Month: February 2022
Grindr to Appeal Norwegian Fine for Privacy Violations
AXIOS – Grindr plans to file an appeal of a $7M fine from Norwegian regulators. Norway found that Grindr illegally disclosed user data to advertisers, but the company says it is being singled out for widely used practices.
Dating News Headlines: Grindr, Datamatch, Bumble, Coffee Meets Bagel
Quick links to today's dating news headlines.
- Grindr to Appeal Norwegian Fine for Privacy Violations – Axios
- Popular Matchmaking Site Datamatch Is Source of Latest Buzz on Campus – Daily Cardinal
- Dating App Bumble Sees 'Slowed' Courting Process Due to Pandemic – ABC-CBN
- The Aphrodite Project Returns for Another Year – The Medium
- Toronto-based Dating App Helps Foster Connections Within the Asian Community – The Vasity
- Circles.Life's Delbert Ty Takes on Global CMO Role at Coffee Meets Bagel – Marketing Interactive
- Valentine's Day Marketing Activations Shouldn't Just Be a One Night Stand – Marketing Interactive
- Dawoon Kang, Founder of Coffee Meets Bagel, Reveals Pandemic Dating Trends – Prestige
- Dating Apps Join Forces for Valentine's Vaccination Push – Adweek
- Bumble and Hinge Lead Dating Category Ad Spend for 2021 – Mumbrella
- China Apps Ban: Gaming, Beauty and Dating Apps Dominate Latest List – Economic Times
UK Dating App Fluttr Aims to Beat the ‘Tinder Swindlers’ With Biometric ID
THE GUARDIAN – Dating app Fluttr is promising to eradicate Tinder Swindler-style romance fraud, which cost duped daters ~£100M last year, by ensuring that all members complete biometric ID verification before they digitally mingle. Fluttr has partnered with digital verification firm Yoti, which has clients including the NHS, Post Office and National Union of Students, to ensure all would-be daters are providing the correct personal details matched to government-issued documents.
How OkCupid Transformed From an Online Quiz Site to a Radically Inclusive Dating App
THE DRUM – Founded in 2004 by Chris Coyne, Christian Rudder, Sam Yagan and Max Krohn – the Harvard students who also created SparkNotes – OkCupid has its roots in what was once called SparkMatch. The platform allowed users to connect based on the results of a personality assessment. After selling SparkMatch to Barnes & Noble, the team built what is now OkCupid. In 2011, they sold the business to Match Group. Despite the platform's advances, the brand was tired and lacked freshness. So OkCupid appointed its first global CMO in 2017. Melissa Hobley, a former Walgreens executive, went to work on reinventing the brand's image. The app introduced new ways for daters to set their preferences and to signal to potential matches what their values and politics entail. The platform has also rolled out 'badges' – icons that users can choose to display on their profiles that indicate, for example, that they're pro-choice or that they believe in combating climate change. In August 2021, the brand rolled out its newest effort – its irreverent and wildly inclusive 'Every Single Person' campaign featuring creatives developed by sculptor Maurizio Cattelan and photographer Pierpaolo Ferrari. Made in partnership with Mekanism, the campaign is a natural expression of the brand's mission to be a platform where everyone is invited to be exactly who they are and vocalize what they believe in.
Hinge Explores Audio Side of Online Dating
GOOD MORNING AMERICA – Hinge has been playing matchmaker with the help of user-uploaded audio clips. "65 to 70% of our users were having trouble assessing chemistry," said Michelle Parsons, Hinge's chief product officer. Users can now upload 30-second audio clips to their profiles, in place of written responses to prompts. According to Parsons, since October, "over one million of Hinge's users have now recorded and uploaded a voice prompt. And ~70% of users have actually played a voice prompt." Some Hinge users have even added clips of songs to their voice prompts, allowing potential matches to listen to music while reading their profile.
Q&A With Martin Dobner, Director of Parship International
KURIER – Martin Dobner from Parship talks about how Parship has changed in the two years of the pandemic.
Q: Has the pandemic changed users' behavior?
A: We've noticed a revival of desktop usage.
Q: In April 2020, Parship launched a video dating feature. Has this been well received?
A: Yes. There were very long conversations and the people who used it used it very regularly.
Q: Do you allow users to indicate whether they're vaccinated or not?
A: No, but honestly that was a consideration for a while. Dealing with health data is tricky.
Q: Has the pandemic made people want serious relationships more than casual encounters?
A: Being single is exhausting – emotionally and temporally. People also strive for security in relationships.
Q: Will the boom that online dating sites are currently experiencing continue after the pandemic?
A: Yes, the number of singles has continued to rise.
Dating News Headlines: Parship, HER
Quick links to today's dating news headlines.
Spark Networks to Transfer Listing From NYSE to Nasdaq
SEEKING ALPHA – Spark Networks will be changing its stock exchange listing from the NYSE American to the Nasdaq Capital Market. The company's American Depositary Shares (ADSs) will debut on Nasdaq on Feb 15, 2022. Its ticker symbol will remain unchanged. David Clark, CFO of Spark Networks, commented: "Nasdaq's focus on growth-oriented technology companies aligns well with our Company and strategy."
Gen Z Is Ready to Break up With Tinder
LOS ANGELES TIMES – Heterosexual couples in the U.S. are now more likely to meet a romantic partner online than via any other mode of connection. And during the pandemic, online dating reached new heights. On Snack, users upload TikTok-style videos instead of photos. The company is focusing on on-the-ground promotion at college campuses and currently has the most users in California, Texas, Florida and New York. Schmooze, another dating app wooing Gen Z, is also organized around a form of digital content. Instead of people's profiles, users are greeted with a meme set against a colorful, cartoon-like backdrop, with the choice to swipe right for "like" and left for "don't like." Dating app called Iris is taking the opposite approach. Returning to the fundamentals of physical attraction, the app, which was launched in early 2020, has users train a machine-learning algorithm by swiping through three rounds of stock photos. It then recommends potential matches.
by Jaimie Ding
See full article at Los Angeles Times
See the top news on Snack
See the top news on Schmooze
See the top news on iris Dating