Month: March 2018
Grindr To Offer H.I.V. Test Reminders
Startup Sets Sights On Scent As New Frontier For Smartphone Apps
TIMES OF ISRAEL – Mar 27 – Co-founded by Oren Gavriely and Eran Rom, Nanoscent is developing a smartphone app that, used together with a chip called a "scent recorder," can determine users' scent profile and help them select products, e.g., cosmetics, perfumes and soaps, best suited for them. The company is in parallel developing a matchmaking application that can determine people's compatibility based on their scent profiles, Gavrieli said. Nanoscent has collected 3k – 4k scent samples from 100 couples to create a "map of attraction," having studied couples married or together for at least a year to set up a baseline. The technology identified the smells of each individual in the couple, and created a map of smells that were attractive and best suited to the other. Nanoscent expects to launch both products this year.
How Raya’s $8/Month Dating App Turned Exclusivity Into Trust
TECH CRUNCH – Mar 24 – Raya is less like Tinder and more like a secret society. It costs a flat $7.99 for everyone, women and celebrities included. Launched in March 2015, Raya has purposefully flown under the radar. No interviews. Little info about the founders. In late 2016 it quietly acquired video messaging startup Chime, led by early Facebooker Jared Morgenstern, without anyone noticing. He'd become Raya's first investor a year earlier. The app has reportedly attracted celebrities like DJs Diplo and Skrillex, actors Elijah Wood and Amy Schumer and musicians Demi Lovato and John Mayer, plus scores of Instagram models and tattooed creative directors. Raya users can now see nearby people on a map when GPS says they're at hot spots like bars, dance halls and cafes.
Hackers Sell Facebook Logins And Other Data On The Dark Web For $5
The full article was originally published at Brinkwire, but is no longer available.
App Annie 2017 Report – App Downloads Up 60%
APP ANNIE – Mar 23 – According to the latest AppAnnie report, users downloaded 60% more apps in 2017 than in 2015. The top five countries by downloads are China, India, USA, Brazil and Russia. In the US, on average, users downloaded 3 apps per month, with ~70% of users downloading at least one app per month. Total consumer spend through app stores has more than doubled over the past two years to over $86B. In most markets analyzed, the average smartphone user has 80 apps on their phone and uses close to 40 of them each month. Consumers spend ~3h in apps each day on average. Globally, people use at least 1 of the top 5 social apps each month. Full report here.
Craigslist Drops Dating Ads After New Law
BBC.COM – Mar 23 – Craigslist has closed its dating ads section in the US, in response to a new bill against sex trafficking. The bill states that websites can now be punished for "facilitating" prostitution and sex trafficking. The company said keeping the section open in the US was too much of a risk. In March, US congress passed the Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (Fosta). It will apply to all states in the US. Websites are not usually held responsible for the content that members post – as long as illegal material is removed as soon as the service provider is made aware.
PeerStream Reports 2017 Results
GLOBE NEWSWIRE – Mar 22 – PeerStream's (Snap Interactive) total revenues increased to $24.8M, representing 18.4% YOY growth, driven primarily by the completion of the AVM Merger. Subscription revenues also increased to $22.9M, up 22.8% YOY driven by the completion of the AVM Merger. Net loss from operations was $5.7M which included $815K of one-time expenses primarily related to a terminated merger with LiveXLive Media, and a one-time lease cancellation fee. Adjusted EBITDA was $(1.9)M. In 2017, they company launched a strategy to integrate blockchain into its technology, formed partnerships and advisory relationships to expand technology capabilities, and evaluate strategic M&A, equity and token investments supporting its blockchain strategy. PeerStream announced the development of Backchannel, a secure video messaging app; founded an Innovation Lab to support growth initiatives in the live video markets; completed the launch of Camfrog Live, a new live video streaming entertainment service; andcompleted AVM Merger.
The Latest Relationship Trend Is ‘Slow Dating’
BUSINESS INSIDER – Mar 22 – Dating apps are starting to offer fewer, more curated matches. Dating app Once delivers users one match per day. Then, users have 24h to decide whether they are interested. Once has been available in Europe since 2015; it launched in the US in Feb 2018 and now has 200K US users. Coffee Meets Bagel, which launched in 2012, also presents women with one "bagel" (match) a day. (Men receive up to 21 matches every day and select the people they like, so the app chooses women's bagels from among the men who indicated they liked them.) The League, which launched in 2015, is a more selective dating app for ambitious professionals. Then there's Happn, which debuted in 2014 in Paris. Users who subscribe to Happn Essential get 10 chances to "Say Hi" to another user every day. It's possible that daters and app-developers alike have begun to observe the effects of what social scientists call "choice overload" or the "paradox of choice." The more options you have, research suggests, the less likely you are to make any decision at all.
by Shana Lebowitz
See full article at Business Insider
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Badoo Survey: The Biggest Dating App Turn Ons And Turn Offs Revealed
INDEPENDENT.CO.UK – Mar 22 – Dating app Badoo recently conducted a survey of 5k of its users to find out what compels those looking for love to swipe right. 54% of women would swipe left for a guy who's included a photo of himself with an attractive woman. 30% would swipe right for picture of a man posing in the countryside. Dogs are a big draw for all, with 29% of women and 21% of men swiping right for a profile picture that features a dog. 37% of women would give a photo of a man in the gym a hard no, while 25% of men are all for it.