Month: February 2018
Google Pulled Gay Dating App Blued From Indonesia Online Store
CHANNEL NEWS ASIA – Jan 31 – Google has pulled one of the world's largest gay dating apps from the Indonesian version of its online store in response to government demands. Officials had called for the tech giant to remove 73 LGBT-related apps, including dating services, from its Play Store and urged people to shun apps that broke with cultural norms in the world's biggest Muslim-majority nation. Gay dating app Blued – which boasts ~27M users globally – no longer appeared in the Google Play Store available to Indonesian users. Apple's online store still has Blued available.
The full article was originally published at Channel News Asia, but is no longer available.
Founder Of FarmersOnly.com Talks About His New Site For Curvy Singles
SCENE – Jan 31 – Jerry Miller, the founder of FarmersOnly.com, lives in Cleveland's eastern suburbs. "There are maybe a million farmers in the US, and half of them are married," said Miller. "The other half have never been on a computer," he said. FarmersOnly.com currently has ~6M users and continues to grow. (The site surpassed 200k users in 2012 and 1M in 2014.) Miller started another site – CurvesConnect.com – in 2016 "for people with a few extra curves". CurvesConnect was conceived, in part, as an antidote to the judging-books-by-covers extreme that Tinder represents. He said that Hollywood has brainwashed all of us into thinking that beauty (for women) means being leggy and anorexic, but that most people don't look anything like what Hollywood says we're supposed to. Like FarmersOnly, CurvesConnect enjoys an almost perfect 50-50 male/female split.
by Sam Allard
See full article at Scene
Dating App LoveAgain Matches Users Based On Their History Of Likes And Dislikes
PR NEWSWIRE – Jan 31 – LoveAgain, the dating app for those who have gone through a recent breakup or are just starting over, is launching a new feature that helps its members find the most suitable matches based on their past past of "like/dislike" decisions and their previous communications with other LoveAgain members.
Online Sexual Harassment Gives Dating & Messaging Apps Unwelcome Attention
BESEDO BLOG – Jan 26 – According to one study in Australia, the harassment of women online has become a 'digital norm' with nearly half of all women experiencing abuse or harassment online – including 76% of those under 30. As more women take a stand on harassment, inappropriate comments are going to be called out more frequently. Companies have a huge social responsibility and need to weigh in too. Dating and classified sites can help protect their users via content moderation; an effective way of monitoring, flagging and removing inappropriate images and messages. Not only does it counter sexual harassment, it'll reduce user churn too.
The League Has Partnered With Lord & Taylor To Host A Speed-Dating Event
WWD – Jan 31 – In the spirit of Valentine's Day, the retailer is getting into the dating-mating game. L&T hosted an event at the Andaz bar in New York with The League, a social and dating mobile app. The event hosted TV personalities Dean Unglert, Eric Bigger, Amanda Stanton and Ashley Iaconetti from "The Bachelor" and "The Bachelorette." 23 women and 23 men from The League were invited to participate. Founded in 2015, The League has a selective admissions-based model, and uses data and social graphs from Facebook and LinkedIn to fuel its proprietary algorithm.
Snap Interactive Blockchain Investors Presentation
SNAP INTERACTIVE – Jan 30 – Snap Interactive, a provider of live video social networking apps building on blockchain, has hosted "Blockchain Investor Evening" in New York. The event brought together investors interested in blockchain and the related investment opportunities. Hosted in partnership with Zacks SCR, the keynote speaker was STVI Blockchain Advisory Board member, Lou Kerner.
Court: Dating Services Can’t Charge Older Folks More On Belief They Are Wealthier
SF GATE – Jan 29 – Tinder Plus costs $19.99 a month to customers over 30 and $9.99 or $14.99 for younger customers. The company said its research showed that younger customers had less money and were unlikely to enroll without discounts. Some age-based price differentials may be justified by social policies or economic realities, like movie discounts for children or seniors, said the Second District Court of Appeal in LA. But the court said a pricing system based entirely on a customer's age amounts to "prohibited arbitrary discrimination" under California law. The 3-0 ruling was written by Brian Currey, a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge temporarily assigned to the appeals court.
Muslim Dating App Muzmatch Raises £1.5M
STANDARD.CO.UK – Jan 30 – Muzmatch, a dating app for Muslims, has raised from a clutch of investors to expand overseas and grow the team. The three-year-old company, based in Aldgate, central London, was set up by Shahzad Younas, 33, an ex-investment banker for Morgan Stanley, and Ryan Brodie, 24, a software engineer. Users can choose not to show photos on their profiles or blur them. It also has a chaperoning option, whereby the in-app chats are sent to a guardian.
by Laura Onita
See full article at Standard.co.uk
This post also appears on InternetDatingInvestments.
Dating App Bumble Is Opening A Third Space For Mingling
