ODA – Feb 18 – Match.com, a Match Group brand, was a founding member of the ODA in 2014. The ODA exists to promote high user safety standards within the dating sector. Morgan Cauvin, Match Group's Head of Government Relations EMEA has been recently appointed Chair of the ODA.
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LAW360 – Feb 18 – The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board has refused to allow a developer to register Beender as a trademark for its dating app, finding that the name sounds too similar to Tinder.
PR NEWSWIRE – Feb 18 – Last year turned the dating world upside down. According to Dating.com's recent survey 90% of singles have turned to online dating consistently since March 2020 as a more health conscious way of meeting new people, compared to last year's 82%. 70% of daters said they are interested in conducting virtual dates to get to know an online match; compared to last year's 50% figure. Dating.com witnessed 925K new registered members in the last 12 months.
MOTHERSHIP.SG – Feb 18 – Sugarbook itself is also being investigated for prostitution and the improper use of network services. Darren Chan's arrest comes about a week after the release of a survey by SeekingArrangement, which said that Malaysia holds the third spot in Asia for the highest number of sugar daddies. Separately, a statement released by Sugarbook at about the same time pointed out that the month of Jan. had seen a 40% increase in sign-ups on the platform among Malaysian university students. Access to Sugarbook's website was blocked on Feb. 15 by Malaysia's Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC).
QUARTZ – Feb 14 – Dating online has revolutionized how we fall in love. The industry has 270m monthly users globally and grew by 13% in 2020, but online dating (swiping) has become exhausting. Experts say the apps that define the next era of online dating will offer more fun, safety, and community.
Amarnath Thombre, head of Match North America said Match's strategy is to "have each app run its own experiment," and, as the experiments play out, the company can use the successful features in its other properties. Match is also expanding into Asia with the lucrative Pairs in Japan, and Hawaya a Muslim-focused service.
Bumble had 42m MAU in Q3 2020. Facebook Dating seems to have fizzled, although some industry experts say it still has big potential [(Mark Brooks)]
"Pretty much everything that we charge for on Hinge, we couldn't really give away for free because then it wouldn't work anymore," said Hinge's CEO/founder Justin McLeod. "Think about Roses, for example. Roses are really, really special. If we gave everyone unlimited Roses, then it would completely defeat the purpose of Roses." Hinge downloads grew 63% globally between 2019 and 2020.
Mark Brooks, a leading industry consultant, says that for dating apps to be able to keep monetizing, moving into a more community-oriented gear is the way to go. "We want people to stick around, have fun. Yes, hook up, meet up, and maybe stick around even beyond that point," he said. "I think we'll see a general shift away from dating into more community-esque apps."
Since the beginning of the pandemic, The Meet Group saw livestreamed minutes increase by 40%. The Meet Group provides livestreaming for Match Group's Plenty of Fish, and the feature is proving to be popular. In Feb Match acquired Hyperconnect, a Korean "social discovery" company that owns a livestreaming app, and a video and audio chatting app that translates conversations in real time, for $1.7B.
Cook points out that the growth of the dating industry has generally been slowing. "And so what do dating companies do when you're saturating the market? …they find other ways to engage the user. …they can provide some entertainment value."
Every female dater interviewed for this article mentioned how they often feel unsafe on the apps, or how they are put off by unwanted sexual attention. In 2019, Bumble launched a feature that detects and blurs inappropriate photos. Tinder directs users who report violations to support organizations. Content moderation is slowly getting better.
Dating could jump to new media. For a true dating revolution to happen, the industry needs another media shift, like the one from desktop to mobile, said Brooks. He predicts that the jump will be to Augmented Reality, and that through wearable technology like AR lenses, people will get more "intel-on-the-go" about potential matches. "When passing by someone who has double matched, or is viable and an exceptional date candidate, they will be indicated to them." (Hakuna Live, one of the apps Match acquired in its Hyperconnect deal, features augmented reality avatars).
What's more, Brooks thinks we need more "coaxing along" when we're dating. AR, as well as "informed, tailored advice" from the dating service will deliver helpful nudges in real time, such as: "it's been 20 days since your last date night, might be time for a date at ,'" he said. "I think the benefits of timely advice will outweigh the creepiness of having a computer act as an informed advisor."
by Hanna Kozlowska
See full article at Quartz
Mark Brooks: Please see Courtland Brooks for more information on our niche agency/consultancy. We help Internet dating and online social communities to grow, and get their strategy, business development and marketing (more) right. 😉
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SENSOR TOWER – Feb 18 – Sensor Tower's recent report – 2021 State of Dating Apps report – offers analysis on the latest trends for the category:
You can download the summary report here or request the full report from SensorTower.
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by Rex Pascual
See full article at TradingPlatforms.com
This post also appears on VerySocialNetwork
THE MOTLEY FOOL – Feb 18 – Match Group has seen its stock rise ~100% since its Dec 2019 spinoff from IAC. But as a part of that transaction, IAC transferred $1.7B of exchangeable notes onto Match Group's already debt-ridden balance sheet. Prior to the separation, Match already had ~$1.6B in long-term debt. At the time, Match was generating $620M in free cash flow a year, resulting in a 2.6x debt-to-free cash flow ratio. However, as a result of the spinoff, Match Group now sits with a long-term debt at $3.5B, or 4.7 times its current annual free cash flow. Fortunately for investors, 70% of this debt isn't due until 2027 and beyond, giving Match Group more than enough time to accumulate cash and pay it down early. If the industry continues to grow, as it looks like it will, and Match Group continues to achieve greater than 30% free cash flow margins, there is no reason why Match Group should have any difficulty paying down its debt.
GLOBE NEWSWIRE – Feb 16 – Bumble has closed its initial public offering of 57.5M shares of its Class A common stock at a price to the public of $43.00 per share, including the full exercise by the underwriters of their option to purchase up to an additional 7.5M shares of Class A common stock.
WHITE LABEL DATING – Feb 17 – White Label Dating's Video Calling launch boasts increase in new paying subscribers across mainstream (+42%) and casual (+59%) niches. Video calling launched in beta across WLD's UK mainstream niches on January 29th 2021, and rolled out in full, internationally, across all mainstream and casual niches on February 5th.