BLOOMBERG – Dec 16 – Dan McMurtrie, a hedge fund manager, who has done significant research on the impact of online dating, speaks about how is online dating reshaping our economy. Listen to the podcast here.
by Tracy Alloway & Joe Wiesenthal
See full article at Bloomberg
In 1998 he founded IT-Online which created and promoted Internet sites. A customer asked him to automate the printing process of catalogs with photographs and profiles for an American dating service AnastasiaDate. Volkov automated the manufacturing process and suggested that the customer transfer the catalogs online and share profit with Volkov.
SDVentures was created in 2014. The Dating.com Group includes Dating.com, DateMyAge, Cherish, Tubit, AnastasiaDate, ChinaLove, AsianDate and Amolatina (73m users +, $200m rev) and Volkov predicts 15-20% growth per year.
Dating.com Group, one of the largest dating companies in the world and focuses on international dating services, says Courtland Brooks founder Mark Brooks.
Now he's investing in project from $1m to $5m.
by Irina Yuzbekova
See full article at Forbes
Full Disclosure: Mark Brooks (OPW co-editor) was Chief Strategy Officer in 2013-2014 and SD Ventures was a client of Courtland Brooks.
PRESS RELEASE – Dec 16 – The Las Vegas-based dating app Hily has been actively growing since July following launches all around the world. Established in 2017, Hily kicked off as a dating app for the U.S. singles. Now it's a connection making platform available in ~25 countries around the globe. During 2019, Hily launched in 7 European countries, Australia, and all of Latin America. In the next two months, the dating app is also planning to make its first moves to Asia. Hily is an acronym for "Hey, I like you". The app pairs people who are on the same page. Hily's CEO Alex Pasykov also founded Taimi, the first LGBTQ+ Dating App and Social Network.
CNN – Dec 13 – Whitney Wolfe Herd launched Bumble, the female-focused dating app, in 2014. Wolfe Herd's vision – that the app would empower women to make their own choices, rather than burden them with it – caught on. Last year, she made a strategic decision to push Bumble into India. "The most traditional, the most misogynistic mindsets globally – those markets for us are completely wide-open prairies," she said. Now, Wolfe Herd is preparing for one of her biggest challenges yet: Taking over the CEO seat of Bumble's parent company MagicLab four months after former owner Andrey Andreev was accused of racism and sexism, allegations that he has denied. Investment firm Blackstone bought the company from the Russian billionaire last month, in a deal that valued it at $3B. On top of growing Bumble and shifting cultural norms, Wolfe Herd is set on changing laws in 2020. Earlier this year, she and Bumble successfully advocated for a new Texas law outlawing digital sexual harassment. The company is now working with Senator Ling Ling Chang in California to get a similar law passed in that state. Wolfe Herd said the hope is to get a federal law passed, something the company is "fiercely committed to."
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ADVOCATE – Dec 12 – Grindr has debuted new safety and security features, as well as a guide, to protect users in anti-LGBTQ countries. Grindr will now allow users to unsend messages and photographs from conversations with other users. The feature would allow a user to delete their own messages and pictures from a conversation, removing the content from both user's histories. Additionally, Grindr will also institute screenshot blocking for conversations, pictures, and profiles, in order to protect users in locations where being LGBTQ is illegal or may put them in danger.
PSYCHOLOGY TODAY – Dec 12 – A common criticism of Tinder is that it promotes meaningless sexual encounters. In general, research shows that people who are more motivated to pursue uncommitted sex are more likely to use mobile dating apps. A team of psychologists from Norway investigated whether Tinder matches typically led to one-night stands. They recruited over 250 users of Tinder. Each volunteer reported their total number of matches, how often they had met a match, and how long they had used the app. Only around half of the volunteers had met with any other Tinder user following a match. 20% of the volunteers had experienced a one-night stand with a match; 25% had met someone who was interested in a long-term relationship. Overall, 80% of Tinder users reported that the app hadn't led to a sexual relationship of any kind.
TECH CRUNCH – Dec 12 – French startup Yubo has raised a $12.3M funding round led by Iris Capital and Idinvest Partners. Existing investors Alven, Sweet Capital and Village Global are also participating. The startup has managed to attract 25M users since its launch in 2015. Yubo is a social media app for young people under 25 with one focus in particular on helping teenagers meeting new people and creating friendships. In 2019, the startup has generated $10 million in revenue. Yubo will use this funding round to also improve safety. The company already partners with Yoti for age verification.
by Romain Dillet
See full article at Tech Crunch
This post also appears on InternetDatingInvestments.com
YAHOO LIFESTYLE – Dec 13 – In a survey of 2K Americans, 77% of active daters said they research prospective matches on a regular basis – with half spending ~15 minutes per person. Almost one in four (38%) said they would always research an online date before meeting – with only 11% saying they never would. Greta Tufvesson, co-founder of New York-based matchmaking service The Bevy, advised that the practice is a no-no – adding that it's preferable to go into a date "with an open mind". "Don't judge or create preconceived notions of who this person is based on a Google search or gossip," she says.