DAILYMAIL.CO.UK – Rude Message Detector will automatically flag any insulting, discriminatory or overly sexual messages. The tool uses machine learning, a form of AI, to distinguish between 'banter' and actual verbal abuse, such as 'identity hate' towards transgender people. It's been rolled out for all Badoo users worldwide. With Rude Message Detector, Badoo shows the recipient a timely pop-up message asking if everything is okay and encourages them to report the sender if the message made them uncomfortable. The pop-up says: 'Looks like this person used some rude language, so we're just checking if you still want to hear from them.' It then gives users two options to click on – 'Yes, keep chatting' and 'No, block and report'.
Month: October 2021
Dating App Fluttr Uses Verification ID Tech
GLOBAL BANKING & FINANCE – Dating app Fluttr will combine biometric ID verification with human moderation. The app's privacy-first approach is backed by state-of-the-art technology. Jessica Zeun, Head of Product at Fluttr, said: "When you scan in a document, it extracts information from your name and date of birth fields, and that's the Optical Character Recognition (OCR technology) at work. We also have NFC chip reading, so if you use your passport with a chip in, rather than asking you to take a photo of it – if your phone is able to read NFC chips, you'll be prompted to put your phone on top of your passport, and it will read the chip and send it through to our ID verification."
by Jessica Zeun
See full article at Global Banking & Finance
What Business Are YOU Really in?
HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW – Since Jack Dorsey reassumed the helm of Twitter in 2015, the company's performance has soared. Dorsey used the "jobs to be done" approach to rethinking Twitter's strategy – defining Twitter from the perspective of what really matters to Twitter customers. Dorsey focused on serving 3 jobs: news, discussion, conversation. DAU's grew to 200m+, from 126m in 2018. It is on pace for $4B revenue in 2021, up from $3B in 2018. In 2019 Dorsey said, "We got overly reactive to everything our peers were doing. We didn't have a clear sense of what our purpose was, and that really hurt us a lot."
Dorsey's effort to identify the jobs that people hired Twitter for involved three steps.
- Understand the full set of jobs for which Twitter was already being "hired."
- Prioritize the jobs Twitter wanted to focus on.
- Communicate the results and use them to allocate resources.
by David S. Duncan & Brian Hindo
See full article at HBR
Mark Brooks: It's easy to fall into the trap of assuming you know the purpose of your company. However, it pays to analyze and really understand this. What do your customers really expect from you? I studied under the wonderful (late) Clayton Christensen at HBS in 2015 and the 'jobs to be done' approach was absolutely core to his innovation method. This is his best book on the topic.
How Do the Best Dating Algorithms Work?
MASHABLE – Tinder: The Tinder algorithm used to be based on the Elo rating system, which was originally designed to rank chess players. The "Elo score" gauges how other profiles interacted with yours. It logged your swipes. Elo is no longer used. Now, the most important thing a user can do is…use the app. The more data Tinder has on you, the more Tinder knows your preferences and the algorithm is based on how your profile is Liked or Noped.
Hinge: The dating app "designed to be deleted" doesn't have swiping. Hinge uses the Gale-Shapley algorithm. This Nobel-prize winning algorithm was created to find optimal pairs in "trades" that money can't buy – like organ donations. Say there are 10 women and 10 men. How do they get paired up? Well, tell one group (either the men or women) to pick their first choice, and if they get rejected they move on to their second choice. Continue until none of the people left want to get matched anymore. Tell the app when you've met a match in person and Hinge understands who you're interested in.
OkCupid: OkCupid has 4k questions. There's 60 sexual orientation and gender options. OkCupid calculates a match percentage. If another user has similar search preferences and responses to questions as you, and is looking for the same things relationship-wise, you'll have a high match percentage.
Bumble: Bumble is similar to Tinder in that it uses a swipe model. Bumble declined to comment about its search algorithm.
Grindr: Grindr only uses algorithms for security purposes, like detecting spam accounts. There's no recommendation algorithm to speak of on Grindr today.
by Anna Iovine
See full article at Mashable
Mark Brooks: Frankly, I'm surprised at the lack of substance here. Our job is to bring clarity to a complex problem. Who to date? Who to marry? Who to raise a family with? (…and perhaps guide people further on how not to screw it up). This is not an unsolvable problem, but it is highly nuanced. Culture, religion, values, and lifestyle preferences compound the problem. Also, what people say they want and what they are willing to accept can be quite different. i.e. stated preferences vs revealed preferences. Observing people's behaviors and getting feedback after each date is key. Also, we really need to know when we have been successful. When we have clear visibility on this, at scale, then AI becomes useful for helping us solve for long-term compatibility.
See the top news on Tinder See the top news on OkCupid
See the top news on Bumble See the top news on Grindr
See the top news on Hinge
Dating App Thursday Handcuffs Woman as Part of ‘World’s Most Embarrassing Internship’
FIRST POST – Anya Jackson went for a paid internship in the dating app 'Thursday'. She was handcuffed to a pole in central London. Jackson said that the stunt was intended to get people to sign up for the app. The handcuffs became a part of the stunt to tie it in with "cuffing season". She was given a target of £25 and asked to get a thousand people to sign up for the app. Jackson added that her manager uncuffed her after she met her target. The post divided social media, with many stating that the stunt was "disturbing".
Dating in China: From Marriage Markets to Virtual AI Boyfriends
CHINA TONIGHT – Ms Liu, a Chinese international student studying in Melbourne, said she has been chatting with a guy since May last year, but her "perfect boyfriend" isn't a real person. It is an AI chatbot created by Chinese tech firm XiaoIce, a spin-off from Microsoft. XiaoIce's chatbot is programmed to form emotional bonds with human users through text, voice and photo messages and can be customised to create the ideal virtual boyfriend or girlfriend. Ms Liu said the emotional support and companionship that her boyfriend provides is real, but he falls short when it comes to intimacy. When she tries to talk to him about intimate topics, he tends to switch the conversation to a lighter subject. That's by design – XiaoIce has been reportedly "dumbed down" or "re-educated" to avoid talking about sex or politics, after the chatbot was censored on social media platforms in 2017 for giving politically-sensitive responses to users.
Canadian Class Action Lawsuit Against Tinder
MY CAMPBELLRIVER NOW – A Vancouver law firm has launched a class action lawsuit against Tinder. Slater Vecchio LLP alleges algorithmic manipulation of the Tinder app and age-based discrimination. Tinder is…
- Hiding prospective matches
- Providing non-paying users with match notifications without showing the matches
- Reducing the number of matches a non-paying user gets if they "swipe right" too often
- Tinder discriminates based on age. Under 30's get Tinder Gold for $19.99/mo. 30+ is $39.99/mo
Age discrimination violates consumer protection legislation in Canada. Similar lawsuits have been filed and settled in the United States regarding this age-based discrimination.
by Patti Mertz
See full article at My CampbellRiver Review
Chatroulette’s Founder Spent 12 Years Solving ‘Penis Problem’
UNILAD – Chatroulette quickly disappeared but the founder never gave up, and spent 12 years trying to solve the 'penis problem' for relaunch. Andrey Ternovskiy founded Chatroulette in 2009 when he was 17. Ternovskiy has deployed facial recognition tech capable of detecting 'excessive amounts of exposed skin while simultaneously recognizing faces as appropriate skin', as well as a platform of moderators to review and ban offensive users. He's also hired a group of women to act as 'undercover' users. The site's users doubled during the pandemic. A Law Commission report is calling for 'cyberflashing' to be made a criminal offence.
by Hannah Smith
See full article at Unilad
This post also appears on Very Social Network
Register Now for the Virtual Global Love Conference
OPW – Virtual Global Love Conference used to be an in-person event held three times a year in New York City, Singapore & London. Due to the travel restrictions, the organizers decided to host the conference virtually on October 13 & 14, at 10AM – 2PM EST. The Global Love Conference consistently invites the most in-demand professionals in the industry. Guests share the latest tips, industry trends, winning strategies and secrets. You can see the speakers, agenda, and secure your place for free here.
Q&A With SoSyncd Founders About Challenges and Wins Surrounding Raising Capital
WID – SoSyncd is one of the most promising startup dating apps in the industry at the moment. Founders Jessica and Louella Alderson wanted to create a service that focused on personality and strong connections, rather than superficial decisions based solely on physical attraction.
Q: A recent report by Harvard Business Review cited that in 2020, 2.3% of venture capital will be invested in female-led companies. What challenges did you overcome to be successful at your first $1M seed round?
JA: The stats around funding for all-female-led teams are shocking. In fact, female-led businesses make twice as much revenue per dollar invested compared to those founded by men.
LA: There is another Harvard Business Review article showing that male and female entrepreneurs get asked different questions. Of course, not all investors have such extreme biases and we are lucky to have incredible investors who have invested in us the basis of results and potential rather than more superficial factors.
Q: Throughout the fundraising process, what were the key learnings that helped with the overall success of reaching your goal?
JA: Warm introductions are massively important.
LA: Fundraising is a full-time job.
JA: Finding investors who are aligned with your vision makes all the difference.