SCMP – July 11 – AI will be a key focus for Tantan this year, said CEO Yu Wang. The technology will be used to help the company accurately identify new users, boost the accuracy of advertising, as well as contributing to growth in terms of user numbers and revenues, he said. Mobile dating is a popular trend in China where the number of smartphones outstripped the country's 1.4B population. Even WeChat, the country's most popular messaging app owned by Tencent, whose active monthly users have topped nearly 1B, offers apps such as Shake and Drifting Bottle that give its users more opportunities to get in touch with potential dates. Momo, another popular location-based hook-up app in China, acquired Tantan in February for $760M. Unlike Momo and Tantan, which are mostly favoured by younger users who are more inclined to have casual dates, a number of Chinese apps, such as Jiayuan and Baihe, specifically target those looking for a life-long partner. Revenue generated by China's online dating industry reached 4B yuan ($603M) in 2017, according to iResearch.
Month: July 2018
Bumble’s Whitney Wolfe Herd Swiped Right To A $230M Fortune
FORBES – July 11 – Bumble, which Forbes values at $1B, has brought its 29-year-old founder Whitney Wolfe Herd a $230M fortune. While Wolfe Herd missed the cut for this year's Forbes list of America's Richest Self-Made Women, Forbes predicts it won't be too long before she joins the ranks, assuming Bumble keeps growing at the rate it has. Only four years old and with ~35M users, Bumble has become America's fastest-growing dating app with users growing 70% YOY. With ~10% of them paying $9.99 per month for in-app perks and a advertisements launching last year, the company brought in $100M in revenue in 2017.
Internet Dating Jobs Listing Update – July 2018
OPW – July 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
Dil Mil
VP of Engineering
Hornet
Director, Sales & Partnerships
Match.com
Director, Marketing (Mobile Apps)
Meetic
Market Director UK
Spark Networks
Creative Director
The League
Creative Director
Tinder
Country Manager – Australia
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.
Tinder Usage Rank Hits Highest Point Yet
THINKNUM – July 11 – As of last week, Tinder's usage ranking via Facebook login has risen to the third-most popular app of all, behind only Spotify and Candy Crush Saga. 
See full article at Thinknum
Korean CareLabs Acquires Dating App Operator BNK Lab For ~$10M
THE INVESTOR – July 10 – Korean health care platform firm CareLabs has acquired BNK Lab, the operator of social dating apps, in a bid to strengthen its services in beauty and dating sector. CareLabs paid 11B won ($9.85M) in return for the entire 50K shares of BNK Lab. BNK Lab's platforms boasts a combined monthly active users of 240k. They include Babitalk, which provides information on cosmetic surgery, and multiple dating apps such as DangYeonsi and Sweetme.
by Ahn Sung-mi
See full article at The Investor
This post also appears on InternetDatingInvestments.
Could A Text-Based Dating App Change Selfie-Swiping Culture?
WIRED – July 10 – Kelly Rakowski started an Instagram account called Personals where people can post their dating ads. She has 35K followers now. She wanted to create a way for people to find each other through their phones without the frustrations of dating apps. "You have to be present to write these ads," she says. "You're not just throwing up your selfie. It's a friendly environment; it feels healthier than Tinder." And now, she wants to an app. The Personals app will focus on the things people say and the ways others connect to them. The Personals' Kickstarter is about to reach its $40k goal so Rakowski will be able to turn the ads into a fully-functioning platform.
Match Group Update: Tinder Gold Is Getting Even Shinier
SEEKING ALPHA – July 10 – June has been a busy month for Match Group. The company announced that it had acquired a controlling stake in Hinge, and also introduced several new features for Tinder, with several more currently in the works. Tinder Picks is a new feature available exclusively for Tinder Gold subscribers. Picks, which mimics rival app Coffee Meets Bagel, presents users with four profiles daily based on factors such as education, interests, and swipe history. Loops feature, which it had previously tested in Canada and Sweden, allows users to post two-second, looping videos to their profiles in lieu of a static photograph. The company is testing a "Places" feature, which allows users to see potential matches who frequent similar bars, shops, and other locations. In Q1 '18, Tinder added 368K subscribers and delivered its best average revenue per user (ARPU) growth in two years. According to Match CFO Gary Swindler, Tinder's ARPU in Q1 grew 37% year-over-year. The company's ARPU as a whole reached $0.58 in Q1 – well above the $0.53 that it achieved in 2017. With such fantastic economics and a sticky user base, Match Group is significantly undervalued as a company. Yet, shares remain depressed amid negative sentiment surrounding Facebook's entry into online dating.
by Mike Berner
See full article at Seeking Alpha
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Asian Man Is Bringing A Class Action Against Grindr For Allowing Racial Discrimination
THEGAYUK – July 10 – A man is planning to sue the gay dating app, Grindr, for racial discrimination and is looking for co-plaintiffs across the US's fifty states so that he can bring a class action. Sinakhone Keodara, the CEO and founder of the Asian Entertainment Television company says that Grindr allows "white gay men to write in their profiles 'no Asians', 'not interested in Asians' or 'I don't find Asians attractive'," which he says, leads to people feeling "offended, humiliated, degraded and dehumanised" by the app.
Happn Partners With Gameloft Advertising
PRESS RELEASE – July 10 – This partnership, with an international company like Gameloft Advertising Solutions, will allow Happn to optimize advertising revenue with a global reach on par with its presence around the world, and allow all brands to finally have access to its audience and its qualitative inventory. Launched in 2014, Happn is the first mobile dating app to use real-time geolocation to help you discover people users've crossed paths with in real life. To date, Gameloft Advertising Solutions has delivered ~3k campaigns for prestigious brands such as Air France, Coca-Cola, Ford, FOX™, Kellogg's, McDonalds and Netflix.
Explosive Growth – Essential Reading
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Post by Mark Brooks, CEO IDEA