CNBC – Feb 14 – At the end of 2015, Meredith Golden, a stay-at-home mom, wrote a Facebook post about her desire to anonymously help people manage their online dating accounts. Within three days she had received 8,700 responses. She realized this could be more than a hobby, and launched SpoonmeetSpoon, a service through which clients can hire her to work as an "online ghost dater," managing their dating profiles. "Now, I log in 12 hours a day," says Golden. "I eat, sleep and breathe this. I love what I do." On average, she works with eight to 10 clients at one time. Her full service package is $2K per month, and includes an initial in-person or Facetime meeting and daily communication afterwards about engagement on a client's profile.
Month: February 2018
Dating App Study Shows What Apps People Delete On The First Day
FORBES – Feb 14 – According to Ogury study, Sunday night is Grindr night in the U.K.; in the U.S., women appear to be swiping hard on MeetMe on Saturday, while men step up their MeetMe usage on Sunday. The only day of the week that both seem to be on the same page was Monday, with both hitting POF. Internationally, Thursday is the most popular day with 27 minutes and 32 seconds spent on dating apps across all tracked platforms. Most uninstalls of all dating apps happen on the first day. Grindr had the lowest first day delete rate. Women seemed to keep MeetMe around a bit longer, deleting that on the second day.
by Curtis Silver
See full article at Forbes
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Canadian Investor: “Online Dating Industry Had Its Day”
CBC – Feb 14 – According to IBISWorld, the number of companies in the dating industry in Canada is expected to continue to expand, by 3.5% this year and 3% the following year. As the stigma around online dating has faded, it's also become a highly competitive and crowded industry. But in both Canada and the U.S., revenue is forecast to grow more slowly over the next five years. In Canada, online and mobile dating revenue is ~$112.7M, just a fraction of what it is in the U.S., at $2.4B, according to IBISWorld. Bruce Croxon, co-founder of Lavalife, was on CBC's Dragons' Den from 2011 to 2014, and currently invests in digital startups through another company he co-founded, Round 13 Capital. But those with a dating service pitch should probably look elsewhere. "When I see start up dating apps come through our door I say interesting, but no thanks," Croxon said. "It is an industry that, to me, had its day."
New Match Group CEO Wants To Make Online Dating Friendlier For Women
MARKETWATCH – Feb 14 – Tinder will soon roll out a feature that lets women choose who makes the first move on that app. She also pointed to other efforts that the company hopes will make its online-dating platforms more female-friendly, such as a new campaign for OkCupid that emphasizes shared hobbies over hookups.
Q: What does the change at Tinder reflect about Match's efforts to appeal more to women?
A: Every time we talk about product, we talk about the female experience. On Tinder, women can choose if they want to start the conversation first or if they want someone else to start. For OkCupid, we started a campaign called "DT____," so "down to farmer's market," "down to fiesta," etc. The idea is that women don't want "DTF".
Q: Is there concern that if you make the product too good, people will quickly find love and stop paying?
A: On Tinder, people are younger. When you're 19, you're not going to find the love of your life – you might, but that doesn't always happen. If you've had a success, you're going to come back and start another one. And then the best marketing in the world is from people who have seen success.
by Emily Bary
See full article at MarketWatch
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Young Japanese Are Less Hesitant When It Comes To Online Dating
THE JAPAN TIMES – Feb 14 – According to Hirokazu Nakamura, chief product officer and chief marketing officer of Tokyo-based startup Eureka, young people are not losing interest in love. "They have been placed in a situation where finding love is too difficult. They just have too many things that they want to prioritize," said Nakamura. Eureka, owned by Match Group, developed dating app Pairs that claims 7M registered users with 4K relationships being made every month. 80% of its users are 20-30 years old. But there is still a negative image in Japan about meeting someone online, as some shady deai-kei online dating services have been hotbeds for child prostitution and other crimes. But young people seem to be less hesitant in pursuing a relationship online as more well-known companies are entering the dating app market, such as matchmaking service Tapple Tanjo or e-commerce giant Rakuten which operates Rakuten O-net, a service designed for people who are serious. The dating app market in Japan is expected to more than double to ¥57.7B ($542M) by 2022 from ¥20.8B ($195M) in 2017, according to MatchingAgent.
Blockchain Dating App Hicky Launches ICO
PRESS RELEASE – Feb 14 – Having raised ~2M, hicky.io – blockchain based dating service, is launching an ICO on the Valentine's day. With Hicky, all users are "real" as they require a form of biometric verification using voice recognition and face scan technology. This data is then encrypted and stored using in a decentralised database. This means that the uploaded information can only be accessed and shared by the user. Hicky has strong partners including NAGA Group AG, a German stock market listed company as well as a former Tinder executive in the advisory board. They will be releasing the first version of the app in the coming weeks.
This post also appears on InternetDatingInvestments.
More Than Half Of Over 65s Think They’re Not Getting Enough Sex
THE INDEPENDENT – Feb 14 – Nearly a third of elderly population have had or would consider having sex on a first date since turning 65, while one in 10 over-75s saying they have had multiple sexual partners. More than half of people over the age of 65 feel they do not have enough sex, a new study shows, suggesting older people are more sexually active than many people may think. The survey of ~2K older people, commissioned by Independent Age, also shows that Internet dating is a popular way for older people to find love, with 29% who are in a relationship started in the past 10 years saying they met their partner online.
AI And The Blockchain In Online Dating
FORBES – Feb 14 – One of Asia's oldest dating services – "Lunch Actually" – is jumping on the ICO (initial coin offering) bandwagon. The project, named Viola.AI, not only boasts real ID verification on the blockchain using smart contracts and digital wallets to weed out fake profiles, the dating service is decentralizing love advisory-leveraging machine learning. Similar to cloud-based, voice-controlled Alexa, Viola aims to act as an intelligent personal relationship assistant with the goal of sustaining couples from courtship to marriage. The cryptographic token issued from the ICO will serve as a community currency in the Viola marketplace.
by Pamela Ambler
See full article at Forbes
Users Of Luxy Can Now Pay With Cryptocurrency
PR NEWSWIRE – Feb 13 – Luxy, the millionaire matching app, is accepting Bitcoin as a method for payment across its dating app.
ScamSurvivors.com Expose Dating Fraudsters
THE SUN – Feb 13 – Wayne May and Kari-Anne Liebling run ScamSurvivors.com, where they dedicate their free time to exposing online fraudsters. According to Action Fraud, people lost £41M last year. On average, Action Fraud received 10 reports a day from victims of romance scammers, with 18% of them being left at risk of bankruptcy. ScamSurvivors.com forum has been running since 2012 and Wayne claims they receive ~9K emails from all over the world every day. Wayne, who's day job is a carer, typically spends about five to six hours a day "volunteering" on the site. He doesn't charge for his services but people can make a donation to the site if they like.