BLOOMBERG – Dec 20 – Emily Chang sits down with Bumble CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd. Wolfe Herd started Bumble, which puts women in the driver's seat, back in 2014. Anticipated by Wall Street to go public in 2021, Bumble is a community of ~100M users across six continents. Wolfe Herd discusses the app's global growth, empowering women, and lessons learned as an entrepreneur.
Month: December 2020
Wonderland Teamed up With Hily for Love Stories Videos
WONDERLAND MAGAZINE – Dec 14 – Wonderland have teamed up with Hily for Love Stories, a video series chronicling different journeys that can be achieved with the dating app – showcasing different friends and couples.
Q&A With CEO of Matrimony.com – 20 Years of ‘Happy Marriages’
STIMULUS – Dec 18 – Murugavel Janakiraman has been in the business of online matrimony for two decades. He officially started in 2000 with BharatMatrimony.
Q: What has been the impact of Covid19 on the business?
A: Covid has made us more efficient and lean. It's like when you lose your extra fat and feel fit and energetic.
Q: Digital adoption has increased. We see some conversations leading to marriages on apps like Tinder. How has the ecosystem changed in recent years?
A: There are 60M people looking for a life partner at any given point in time, of which ~7M – 8M are registered with online matrimony sites. So there is definitely headroom to grow. Thanks to Covid and the increased digital adoption, we think the category will grow much more strongly. We don't see dating apps as a challenge. They can remain distant cousins of matrimony sites, for a different set of users and for a different purpose.
Q: Has the number of women listing their own profiles increased?
A: Today, overall number of females registered is ~30%. ~70% of all profiles are created by individuals. 85% of male profiles are created by individuals themselves, while 50% of female profiles are created by the individuals themselves. The remaining 50% would be a mix of parents, siblings and others.
Q: Alongside the growth of the category, the brand has also evolved. Can you walk us through that journey?
A: If you look at our commercials from 15 years ago, they were primarily targeted at parents. Later we realised that we need to target the single individuals. Then we started focusing on what is it that will help people get into a happy marriage. We also realised that women want equality in relationships.
Q: How closely involved are you with the brand's creative process?
A: I am pretty much involved in everything end-to-end, from the scripts to all the discussions.
Q: Early on, you ventured into multiple verticals like jobs, property and automobiles. What was the thinking then and how did the narrowing down happen, to focus on matrimony?
A: In Matrimony, you cannot have a lifelong user. But our users are also using other verticals like jobs and property so we wanted to leverage the strong audience that we had built. In 2008-'09 there was a global recession. We were left with a million or so and were losing Rs.1 to 2 crore a month. We decided to focus on matrimony and property. I had to let go of other businesses. If the ecosystem is what it is today, we would have raised money and we would have probably succeeded.
Within matrimony, we are focusing on matchmaking and wedding services. And within matchmaking, we are now focusing on global opportunities. We are the number one in SriLanka today. We have BangladeshiMatrimony, NepaliMatrimony; we have now also launched MuslimMatrimony.com. We are looking at more opportunities in places like South East Asia.
Tinder’s #RepresentLove Emojis Shack Up at the Smithsonian
New Brands Hinge and BLK to Steal Swipes From Rival Bumble
TIMES SQUARE INVESTMENT JOURNAL – Dec 17 – Acquired by Match Group in 2018, Hinge reported ~88% increase in revenue YOY in the Q3, along with niche apps like BLK and Chispa that match people based on their cultural backgrounds. In comparison, Tinder grew its revenue by 15%. Hinge brands itself as the anti-Tinder by appealing to daters suffering from swiping fatigue. Hinge's user base has grown from ~35K subscriptions before Match acquired it to 400K subscribers this year. It is estimated it will have ~8M subscribers in 2030 and $2.8B in revenue compared to $60M in 2020. Amid Hinge's boom, Tinder's slowdown indicates it has grown as big as it can. Match needs a different strategy to remain competitive. "The only way now that it can grow is by taking a more niche-oriented route," said Mark Brooks, who consults with online-dating companies on marketing strategies through his agency, Courtland Brooks. Bumble's growing popularity is a threat. With ~100M users globally, Bumble is going public next year, seeking a valuation of $6B. "Bumble is brilliant because what they've done is soaked up the most in-demand women," said Brooks. "The in-demand woman on a Match platform is going to get inundated." Match planned to acquire Bumble for $450M in 2017, but Bumble rejected the offer. Match acquired Hinge instead. It also launched niche dating apps including BLK and Chispa for the Black and Latino communities. "Match has always had a hard time with niches," said Brooks. "They like large scalable dating platforms." Besides BLK and Chispa, Match recently launched other community-based apps in the U.S., including Upward for Christians and acquired marriage-minded service Hawaya for Muslims.
by Harini Chakrapani
See full article at Times Square Investment Journal
Zoosk Calls Jan 3 Best Day for Online Dating, Predicts 2.58M Messages
ZOOSK – Dec 17 – Zoosk has revealed that January 3, 2021 could be the perfect day to meet someone online. That’s because it's 'Dating Sunday,' traditionally the busiest day of the year for dating sites. Zoosk is predicting an activity surge, including 2.58M messages sent via the platform. Zoosk is also anticipating a 24% boost in registrations.
Levity Is a New Canadian Dating App for Uni Students
THE OMEGA – Dec 16 – Launched in Kelowna in 2019, Levity is a socially-centred dating app popular among B.C. university students. Created by UBC graduate Jason Bernhardt, Levity takes a more social approach. Users are encouraged to invite their friends to join the app to set up the user with potential matches. Levity also asks users to vote for or against the pairing. If enough positive votes are counted, the pair are matched together. Professional matchmakers will also be able to interact and analyze people’s profiles to create potential matches through the platform.
Mamba to Invest $3M to Drive Growth in Germany and Italy
ROEM.RU – Dec 15 – Mamba, the Russian dating app, is expecting to be in the top 5 dating apps in Italy and Germany by the end of 2021. So far, the app is not even in the top 10. It faces competition from Tinder, Badoo, Bumble, Happn, Meetic, Lovoo and Lovescout24, as well as the recently launched Facebook Dating. To scale up in Italy and Germany, the company is going to apply a model that has already proven successful in Turkey and Israel. In Israel, Mamba overtook Tinder in terms of the number of downloads. Mamba is 65% owned by Finam and 35% by Mail.ru Group, and claims 60M users.
Match Group Placed on Nasdaq-100 Index
DALLAS BUSINESS JOURNAL – Dec 15 – Match Group is joining the Nasdaq-100 Index, which will become effective prior to market open on Dec. 21. The move puts Match among a list of the 100 largest non-financial companies on the Nasdaq Stock Market. It's an index that acts as a benchmark for financial products such as options, and gets attention in the financial press for market watchers. Shares of the company are up ~35% in the past three months, outpacing the gains of the Nasdaq-100 of ~10%.
Gleeden Crosses 1.3 Million Users in India
CANINDIANEWS – Dec 15 – Extra-marital dating app Gleeden has crossed 1.3M subscribers in India during the Covid-19 period, adding that its subscription was up 246% over the past three months. Overall, the time spent on the website tripled since 2019. According to the website, Indians chat slightly longer than Europeans – on average 3.5 hours/day versus three hours (From March 2020 to Nov 2020).