NEWSDIRECT – Dua Token is the first Seeker startup to launch a funding round on AllianceBlock's peer-to-peer participatory funding platform, Fundrs. Their token sale started on Nov 23rd. AllianceBlock launched Fundrs, a peer-to-peer funding platform, on Avalanche and Ethereum Mainnet networks in August. Fundrs allows blockchain-based projects and traditional startups to receive funding from the platform's users. After raising $4M in a Series A round, Dua plans to tokenize its 5M+ users through cryptocurrencies and decentralized technologies.
Month: November 2022
Tinder Has Created a Collection of Healthy Dating Guides
Why Dating References Should Become the New Norm in Online Dating
REFINERY29 – 'Are We Dating The Same Guy?' started as a Facebook group for New Yorkers that allows women to anonymously share warnings about guys they've dated, or request intel on potential suitors. The group has accrued 60k members in just a couple of months and spawned sister groups in most major US cities and internationally. 'Are We Dating the Same Guy?' was founded just a few weeks after 'West Elm Caleb' went viral on Tik Tok. 'West Elm Caleb' is a twenty-something Brooklynite whose Tinder screenshots blew up after multiple women all shared negative experiences with him on TikTok. The saga underscored the power of the wider community to share intel and compare experiences. According to cyber dating expert and relationship coach Julie Spira, seeking out a 'reference' can be a way to vet your date and feel safer while navigating the digital courtship process. "In a perfect world, everyone should have a friend or family member as a reference, but don't count on it," says Julie. "The most valuable part of dating online is that there are digital tools to help you find information about your date."
by Elizabeth Whitehead
See full article at Refinery29
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Delbert Ty – CMO of Coffee Meets Bagels – How Regional Disparities in Maturity Can Help Us Predict the Future
LTR – Delbert has been building businesses and making impactful brands for the last 15+ years. He started his career in P&G working on its most iconic brands. He then took his talent to the world of technology and startups. Now he is CMO of Coffee Meets Bagel. He emphasizes that CMB focuses on delivering the highest quality matches looking for long-term relationships. It is designed for serious intent & efficiency.
Delbert predicts the future of the dating industry with analogies such as laundry. Laundry has its own kind of convergence. He maps that convergence and compares this to the dating industry convergence. People me people at work, and througn friends, and matchmaking services, and then the web came along. That's where the first generation of online dating services, match, eHarmony, OkCupid, and then eventually mobile came along. Online dating really exploded in popularity and homogenized. He believes everything eventually follows the same trajectory.
We have a very extended Q&A session with Delbert where we discuss the rise of influencer marketing and it's challenges.
LTR stands for Love, Technology, Relationships and the online conference covers the Internet dating and Online Social Communities space. It is for members of IDEA and OSCA.
The September LTR was kindly sponsored by vPaaS by Meet Group and Courtland Brooks
Jigsaw Dating Filed a Lawsuit Against S’More for Patent Infringement
LINKEDIN – S'More recently modified their app to obscure each profile picture with wedge-shaped pieces and incrementally remove those pieces as users exchange messages, just like with the Jigsaw App. Jigsaw has been awarded two patents that cover its dating app, and has a third patent app that is currently pending. S'More partialy infringes U.S. Patent No. 11,483,276. Copy of the lawsuit.
Grindr Stock Soars
NPR – Grindr's stock rose by more than 400% after going public on Friday. Grindr debuted on NYSE under the symbols "GRND" and "GRND.WS." Grindr's CEO, George Arison, said. "We enter the public markets with momentum, carried by our market leadership, strong financial performance and significant growth runway as we step up investment in our core product and services." Grindr launched in 2009, reports ~11m DAU and 61 mins per day on the app. Grindr estimated the value of its user base at $4 billion.
by Giulia Heyward
See full article at NPR
Mark Brooks: Grindr is a darling of the dating industry.
Match: Same-sex Marriage Could Be Under Threat
AXIOS – Match Group has been leading an advocacy campaign calling for the passage of the Respect for Marriage Act, a bill to codify protections for same-sex and interracial marriage which cleared a major procedural hurdle in the U.S. Senate last week after garnering enough support from Senate Republicans. The Senate still has to pass the bill. Biden said he'd sign it into law.
Dating Apps Now Most Popular Way for Newlyweds in Japan to Meet
JAPAN TIMES – 1 in every 5, or 22.6%, of newlywed couples found love online, according to a recent survey by Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance. Online encounters overtook couples who met at work or school, which both came in at 20.8%, and those brought together by friends and acquaintances at 9.4%. In previous editions of the survey in 2012, 2015 and 2016, no responding couples reported meeting via dating apps.
Grindr Plans to Focus on Monetization After IPO
WALL STREET JOURNAL – Grindr is set to list on the New York Stock Exchange today, and the company plans to further monetize its services, review subscription prices and beef up its finance team once it joins the public markets via a merger with a special-purpose acquisition company. Grindr will combine with blank-check company Tiga Acquisition. The transaction, valued at $2.1B, is expected to provide Grindr with ~$384M in proceeds, which will bolster its balance sheet and help with paying down debt. The company will list on the New York Stock Exchange under a new name, Grindr Inc. During Q2, Grindr's revenue grew 34% YOY, to $46.6M. The company reported a net income loss of $4.3M in Q2 compared with a $1.8M profit in Q2 '21. The year-over-year loss was largely driven by one-time costs associated with going public, such as legal, consulting and audit fees. Q3 results haven't been released yet.
by Jennifer Williams-Alvarez
See full article at Wall Street Journal