BUSINESS INSIDER – Aug 7 – Former Tinder VP Rosette Pambakian is suing former Tinder CEO Greg Blatt, who she alleges sexually assaulted her. She is also suing Tinder's parent companies, Match Group and IAC/Interactive Corp., alleging that they covered up the assault and wrongfully terminated her employment. Match Group CEO Mandy Ginsberg said in a December 2018 email that Pambakian never reported Blatt for sexual harassment, and she was not terminated over a sexual harassment complaint. The email was written after an earlier lawsuit was filed in August 2018 when 10 employees and former employees, including Pambakian, sued Tinder's parent company IAC alleging it purposefully undervalued Tinder in an attempt to devalue early employee options. The current lawsuit says that Pambakian was placed on leave one day after the 2018 lawsuit was filed, and her employment was officially terminated in December 2018. "You were not terminated because you reported Greg for sexual harassment. You couldn't have been, as you never reported Greg for sexual harassment," Ginsberg wrote in her email to Pambakian. "You were terminated because it was not possible for you to fulfill the duties and responsibilities of your role as Tinder's spokesperson."
Month: August 2019
49% of All Risky Online Transactions Come From Mobiles
HELPNETSECURITY – Aug 7 – In the first half of 2019 49% of all risky transactions came from mobile devices, up from 30% in 2018, 33% in 2017 and 25% in 2016, according to iovation. iovation came to this conclusion by analyzing the 30B online transactions it evaluated for fraud from January 2016 to June 30, 2019. So far in 2019, the top industry for mobile fraud is telecommunications. In 2018, it was gambling. Communities (social networks or online dating sites) led in 2017.
People Pay for Tinder
NEW YORK TIMES – Aug 6 – Like a mobile game, the dating app offers paid features that increase the odds of success. Lots of people are buying. "Tinder's definitely not a game," said Elie Seidman, the company's CEO. "At the core, it's about human connection." Tinder Gold grants users access to a feature called "Likes You". "The structure of those in-app purchases are highly similar to the structure of in-app purchases for games, in that you have those special abilities," said Randy Nelson, the head of mobile insights at Sensor Tower, an analytics firm. ~70 % of Tinder's revenue comes from subscriptions; the other 30% comes from à la carte features, along with a small amount from ads.
Gen.G and Bumble Create All-Female Gaming Partnership
Top Dating News – The Meet Group, Singles in America, Yoti, Bumble
OPW – Aug 6 – Here's the top dating news in ~2 minutes. Subscribe to Two Minute Tuesdays (TMT) on Youtube (and turn on notifications) or to the podcast on Breaker, Google podcasts, Spotify, Anchor.
Match Group Reports Q2 2019 Results, Invests in Egyptian Dating App Harmonica
MATCH GROUP – Aug 6 – Match Group Q2 total Revenue grew 18% YOY to $498M. Average subscribers increased 18% to 9.1M, up from 7.7M from Q2 2018. Tinder average subscribers were 5.2M in Q2 2019, increasing 503K sequentially and 1.5M YOY. Operating income was $173M, up 15% YOY. Match Group has also invested in and brought on the team behind Harmonica, a dating app based in Egypt. Match Group will further develop this app and invest in product and marketing to expand into Asia and MENA (Middle East and North Africa) that are predominantly Muslim.
See full article at Match Group website
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See all posts on Harmonica
This post also appears on InternetDatingInvestments.com
FBI Issues Cyber Alert as Organized Criminals Drive Dating Site Fraud up 70%
FORBES – Aug 5 – The FBI has issued a warning for Americans to be wary of romance scams, after the Bureau saw a 70% annual rise in reported fraud, where dating sites were used to trick victims into sending money, purchasing items or even laundering or muling money for people met online. In 2018, ~18K complaints were received with losses totalling ~$362M. And, for every reported incident there will be others where victims don't come forward.
Former Tinder Exec Sues Company, Alleging Sexual Assault
LOS ANGELES TIMES – Aug 5 – IAC's former CEO Greg Blatt is named as a defendant in a new lawsuit by former Tinder executive Rosette Pambakian. She is suing him for sexual battery – and suing the company itself for firing her after she went public with her accusations in an earlier lawsuit. In the suit, Rosette Pambakian alleges that Gregory Blatt harassed and assaulted her at a company Christmas party held at the SLS Hotel in Beverly Hills in December 2016.
Match Group’s CEO on Innovating in a Fast-Changing Industry
HBR.ORG – Aug 5 – The speed of change is one of the things I love about this industry. Companies need to innovate constantly – with technology, pricing, product features, and business models – to stay ahead of competitors and continue to grow. I ran Chemistry.com from 2006 to 2008. It was my first general management job, and I loved building the team. We grew the site quickly. As Chemistry.com expanded, the company's flagship Match.com seemed to be plateauing. So in 2008 management asked me to move over to Match.com and try to reenergize that brand. Two important shifts were under way that hurt Match.com. First, OkCupid and Plenty of Fish, had pioneered a new ad-supported business model. The second shift involved algorithms. By 2008 companies were getting more sophisticated about analyzing and understanding users' preferences and behavior. In 2009 Match made its first big acquisition, in the form of a company called People Media, that had a variety of smaller sites aimed at specific demographics. Facebook and Twitter were bringing more people onto social media, which sparked more interest in online dating, especially from older people. The biggest technology shift came after 2008. That's when Apple introduced the App Store. Within a few years that completely changed the face of our industry – a change sparked largely by Tinder. Last year Tinder's revenue topped $800M, demonstrating that many people are willing to pay for features. Right now we're working on several new strategies that we expect will drive our next phase of growth.
by Mandy Ginsberg
See full article at Harvard Business Review
Bumble BFF Launches Campaign in India
