Month: October 2018

Germany’s ProSiebenSat.1 Media (Parship) Acquires eHarmony

Posted on October 29, 2018

Eharmony prosiebensat1 logosREUTERS – Oct 29 – Germany's ProSiebenSat.1 Media has bought eHarmony, in the first significant deal since it carved out a new e-commerce joint venture with General Atlantic. eHarmony expects 2.8 million new users this year, and complements ProSieben's own Parship dating franchise which is the market leader in Germany. Terms were not disclosed. Parship and sister brand Elite Partner, count 2 million registrations a year. eHarmony has brand awareness of nearly 90% and a very big user base that can be served better from a common platform. ProSieben is pushing to diversify away from its core commercial TV franchise, where ad revenues are flat and the sector is being disrupted by streaming platforms like Netflix. The Munich-based broadcaster bought eharmony via its newly created Nucom division, in which investor General Atlantic took a 24.9% stake in February. Nucom owns 94% of Parship. eharmony raised $113 million in two funding rounds. Most recently in 2004, Tuputele Ventures, TCV, Sequoia Capital and Fayez Sarofim & Co. eHarmony CEO Grant Langston will continue to run the business while representatives of Parship will join its board.

by Douglas Busvine & Joern Poltz
See full article at Reuters

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This post also appears on InternetDatingInvestments.

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Singles Spend The Most On Dating Each Month, But The Least Per Date, Study Finds

Posted on October 29, 2018

DateTHE MOTLEY FOOL – Oct 28 – The average cost of a date today – consisting of two dinners, a bottle of wine, and two movie tickets – adds up to $102.32. Single people spend ~$146 per month on dating, according to the poll of ~1,000 people. People in a relationship spend a ~$139 a month, while married couples spend ~$130. It's not all bad news for married couples, however, as they spend more per date ($54), than people in a relationship ($44), or single people ($43).

by Daniel B. Kline
See full article at USA Today

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The CEO Of Hinge Sometimes Goes 2 Weeks Without Checking On His Team

Posted on October 29, 2018

Hinge justin mcleod 2018BUSINESS INSIDER – Oct 27 – Hinge founder and CEO Justin McLeod doesn't have email on his smartphone. He said it makes him a better leader because he has time and space to think. The only things he can currently do with his phone are check the time, make calls and send texts, listen to music, and browse Hinge. "I'm a much better decision-maker, I'm a much better strategist, I'm a much better leader when I'm not wrapped up in the minutia of what's going on in the company and what's going on in the world," McLeod told Business Insider. "I'm giving myself the space." When he takes vacations, he doesn't check in with his staff for "a week or two at a time." In fact, McLeod made the decision to "reboot" Hinge, in 2016, while he was away from the office and spending Thanksgiving with his family. With the time and space to think clearly, he realized that Hinge had become too similar to other dating apps. Hinge subsequently made a number of changes to the app, most notably removing the swiping feature. Today, it bills itself as "the relationship app."

by Shana Lebowitz
See full article at Business Insider

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Facebook Spotted To Be Testing A Gender Inclusive Category On Its Dating App

Posted on October 29, 2018

Facebook dating gender options1TECH2 – Oct 28 – Facebook Dating is said to be available within the company's mobile app, but not on the desktop as of now. A new update has been discovered now. Facebook seems to have added a number of options in its gender section. It has the option of Woman, Trans Woman, Man, Trans Man and something peculiar called 'Non-Binary and/or Two-spirit'. This move shows Facebook Dating's inclusivity of all genders.

See full article at Tech2

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How Two Young Creatives Hope To Merge Dating And Voting To Get People Paired Up At The Polls

Posted on October 29, 2018

Your voting date iconADWEEK – Oct 27 – Your Voting Date is side project from two young McCann New York creatives, Kyle Harrison and Ezequiel Consoli. The Instagram-driven effort asks voters to find a date for Nov. 6 so that they can hit the polls together. The idea has found fans in a few different brands and organizations, including dating app OkCupid, which will be cosponsoring a "DTFind Your Voting Date" networking event from 5:30 to 8 p.m. on Nov. 1 at 684 Broadway in New York. Other sponsors include gender-free retailer and community center The Phluid Project and and Callen-Lorde Community Health Center.

by David Griner
See full article at AdWeek

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A Sister Duo Developed The First Successful Dating App For Dog Lovers

Posted on October 29, 2018

Dig logoFORBES – Oct 27 – Sisters Casey and Leigh Isaacson have founded Dig – the dog person's dating app that connects people who own and love dogs to other people who either own or want to own a dog based on their dog preferences. The idea came when Cassey was dating someone who was not into dogs.

by Cheryl Robinson
See full article at Forbes

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What Tinder Is Doing To Mating Habits

Posted on October 29, 2018

Tinder indiaTHE PRINT – Oct 26 – It turns out that unpleasant experiences on Tinder are far fewer than happy dates. This could be because of our mating instincts from centuries ago. A 2017 study found that Tinder kick-starts our inherent evolutionary mating habits. A team of psychologists at the University of Aberdeen have found that men often swiped right to select women based on physical attractiveness, while women swiped right on men who scored higher on intelligence, career, and financial stability. These selection habits closely mimic survival strategies from centuries ago. But while we might be led to think that a "hook-up app" like Tinder was not made keeping long-term relationships in mind, it does in fact lead to those long-term, stable relationships. It turns out that counter-intuitively, making quick judgments under short seconds of evaluation actually might be making us choose better.

by Sandhya Ramesh
See full article at The Print

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Chinese Dating App Maker Arrested For Scamming People With Bots

Posted on October 29, 2018

Bot picABACUS NEWS – Oct 26 – Police has arrested 24 people at Lover Net, a dating company who was scamming users with female bots. The CEO of the company confessed to police that there was almost no chance that a user could be matched with another real user, because these female users were bots with fake profiles. This isn't the first time a company used bots to attract or scam real users. In January, Guangdong police shut down 21 companies operating similar schemes, with up to 1B yuan ($144M) involved. Lover Net had 750K paying users and $140K in daily revenue. The company also spent heavily to boost its app store rankings.

by Xinmei Shen
See full article at Abacus News

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Tinder Seeks Arbitration In Ex-Worker’s Sex Harassment Suit

Posted on October 26, 2018

Arbitration agreementLAW360 – Oct 25 – Tinder asked a California federal judge on Wednesday to force a former employee to arbitrate her claims accusing the company of sexual harassment, arguing that she signed a binding arbitration agreement while she worked there. Elizabeth Sanfilippo was a brand marketing manager at Tinder from Sep 2016 to July 2017 when she says she was fired after experiencing sexual harassment. She filed suit against Tinder in August. But Tinder said the lawsuit is not appropriate, citing a mutual arbitration agreement that Sanfilippo signed in Jan 2017 while still an employee at Tinder after the company was acquired by Match. Tinder said Sanfilippo was fired for "legitimate, business and non-discriminatory reasons."

by Lauren Berg
See full article at Law360

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Register Now And Take Advantage Of Early Bird Savings For The Next iDate In Miami

Posted on October 26, 2018

Idate2019OPW – Oct 26 – The next Internet dating conference (iDate) is taking place in January 31 – February 1, 2019 in Miami. The early bird discount ends tomorrow (Oct 27th). If you're in the business of Internet dating, it would serve you well to attend.

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