Month: March 2018
Tinder Has Its Musical In Australia
Ashley Madison Attempts To Regain The Public’s Trust
ENGADGET – Mar 28 – Ashley Madison wants the public to know that it's changed its ways. Ruben Buell, who became CTO at Ruby Life in February 2017 and took the reins as president last April, is looking to regain public trust. According to Buell, there are 191k daily active users and 1.4M new connections made each month. Last year was the first since the hack that Ashley Madison saw "substantial growth" in its user base, Buell said, adding that its 2017 revenue grew 5% globally and 16.7% in the US compared to 2016.
by Chris Ip
See full article at Engadget
What Online Dating Coaches Do Now
NEW YORK TIMES – Mar 28 – Online dating coaches have been around since online dating began, but their focus has shifted. In 2009, when Laurie Davis Edwards started a company called eFlirt Expert, her most popular offering was a dating "concierge" who would write profiles, suggest matches and respond to messages. She now runs a group video chat session called Abundant Love and the Abundant Love seminars through her new company, The Worthy One, which helps single women find confidence in dating. Her husband runs a similar program for men called Fearless Dating. Tripp Kramer, whose YouTube channel "Tripp Advice: Dating Advice for Shy Guys," has ~500k subscribers, runs a three-month Skype-based coaching program for $3k, including six one-on-one calls, weekly webinars and unlimited email questions. Blake Jamieson, author of the book "TinderHacks," offers a Tinder profile "audit" for men for $49 – $99. Relationship Hero, which has 20 coaches and has raised $620k in funding, provides "tactical relationship advice".
Bumble Is Suing Match For $400M For Fraudulently Obtaining Trade Secrets
TECH CRUNCH – Mar 28 – Two weeks ago Match Group sued Bumble for patent infringement and misuse of intellectual property. Bumble has now filing a separate lawsuit accusing Match of multiple improprieties in regards to interactions between the two companies over the past few months. The lawsuit acknowledges that Bumble and Match Group were in acquisition talks over the last 6 months. Bumble alleges that once Match Group found out there were other companies also interested in either investing in or acquiring Bumble, Match Group filed their aforementioned lawsuit to make Bumble less attractive to those other companies. Secondly, Bumble alleges that during the acquisition process Match Group fraudulently requested that Bumble provide "confidential and trade secret information" which Match Group said they "needed to provide a higher offer for Bumble". Bumble alleges that no subsequent offer came, and Match Group instead requested and obtained this information solely for "the financial benefit of its dating app businesses". The lawsuit requests relief in the form of monetary damages, which Bumble estimates at $400M.
by Fitz Tepper
See full article at Tech Crunch
Security Flaws In Gay Dating App Grindr Expose Users’ Location Data
NBC NEWS – Mar 28 – Grindr suffers from two security issues, according to Trever Faden, CEO of the property management startup Atlas Lane. He created a website called C*ckblocked that allowed users to see who blocked them on Grindr after they entered their Grindr username and password. Once they did so, Faden was able to gain access to a trove of user data that is not publicly available on user profiles, including unread messages, email addresses, deleted photos, and the location data of users, some of whom have opted to not share their locations publicly. Faden also discovered a separate security flaw related to location data that did not require users to log in to any third-party apps or websites with their Grindr credentials. Grindr said it was aware of the vulnerabilities and had changed its system. This is not the first time that issues with Grindr's security around location data has been reported.
‘Tinder For Farmers’ Dating App Launches In The UK
MIRROR.CO.UK – Mar 28 – A new app called Farmder has launched in the UK. The app, which has been dubbed the 'Tinder for Farmers', was conceived by Michelle Li and targets singletons in rural areas.
Premium International Dating Conference To Take Place In May 24-25, 2018 In Odessa
WEBWIRE – Mar 28 – The next premium international dating conference is taking place in May 24-25, 2018 at the Bristol Hotel in Odessa. Check out the list of speakers.
Saks & Bumble To Launch Hive Networking Event
WWD – Mar 28 – Saks Fifth Avenue will partner with female-centric networking app, Bumble, on an initiative designed to empower women. Together, they will launch the Saks x Bumble Hive at the Fifth Avenue flagship from May 17 through May 31. They will host networking events, entrepreneur panel series with notable hosts, styling services and exclusive products.
Twitter, Facebook And Google To Ban Cryptocurrency Ads
