FORTUNE – Whitney Wolfe Herd, who built Bumble into a $765M company, is hiring someone else to run the app for the first time. Drena Kusari, former Lyft executive, will become GM of the Bumble app, while Whitney Wolfe Herd will remain the CEO of Bumble Inc.
by Emma Hinchliffe & Paige McGlauflin
See full article at Fortune
BUSINESS WIRE – Grindr's Q3 2022 revenue was ~$50M, up 32% YOY. The net loss was $4.7M. On Nov 18, 2022, Grindr and Tiga Acquisition completed their proposed business combination, bringing Grindr to the public market. Grindr began trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker "GRND".
TECH CRUNCH – Facebook Dating will now serve as the testing grounds for further experimentation with new age verification technologies, including video selfies and ID uploads. The company will expand its partnership with online age verification provider Yoti to verify the ages of Facebook Dating users when it suspects they've lied about their real age. When Facebook's AI detects someone who may be under the age of 18 trying to use Facebook dating, it will send them a prompt to verify their age.
FOX26 – New dating app Wingr includes friends/family to assist in finding a relationship, similar to the wingman/wingwoman approach, where an individual may introduce potential partners to one another, help break the ice, or just be there for moral support. While that idea may seem intrusive to some, the reality is, according to surveys, app users often already relied on their friends or family to help them with even setting up their initial dating profiles or selecting a potential partner. The app launched in Jan 2022, and claims ~10K users.
OPW – IDEA SUMMIT Paris was a wonderful learning, sharing, and connecting experience for leaders in the online dating industry. Participants included the CEOs of happn, The Meet Group, Jaumo, Pembe Panjur, Salt, Online Personals Group, Smitten, Noii, NUiT, Icony, Feels, Fitafy, Planet Theta, Koko, and Reddi. Also the VP Of Biz Dev for Match Europe and the Founder/CMO of Planet Theta.
PR NEWSWIRE – Eric Eichmann has stepped down to spend more time with his family and explore future opportunities. Ms. Grayson is the former CEO of True Religion, a designer jeans and clothing company, as well as clothing company American Apparel. She has a multi-decade career as a board member for a range of technology, consumer-facing, and wellness companies, a law firm partner, and an in-house general counsel.
BUSINESS CLOUD – FITFCK, a dating app for gym enthusiasts, has won backing from Sam Harry and Martin Wood, who go under the monikers Chaotic and SXVXN. The two gaming creators boast a combined following of ~3M subscribers and have amassed ~1B views on YouTube. FITFCK's YouTube channel launched in Nov and will soon boast content relating to dating, training and its journey as a fitness startup brand. OnlyFans founder Tim Stokely recently invested in the company at a valuation of ~£3M.
See full article at Business Cloud
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OKCUPID BLOG – Being vulnerable is one of the more attractive traits to singles these days. 9 in 10 daters on OkCupid say they are sensitive. Men who say they are sensitive are receiving more likes and matches. Nearly all 1.6M respondents on OkCupid believe mental health is just as important as physical health. 97% of OkCupid respondents believe it's important to practice self-love. 30% (~8.5M singles) reveal they would be interested in an open relationship. 40% of people say that inflation is impacting their dating lives. The pandemic and rising costs of living accelerated the number of people being open to sober dates, but also sober relationships.
