Month: August 2018

Tinder Sends Match Earnings Blazing Past Estimates

Posted on August 8, 2018

Match group logo jan 2017BLOOMBERG – Aug 7 – Match Group's revenue jumped 36% to $421.2M in the Q2, exceeding the average forecast of $413M. The operating income of $150M was up 81% YOY. Earnings were 45 cents a share, surpassing projections for 32 cents. Tinder remains the "growth engine" behind Match, said CEO Mandy Ginsberg. Tinder helped boost direct revenue by 136% YOY in the quarter. The app boasts ~3.7M subscribers, an 81% increase since the second quarter of 2017. Total subscribers across Match Group's 45 brands totaled 7.7M for the three months ending June 30. Match said it's expecting as much as $440M in revenue in the current quarter. For the full year, Match raised the top end of its revenue range by $20M to as much as $1.72B. Match rolled out Picks earlier in the summer, an add-on to the monetized Tinder Gold feature that highlights most likely matches to users. It will also introduce Tinder U, which targets the college-student demographic, in the next few weeks.

by Emily McCormick
See full article at Bloomberg

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Sean Lowe’s New Dating App Commercial

Posted on August 8, 2018

BUSTLE – Aug 8 – Out of all of the Bachelors (there have been 22 so far), Sean Lowe is the only one who actually stayed married to the "winner" of his season, Catherine (Giudici) Lowe. He created a dating app Vouch that allows friends to help out. Sean raises some key points in the commercial. He asks, "Your friends know you best. They help you choose your hair color or choose your Fantasy lineup, but what about your love life?" Now you can get their friendly input in the romance department too.

by Marenah Dobin
See full article at Bustle

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Tinder Wants To Create Interracial Couple Emojis

Posted on August 8, 2018

Tinder interrracial emojiELITE DAILY – Aug 8 – Tinder wants to create interracial couple emojis… and it looks like they're actually going to make it happen. After results of a study showed that their app may have been responsible for an uptick in the amount of interracial marriages, people over at Tinder HQ decided conduct a study of their own. The results confirmed that their users are extremely open minded when it comes to dating someone of a different race. For the first step of what they're calling the "Interracial Couple Emoji Project," Tinder asked people to sign their petition on Change.org. "It's time for an Interracial Couple Emoji," the petition page says. "But keep in mind; it can take up to two years for a proposed emoji to complete the review, approval and standardization process. So sign the petition today!" Since starting the petition six months ago, over 50K people have signed it.

by Candice Jalili
See full article at Elite Daily

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Facebook Dating Will Have A Feature To Help Shy People

Posted on August 8, 2018

Facebook dating conversation startersMETRO.CO.UK – Aug 7 – Facebook is preparing to launch a service called Facebook Dating, and is already undergoing internal testing. One of the features the dating service will contain is called 'Conversation Starter', which offers automated pick-up lines to people who can't think of how to start chatting to someone they fancy. Facebook unveiled plans for its dating service in May and said it's designed to create 'real, long-term relationships', rather than hook-ups. The feature will enable users to create a separate dating profile to their existing Facebook account, with the site then offering recommendations about the sorts of people it thinks users will like.

by Jasper Hamill
See full article at Metro.co.uk

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Utah State Goes To Tinder To Prevent Sexual Assault

Posted on August 8, 2018

Tinder logo jan 17ASSOCIATED PRESS – Aug 3 – Utah State University's sexual assault prevention office has started a Tinder profile aimed at reaching students on the dating app. A number of people have "swiped right" or "liked" the profile promoting the importance of consensual sex, though they haven't gotten any direct messages yet. The office expects to use the app to feature messages about healthy relationships, stalking prevention and domestic violence awareness.

See full article at Wheaton Business Journal

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HBO And Bumble Team Up For A Movie Campaign

Posted on August 8, 2018

Bumble hboCAMPAIGNLIVE – Aug 7 – HBO and Bumble are teaming up to host a stay-at-home movie experience in Manhattan. They will transform a landmark brownstone into a mini theater where Bumble users can watch HBO blockbuster hits on August 15 and 16. From the first week of August, Bumble Date and Bumble BFF users in the New York-area will receive an in-app invitation to attend one of the movie screenings, either with someone they're already chatting with in Bumble or with a friend.

by Oliver McAteer
See full article at CampaignLive

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Say Allo Launches Video Chat Feature

Posted on August 8, 2018

Sayallo logoACCESSWIRE – Aug 7 – Say Allo, the artificial intelligence mobile dating app, is launching a video chat feature allowing safe video meet-ups within the app. This feature can only be enabled once a match has been created and a video chat request has been accepted.

See full article at Internet Dating Newswire

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Will Facebook’s Dating Crush Match?

Posted on August 7, 2018

Facebook dating picSEEKING ALPHA – Aug 7 – On May 1st, Facebook announced that it would be entering the online dating market. Prior to this date, Match stock increased 151% since early August driven by consistent user growth and increasing monetization. With the stock now 21% from its peak, does this present a buying opportunity, or the start of a bigger decline amidst heavy competition?

Facebook May See Some Success, but Not Likely to Slow Match Growth

  • Facebook's demographics do not align with online dating.
  • Its core audience is older, which doesn't align well with the younger crowd on Tinder.
  • Users want to keep social media and dating separate.
  • Facebook has historically struggled to disrupt other industries.
  • Facebook's entry could actually further destigmatize online dating.
  • Match, and Tinder still have numerous growth drivers. Match has ~7M paid members across their platforms, which is an estimated 10% of total members. Match Group is expect to launch a new feature in 2H18 that could drive further ARPU and subscriber growth.

Facebook's Success is a Risk to Consider

  • Facebook has a huge user base and can invest significantly in the space if they choose to do so.
  • Facebook could also roll out the feature to Instagram, which has a demographic more aligned with Tinder.
  • People are already using Facebook and Instagram for dating purposes. A more explicit feature could see success.

See full article at Seeking Alpha

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PeerStream Q2 ’18 Results

Posted on August 7, 2018

Peerstream logoACCESSWIRE – Aug 6 – Total revenue of $7.4M increased 18.5% YOY due to the company's new business solutions offerings and recognition of revenue from the technology services agreement with ProximaX Limited. Revenue generated from technology services totaled $2.1M. Net loss was ~$1.9M, driven by non-operating losses of ~ $2M from a decrease in the fair value of digital tokens received by the company in connection with the ProximaX technology services agreement. PeerStream Business Solutions provide consulting, services and support related to blockchain technology adoption for corporate clients.

See full article at PeerStream website

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Facebook Started Testing Its Dating Feature

Posted on August 6, 2018

CNET – Aug 4 – Facebook has begun internal testing for its new dating feature (Facebook doesn't plan to launch a standalone dating app). A Facebook representative confirmed testing has kicked off, saying, "We are testing Facebook Dating internally (as we regularly do with new features), but we don't have anything more to share right now." Facebook is hoping users will trust the social network with their personal information, even after the Cambridge Analytica scandal earlier this year, in which data from as many as 87M Facebook users was improperly shared with the political consultancy.

Facebook dating internal testing
by Abrar Al-Heeti
See full article at CNet

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Summarized by the IDEA team