BUSINESS CLOUD – July 25 – Based in Manchester, the comparison site advised people on the most suitable platform for them by asking them seven basic questions. The online dating comparison platform is now closing down to make way for a new business later in the year.
by Ian Hughes
See full article at Business Cloud
by Diana Wertz
See full article at Huffington Post
OPW – July 25 – Here’s my video blogs from the Internet Dating Conference, which focused on the Premium Internet Dating industry event in Minsk last Thursday, and Friday. We had fun, made some great connections, and learned a lot about this fascinating niche industry.
Thursday, Conference Day 1
Friday, Conference Day 2
Saturday, a quick tour of Minsk
Post by Mark Brooks @ Courtland Brooks
GEEKWIRE – July 21 – Founded in 2014, The League differentiates itself from other dating apps with a vetting process that scrutinizes a candidate's education, career, and, "ambition." The company has already sold ~100 memberships – $179 per year, which speeds up the matching process and provides access to special perks. The app then sends users 3-to-5 potential matches per day. The League, which employs 25 people and raised $2.5M, also throws private parties for its members and will host a launch event in Seattle next week.
MASHABLE – July 22 – Dating app Hater, which matches people based on the things they dislike, has discovered that a lot of users just don't seem to care where their potential matches are located — because they have no intention of ever meeting them IRL. So Hater launched Global Mode for those who want to be matched with people around the globe. ~20% of their user traffic is in Global Mode, and those people are mostly using the app just to hang out and talk. The younger a user is, the more likely they are to be on Global Mode. Plenty of people use the major dating apps as a way of expanding their social circles. In an effort to capitalize on this, Bumble added BumbleBFF in early 2016, and Tinder launched Tinder Social a year ago. But they haven't exactly taken off as the premiere way of finding new pals.
by Cassie Murdoch
See full article at Mashable
See all posts on Hater
See all posts on Bumble
See all posts on Tinder
Q: How do you see the current state of the industry?
A: There is a kind of fatigue that sets in with swiping services. Lots of casual people pedaling around exchanging "Hey, What's Up?" texts. The number of actual dates is, often, pretty low. I think most people want to know that the app or service they're using is going to give them a better result than meeting someone in a bar. That's the premise for our business.
Q: What are some of the challenges?
A: eHarmony is a 17-year-old tech company and that alone is a challenge. Our communication platform was antiquated. We trashed it and built a new system that is faster and helps create more communication between people.
Q: What makes eHarmony different?
A: eHarmony is built on science. Looking forward, I think people are going to want to understand why they are being matched to someone. eHarmony is also leading the industry in background verification.
Q: You worked your way up the corporate ladder to become the CEO. Do you have any advice for executives hoping to follow in your footsteps at their respective organizations?
A: Every company and every CEO I know wants three things from employees…. energy, execution, and ideas. You want to be an excellent source of these.
The full article was originally published at Huffington Post, but is no longer available.
CT POST – July 20 – Hater is a Tinder-style swiping dating app that matches people based on what they hate. The people at Hater compiled the data to create a map of what singles in each state hate the most.
THE MOTLEY FOOL – July 19 – Live-streaming hasn't taken off in the U.S. as it has in China. Of China's 730M Internet users, ~200M are active users of live-streaming apps. Credit Suisse is forecasting China's live-streaming market to be worth ~$5B by the end of this year. One of the beneficiaries of the streaming craze is Momo, which started as a dating app but quickly shifted to becoming a host for live video broadcasts. The company earned ~$767M in revenue over the past year, turning 30% of into net profit. In May, the The Chinese Ministry of Culture announced it had shut down 10 hosting platforms and punished an additional 48 companies. It also ordered 30k content-producing studios to cease operations. Although Momo was not a part of the recent crackdown, it is not free of the government's oversight. Momo had been used to disseminate inappropriate pictures of women. The company has acted to prevent the spread of illicit content by terminating tens of millions of user accounts, designating a team to monitor content, and using third parties and data analytics software to monitor activities.
PR WEEK – July 19 – Students Michelle Arendas and Josh Avsec matched in 2014 on Tinder, but never met in real life. However, they did sarcastically send sporadic messages to each other with lame excuses for why it took so long to reply. After many (intentional) missed connections, Avsec tweeted screenshots of their conversations. When Tinder head of marketing and communications Rosette Pambakian saw it, she knew it was too good of an opportunity to pass up. An hour later, Tinder tweeted again at Avsec and Arendas, telling them they had 24 hours to choose a spot for their first date. They chose Hawaii. Outlets that have covered Tinder's campaign include People, The Sun, HuffPost, USA Today, and Today.
