MARKETWIRED – Aug 3 – Fan Pass is Friendable's latest mobile app, developed to provide live streaming video so that fans can watch exclusive back-stage and uncensored video content of their favorite celebrity or performing artist. The Company launched its first mobile app in late 2013 as a location based dating app (iHookup Social) that eventually found its niche as a social networking app now known as Friendable.
Month: August 2017
Paktor’s M17 Raised $40M
TECH IN ASIA – Aug 3 – M17, an entity that includes Singaporean dating app Paktor, has raised $40M. M17 has an in-house team producing entertainment content spanning music, commentary, and reality television shows, and aims to be an interactive multimedia platform. The company scouts for original content creators like livestreamers, music producers, and celebrities.
by Malavika Velyanikal
The full article was originally published at Tech in Asia, but is no longer available.
This post also appears on InternetDatingInvestments.
Jack’d App Improves Location Security
ABOUT NEWS – Aug 1 – In response to rising LGBT hate crimes since the 2016 US Election (25% increase), the gay dating app Jack'd has heightened security with new features including one that blurs the GPS of its members. Before the launch of the blurring feature, Jack'd had disabled location sharing in countries where homosexuality was illegal. The blurring now allows these men to safely use GPS technology to find nearby men. It adds a rounding error to the member's coordinates so that other men are given a general idea of their whereabouts without pinpointing their exact location. Even Jack'd's servers do not know the exact location of members.
A Young Matchmaker Is Setting Up Arranged Marriages For Gay Couples In India
After Live Streaming Success, Momo Looks To More Video Offerings
Q&A With Bae Founder Brian Gerrard About His Role At Tagged
BLACK ENTERPRISE – July 31 – Black singles dating app Bae was recently acquired by Tagged, a social app with one of the largest African-American user bases. Tagged decided that the founders Brian and Justin Gerrard should be part of the deal in an acquisition that is known as an "acqui-hire."
Q: What made you initially decide to start Bae?
A: I started Bae because I made a decision that I wanted to build things that positively impact my community.
Q: How did Bae's "acqui-hire" happen with Tagged?
A: Bae and Tagged coming together was a convergence of complementary skill sets. They wanted our marketing and branding expertise to complement their technical acumen. Tagged grew to ~300M users without doing any marketing. My brother and I founded Tagged's marketing team and added ~1M new users. With The Meet Group acquiring us, we now have the ability to make sure everyone knows who we are and invest in expanding our brand.
by Sequoia Blodgett
See full article at Black Enterprise
71% Of American Men Would Date Someone Who Doesn’t Speak English
Match Group Names Mandy Ginsberg To Succeed Greg Blatt As CEO
PRNEWSWIRE – Aug 2 – Mandy Ginsberg, CEO of Match Group Americas is going to be CEO of Match Group, effective January 1, 2018. Ms. Ginsberg will succeed Greg Blatt, who will remain in his role as Chairman and CEO of Match Group through the end of the year, and will stay on as CEO of Tinder until a replacement is named. Match Group also announced its Q2 2017 financial results. Revenue was $310M, a 12% increase from the prior year quarter, driven by 15% growth in Average PMC to 6.1M. Average PMC at Tinder exceeded 2M for the first time, an 86% increase over the prior year quarter.
Snap Interactive To Accept Bitcoin
ACCESSWIRE – July 31 – Snap Interactive plans to begin accepting the cryptocurrency Bitcoin as a payment option on Camfrog and Tinychat apps in early August, with further expansion plans in the near future.
See full article at Snap Interactive website
Match.com Has Several Competitive Advantages
SEEKING ALPHA – Aug 1 – Match.com's growth strategy focuses on product development, innovation and differentiation. The company expects to deepen its capabilities on location-based technology, video, game dynamics and AI, among other factors. Match has ~59M monthly active users (MAUs) and 4.7M paid members. Concerns about rising competition and potentially slowing growth constrain the shares. There are ~1,500 dating sites, according to MarketResearch.com. Match has several competitive advantages, including its scale, brand recognition, early mover integrating live video across its product portfolio and leading position in the space. Match recently launched a new dating brand in Europe that targets singles 50+. In France, the service operates under the brand DisonsDemain and in the UK, the service is Ourtime.