TECHRADAR – July 8 – Researchers at the International Computer Science Institute (ICSI) created a controlled environment to test 88K apps downloaded from the US Google Play Store. They peeked at what data the apps were sending back, compared it to what users were permitting and 1,325 apps were forking over specific user data they shouldn't have. They used a variety of angles to circumvent permissions and get access to user data, including geolocation, emails, phone numbers, and device-identifying IMEI numbers.
Month: July 2019
Q&A With Vivek Jain, Founder of the New Dating App LOKO
FASHION WEEK DAILY – July 8 – Dating app LOKO lets users communicate with each other exclusively by video before meeting in person.
Q: Where does LOKO's name come from?
A: It's Hawaiian, and it means character and disposition. It's also an anagram of "look."
Q: What was your experience with dating apps?
A: I tried all the apps that everyone's heard of, and it was a disaster.
Q: What made it so frustrating?
A: You don't get a real sense of who a person is based on text messaging.
Q: Do you see any benefit in online dating?
A: For people who are really busy, it allows you to meet people you wouldn't normally. But that's where technology should stop – just allowing you to connect with somebody. After that some old-fashioned human interaction needs to play a more important part.
Q: What makes LOKO different from other dating apps?
A: As far as I know, we are the first video-only dating app. There is no texting and no static photos.
Q: How does it work?
A: You set up a profile with two videos: an eight-second "hello," and an optional 30s "about me." Once you set up your profile, it goes to a human moderator for approval. Once your profile is approved, you can look at other videos and match like you would in any other dating app.
Q: How do you meet people?
A: If you connect with someone, a calendar pops up so you can schedule a 15-minute video date or chat. We call it the "elimidate."
Forbes Investigation Into Badoo’s Corporate Culture
FORBES – July 7 – Andrey Andreev's biggest asset is Badoo, a European- and Latin American-focused dating app that, with 60M users, stands as one of the world's largest. His buzziest, however, is Bumble, the dating app focused on empowering women. Andrey launched his first dating company – Mamba – in 2004. It was a bare-bones desktop dating site for Russian users. Finam Holdings invested $20M in Mamba for a 90% stake; Andreev sold the rest to Finam in 2006 for an undisclosed amount. Building off the success of Mamba, Andreev launched Badoo in 2006. In 2010, Badoo launched its iPhone mobile app. The company went from 20M user sign-ups to 100M in four months, mostly in Europe and Latin America, and notched $200M in revenue. (Forbes estimates that last year Badoo had a bit over $300M in revenue.) Simultaneous with this growth, Badoo began earning a reputation for wild parties. More concerning, several former employees say office behavior was hostile and discriminatory toward women. Andreev maintains that he is a collaborator and unifier, not racist or sexist as others allege. Wolfe Herd, who spent Bumble's formative period walking around London with Andreev for days, says she has never witnessed toxic behavior in the Badoo headquarters. And she stands firmly behind Andreev. "What I've seen firsthand from Andrey is creative and motivating behavior. Andrey has never been anything but kind and respectful to me."
by Angel Au-Yeung
See full article at Forbes
See all posts on Badoo
See all posts on Bumble
See all posts on Mamba
Parship 2018 Financial Results
DEUTCHE STARTUPS – July 8 – Hamburg-based dating company Parship has generated ~125M euros in revenue in 2018. 93% of sales are attributable to the DACH region (Germany, Austria, Switzerland). The profit was 32.4M Eur, up from 18.6M in 2017.
Badoo and Gay Times Partner in Allyship Campaign Targetting Non-LGBTQ+ People
by Matt Moore
The full article was originally published at Gay Times, but is no longer available.
Compatibility Isn’t #1 Ingredient to Satisfying Relationship, Study Says
CBS – July 7 – According to a study by Michigan State University in the Journal of Research in Personality, the main ingredient of a satisfying relationship is a nice partner. The researchers studied 2,500 heterosexual couples who have been married for ~20 years and discovered that shared interests weren't the No. 1 element to a satisfying relationship. Instead, simply having a "conscientious and nice" partner lead to happier relationships.
Women Are Happier Than Men Being Single
PHILLIPINE DAILY INQUIRER – July 6 – A 2018 Tinder survey shows that "Women were more likely than men to say that they want to enjoy being single while they are still young." Contemporary researches actually found women are happier than men being single. Speaking at the Hay festival last May, Paul Dolan, a professor of behavioural science at the LSE and a best-selling author who does research on the measurement of happiness, said "The healthiest and happiest population subgroup are women who never married or had children." Meanwhile, it's the men who are more likely to benefit from marriage. He explained, "They take less risks, earn more money at work, and live a little longer."
by B. Del Rio
See full article at Phillipine Daily Inquirer
10 Years of LGBT Love: What’s Really Changed?
BBC – July 5 – The London Pride parade will take place on Saturday 6 July in central London, followed by Black Pride on Sunday 7 July in Hackney. While plenty of people head to Pride to celebrate, recent news events, including the attacks on a lesbian couple on a London bus, show why Pride is still so important for the community. This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots – the ceremonial beginning of the LGBT rights movement – and the 10-year anniversary of Grindr. "Online dating and hook-up apps have been an absolute win for the LGBT community," says relationship expert Dr Darcy Sterling. One recent US study suggests that two-thirds of LGBT couples meet online. Another important shift has been the demise of gay bars and LGBT spaces. In just over a decade, from 2006 to 2017, the number of bars, clubs and pubs for LGBT people in London dropped from 125 to 53. Racism within the LGBT community is another issue that is starting to be talked about more openly. Last year, Grindr launched a campaign, Kindr, encouraging its users to be nicer to each other. The legalisation of same-sex marriage in England, Wales and Scotland in 2014 – along with ~20 other countries between 2009 and 2019 – has seen tens of thousands of same-sex couples getting hitched.
Match.com: the Busiest Day This Summer
MINDBODYGREEN – July 4 – Match analyzed their 20 years of historical data on app activity and predict July 7, 2019 (the Sunday after the Fourth of July) will be their busiest day of the summer. That's partially because it happens over a long holiday weekend, when they always see a jump in the number of people using dating apps, but it also has to do with the real start of summer finally rolling in. According to Match, they're expecting a 20% increase in activity on July 7 in comparison to Valentine's Day.
Happy 4th July to OPW.news Readers
OPW – July 4 – Happy Independence Day from the Courtland Brooks team. May your businesses continue to grow and prosper in this time of abundance. Have a wonderful day/weekend with your families.
