunity for one to grow in the match-making space.

by Priyanka Sahay
See full article at MoneyControl

Mark Brooks: The dating industry suffers from the 'continuity problem.' We wave goodbye to our members when we're successful. But, we're leaving money on the table. It pays to stay in contact with users after they leave our services. We can increment ARPU by upselling them to periphery services like wedding planners and photography services, or even matchmaking.

See all posts on BharatMatrimony

Summarized by the Courtland Brooks team

Bumble Ads Encourage Women To ‘Be The CEO Their Parents Always Wanted Them To Marry’

Posted on March 9, 2017

ADNEWS – Mar 8 – Bumble has launched billboards across America aimed at empowering women. The ads encourage users to be the CEO, rather than date the CEO and not be afraid to make the first move. Bumble VP of brand content Alexandra Williamson says that women have previously been told that approaching the man is aggressive or desperate, which is an outdated notion.

by Lindsay Bennett
See full article at AdNews

See all posts on Bumble

Summarized by the Courtland Brooks team

TrueView.me Dating App Introduced A Feature To Stop Men Sending Nude Pictures

Posted on March 9, 2017

EXPRESS.CO.UK – Mar 8 – British dating app, TrueView.me, has included a unique nudity filter in their new app. The filter prevents users from uploading "inappropriate" photos to their profile. On Trueview.me users are ranked according to 'trust points', which they can earn by sharing information with the app. An entry-level trust score would mean at least three photos and a basic bio. The more information they divulge, the higher their trust score.