Month: May 2018

No Longer Lonely: A Dating Site For Singles With A Mental Illness

Posted on May 23, 2018

Nolongerlonely logo 2018DATING ADVICE – May 22 – Singles who've been diagnosed with a mental illness may feel anxious about joining a general dating site and fear that they could be judged, harassed, or rejected because of their condition. Since 2004, No Longer Lonely has built a global community for singles who have been diagnosed with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, PTSD, OCD, and other mental health disorders. NoLongerLonely.com has 22K+ users. A majority of No Longer Lonely users (~70%) live in the US, but the site also has members in other countries, most notably the UK, Canada, and Australia.

by Amber Brooks
See full article at Dating Advice

See all posts on NoLongerLonely

Summarized by the IDEA team

Staygo To Speak At The iDate In Los Angeles On June 12-13, 2018

Posted on May 23, 2018

StayGo Alan WintersWEBWIRE – May 22 – Alan Winters, Co-founder and COO of StayGo, will present on the economics of machine learning for dating operations. He will address critical factors associated with data science/machine learning, including: whether a machine learning strategy should be considered by your business in the short or long-term; anticipated costs and timeline for implementation; the decision to buy or build; what your competition is doing; and trends in machine learning in other business sectors that are applicable to online dating. The iDate conference is taking place on June 12-13, 2018 in Los Angeles.

See full article at Webwire

Summarized by the IDEA team

M17 Entertainment Files For U.S. IPO

Posted on May 23, 2018

M17 Media logoSEEKING ALPHA – May 22 – M17 Entertainment intends to raise $115M in a U.S. IPO. The company provides an online live streaming and dating app for the more developed countries in Asia. The firm has developed a live streaming platform known as 17 Media. The platform was launched in Taiwan in July 2015. 17 Media had 33.3M registered users as of March 31, 2018. The company also operates Paktor, launched in Singapore in 2013, and Goodnight, M17 Entertainment's main dating apps. The platform allows artists to stream performances at any time and from anywhere with an internet connection. 2017 revenue was $79.5M with gross profit of $14M. The firm will use the net proceeds from the IPO for expansion into Japan and other new markets; for content development, including PGC and new content formats; and the remainder for strategic merger and acquisition opportunities.

by Donovan Jones
See full article at Seeking Alpha

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See all posts on Goodnight

This post also appears on InternetDatingInvestments.

Summarized by the IDEA team

Trump.dating & NeverTrump.dating Linked To A Fishy Company – FriendsWorldwide

Posted on May 23, 2018

Whiteboxdating logoGIZMODO – May 22 – Earlier this year, the media got very excited about Trump.dating. The site attracted ~250K members, according to its media liaison, Sean McGrossler. Perhaps it's no surprise, then, that NeverTrump.dating launched weeks later. Both the pro- and anti-Trump dating sites were launched using a "turnkey dating solution" from a company called WhiteBoxDating. The company's owners say they've launched thousands of niche dating sites. WhiteBoxDating is operated by a company called Friends Worldwide. Friends Worldwide doesn't have much of a presence, online or off. It has a business license in Florida under an address for a UPS Store in Miami's South Beach. Only one employee shows up in a search on LinkedIn: its Miami-based founder, Donald Hobbs. The WhiteBoxDating website claims that "partners" who set up a dating site with them will get "a database of millions of active members." The major question is where those members come from. The majority of the profiles are fake featuring photos stolen from Facebook, Twitter, and Flickr. The presence of scammers, spammers, and identity thieves on Friends Worldwide isn't surprising; the real surprise is that the business still exists at all.

by Kashmir Hill
See full article at Gizmondo

See all posts on Trump.dating
See all posts on Friends Worldwide

Summarized by the IDEA team

A Dating School For Chinese Men

Posted on May 23, 2018

Dating school for chinese menBBC.COM – May 22 – In 2016, there were 33.6M more men than women in China. One dating school is on a mission to help teach young Chinese how to successfully woo potential partners through a series of intensive online and in-person courses. These love coaches claim they can help men understand women. From conversation classes to dancing lessons, some of this school's clients are willing to pay up to $4500 for one-on-one coaching.

See full article at BBC

Summarized by the IDEA team

Digital Darwinism, An Inspiring New Book – Author Interview

Posted on May 23, 2018

OPW – May 23 – I just interviewed Tom Goodwin who authored the new book Digital Darwinism. See overview. I recommend listening to the interview. You can subscribe to the podcast here or watch it below. We reference Facebook Dating and IAC within the interview. It was a good read, and Tom was a good interview.

Post by Mark Brooks, CEO IDEA

Grindr Has A New Voice Message Feature

Posted on May 22, 2018

Grindr logo new dec 13THEM.US – May 21 – Grindr's users will now be able to send voice messages to strangers. Grindr has said it will be an "easy and authentic way to connect and express yourself."

by John Paul Brammer
See full article at Them.us

See all posts on Grindr

Summarized by the IDEA team

Photos From CoffeeMeetsBagel’s Sleepaway ‘Dating’ Camp For Adults

Posted on May 22, 2018

BUSINESS INSIDER UK – May 21 – 150 people attended a very first sleepaway camp for singles, organized by the dating app Coffee Meets Bagel. During the 3day camp, several singletons had coupled up, while others were pretty close to doing so.

Coffeemeetsbagel camp pic
by Tanya Dua
See full article at Business Insider

Summarized by the IDEA team

HK’s Real-life Tinder: Blind Date From A Vending Machine

Posted on May 22, 2018

Blind date from a vending machineCOCONUTS – May 21 – Rather than dispensing fluffy toys, figurines or candy, the pink plastic tower, for HK$20 ($2.5), spits out the information of single men and women looking for love. The concept was brought to Hong Kong by the owner of BT Reptile, Ben Tang, who, after seeing it gain popularity in Taiwan, decided to set up a machine outside his store three months ago. Since then, he's sold ~1k capsules, primarily to customers in their 20s, and has had ~2k people sign up online to have their details put into the machine, which has different compartments for men and women. People who want their details in a capsule can leave their info – name, age, height, weight, hobby, self-introduction, contact – in a Google document. He then adds them one by one on WeChat to verify that they are real. He also follows up with those whose capsules have been sold to check if they've met someone they like. If not, they can choose to have their details put back into the machine, which holds 50 capsules at a time. There's usually a two-week waiting period for men to get their details back in the mix, though, for women, it's a bit quicker, as fewer have signed up.

by Mandy Zheng
See full article at Coconuts

Summarized by the IDEA team

Gay And Bisexual Teens Are Using Grindr To Find Friends And Relationships

Posted on May 22, 2018

Gay teens postPINKNEWS – May 21 – The study by Northwestern University, and published in the Journal of Adolescent Health, found that 50% of teenage boys aged 14 – 17 are using apps like Grindr to look for more than just sex. The research was carried out using online surveys completed by 200 sexually experienced teenage boys in the US. The study also concluded that teenage boys using apps Grindr and Scruff are more likely to access sexual health services, like HIV testing.

by Ella Braidwood
See full article at PinkNews

See all posts on Grindr
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Summarized by the IDEA team