APPANNIE – Consumer spending on mobile apps reached $170B in 2021, according to App Annie's "State of Mobile 2022". That figure is up 19% YOY. Worldwide consumer spending on dating apps topped $4B in 2021, a 95% increase since 2018. Growth was primarily driven by the U.S., Japan, China and the U.K. Tinder led the market with $1.35B in worldwide consumer spending in 2021.
Month: January 2022
Survey: Most of Japan’s New Adults Hope to Fall in Love and Get Married
SORANEWS24 – A recent survey conducted by marriage-minded matchmaking company O-net revealed that most Japanese young people just coming of age are still planning to get married and have children. Quite a few young people are receptive to finding love online. 49% of respondents answered yes to the question, "Do you think you could fall in love with a person of the opposite sex you met online?" This number hasn't really changed in the last two years, though it saw a big increase between 2017 and 2019. In particular, more men seem receptive to the idea, as 50.2% of male respondents answered "Yes", which is the highest number in five years.
Match Group Files Multiple Lawsuits Against Muzmatch Following Failed Acquisition Offers
MUZMATCH – Match Group is suing Muzmatch in the UK with the trial set for 17th/18th Jan. "We fight, because we must. It is crucial that products built for our community are built by our community, and that we do not allow ourselves to be dictated and controlled by others", says Shahzad Younas, founder and CEO of Muzmatch, the London-based dating app for Muslims which has recently hit 5M members globally. Shahzad Younas founded Muzmatch in 2011. He quit his career as investment banker to focus entirely on his startup and learning how to build a mobile app. Muzmatch app was launched in 2015 with hundreds of new members joining globally. In 2016 Shahzad registered trademarks for MUZMATCH in the US and Europe. Match Group immediately filed an objection, saying it was passing off their match.com heart design TM. Match Group lawyers sent letters claiming they would not allow another dating company to have "match" in their name. Muzmatch revamped the brand – removed the heart logo and changed the font used in the muzmatch logo. Match Group continued to file objections to the EU Trademark. In 2017, Muzmatch was accepted to Y Combinator Summer 17 batch, raising a $1.75M seed round. In 2018 Match Group made their first offer to acquire Muzmatch for $15M. As Muzmatch continued to grow, Match Group attempted to acquire the app multiple times offering $25M in Nov '18 and $35M in Jan '19. In 2019 Match Group acquired muslim app Harmonica and sued Muzmatch in the UK IPEC courts alleging trademark infringement. Match Group also filed a lawsuit against Muzmatch in Texas this year alleging patent infringement (use of swipe gesture) and cyberpiracy (use of Muzmatch brand). Muzmatch decided to settle the case and removed the swipe feature.
Apple Agrees to Korean App’s Own Payment Systems
KOREA JOONGANG DAILY – Apple will allow Korean app developers to use their own in-app purchase systems, a first for the U.S. tech company. This is part of Apple's compliance with the "Anti-Google law" passed by the National Assembly last August. The Anti-Google law was intended to keep big tech companies from forcing their own commissions on app developers, which could raise costs for consumers and deprive developers of potential revenues. However, Apple failed to deliver details such as the maximum commission rate it will allow.
41 % of Brits Taking Extreme Measures to Alter the Way They Look on Dating Apps
THE SUN – More than three in five images relating to beauty in online content feature women who are white, slim, have long hair and are wearing make-up, according to new analysis by Plenty of Fish and social psychologist Dr Sandra Wheatley who looked at 1,455 images from 67 of the largest-reaching online media and content outlets in the UK. It comes after a POF poll of 2K adults found that despite a spotlight on diversity and representation over recent years, more than a third (35%) still don't see themselves reflected in cultural content, media and advertising. The study also found 21% of adults have felt judged by others for dating someone who does not conform to stereotypical notions of beauty, with 27% admitting this has impacted their decision to date them. 41% have even turned to the extremes of altering the way they look in real life and online to conform to society's standards. After banning heavily filtered photos across its platform in 2019, Plenty of Fish is launching the 'Pretty Clever Plan', created in partnership with Dr Sandra Wheatley, to help dispel beauty biases and combat societal privileges.
by Richard Jenkins
See full article at The Sun
Dating News Headlines: O-net
Quick links to today's dating news headlines.
Dating News Headlines: Muzmatch, Match Group, Select Connections, Impffrei: Love
Quick links to today's dating news headlines.
- $35BN Match Group File Multiple Lawsuits Against muzmatch Following Repeated Failed Acquisition Offers – Muzmatch blog
- Founder Interview With Jacqui Baker of Select Connections & Select Events – Daily Echo
- Apple Agrees to Korean App's Own Payment Systems – Korea JoongAng Daily
- Swipe Vax: Dating Apps Are the New Battleground of Vaccination Divide – WorldCrunch
- 41 Per Cent of Brits Admit to Taking Extreme Measures to Alter the Way They Look on Dating Apps Compared to Real Life – The Sun
Tinder Witnessed 2M Swipes per Minute in 2021
ONEINDIA – The World Economic Forum published a report on the usage of the internet worldwide for the year 2021. Tinder witnessed 2M swipes per minute in 2021.
Bumble Is Working to Criminalize Cyber Flashing
NBC – Bumble have successfully lobbied anti-cyber flashing legislation in Texas and hope the law will be introduced around the country. NBC News' Savannah Sellers has the details.
Romance Scams Robbed Britons of £100M Last Year
THE GUARDIAN – According to Action Fraud, the UK's reporting center for fraud and cybercrime, 8,863 cases were reported to the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB) between November 2020 and October 2021, up from 6,968 the previous year, with total losses for the past year amounting to £92M. These figures are likely to be the tip of the iceberg – Action Fraud says the shame and stigma around romance fraud mean many people don't report it. The love-bombing tactic used by such scammers can be hard to resist.