E27.CO – May 13 – M17 Entertainment, the company that owns Paktor and live-streaming service 17 Media, is hoping to raise US$115M in IPO. M17 made ~$90M in revenue in 2017, but operated at a loss of US$61.8M. In Q1 2018, the company made $37.9M and is operating at a loss of $26.9M. The strategy for the startup is to expand into Japan, expand content offerings, grow the number of artists on the live-streaming service and achieve profitability. Paktor has 14.6M people using its dating services, but that is split between the brands of Paktor, Goodnight and Kickoff.
Month: May 2018
Facebook Is Right To Think ‘Likes’ Can Lead To Love
BLOOMBERG – May 13 – Facebook's Dating application will let users create special dating profiles. Users who opt into Dating will be able to interact with and message each other on the platform, and will also be able to connect through shared events. Making money in the online dating business isn't easy. There's built-in churn: If you match people successfully, then they leave the platform. Facebook, by contrast, can afford to have people stop dating so long as it learns things about them it can use to sell advertising on its main site. It can track couples from their first "likes" to the point at which they're ready for engagement ring ads, and beyond. Customer acquisition might be easier for Facebook, too. The company already has an ad empire. And it is pretty good at predicting when couples are likely to break up, so it can guess when they'll be receptive to Facebook Dating ads. The biggest problem, of course, is trust.
by Scott Duke Kominers
See full article at Bloomberg
Tinder Is Testing Location-tracking Features
Matchmakers: Facebook Dating Won’t Hurt Us
THE STREET – May 12 – Matchmakers are optimistic that Facebook won't be able to replace their key advantage: face-to-face meetings. "There really is a magic meeting face to face and that's why businesses like mine have survived even with the growth of the Internet," said Michael Karlan, president of Professionals in the City, a speed dating events provider. "It will positively impact upscale matchmaking businesses because people will want personal service even if it costs more," argued Michelle Jacoby, a matchmaker in the Washington D.C. area. Jacoby has run her own company, DC Matchmaking, for nine years. She usually takes 20 clients at a time, and matches clients to 6k-7K Washingtonian singles who joined her database for free.
See full article at The Street
Ashley Madison’s CTO: Facebook’s Dating Will Be Just Another Ad Platform
BUSINESS INSIDER – May 12 – At the beginning of May, Facebook announced it was launching a dating product. It drew a lot of attention from other leaders in the industry, including the CEO of Happn, Didier Rappaport, who said the announcement was just "trying to distract" from the recent data scandal. According to Ashley Madison's CTO Ruben Buell, if Facebook is sticking with its traditional methods of making money, it will be pushing an ad based model so users are essentially the product. This, Buell said, may conjure up some concerns from users. In general, people are getting more savvy about how much of their information on Facebook is publicly available to view. So Buell said this may be a challenge for Facebook going forward.
by Lindsay Dodgson
See full article at Business Insider
Bumble Launches First Aussie Ads As It Grows Ambitions Outside Of Dating
Tinder Is Moving To Forced Arbitration, Existing Users Can Opt Out Via Email Only
MIC – May 11 – Tinder has updated its terms and conditions. It added changes surrounding "retroactive and prospective arbitration." Basically, Tinder is preventing users from taking it to court. Existing users have the ability to opt out of their new Arbitration Agreement, but they will have to email Tinder, and they have one month to do so. The terms of service addition is likely a response to Tinder's age discrimination lawsuit. Tinder was accused of discriminating against its older users. While younger users were charged $9.99 or $14.99/month for the premium version, users 30+ were asked to pay $19.99/month. Tinder's terms of service update will make suing the company harder. Though users who want to retain their right to do so can email tinderoptout@match.com by June 7.
The League: People Who Post Pictures With Their Moms Have A 7% Higher Match Rate
DAILYMAIL.CO.UK – May 11 – The League, a dating app for career and educated-minded adults looking for a relationship, has revealed that users who include a picture with their mothers have a higher match rate. Most of the users with photos of their moms are men (55%). In addition to showing that someone is family-oriented, it can indicate that a man treats his mother well – and is likely to treat women well in general. For a woman pictured with her mother, it can offer men a peak into what she might look like when she gets older.
PositiveSingles Says Apple Silent On Further Explanation To Its Removal From iOS Store
NEWSWIRE – May 11 – It has been nearly half a month since Apple suddenly removed PositiveSingles.com, the largest STD dating app, from its iOS store. Apple is saying that the app violated its rule 4.3. PositiveSingles.com reminds their users to temporarily use the mobile site instead which still contains most of the important functions. The site declares that it has begun a dispute with Apple and reserves the right for future actions.
The full article was originally published at Wave News, but is no longer available.
Internet Dating Jobs Listing Update – May 2018
OPW – May 12 - The new Internet dating jobs listing is live on the Internet Dating Jobs blog.
Below see a couple of this month's most interesting offers:
CoffeeMeetsBagel
VP of Finance and Business Operations
Grindr
Product Owner, INTO
Hornet
Director, Sales & Partnerships
Meetic
Market Director UK
RubyLife.com
Chief Technology Officer
The League
Creative Director
Zoosk
Director, Data Science
To see more open positions go here.
Do you have an idating industry job offer which is not included? Please, send it to petra@courtlandbrooks.com and we will add it to the list.