TECHNODE – May 13 – Shares of dating app company Momo fell on Friday after announcing it would temporarily shut down the social newsfeed on its platform for a month amid tightening government scrutiny. Momo users are restricted from posting on the newsfeed until June 11. Dating app, Tantan, made a parallel announcement on Friday night, saying its social feature, "Moments," would be suspended for a month as it is conducts a comprehensive investigation and works to enhance its screening capabilities. The incident follows Tantan's removal from major Chinese Android app stores in late April. Tantan responded by saying the removal was due to the "violations" of relevant rules and it had launched a total investigation on the platform. It remains unknown when Tantan will be available on app stores again. Momo had acquired Tantan in a $600M buyout in February 2018.
Month: May 2019
80% of LGBT People Say Dating Apps Benefit Their Community
PINKNEWS – May 13 – A new survey from Tinder has found that 80% of LGBT+ people believe dating apps have benefited their community in a positive way. 46% of them said it had provided more diversity in people they could date. 36% said it had provided them with the opportunity to date more people of other races and cultures.
Why People Pretend to Be Jewish on JDate
REFINERY29 – May 13 – For some, it's a numbers game: online dating can be a slog, and joining more than one service increases the pool of perspective matches. "For some reason, a lot of men want Jewish girlfriends," says Toni, a Jewish user, of a trend she's noticed in her own circles since she was in college. "I think it had something to do with sex. Supposedly Jewish women are better sexual partners." Maria Avgitidis, founder and CEO of Agape Match in New York City, remembers a client who said "she only wanted Jewish men because they're really great providers." It's generally a good PR move for any company to land on the side of inclusivity when it comes to religion or ethnicity. Also, allowing non-niche users to join a niche dating site, especially when the niche itself comprises a tiny margin of the larger population, can make a site more profitable. "I think it's beautiful," says David Yarus, founder of JSwipe and Global Ambassador for JDate, of non-Jewish users looking for love on his platforms. "Ultimately, we have been very intentional in fostering more refined, digital dating within the Jewish community or for those who celebrate the Jewish culture. But it's so important that we recognize and honor the universality of the world."
by Rebecca Linde
See full article at Refinery29
See all posts on JDate
See all posts on AgapeMatch
See all posts on JSwipe
Tinder Is Preparing to Launch ‘Tinder Lite’
TECH CRUNCH – May 11 – Tinder is preparing to launch Tinder Lite in emerging markets. The light version will offer a smaller, more lightweight version of the current flagship app. Most major tech companies now offer "Lite" apps for the large and rapidly growing online user base coming from these emerging markets – and specifically India, as of late. For example, Google has a full suite of lightweight "Go"-branded apps, like Google Go, Gmail Go, Files Go, YouTube Go, Google Maps Go and Google Assistant Go. There's also Facebook Lite, Instagram Lite, Messenger Lite, Twitter Lite, Uber Lite, Spotify Lite and even TikTok Lite. The company didn't share an exact launch date for Tinder Lite, but, according to Match Group CEO Mandy Ginsberg, the app is "coming soon."
Bumble Hires Global Creative Director
THE DRUM – May 11 – Bumble has hired Drew Jaz as its first global creative director, handing him a remit to grow the brand’s internal creative team into a functioning in-house agency. He led the Intel account at Mcgarrybowen in San Francisco and worked closely with the brand's now-defunct in-house shop, Agency Inside. Jaz will contribute in a creative capacity to Bumble's ongoing projects, including its print magazine that launched recently in collaboration with Hearst's branded content studio.
Muzmatch: ‘Swipe-match-marry’ Dating App
THE AGE – May 11 – Muzmatch was developed and launched by former London banker Shahzad Younas in 2015. Billed as "Where Single Muslims Meet", Muzmatch offers greater privacy and accuracy protections on photos, filters out foul language and anti-Muslim comments, and even offers a "chaperone" option – users can nominate a parent or other person to monitor conversations. The app claims ~1M members worldwide and has led to weddings in 190 different countries between 25K people.
Internet Dating Jobs Listing Update – May 2019
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:
Badoo
Product Director
eHarmony
Director of Affiliates & Partnerships, Acquisition Marketing
Jaumo
Head of Monetization
Match Group
VP, Product
POF
VP of Marketing
The League
Director or VP of Operations & Finance (COO fxn)
Tinder
SVP of Tinder, Japan
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.
PositiveSingles.com Debuts Live Question Sessions With Dating Advisor
PRESS RELEASE – May 9 – PositiveSingles.com is launching the Dating Advisor, a live online question and answer session for people with STDs and STIs. Available Monday-Friday from 6-9 p.m. EST, users can live chat and ask questions anonymously. Members can send in their questions via email during times when the Dating Advisor is offline.
‘BeautifulPeople’ Dating Site Shares List of ‘Ugly’ Traits That Are Banned
by Harriet Whitehead & Tanveer Mann
See full article at Mirror.co.uk
China’s Tinder – Tantan – Is Rising in India
QUARTZ – May 9 – Tantan, China's favourite dating app, is now the fifth-most popular in India by combined monthly active users on iOS and Android phones, according to App Annie. In May 2018, Tantan did not feature among the top 10, but zoomed to the 4th position by July. It has since slid one spot following the launch of Bumble in December.
Top dating apps in India
(as on May 2018) (as on March 2019)
1. Tinder 1. Tinder
2. Happn 2. Happn
3. Azar 3. Azar
4. Badoo 4. Bumble
5. OkCupid 5. Tantan
Tantan translates in Mandarin to "talk." Launched in 2014, the app bears a high resemblance to Tinder, and was acquired by the Chinese social network Momo in February 2018. Tantan has ~90M registered users in China. The dating app has been advertising aggressively on TikTok.