by Rachel Thompson
See full article at Mashable
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Month: March 2018
It’s Just Lunch Sued For Setting Up Bad Dates
SE TEXAS RECORD – Mar 21 – Robert Rice is suing It's Just Lunch after several bad dates, claiming one woman showed him naked pictures of herself. Seeking punitive damages, Rice filed suit against It's Just Lunch on March 20, alleging the dating service is nothing but a scheme to defraud tens of thousands of single professionals throughout the country.
by David Yates
See full article at SE Texas Record
Match Group Is Defending Itself In A Patent Lawsuit Filed In January By PersonalWeb Technologies
RPX INSIGHT – Mar 21 – PersonalWeb Technologies, a company based in Texas, is suing Match Group for patent infringement. PersonalWeb Technologies owns several patents that are fundamental to cloud computing, distributed search engine file systems and content addressable storage and social networks. The company filed the complaint on January 24th, 2018, and claims Match Group has infringed 5 of its patents. More info here.
Inside eHarmony’s Matchmaking Machine
CIO.COM – Mar 21 – Dating site's tech chief Prateek Jain shares the machine learning secrets of eHarmony. When a user signs up to eHarmony they fill out a lengthy questionnaire about the type of person they are, their likes and dislikes, beliefs, values and preferences in potential partners. The information is fed into the company's closely guarded, secret algorithm, which serves up the most compatible matches in its user base. The matching algorithm is based on data collected from interview with ~50k married couples in 23 different countries. The result is the ultimate recommendations service for singles. "We say we're like Netflix," Jain explains, "but the movie has to like you back." Matches are based on far more than just the questionnaire; such as how users behave on the site, the profiles they click on and the content of their self-descriptions. "All these indirect signals we look for, it allows us to refine the filter," Jain says. Using Google's Cloud Vision API, user profile pictures are scanned for a number of features – including hair and eye colour, whether the image shows a beard or moustache as well as 'has cleavage' and 'deduced BMI'. A user that more frequently clicks on blonde-haired user profiles will be served up with more blonde matches. Occasionally, the site will serve up a match that is outside user's usual preferences, called 'Serendipitous Recommendations'. This helps users from 'getting caught in a bubble', Jain says.
Ethereum-Based Dating App Hicky Raises $2M, ICO To End On March 26
THE MERKLE – Mar 21 – Hicky, a Tinder-like mobile app launched on top of the Ethereum blockchain, has been conducting an ICO to distribute its token HKY, which is compatible with the Ethereum network's native cryptocurrency Ether. ~ 24.1M HKYs have been raised, surpassing its soft cap. Given that 1 Ether = 7,500 HKYs, the blockchain project has already secured ~$2M in funding. Hicky is advised by former executives of Tinder. Hermione Way, the former Head of European Communications for Tinder, has officially joined the Hicky team to oversee its growth and branding in the long-term. Hicky is similar to Tinder, wherein sensitive personal and financial information of users on the app are not shared or monetized. The ICO is still ongoing, and it is expected to end on March 26.
The Meet Group To Speak At Princeton University
BUSINESS WIRE – Mar 20 – Geoff Cook, the CEO of The Meet Group, has been invited to speak at Princeton University's Keller Center for Innovation in Engineering Education and to keynote HackPrinceton, a weekend-long hack-a-thon event. Mr. Cook will talk about his journey through entrepreneurship to becoming a public tech company CEO on April 18, 2018, at 4:30 pm. Cook's presentation titled Growing a Startup and Going Public from New Hope PA is part of the Keller Center's Creative Minds and Leadership lecture series and is free and open to the public. Mr. Cook will also participate in the University event, HackPrinceton, which welcomes 600 developers and designers from across the country to create incredible software and hardware projects. He will keynote the festivities and join as a judge to help determine the winners of the 36-hour competition from March 30, 2018, to April 1, 2018.
See full article at The Meet Group website
Match Group Also Sues Chinese Dating App Tantan
LAW360 – Mar 20 – Match Group has filed another intellectual property lawsuit. This time against Tantan, a dating service billed as "China's Tinder". Match Group is accusing Tantan of infringing its design patents and trademarks by copying Tinder's swiping system including "nearly identical" match screen. Tantan was acquired by Chinese social media app Momo for $760M last month.
by Bill Donahue
See full article at Law360
Bumble Bizz Launches In Australia
“Single And Sober” Dating App Now Has ~7K Members
PR NEWSWIRE – Mar 21 – Since April of 2015 Single and Sober has developed an established recovery community and believes dating in recovery is possible and sober dating is it's specialty. The dating site has recently reached ~7K+ profiles and that number is growing daily.
Tinder And Bumble Will Never Be A Match
by Emily Bary
See full article at MarketWatch