CNF – July 19 – 200 crypto traders from 20 countries have lost ~$70M in scams revolving around the cryptocurrency OEN. The scam was carried out by scammers pretending to be attractive Chinese women. They approached their marks on dating sites and went on to convince them to invest in crypto via text and voice messages on WhatsApp. After this, the "women" cut ties. A June report by Investopedia shows that cryptocurrency scams alone result in a loss of ~$9M each day.
Month: July 2021
Bumble Survey: Two-thirds of Indians Say It’s Possible to Fall in Love Online
LIVEMINT – July 19 – Bumble has said that while the covid-19 pandemic restricted physical meetings, it also changed dating behaviour. 72% of single Indians think it is possible to fall in love with someone online they have never met in-person while 38% would not go on a date or have sex with someone who hasn't received the covid vaccine. 39% of single Indians surveyed tried a video date as their first date in 2021. The insights are based on a nationwide survey of 2K Bumble users, which was done in June 2021.
Zhenai Founders Raise Series A Round for WeStyle.ai Fashion Startup
PR NEWSWIRE – July 19 – Venturous Group, China's first Citytech Group is investing an undisclosed amount as the lead investor in the Series A funding round of AI fashion start-up, WeStyle.ai. WeStyle.ai was founded by serial Internet entrepreneur Dr. Song Li and four other former senior executives from Zhenai.com, China's largest online dating company. Dr. Li serves as the company's Chairman and Mr. Ren Tao, former COO of Zhenai.com, as the company's CEO. Dr. Song Li, Co-Founder and Chairman of WeStyle.ai, says: "Chinese fashion e-commerce represents a fantastic opportunity. WeStyle.ai is in a unique position to take a leadership role in expanding personalized online styling services for this retail segment."
Will Bumble Be Worth More Than Match Group by 2030?
THE MOTLEY FOOL – July 19 – Enthusiasm for Bumble waned after its IPO but, Bumble has been growing faster than Match. Revenue rose 36% to $489m in 2019, then +19% to $582m in 2020. Bumble had slower growth in paid users during the pandemic, but expects revenue to grow ~25% in 2021. Meanwhile, Match's revenue rose 19% to $2.1B in 2019 and +17% to $2.4B in 2020. Analysts expect revenue to increase 22% this year. Bumble and Match trade at 12x and 15x sales. Bumble's+Badoo's paying users rose 22% to 2.5m in 2020, and +30% YOY to 2.8m in Q1 2021. Bumble had 1.35m users, while Badoo had 1.45m. Bumble generates 2x the ARPU of Badoo. Match's paid subs rose 12% to 10.9m in 2020, then +12% YOY to 11.1m in Q1 2021. The global online dating market could grow at a CAGR of 8.3% between 2019 and 2025, according to Allied Market Research.
Conclusion: Bumble could monetize Bumble BFF and Bumble Bizz and become a social network. Bumble is highly unlikely to be worth more than Match in ten years but, it could still be a promising growth stock to own for the next decade.
by Leo Sun
See full article at Nasdaq
Mark Brooks: If you're going to invest in dating and social stocks, Bumble should be in the mix. I've learned not to underestimate Bumble. This company is going places! FULL DISCLOSURE: I own Match Group stock…and not Bumble, but will fix this omission this week!
Shauny Ullman – Sharing Health Status While Protecting Privacy
LTR – July 19 – Shauny Ullman, CEO and Founder of Clear Bill of Health, or CBOH, has created a digital platform that allows users to share health information with others while protecting privacy. The company's goal is to destigmatize testing and mitigate the spread of transmissible infections. Trust is a key part of building relationships but is limited in the early part of the online dating process. CBOH aims to provide an easy way to facilitate safer social interactions with accountability and control. Shauny Ullman discusses the importance of normalizing critical health conversations with social technology in the latest video in the LTR Conference series.
LTR stands for Love, Technology, Relationships and the online conference covers the Internet dating and Online Social Communities space. It is for members of IDEA and OSCA.
The May LTR was kindly sponsored by RealMe, vPaaS by The Meet Group, Real Gifts & Courtland Brooks.
BlueCity Appoints Alfred Chung-Chieh Ying as Chief Strategy Officer
PR NEWSWIRE – July 15 – Mr. Ying brings with him over 20 years of capital market experience and extensive knowledge in corporate finance, capital raising, business development, and strategy. Prior to joining BlueCity, he served as CFO at Healthever Biotech and iFresh. Available in 13 languages, Blued connects users in 170 countries and it is the largest online LGBTQ community in China, India, Korea, Thailand and Vietnam. BlueCity's portfolio of brands also includes Finka, a leading gay social networking app for a younger generation in China, and LESDO, a leading lesbian social networking app in China.
See full article at PR Newswire
See the top news on Blued
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Meet Feeld’s CEO Ana Kirova
ELLE.COM – July 15 – Ana Kirova is the newly appointed CEO of Feeld, the new dating app for the sexually curious, to put it lightly. She believes the traditional rules for love, sex and relationships – such as deciding on your sexuality and sticking to it, or being committed to one person for life – are outdated. Feeld encourages users to search for connections based on shared sexual desires. Open-mindedness is key. Kirova is confident that the demand is there, pointing to research that shows one third of Americans say their ideal relationship is non-monogamous and that 35% of Gen Z question monogamous relationships. "New generations are more fluid,' she says. "They don't care so much about being straight or anything at all. They want to connect and live a life that is full and real." Kirova met Feeld founder Dimo Trifonov at a party while at university but, two months into their relationship, she started to have feelings for a woman she worked with. She wrote Trifonov a letter explaining her thoughts as a way to process them. He responded with care and warmth, explaining how ridiculous it was to feel so bad about something so normal. In response, Trifonov developed what is now Feeld (originally called 3nder – pronounced 'thrinder'): an app designed for twosomes to become threesomes, foursomes or moresomes.
Dating App Insiders Remain ‘Highly Concerned’ About User Security, According to Survey
FORBES – July 15 – A Pew Research survey (2020) reported 46% of Americans viewed online dating sites as unsafe. The top problem areas were: People lying and misrepresenting, spam, illicit behavior, and sexually explicit messages.
New research conducted by RealMe, an online reputation platform dedicated to cultivating safety and trust, and Global Dating Insights, suggests industry executives are equally concerned. 63% of dating app insiders believe the risk of scams and fraud in online dating is increasing and half admitted they could be doing more to protect users.
Match announced it was adding more robust background checks to Tinder. The Meet Group added AI-powered face verification badges to profiles and implemented iOS device checks to prevent bad actors from returning.
And, White Label Dating's network of 4,000 dating sites will be integrating RealMe this year, giving millions of daters access to an extensive database of over 275 million reputation profiles containing criminal records, sex offender status, and more.
"This survey confirms the risk of scams, harassment, and harm on dating apps is growing and both industry insiders and consumers are aware of the need for change," says dating expert Charley Lester. "RealMe is able to answer this call for improved safety and security and more by allowing dating app users to verify identities and gain visibility into important background information surrounding the people they meet online. Additionally, RealMe's platform touts several truly progressive enhancements designed to empower more people to take control of their online reputation
by Mark Travers
See full article at Forbes
See the top news on Match Group See the top news on The Meet Group
See the top news on Tinder See the top news on White Label Dating
Match.com in $50M Class Action Crosshairs
LAW.COM – July 15 – A South Florida litigator filed a class action seeking $50M in damages in New York federal court against Match Group. The class action complaint alleges Match Group committed fraud, breach of contract, and breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing. Users claim they were tricked into purchasing subscriptions to Match.com. After creating free profiles, the defendant informed new users that other members had initiated contact with them. But to read those messages or to craft a response, the users had to upgrade their accounts to a paid subscription, which hundreds of thousands did only to find out that "many of these communications were scammers". The lawsuit is based on a FTC lawsuit filed in 2019 that stalled, and a separate action in California. Match Group settled the latter case in California state court last week for $2M, without admitting fault, based upon claims arising out of automatic renewals without user consent.
by Michael A. Mora
See full article at Law.com
See the top news on Match Group
See the top news on Match.com
Judge Rules In Dating App Fight: It’s Not You, It’s Your Patent
LAW360 – July 14 – A New York federal judge on Tuesday sided with Perry Street Software, the developer of Scruff and Jack'd, in its declaratory judgment action against a patent-holding company Jedi Technologies, finding that a patent on determining personal compatibility is invalid because "asking and answering questions to determine compatibility is not novel."