GLOBE NEWSWIRE – RealMe, the online reputation platform improving trust and safety online, partners with SmartMatchApp, a matchmaking and membership customer relationship management (CRM) software. RealMe will offer added protection to SmartMatchApp's 100K users worldwide by providing access to an extensive database of ~275M verified profiles. RealMe's platform will provide rich and timely background checks on their users and thus greater safety for clients.
Month: May 2022
Gaper Adds Video Chat Function
PR NEWSWIRE – Gaper has added a video chat feature. The video chat requires a verified number and a verified profile to access. Gaper is a dating and social networking app designed for older men and women dating younger men and women.
Dating News Headlines: Gaper, Out There, Find Fishing Dates
Quick links to today's dating news headlines.
Grindr User Data Has Been for Sale for Years
WALL STREET JOURNAL – Grindr's user locations were collected and sold via ad networks since at least 2017; Grindr says it has curtailed the data it shares. Grindr cut off the flow of location data to any ad networks, ending the possibility of such data collection two years ago, the company said. The data didn't contain personal information such as names or phone numbers. But the Grindr data were in some cases detailed enough to infer things like romantic encounters between specific users, as well as identify clues to people's identities such as their workplaces and home addresses. "Since early 2020, Grindr has shared less information with ad partners than any of the big tech platforms and most of our competitors," a spokesman for Grindr said in a statement.
by Byron Tau & Georgia Wells
See full article at Wall Street Journal
An Early TikTok Exec Launched a Dating App, Spark
TECH CRUNCH – A former president at musical.ly (now known as TikTok), Alex Hofmann, helped build an app that could compete with social giants like Meta, YouTube or Snapchat. After ByteDance acquired musical.ly for ~$1B in 2018, Hofmann left the company to become an investor, but he soon decided he wanted to make apps again. He founded 9count, the parent company of apps like Everland, Helpline, Juju and the friendship-making app Wink, which has millions of users. Wink connects people without regard to location. "It was interesting that some of the 18+ users asked us, 'Oh, it would be great if I could look for people in my city,'" Hofmann said. "So that was one of the reasons for launching the dating app Spark." On Spark, users can see people around them all at once in a grid, kind of like on Grindr. But unlike Grindr, they can only receive messages from people if they've both "sparked" each other. Spark has already "soft-launched" in hundreds of countries, climbing to #1 in the iOS app store in Ireland and the Netherlands within a day.
Apple’s Rules Surrounding Dutch Dating Apps Remain Insufficient
MACRUMORS – Apple has yet to fully comply with Dutch and European regulations. The ACM already fined Apple a total of €50M between January and March for failing to comply with the order, and the competition regulator said it is now preparing a new order with additional penalties that will be published in the coming weeks. The saga began in December 2021, when the ACM announced that Apple must let dating apps accept alternative payment methods on the App Store in the Netherlands.
BlueCity Agrees to Go Private
GLOBENEWSWIRE – BlueCity, a leading online LGBTQ platform, has entered into a merger agreement with Multelements Limited ("Parent"), Diversefuture Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Parent, pursuant to which the company will be acquired in an all-cash transaction, implying an equity value of the company of ~$60M for all of the company's outstanding ordinary shares. The merger is expected to close in the second half of 2022.
Dating News Headlines: SmartMatchApp, Lunch Dates
Quick links to today's dating news headlines.
- SmartMatchApp Partners With RealMe™ to Protect Clients of Its Matchmakers – Globe Newswire
- LunchDates Celebrates 40 years of Love – EIN Presswire
Dating News Headlines: Grindr, Spark
Quick links to today's dating news headlines.
- Grindr User Data Has Been for Sale for Years – Wall Street Journal
- An Early TikTok Exec Just Launched a Dating App, Spark – Tech Crunch
- Dutch Regulator Still Unsatisfied With Apple's Rules Surrounding Dating Apps – Mac Rumors