MUZMATCH – Muzmatch, the biggest Muslim dating and marriage app, has lost a long court battle with Match Group over its name the company has been using since 2011. Match Group first reached out to Muzmatch in 2016, objecting to its trademark registration for MUZMATCH. They proposed a settlement agreement if Muzmatch promised not to sell the company to a competitor. Muzmatch refused. In 2017, they reached out again with an offer to acquire muzmatch. The two companies talked multiple times and four offers were made (max $35M) which didn’t value Muzmatch fairly, according to founder and CEO, Shahzad Younas. Match Group group has then resorted to the last tool of giant conglomerates with huge legal teams – litigation. This month (April 2022), the judge ruled in Match Group’s favour, stating in his view the word ‘match’ is distinctive of match.com since 2011 (the year muzmatch was born).
Month: April 2022
Smile App Matches Users Based on What They Find Funny
BOSTON GLOBE – Boston College alumna Melissa Mullen wanted a dating app for people who 'value humor in a relationship.' So she made one. When users log onto the Smile dating app, they won't be greeted by profiles to swipe through. Instead, they'll find a long stream of videos from TikTok. If they find the clip funny, they tap on a heart button. Not funny – the heart with a slash through it. The app's algorithm uses this data to identify the user's "humor profile", and offers up matches who have similar makeups.
How VR Is Disrupting the Mobile Dating Scene
MOBILE MARKETING MAGAZINE – Mariko Tokioka, CEO and founder of dating and live streaming app, EME Hive, looks at how virtual reality will improve mobile dating platforms. The research firm, Gartner, recently named the metaverse as one of the top five impactful and emerging trends for 2022. Everything from gaming to live entertainment and dating, will change in this new metaverse. Founder of EME Hive, the world's largest Asian dating and live-streaming app, gets to see first-hand the shift in technology surrounding the dating landscape.
- VR will eliminate the need for strangers to meet in-person.
- Couples can go on virtual dates no matter how far apart they are.
- With VR, online daters can get to know their match before meeting in-person.
- Singles could create their own avatar, connect with others, play games and go on dates in virtual spaces.
- VR will allow singles to assess chemistry with one another before taking their relationship to the next step.
by David Murphy
See full article at Mobile Marketing Magazine
Bumble Is Doing More to Criminalize Dick Pics
JEZEBEL – When Bumble conducted a national survey in 2018, they found that 1 in 3 women have received an unsolicited nude image in their lifetime. 96% confirmed they were received without their consent. Since that survey, Bumble CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd and new Policy Director Nkechi "Payton" Iheme have quietly been leading the effort to criminalize sending nudes without consent. Bumble has also rolled out a protective feature called, Private Detector which utilizes AI to automatically blur images determined to be lewd. By March 2019, House Bill 2789, which made sending a lewd photo without the recipient's consent a Class C misdemeanor and punishable by $500, was introduced. The bill was signed into law just two months later by Texas Governor Greg Abbott. Michigan, Wisconsin, and Virginia – have either advanced or successfully passed legislation that would follow Texas' suit. The FLASH (Forbid Lewd Activity and Sexual Harassment) Act recently passed California's State Senate. New York State Sen. Alexandra Biaggi has also seen her legislation – Senate Bill S4843, which would establish the unsolicited disclosure of an intimate image as a crime – move forward in both senate and assembly votes. Bumble is also reportedly urging Florida legislators to introduce similar legislation. Last month, "cyberflashing" was made illegal in England and Wales, but unlike U.S. legislation, perpetrators face up to two years in prison.
China’s Millennials Are Shunning Marriage at Alarming Rates
INSIDER – As China modernizes, more women are rejecting marriage in pursuit of financial freedom. That's led to a decline in birth rates, which has Chinese authorities concerned. Across the country, social commentators and local governments have publicly blamed the crisis on single women and pushed them toward marriage. Communist party youth wings launched their own matchmaking services this year, helping singles connect via ice-breaker games at official events. But many women in China say they're no longer interested in tying the knot; they see marriage as a potential roadblock to achieving economic independence. In a Communist Youth League survey of 2,905 unmarried youths last year, 44% of urban women aged 18 to 26 said they had no plans to get married, with 25% of men answering the same.
Dating News Headlines: muzmatch, Bumble, Betterhalf.ai, EME Hive
Quick links to today's dating news headlines.
- muzmatch Loses Legal Fight Against Match Group – muzmatch blog
- Bumble Is Doing More to Criminalize Dick Pics Than You Realize – Jezebel
- Betterhalf.ai Partners With Bobble AI; Garners Reach to 1.13M+ New Users – BuzzInContent
- China's Millennials Are Shunning Marriage at Alarming Rates, and It's Creating a Nationwide Population Crisis That Beijing Can't Magically Fix – Insider
- How VR Is Disrupting the Mobile Dating Scene – Mobile Marketing Magazine
- OkCupid Encourages Singles to Say What They Want Openly With a New Campaign – Presse Portal (in German)
Aisle Says It’s the Real Dating App in New Campaign
Dating News Headlines: BLK
Quick links to today's dating news headlines.
Dating News Headlines: Aisle
Quick links to today's dating news headlines.
Dating App SwoonMe Raises $1M
LINKEDIN – This is the second round of funding. The company had previously raised $200K in its first seed round from angel investors last year after its July launch. The startup claims ~50K downloads after launching in India. SwoonMe is a voice-first dating app.
This post also appears on InternetDatingInvestments.com