OPW – Here are the top five news items for the online dating industry for the two week period ending Sunday 18th of August. Please subscribe and hit the notifications button to get updates when we post news updates. This week we cover news on Bumble, Grindr, Info Edge, a new well-funded social dating app, and an interesting article that was in FAST Company.
See the video here on Youtube.
PR NEWSWIRE – A new study by Dating.com reveals that the upcoming presidential election is heavily influencing dating conversations and decisions among American singles. The study found that 72% of daters are engaging in politically charged discussions on dating apps, and there's been a 15% increase in users listing their political affiliations on their profiles.
BLOOMBERG LAW – A magistrate judge recommended that most of the wrongful death and negligence claims against Grindr proceed in a case involving a minor, "A.V.," who died by suicide after using the LGBTQ+ dating app. The child's family alleges that Grindr's app features, which connect users based on physical type and location, contributed to A.V.'s emotional distress and death. Grindr argued for dismissal under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which shields platforms from liability for user content. However, the judge found that Grindr's liability might stem from its own app features, not user-generated content, allowing the case to move forward.
LTR – Brandon Wade, an MIT graduate and former executive at GE and Microsoft, started Seeking in 2006 and later founded What’s Your Price and Miss Travel. He co-leads these ventures with his wife, Dana Rosewall, who brings a fresh perspective to the dating industry. They met on Seeking.com, which Brandon created to overcome his dating challenges. After rebranding Seeking to move away from the controversial “sugar dating” term, they now focus on “modern hypergamy,” promoting mutual socioeconomic uplift in relationships. Their goal is to reduce online dating fatigue by fostering genuine connections and enhancing user experience, especially for women.
The July LTR was kindly sponsored by ParshipMeet Group, RealMe, Dating Through Curiosity, along with Courtland Brooks and Matchmaker.com
TECH CRUNCH – Score, the dating app for people with good to excellent credit, shut down in early August. Score was supposed to be a pop-up app that lasted 90 days, back in February. However, it received so much user interest that the parent company, Neon Money Club, decided to keep it open for six months. In that time, it attracted 18K users and made 8K matches. According to co-founder Luke Bailey, the app highlighted economic gender disparities, noting millennial men had an 11% higher average credit score than women due to educational costs.
BIZWOMEN – Elodie Clowes and Amanda Karr have launched Fuse, a matchmaking app that integrates friends and family into the dating process. Unlike traditional dating apps, Fuse allows users' close ones to participate in selecting potential matches. After launching a beta version, Fuse is now officially available in Philadelphia and aims to expand to other cities. With $830K in pre-seed funding, led by Nathan McCauley, co-founder of Anchorage Digital, Fuse plans to raise a $3M seed round this fall.
by Ryan Mulligan
See full article at BizWomen
This post also appears on InternetDatingInvestments.com
Past Events – NOAH connects Europe's digital market leaders and listed Marc Schachtel, the CEO of ParshipMeet Group as a speaker for the London event in June. See link. Veecon is Gary Vaynerchuck's conference and happened Aug 9-11th, in L.A. Tinder's SVP Global Marketing, Stephanie Danzi was on a panel talking about creators/influencers. See link.
Please let me know if you see any other major C levels and leaders from the dating industry speaking at major conferences at mark@courtlandbrooks.com
