Month: August 2019

Tinder Is Now the Top Dating App in Thailand

Posted on August 19, 2019

Tinder iconBANGKOKPOST – Aug 19 – In Thailand, Badoo was once the most downloaded dating app, but has been overtaken by Tinder. To Tinder, this is a surprising achievement because Asia was not their target market when the app was introduced in 2012. Seeing the high demand in Asia, Tinder is now working on building a new version of the app called "Tinder Lite". Tinder Lite will be 25% faster while consuming 20% less battery on devices and it will take up 25-times less storage space on Android device. Match Group believes Asia will comprise 25% of Tinder's total revenue by 2023.

by Sopheavuthtey Borin
See full article at Bangkok Post

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SC Holdings Negotiates a Bigger Stake in Now Dating App

Posted on August 19, 2019

Now dating app logoPRESS RELEASE – Aug 19 – SC Holdings is in active negotiations to increase its shareholding to a controlling stake in Now Dating, a dating app pushing toward integration of AI and voice recognition powered by Alexa, Siri, or Google assist. Now Dating encourages people to move into offline dating as soon as possible.

See full article at Globe Newswire

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This post also appears on InternetDatingInvestments.com

Top Equity Hedge Fund Cashes in on Online Dating

Posted on August 19, 2019

HCP logoBLOOMBERG – Aug 18 – Helsinki-based HCP Focus, which has a slim portfolio of only 12 "high-conviction" stocks, has 16% of its funds invested in Match Group. HCP Focus manages ~70M euros and was the top long-only equity fund over the three years through the first quarter, according to BarclayHedge. It returned an average 22% a year in the past five years through July. Match is its biggest holding, followed by Amazon.com, which has been one of the main holdings since the start of the fund.

by Jonas Cho Walsgard
See full article at Bloomberg

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Match Group Is IAC’s Best Asset

Posted on August 19, 2019

Match group logo blue 2019BARRON'S – Aug 16 – Match is among IAC's greatest hits. The stock has nearly doubled this year alone, thanks largely to Tinder. IAC sold a portion of Match in a 2015 IPO at $12. The stock is now $85, and IAC's Match stake is worth close to $19B. It accounts for ~90% of IAC's current $21B market value. But Match is obscuring IAC's overall value. "Match has gotten so big and successful and is such a significant part of IAC, that one became a proxy for the other," IAC CEO Joey Levin says. So IAC is considering distributing Match shares to its shareholders in a tax-free transaction. And IAC is thinking about a similar handoff of its 84% stake in ANGI Homeservices. IAC's stakes in Match and ANGI are now worth more than IAC itself, so distributing those shares should unlock value. Without Match and ANGI, IAC would effectively be an incubator again, with a handful of promising businesses already generating considerable revenue. The best known is Vimeo which generated Q2 revenue of $45.7M, up 16% YOY.

by Eric J. Savitz
See full article at Barron's

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Google Play App Store Accused of Anti-gay Bias

Posted on August 19, 2019

Google play logo 2018BBC – Aug 16 – Gay dating app Hornet has accused Google of discrimination after its app was removed from Google's Play store several times without warning. Hornet said Google often employed moderators in Malaysia, where same-sex relationships are illegal, to vet apps. In January, gay dating app Scruff introduced stricter profile image guidelines, banning photos of men in underwear or swimwear. The app had also been suspended from Google Play several times prior to the change.

by Chris Fox
See full article at BBC

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Momo Tops Fortune’s 100 Fastest-growing Companies

Posted on August 19, 2019

Momo logo 2018KRASIA – Aug 16 – Momo ranked first in the recently published Fortune's 2019 edition of 100 fastest-growing companies worldwide, which takes account of earnings per share (EPS) growth rate, revenue growth rate and three-year annualized return. Momo, founded in March 2011, started as a dating app but has diversified to offer a more comprehensive social experience that integrates live streaming and gaming. Momo registered 114.4M monthly active users in March 2019, compared to 103.3M in March 2018. The revenue increased by 141% yearly on average in the past three years. Its EPS in the three years that ended on June 28 raised 193% each year on average, ranking second. Total stock return for three years grew 53% each year on average, ranking 14th.

by Song Jingli
See full article at KrAsia

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Grindr User Takes Stalking Case Against App to High Court

Posted on August 16, 2019

Grindr icon black yellowLAW360.COM – Aug 15 – Matthew Herrick, who claims Grindr was negligent in failing to stop his ex-boyfriend from using the dating app to stalk and harass him, asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review a Second Circuit ruling dismissing his lawsuit, claiming Grindr should not be protected as a publisher under the Communications Decency Act. He has filed a petition seeking to revive the case, in which he accuses the app of failing to prevent the harassment despite nearly 50 reports with the company.

See full article at Law360

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Dating App Ship Lets Friends Find Your Matches

Posted on August 16, 2019

Ship iconENGADGET – Aug 15 – The Match Group and Betches Media have now released an Android version of Ship, which lets users swipe for their friends and discuss profiles in group messages. The iOS version, which debuted back in January, is now the fastest-growing dating app in the Match Group family. With Ship, users can invite their friends (as well as parents and siblings) to join a "crew". Members of the user's crew can swipe on dating profiles on their behalf. A "crew chat" group messaging feature can be used for members to discuss the merits of a potential match.

by Amrita Khalid
See full article at Engadget

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New Proposed Utah Law to Require Dating Apps to Notify Users About Catfishers

Posted on August 15, 2019

Catfish picTHE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE – Aug 15 – Match Group is advocating for a new law in Utah requiring dating apps that ban a user for catfishing to notify anyone with whom the fake account holder has interacted with through the app. Rep. Angela Romero, D-Salt Lake City, is exploring how a bill could be crafted and a discussion of the issue is scheduled for the Legislature's law enforcement interim committee next week. A notification law similar to the one that Match wants recently took effect in Vermont.

by Robert Gehrke
See full article at The Salt Lake Tribune

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Waves Is a New YCombinator Dating Startup

Posted on August 15, 2019

Waves foundersFORBES – Aug 15 – Brothers Emerson and Morris Hsieh understood the social taboos around discussing particular kinks and fetishes and created Waves, the dating app that openly allows for users to match based on their sexual compatibility. Waves is currently a part of YCombinator's Summer 2019 batch. The Hsieh brothers had initially set out to make a medicine technology startup after being admitted into YCombinator in June. However, given the lack of traction, they pivoted into creating Waves after hearing from friends and colleagues about the difficulties of finding sexually compatible partners.

by Frederick Daso
See full article at Forbes