JAPAN TIMES – Mar 8 – The number of cybercrimes confirmed by police nationwide in 2018, including many cases of child pornography and fraud, stood at 9,040, rising slightly to reach a record high for the third consecutive year, National Police Agency data showed Thursday. Among the 9,040 cybercrimes, the highest number, at 2,057, were related to child prostitution and child pornography, followed by 972 cases of fraud and 926 related to juveniles, such as sexual misconduct involving youth age 18 or younger through online dating.
Month: March 2019
The UK Government Is Looking to Criminalize Unsolicited Dick Pics
THE NEXT WEB – Mar 8 – The Home Office is taking preliminary steps towards criminalizing "online flashing." In its "Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG)" report, the Home Office proposed 10 commitments it believes will help protect women and girls in the UK – and it's backed with ~ £100M in funding over the next five years. By law, it's considered "indecent exposure" to flash your naked body on the street – and it shouldn't be excused online. In the UK, 41% of women aged 18 to 36 have reportedly received non-consensual sexual images.
Happn CEO Didier Rappaport Is Bringing Digital Dating to Life
EUROPEANCEO – Mar 7 – Happn, a dating app based on the premise of reprising chance meetings, is the product of serial tech entrepreneur Didier Rappaport. The app launched in 2014. "We now have 60M users around the world and Happn is the #2 most downloaded dating app worldwide," said Rappaport. After studying economics at the University of Bordeaux, Rappaport went into the family textiles business, where he was charged with sourcing materials from Asia to be sold across Europe. He created the world's first B2B marketplace for textiles, Textileeguide, in 1998. Then in 2005, he co-founded Dailymotion, the second-most popular video-sharing website in the world today. Rappaport stayed on as COO at Dailymotion until 2008, when he co-founded Nomao, a personalised social network based on geolocation technology. "It has never been so difficult to connect with people in real life than today," he said. "Most of the existing dating services are very virtual and often very time-consuming." Happn uses 'hyper-location' technology to proffer matches when users have crossed paths in real life. While users can use the service for free, premium features are available for purchase. When asked what advice Rappaport offers to aspiring entrepreneurs, he said: "It takes confidence, strong motivation and vision. You have to be ready and eager to go all the way, and then it's mainly about getting the help of the good people and always being two steps ahead."
Dating App Prospr Is for Fortune 500 Professionals, Claims 30K Applicants a Day
by Joseph Ronson
See full article at LifePulseHealth
A Woman Turned Tinder Swiping Into a Business
VICE – Mar 7 – Holly Bartter handles the swiping and chatting for her clients. She is charging up to $1,500 a month to manage their Tinder accounts. Holly explains her company Matchsmith grew out of friends asking her for dating advice. Then she was eventually asked to take over a friend's account, which turned into several friends and then friends of friends, before she turned it into a business about two years ago.
Paedophiles Are Using Dating Apps to Prey on Single Mothers
The Meet Group Q4 Results, Acquires Gay App Growlr for $11.8M
BUSINESSWIRE – Mar 6 – For Q4 2018 revenue was $52.5M, up 31% YOY. GAAP net income was $4.3M, compared to a net loss of $68.1M the prior year Q4. The prior year Q4 included a non-cash asset impairment charge of $56.4M and a deferred tax charge of $7.7M. Adjusted EBITDA was $10.6M, compared to $10.5M in the prior Q4. In 2018 revenue was $178.6M, up from $123.8M in 2017. "In addition to reporting a strong quarter, I'm excited to announce the acquisition of Growlr, which provides a meaningful step into the large same-sex dating market and expands the base of users to whom we can deliver our live video product," said Geoff Cook, CEO of The Meet Group. "Video transformed our business in 2018," continued Cook. "Our goal is to build the best place to meet new people through video. We increased the average monetization per daily active video user to 18c, up from 14c in the Q3, 2018." The Meet Group acquired Growlr for $11.8M, using $4.8M in cash and $7M from its existing line of credit, plus an earnout of $2M to be paid in annual $1M installments over the next two years if certain revenue metrics are achieved in each year. The Growlr app has ~200K global DAU, who exchange millions of messages each day.
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Believr Dating App Is for Gay Christians
COLORADO SPRINGS INDEPENDENT – Mar 6 – A new LGBTQ Christian dating app named "believr" will be launching this year. But how does one identify as queer and Christian? "This mentality that the two identities cannot cohabitate in one person presents unique struggles for someone identifying as both, including myself and my friend," said Adam Evers, believr's founder and CEO. "I often find I'm too gay for the Christians and too Christian for LGBTQ+ circles," Adam shares. The platform is planning on going old-school, with chat rooms like the legendary AOL, as well as value-based matching where you can find a partner who has a similar outlook on life.
by Brandon Flanery
See full article at Colorado Springs Independent
Online Dating Is More Economical
PAYMENTSSOURCE – Mar 6 – Many people find their future spouse online – and there are even financial advantages to doing so. Married couples who met online dated for a shorter period of time before getting hitched than married couples who met offline, saving the online daters thousands of dollars, according to a study by ConverEx Group. The average married couple who met online dated for 18.5 months before reaching the altar while those who met offline dated an average of 42 months.
Inside the World of Dating Profile Ghostwriters
SALON.COM – Mar 6 – "Everyone is doing online dating, and now everyone is trying to optimize themselves and make themselves stand out more because there is a lot of competition," said Alex McDermott, the co-founder of PimpMyProfile. PimpMyProfile offers three packages: For $99.99, a client receives ten pre-written messages; $199.99 includes profile writeup and three opening messages. For $399.99, users can get a personal consultation and professional photo editing, in addition to what is offered in the second package. Eric Resnick has been in the business of writing online dating profiles since 2004, when he worked at Match.com back when they had writers on staff to pen profiles. Once the feature was no longer offered to users, he started his own business called ProfileHelper in 2005. Resnick has made his living off of that ever since. Resnick's company offers three different packages that range from $49.95 to $199.95. The highest tier includes an hour one-on-one consultation with Resnick, which he says is the most popular package. His workload ranges from having 1 to 15 clients a day. Eddie Hernandez, a professional photographer based in San Francisco, specializes in online dating photos. His customers can choose four "looks," which include wardrobe and location changes, for $875.
by Nicole Karlis
See full article at Salon.com