TECH CRUNCH – July 4 – For the first time, Apple has published the number of requests it's received from governments to take down apps from its app store. In its latest transparency report, published Tuesday, Apple said it received 80 requests from 11 countries to remove 634 apps from its app stores during July 1 to December 31, 2018. Apple didn't list the apps that were removed, but noted in most cases why the apps were pulled. China made up the bulk of the requests, seeking to remove 517 apps claiming they violated its gambling and pornography laws. Vietnam and Austria also requested the removal of several apps that violated its gambling laws, while Kuwait asked Apple to pull some apps that fell afoul of its privacy laws. Apple said it received 29,183 demands from governments – down ~10% on the last reporting period – to access 213,737 devices in the second half of last year. Apple also received 4,875 requests for account data, such as information stored in iCloud – up by 16% on the previous reporting period – affecting 22,503 accounts.
Month: July 2019
Lumen CMO Strives to Make the Brand Synonymous With Anti-ageism
CMO.COM.AU – July 4 – Gaining brand synonymity with anti-ageism is the big ambition for co-founder and CMO of Lumen, a dating app for the over 50s market. This week, Lumen launched its first TV commercial in Australia, featuring the over 50s Atlanta-based dance troupe, Silver Classix Crew, performing a Tron dance in LED suits. Prior to the TVC, Lumen has been investing largely in billboard advertising, Facebook advertising and PR, taking both a risqué and humour-based approach in its messaging.
Fortune 500 Executive Joins Event-Based Dating App Startup Swoonbox
PR NEWSWIRE – July 3 – Swoonbox, a new event-based dating app that integrates ticketing, is gearing up for their August 2nd App Store and Play Store launch. Users can pre-order the app for free through the App Store here. The startup has added Rita Capek to their team as VP of Growth. Rita brings years of consumer insights and product experience as the former COO of News America Marketing. After the launch, Swoonbox has plans to expand more broadly in Canada and Mexico. It is also experimenting with VR/AR.
App Revenue Tops $39B in H1 2019, up 15% YOY
Matrimony.com to Dial Down on Wedding Services
CNBC TV – July 3 – Aside from its core business of online match-making, Matrimony.com runs wedding services like MatrimonyMandap, MatrimonyPhotography and MatrimonyBazaar among others. The company expects its Wedding Services vertical to register 50% – 100% growth in FY20. Matrimony.com's non-core businesses contribute just 5% to the company's annual revenues, which stood at Rs 335 crore ($49M) in FY19.
Chinese Dating App Tantan Returns to Android App Stores
THAT'S – July 3 – Dating app Tantan has been relaunched on Chinese Android app stores after going through a 'rehabilitation period' since the end of April. The app is still not available via the Chinese version of the Apple App Store. Tantan previously stated that the app had been taken off because of violations of regulations and that they would be taking a period of time to undergo "self-examination and self-correction."
Dating Industry Executives Discuss Best Practices in Safety
The webinar, "Online Safety in the Dating and Social Entertainment Market", was hosted by Northland Capital Markets. Participating from the dating industry were Geoff Cook, CEO of The Meet Group, Casey Burton, Director and Senior Counsel at Match Group, and Jeronimo Folgueira, CEO of Spark Networks.
Representing the panel from various safety and online standards organizations were Larry Magid, CEO of Connect Safely, Stephen Balkam, CEO and Founder of the Family Online and Safety Institute, and George Kidd, CEO of the Online Dating Association.
"We put safety at the core of everything we do," said Geoff Cook, CEO of The Meet Group. "Our users are here to interact and connect – and we think the goal of a safety operation is to promote a safe environment free of bullying, hate speech, and abuse to encourage making meaningful connections."
Topics covered during the discussion included: the current state of online safety, content moderation and law enforcement, working with the app store partners, how technology can help users feel safer, and strategies for building a safer online community.
While safety will always be a major focus in the dating industry, Larry Magid, CEO of Connect Safely, wanted to set the record straight in two specific areas.
"One observation is that between the early 1990s and the mid-2010s, while Internet usage was on a steep rise, violence, both against children and sexual violence in general, has gone down," said Magid. "So anybody who wants to correlate online dating with increased sexual violence is actually looking at the numbers in exactly the wrong way. So while I can't claim data that shows that online dating has made things safer, I can say that during the period that online dating has risen, violence has gone down."
"The other thing to understand is that nobody can guarantee 100% safety on anything, whether it's food safety or transportation safety, or safety using tools," he added. "Nobody can ever say with absolute certainty that nothing bad is going to happen. What we can do is have best practices in an industry (like online dating) – and we can have consumer education."
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The Meet Group to Participate in Safety Panel Discussion
Spark Networks Closes Its $258M Acquisition of Zoosk
TECH CRUNCH – July 2 – Berlin-based Spark Networks, the owner of Christian Mingle, Jdate, LDSsingles, Silver Singles, JSwipe and others, has acquired Zoosk for a combination of cash and stock. The deal values Zoosk at ~$258M. Spark says it will issue 12,980,000 American Depositary Shares (ADS) to former Zoosk shareholders valued at $153M based on the closing price of Spark ADS of $11.78 on June 28, 2019. Zoosk has for a long time struggled to compete against Tinder. A few years ago, the company laid off a third of its staff and even had to call off its IPO. According to data from Sensor Tower, Zoosk has generated worldwide in-app revenue of $250M and has seen 38M downloads since January 2014. In Q1 2019, Zoosk revenue was flat at $13M, the firm also says. Tinder revenue, by comparison, grew 43%. Zoosk's current CEO Steven McArthur is departing Zoosk following the deal, but will join Spark's board of directors.
The U.S. Dating App Market Is Peaking
THE MOTLEY FOOL – July 2 – Tinder surged in popularity in recent years. However, the market's growth will decelerate over the next three years, according to projections from eMarketer, as fewer new users sign up and users drift between existing apps.
Match Group is preparing for that slowdown with three key strategies: increasing its revenue per subscriber with new premium tiers, acquiring niche challengers like Hinge, and expanding into overseas markets.