YAHOO FINANCE – Darren Chan, the Malaysian founder of the online dating platform Sugarbook, was arrested in 2021 following a controversial post on the site. After spending 10 days in jail, he emerged more determined to grow his business. Despite the controversy, Sugarbook said it has 4M members, predominantly from Malaysia, the US, and Singapore. The platform is also expanding into new markets such as Taiwan and has introduced new features such as live-streaming. While he was unwilling to reveal the company's earnings and other financials, Chan said that revenue has risen by 60% year-to-date, compared to the same time period last year. Sugarbook has also paid out $1.7M to live streamers since the feature was launched last year.
Category: All Adult Dating
Feeld: a Dating App for Unconventional Relationships
FAST COMPANY – Feeld, a 10-year-old dating app for "open-minded individuals," has grown its user base to hundreds of thousands across 100 countries, with 40% identifying as non-heterosexual and one-third as part of a couple. The app focuses on facilitating unconventional arrangements and a wide array of kinks or fetishes, promoting a more transparent and judgement-free dating experience. Feeld has designed its platform to encourage explicit sharing of desires and reduce stigma, offering premium features such as sending private photos or anonymous browsing at ~$12 per month. Ana Kirova, Feeld's co-founder and CEO, reveals that the company has been profitable since 2017, primarily through word-of-mouth advertising.
Gleeden: of 10M, 20% of Users Are Indians
TRUESCOOP – Gleeden, a France-based extramarital dating app, claims that out of 10M users, around 20% of the entire user base is from India. The company has said that most people in this category belong to urban households and are from Tier 1 cities, followed by Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities, respectively.
by Tushar Singh
See full article at TrueScoop
ABC News Studios Announce Hulu Docuseries on the Ashley Madison Scandal
TBI – ABC News Studios and Wall to Wall Media have announced the production of a Hulu Original documentary series, The Ashley Madison Affair. The series is a documentary exploring the hack of Ashley Madison, the dating site for married people. The 2015 scandal caused shockwaves for millions of married people using the site when a data breach made their private information public. As Ashley Madison's owners were set to IPO, they refused to comply with the demands of the hackers, known as the "Impact Team." Thirty days later, the Impact Team released 10 gigabytes of user details onto the dark web with disastrous consequences for people who had signed up to the site, ranging from suicide to blackmail to public shaming.
SugarDaddyForMe.com Launches Video Chat Feature
GLOBE NEWSWIRE – SugarDaddyForMe.com has officially launched a new video chat feature for all subscription holders. Founded in 2005, Sugar Daddy For Me pairs women looking for mutually beneficial relationships with successful men looking for the same. The site claims 4M members.
A Hookup App for the Emotionally Mature
THE NEW YORKER – Feeld describes itself as a technology for "open-minded singles and couples who want to explore their sexuality." It is free to sign up, although a paid membership, priced at $12/month, offers perks such as filters and let someone know that they like them. The app started in London. The app is popular with nonbinary and trans people, married couples trying to spice up their sex lives, hard-core B.D.S.M. enthusiasts, and "digisexuals," who prefer their erotic contact with others mediated by a screen. According to the company's data, the typical Feeld user is between twenty-five and thirty years old and lives in a big city. Feeld began, in 2014, with the story of Dimo Trifonov and Ana Kirova, two Bulgarian graphic designers in their early twenties who were living in London. Early in their relationship, Ana started having unexpected feelings for a French woman she'd met. They agreed to open their relationship. Trifonov decided to create his own app to facilitate threesomes. He called the project 3nder. After Tinder a cease-and-desist letter, which was followed by a trademark-infringement lawsuit, Trifonov rebranded the company as Feeld.
SugarDaddyMeet Rolls out ID Verification
PRESS RELEASE – Launched in 2007, SugarDaddyMeet.com (SDM) is a sugar dating site for successful generous men and attractive women. In its bid to prevent catfishing, SDM launches free verification process for its members. The feature allows users to verify their identity by uploading a photo of documentation. It could be a Driver's License, passport, or any other form of valid ID. Once the ID has been checked, a checkmark will appear on the profile to show the users are legit.
What Really Happens on Ashley Madison?
PSYCHOLOGY TODAY – Americans' acceptance of non monogamy is growing. Many are interested in having affairs. Recent data suggests that the affair-based website Ashley Madison is more likely to produce texts or sexts than physical interactions. A previous study of Ashley Madison members found that most people join because they're unhappy in their relationships, disappointed and feeling neglected, angry, and sexually frustrated. But in this recent study, almost one-quarter said they were very satisfied with their relationships, and more than half said they were at least somewhat satisfied. In the survey, 17% said their primary partners knew about their membership and consented. The site now says it focuses as much on supporting polyamory as encouraging cheating.
Dating App Feeld Announces Minimum Salary of $80K for All Employees
PR NEWSWIRE – Feeld, the dating app with ~20 sexuality and gender options, announces all employees across the globe will be receiving a minimum salary of $80K (£60K) from January 2022. The new salary announcement, which will impact close to 40% of Feeld's full time staff, comes as the leadership team continues to be as transparent and accountable as possible whilst challenging the industry benchmarks.
Pure, the Dating App ‘Where Anything Goes’
NEW YORK POST – Pure started up in Portugal and has spread throughout Europe. Launched in 2013, the app has only just started marketing the app in the US as a site for "shameless dating," an online ad board where users can explicitly say what they're looking for right now. The brainchild of Ukrainian entrepreneurs Roman Sidorenko and Alexander Kukhtenko, the app currently boasts a half-million active, international users, mostly in cities like London, Paris, Berlin and Moscow. In the New York City area, Pure has 20K prospective daters. In April 2020, Olga Petrunina, who previously founded several IT companies in the travel and crypto industries, became the CEO of Pure. According to the company, "As a woman, Olga's main goal is to improve the female experience with online dating." The site is mostly a go-to for heterosexuals searching for casual sex.