TIPRANKS – Love Group Global reported record Q2 FY26 net operating cash flow of $369K, supported by $1M million in customer receipts. Hong Kong receipts rose 6% to $590K, while Singapore fell to $451K (-4% quarter-on-quarter, -27% year-on-year). Cash on hand ended at $1.7M, with the company continuing to focus on scaling matchmaking in Hong Kong and Singapore, expanding singles events, and testing growth in the US and UK.
THE BAR BULLETIN – The Bombay High Court ordered the operators of getshaadi.com to stop using the domain, finding that they were running a matrimonial website that deliberately copied Shaadi.com’s name and branding. The court ruled this amounted to trademark infringement and passing off, ordered the domain to be taken down, and awarded ₹25 lakh ($28K) in costs to Shaadi.com’s owner.
LINKEDIN – With the launch of dua.com 5.0, the Albanian dating app is making a clear break from swipe-based dating. The platform is now designed for users seeking long-term relationships, with mandatory liveness verification, regular removal of inactive profiles, and tighter controls on fake or low-effort behaviour. Launched during COVID and now used by ~1.1M people globally, dua.com is repositioning itself around intentional, serious dating rather than casual matching.
OPW – Each year, we review which reporters received the most coverage on Online Personals Watch. Here are our rankings for 2025.
1. Sydney Bradley (Business Insider)
2. Lauren Forristal (Tech Crunch)
3. Natalie Lung (Bloomberg)
Shared 4.-7. place: Amanda Silberling (Tech Crunch), Anna Iovine (Mashable), Henry Chandonnet (Business Insider) and Ivan Mehta (Tech Crunch)
Shared 8.-9. place: Brittaney Kiefer (AdWeek) and Sarah Perez (Tech Crunch)
10. place was shared by Zack Whittaker, Aisha Malik (both Tech Crunch), Reece Rogers (Wired), David Salazar (Fast Company) and Eli Tan (New York Times)
PULSE2 – Breeze is a dating app designed to move people offline quickly by eliminating endless swiping and chatting and instead scheduling an in-person first date immediately after a match, including booking a venue. Founded by Marco van der Woude and his co-founders after identifying widespread dating-app fatigue, Breeze operates on a pay-per-date model with no subscriptions or ads, aligning revenue with successful real-world meetings. Since launching in 2020, the app has expanded internationally, now organizing ~25K dates per month and ~400K dates in total, with the UK as its fastest-growing market.
OPW – An update to the online dating jobs listing is live here.
Below, see a couple of this month’s most interesting offers:
Bumble – Associate Director, Social Media
FFN – COO
Grindr – Head of Privacy
Hinge – Director, Brand Strategy
Match Group – Director, Brand Strategy & Operations
Muzz – Country Marketing Lead (KSA)
ParshipMeet Group – Director Group Controlling
Social Discovery Ventures – Chief Marketing Officer (Once)
Tinder – Sr. Director, Communications (Americas)
Do you have an idating industry job offer that is not included? Please, send it to tips@onlinepersonalswatch.com and we will add it to the list.
WIRED – Tea, the controversial app that allows women to post anonymous, Yelp-style reviews of men, has relaunched with a new website and updated Android features months after suffering major data breaches that exposed sensitive user information and led to its removal from Apple’s App Store. The platform says it has strengthened security, added stricter access controls, partnered with a third-party vendor to verify that users are women, and introduced new AI tools on Android, including an AI dating coach and a forthcoming “Red Flag Radar” chat analysis feature. Despite these changes, experts continue to warn that Tea remains a high-risk target given its history, ongoing privacy concerns, and legal challenges.
BUSINESS INSIDER – Partiful, a party-invite app, has introduced a new feature called Crush that lets users discreetly express romantic interest in people they have met at real-life events. Users can select mutual connections as crushes, and only if the interest is mutual are both parties notified and encouraged to message each other, with a limit of 10 crushes per month. The move reflects a broader trend of non-dating apps evolving into dating-adjacent platforms, as people increasingly use social, professional, and event-based apps to flirt and connect.
PARSHIP – According to a study conducted by Parship in cooperation with the market research institute INNOFACT AG, dating in 2026 is becoming more committed: 7 out of 10 singles (70%) only want to date people with whom there is a realistic chance of a long-term relationship. The study, based on a survey of 1K singles in Germany, also shows that 65% of singles feel ready to start a new chapter in their love lives. Early clarity plays a central role, with 79% wanting to quickly determine whether core values and future plans align and 76% wanting to clearly communicate their relationship expectations from the beginning. Previous dating experience strongly influences current behaviour, as 61% of singles say they have learned from past experiences and 51% plan to date or approach relationships differently than before.
OPW – In 2025, we selected and summarized over 600 of the top news items mentioning 212 companies from the online dating industry. Tinder took the top spot, followed by Match Group and Hinge. Here’s the full list of dating companies that received the most press coverage last year:
1. Tinder – CEO Faye Iosotaluno was replaced by Spencer Rascoff who took over the brand in an attempt to reinvent it for Gen Z through safety tools, AI, and product experiments.
2. Match Group – hired a new CEO, Spencer Rascoff, but lost several long term C-level execs, acquired Her and Salams, and pivoted to AI and emerging markets.
3. Hinge – reached 15 MAU worldwide, launched in Mexico and Brazil and also launched new features, but ended the year with it’s founder and CEO Justin McLeod stepping down, being succeeded by the CMO, Jackie Jantos.
4. Grindr – saw a year of growth, with numerous new features launched, mostly AI and safety oriented. At the end of the year, he company experienced a buyout attempt, which ultimately failed due to financing uncertainty.
5. Bumble – Whitney Wolfe Herd returned as a CEO in an attempt to revive the company which lost over 90% of it’s market value in the last 4 years. The company announced major layoffs and shut down two previously acquired apps, Fruitz and Official. It launched Bumble BFF as a standalone app.
6. Happn – was acquired by Hello Group, introduced flexible relationship options, and launched AI powered “Perfect Date” tool.
7. Matrimony.com – invested in AI in and attempt to boost the growth, however later financial results showed rising costs and a year-on-year profit decline in Q2 FY2026. In December, the company announced a share buyback.
8. Three Day Rule – launched a “$1 Million Matchmaking” service, secured an investment from Palm Venture Studios. Later in the year, it introduced Tai, an AI-powered matchmaking app.
9.-10. Chapter2, Match.com, OkCupid, Sitch, Tea
Chapter 2 acquired M14 white label dating platform last year. Match.com released another Singles in America study in June. OkCupid was usually mentioned alongside other Match Group’s app and we also used several of OKCupid’s studies for posts last year. Sitch raised $6.7M and announced the U.S. expansion. Tea was first mentioned as a fast growing app that should help women spot red flags before a first date, but their news coverage quickly turned to negative with two hacks that exposed user data. In October, the app was removed from AppStore by Apple.