GIZMODO – May 21 – Researchers at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) surveyed 600 students on their social media activity and sexual behavior. They found that most people on dating apps like Tinder are interested in short-term sexual relationships but aren't actually hooking up with anyone. "Dating app users don't have more casual sexual partners than others with the same short-term preference," Mons Bendixen, an associate professor at NTNU's Department of Psychology, said in a statement.
Month: May 2018
Meetville Connects 16M People With Their Other Halves Based On Their Values And Common Interests
Q&A With Sam Yagan
BUSINESS INSIDER – May 19 – ShopRunner CEO Sam Yagan is the cofounder of SparkNotes and OkCupid, and was head of Match Group for 7 years. One of the luckiest moments of his life was meeting his college roommates. Together, they built a study guide website called SparkNotes. Then, they built an online dating empire. They started OKCupid while Yagan was getting his MBA at Stanford. Yagan is now the CEO of ShopRunner – a company that brings Amazon Prime-like benefits to customers for use on a network of shopping sites.
by Richard Feloni & Anna Mazarakis
See full article at Business Insider
Zhenai’s Founder Sets Sights On Marrying AI To Blockchain
SCMP – May 18 – In November, Li Song sold a controlling stake in his online matchmaking business, Zhenai.com, to PAG Asia Capital, and now he's looking forward to his next big thing. Zhenai, which translates as "true love", was his second venture after MeMeStar, a short message-based chat forum that was sold to the Chinese web portal Sina. Li founded Zhenai in 2005, but it wasn't until 2008 that it started to take off. He attributes the success that followed to the rapid adoption of smartphones. Zhenai.com has ~120M registered users, and new users join the dating platform at a rate of ~50k a day. Li is now a minority shareholder and will remain on the board. He's also taking an online fintech course offered by Oxford University, and when that finishes, plans to start new business related to two key emerging technologies – artificial intelligence and blockchain. He's confident that we will see apps on decentralised platforms in the future.
Woo – Women-friendly Dating App
YOURSTORY – May 18 – Woo aims to match like-minded people, and also claims to be a platform that puts women first. Released in July 2014, the platform is founded by Sumesh Menon (CEO and Co-founder) and Ankit Nautiyal (CTO and Co-founder). It received its undisclosed Series A funding from Matrix Partners, Omidyar Network and U2opia Mobile. Woo has a user base of ~4.5M users. Woo is similar to Tinder, in the sense that users can only chat with someone if the two have mutually liked each other by swiping right. Users can also send out a 'crush' to a profile without swiping right to let him or her know of their interest. With the feature 'Woo Phone', women can place an Internet call directly from the app while their number remains hidden and private. This specially created feature is available only to women. Woo Plus unlocks a few extra features.
by Sampath Putrevu
See full article at YourStory
This post also appears on InternetDatingInvestments.
Facebook’s Lawyers Could Face IP, Trade Secret Challenges
by Stephanie Forshee
See full article at Law.com
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Why Millennials Will Swipe Left on Facebook’s New Dating Service
FORTUNE – May 18 – Like we've seen in other media industries, online dating is going through its fragmentation and diversification phase. New technologies typically do not replace old technologies – at least not immediately. People tend to adopt new media while continuing to use their favorite "old" media. The same goes for the online dating marketplace. Online daters can choose to use both Facebook and Tinder. The average online dater belongs to 2.4 dating sites or apps, according to the research firm ReportLinker. "This is going to be for building real, long-term relationships, not just hookups," Zuckerberg explained at F8. More than a third of online daters aren't looking for love. The same ReportLinker survey found that 34% of them are just hoping for a hookup.
by Chelsea Reynolds
See full article at Fortune
Indian Dating Site, Shaadi, Is Adding Aadhaar Verification Tool
FORBES INDIA – May 17 – Matchmaking sites such as Shaadi.com are using Aadhaar's unique identification number for profile verification. Shaadi added Aadhaar to its profile verification as a result of a recent survey: ~91% of women gave high importance to verified profiles.
Record Attendance For Next Week’s iDate In Odessa
WEBWIRE – May 17 – ~100 C-Level dating agency executives are registered to attend next week's iDate conference in Odessa. The iDate Premium International Dating Conference takes place on May 24-25, 2018 at the Bristol Hotel in Odessa. The complete list of speakers is at http://datingagencyconference.com/speakers-odessa-2018.php.
Dating App Map
OPW – May 17 – Want to see where key dating apps are located around the world? Here they all are. Check out our research pages by clicking on the research link on the right hand side bar of OPW any time.
Post by Mark Brooks, CEO IDEA