USA TODAY – Feb 20 – One in five women say they have been sexually assaulted while in college, according to the National Sexual Violence Resource Center. The growing awareness of sexual assault on college campuses prompted California and New York to mandate a "yes means yes" standard for universities, meaning if an agreement to physical intimacy didn't happen, it wasn't consensual. We-Consent and Sa-Sie were among the first to attempt a digital solution with apps that allowed partners to check "yes" when they agreed to sex. Now, LegalFling is joining the consent-by-click market, with the added cachet of being blockchain-based. Ari Moskowitz, an editor and novelist, says he thinks it's "a cool idea, theoretically" although he foresees practical issues. ("Hold on, lemme charge my phone so you can sign a contract!") Also, someone who is coercing a vulnerable person into sex will figure out a way to coerce a click on the app first. But the real elephant in the room is that consent can change.
Month: February 2018
Dating Apps Are In Danger Of Confusing The Justice System
THE CONVERSATION – Feb 20 – Dating apps have become so commonplace they're even finding their way into the courtroom with profiles and messages used as evidence of people's identity, behaviour or intentions. Yet people are rarely completely honest and upfront when it comes to dating, especially with the added anonymity of the internet. We risk serious miscarriages of justice. Before criminal trials start to rely on the newer features of dating apps, such as sexual health history and HIV status categories, we need to come up with a way to ensure judges and juries understand how nuanced this evidence might be. Judges and jurors need to remember that you shouldn't believe everything you read online.
JDate Celebrates 20 Years
CHEDDAR – Feb 16 – David Yarus is the Global Ambassador for Jdate. He talks about how the Jewish dating site continues to innovate and help Jewish singles find love. Watch the interview here. Jdate is currently celebrating their 20th anniversary with the "20 Years of Love" campaign. The dating site wants to highlight 20 years of matchmaking by collecting the stories of successful Jdate couples.
Domains For Sale – Singl.es And USSingles.com
OPW – Feb 21 – USSingles.com is for sale and closes out in a week, with no reserve. You can bid on it at Flippa here. The same seller is also selling Singl.es and wants $50k for it. What do you think? You can email him here.
Please let me know if you have any dating domains for sale. (Email mark@onlinepersonalswatch.com). Listing is entirely free, but we need to list a price.
See all domains & sites for sale
Post by Mark Brooks , CEO IDEA
iDate Feature Interview With VP Content eHarmony, Jeannie Assimos
OPW INTERVIEW – Feb 20 – Jeannie Assimos has been at eHarmony coming up ten years. She's the VP Content and was my interview at iDate. Here's the full interview.
Post by Mark Brooks , CEO IDEA
Tinder Not Catching Fire In South Korea
KOREA EXPOSÉ – Feb 19 – The 2018 Winter Olympics are now under way. So it's not surprising that multiple media have reported a 348% increase in usage of Tinder in the area since the games began in early February. Tinder made its debut in South Korea in 2015 but despite its international popularity, the dating app is still largely unknown in a country notorious as the graveyard of many foreign-born startups and companies including Uber and Google. The country's online dating industry is valued at 70B won ($66M), according to a 2017 study by An Hyo-Jin and Kim Seung-in of Hongik University. Shin Sang-hoon is CEO of Nextmatch, the company that owns the most popular South Korean dating app Amanda. He told Korea Exposé that Amanda had ~4M users in South Korea. Given that there were ~8.54M bachelors (aged between 20 and 39) in the country in 2016, it can be inferred that one out of two South Korean bachelors has used or is using dating apps. Tinder has successfully established itself in Hong Kong and Singapore (but not in China because the app insists that users log in via Facebook, which is blocked in the people's republic).
Online Personals Watch PR Rankings – The Sites That Got The Most Press In 2017
#1 Tinder (123 posts published on OPW last year)
#2 Bumble (48 posts)
#3 eHarmony (42)
#4 Match Group (41)
#5 Match (37)
#6 OKCupid (37)
#7 Grindr (34)
#8 Happn (22)
#9 The League (21)
#10 Matrimony.com (17)
Other companies that did well and got a solid press coverage last year were Hinge, The Meet Group, Zoosk, Hater, Matchpoool and Chappy.
Love Is ‘No Battlefield’ With The Blockchain
FORBES – Feb 19 – Dating services have now become a $3B market. A study by Pew Research Center has shown that use of dating apps by Americans (18-24) tripled in 2016 vs in 2013. Usage by "Baby boomers" aged 55 to 64 doubled within the same time span. Today, emerging technologies like blockchain are now figuring out ways into the industry as well. For example, networking and connection platform MatchPool is a pioneering dating-meets-blockchain application. And, up-and-coming services like Hicky and Ponder are also seeking to improve upon the current online dating experience. Manshu Agarwal, Ponder's CEO and co-founder, said: "The blockchain has been called the Internet of Value, providing new ways to reward people for their time and effort." Ponder incentivizes it's users to create successful matches. Blockchain can improve security. The technology provides means to secure data and transactions. Blockchain's transparency could also help encourage good behavior among users.
by Roger Aitken
See full article at Forbes
Silicon Valley Singles Giving Up On Dating
WASHINGTON POST – Feb 18 – One thing distinguishes the Silicon Valley dating pool: The men-to-women ratio for employed, young singles in the San Jose metro area is higher here than any other major area. There were 150 men for every 100 women, compared to 125 to 100 nationwide, of never-married young people between 25 and 34 in San Jose, U.S. Census data from 2016 show. Women here said they feel outnumbered, overworked and underwhelmed by the tech industry's egos and eccentricities. Men, in return, said they feel outmatched or overlooked. In the San Francisco and San Jose areas, the marriage rate for adults ages 18 to 49 fell ~6% between 2005 and 2016. Just one in four here are married by age 30. Bumble, whose 400K users in Silicon Valley have matched up 20M times since 2014, said users here have a "lower-than-average right-swipe proportion" than other large metro areas. In other words, they typically like what they see a bit less.
Dating Site For Trump Fans Lets Users Date Married People, But Not Gays
INQUISITR – Feb 18 – Trump.dating was created by a group called Friends Worldwide, which also owns some other dating sites. The aim of the site is to connect Trump supporters. Trump.dating is made exclusively for straight men and women while gay users are forbidden to join. That comes across as slightly ironic as people on the dating site can be married and could look for extra-marital flings. Just like Trump himself (who is reported to have had two alleged affairs soon after his marriage with Melania in 2005), his fans could also look to date outside marriages.