Month: June 2020
New Jewish Dating Site JustKibbitz Invites Moms to Get Involved
NEWSWIRE – June 2 – 50% of millennials would let their mom choose their date, while 92% would agree to it if the date were pre-paid. New dating site JustKibbitz marks the return of the yenta, inviting moms to do the matchmaking with their children. By introducing intermediaries in online dating, JustKibbitz expects to create a safe environment for its users and the daters.
Winning Bidder for Grindr Has Ties to Chinese Owner
REUTERS – June 3 – An investor group San Vincente that got U.S. approval to buy Grindr has financial and personal links to the dating app's current owner, China's Beijing Kunlun Tech Co Ltd. The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) had cleared the sale of Grindr to San Vicente Acquisition for ~$600M. Grindr spokeswoman said: "The buyers for Grindr were selected after an extensive and unbiased bidding process that complied fully with all applicable regulations, as the receipt of all necessary approvals – including CFIUS – demonstrates." A regulatory filing shows San Vicente was incorporated on Feb. 19, just weeks before the deal with Kunlun. The company is named after the LA street where Grindr has its headquarters.
Video Dating: The Challenges and Solutions – An All-Star IDEA.gp Webinar
OPW – June 3 – You are invited to a Zoom webinar on Friday 5th June at 11:30am EST.
We'll discuss the behavior of Internet daters as they move towards using video more. The challenges of video dating, and the solutions.
Register in advance for this webinar
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.
Panelists:
- Geoff Cook, CEO/Co-Founder of The Meet Group
- Ravi Mehta, Former Chief Product Officer, Tinder
- Christof Wittig, CEO/Founder of Hornet
- Sai Swaminathan, Chief Portal Officer of Matrimony.com
- Shahzad Younas, CEO/Founder of MuzMatch
Host: Mark Brooks, President of Internet Dating Excellence Association, IDEA.gp, and CEO of Courtland Brooks
Covid-19 Q&A With Ellie Seidman, CEO of Tinder
TIMES NOW NEWS – May 31 – Since the pandemic began, more & more people have started exploring virtual dating. Elie Seidman, CEO of Tinder spoke with Sonali Krishna, to discuss Tinder's upcoming 'Global Mode' feature, how people are mingling in the times of COVID & why during the time of social distancing, dating apps are the solution to boredom & loneliness. Watch the full interview only on ET NOW..
What Happened to Hater Dating App?
DISTRACTIFY – May 30 – Dating app Hater was matching people based on dislikes. The app was started by a former Goldman Sachs employee who quit his job to pursue comedy. The Hater app started, literally, as a joke. To launch the app, Brendan took his idea to Shark Tank. Mark Cuban gave him $200K as a starting investment, though instead Brendan ended up raising $1M in VC funding. In 2017, the app was downloaded ~1M times. While the Hater app website is still active, the app appears to have been removed from the app store, and the company's Twitter hasn't been active since 2018. There is no official statement from the company about their closure, but it appears to have been shut down. During Brendan's interview with CNBC, he admitted that the app wasn't making any money at the time, so they were planning on implementing advertising and premium subscriptions, though it appears that never panned out.
U.S. Approves Sale of Grindr
WALL STREET JOURNAL – May 30 – U.S. national security officials have approved an investor group's purchase of gay-dating app Grindr that is being sold by a Chinese company after the Trump administration raised concerns about the potential theft of Americans' personal data. China's Beijing Kunlun Tech said that the buyer – San Vicente Acquisition – has secured approval from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. Grindr could be sold for $608.5M. In 2016, Kunlun paid $93M for a 60% stake in Grindr. It acquired the rest of Grindr for $152M in 2018.
Six-in-ten U.S. Online Daters Concerned About Data Collection
PEW RESEARCH – May 30 – 30% of U.S. adults say they have ever used a dating app or site, and among them, a majority (57%) report being concerned about how much dating apps collect about them. Older online daters tend to be more worried about data collection. These findings are from a Pew Research Center survey from October 2019.
by Erica Turner & Monica Anderson
See full article at Pew Research
ProSiebenSat.1’s Shareholders Might Partner to Acquire the Company
SEEKING ALPHA – May 30 – KKR & Co has built a 5.21% stake in ProSiebenSat.1 Media SE which makes it the third largest shareholder. Mediaset SpA has increased its stake to 24.2% while Czech Media Invest owns 10%. While KKR claims that the investment is of purely financial nature, it might be the first sign of an upcoming acquisition and privatization of ProSiebenSat.1. In order to do that, KKR could partner with one (or both) of the company's biggest shareholders. ProSiebenSat.1 intends to refocus on the entertainment business. However, the group's second pillar – NuCom – does not really fit into that picture. Therefore, it might indeed make sense to separate the two businesses. NuCom might be spun off or sold. General Atlantic owns 28.4% of NuCom. NuCom was valued with an enterprise value of €1.8B in early 2018. If sold today, it is surely worth considerably more, as it has been growing steadily and maintained profitability. The company is growing both organically and through acquisitions. ProSiebenSat.1 and General Atlantic have reached an agreement to purchase The Meet Group for ~$500M. Meet will be integrated into NuCom's online dating business.