LTR – Ruben is the CEO of RealGifts, which provides a platform for users to access top-selling products from various brands and send personalized gifts through mobile apps and websites.
RealGifts is a platform that allows people to send physical gifts across social and dating platforms. Ruben Buell, who has a lot of experience in the dating industry, spoke about RealGifts and its potential benefits for dating platforms. He explained that gift-giving is an important aspect of building and strengthening relationships and can help people stand out on dating apps. The RealGifts platform offers a way for people to send gifts that recipients will love, creating a positive feeling and a dopamine rush. The platform is customizable and generates revenue for channel partners.
LTR – For 30 years, Carmelia Ray has been a prominent figure in the dating industry, serving as a celebrity matchmaker, TV host, and online dating expert. During this time, she has helped ~8K matchmaking clients and engaged in ~65K conversations with singles from around the world about matters of love and relationships. She is recognized as one of the most successful matchmakers, having worked with renowned entrepreneurs, corporate executives, celebrities, and influencers. Carmelia is also the host and associate producer of her reality dating show called "Mom vs Matchmaker," and has appeared on several TV programs. Throughout her career, she has collaborated with various matchmaking agencies, top dating coaches, and major online dating sites.
Carmelia talks about her experience as a matchmaker and how she has used media to increase her visibility and authority. She shares ideas on how to attract media to a brand and reach a target audience through content marketing, social selling, and brand recognition. Carmelia discusses the three types of media: paid media, owned media, and earned media, and highlights the importance of producing content to establish one's voice and stand out. She advises taking advantage of crises to solve problems for people and attract media attention. Finally, Carmelia emphasizes the power of leveraging media to create instant visibility and authority. She also advises on how to get featured in the media, including building relationships with producers and writers, creating video content, and following up with enthusiasm. Carmelia emphasizes the importance of being authentic and sharing personal stories to connect with audiences.
LTR – We run LTR events a few weeks after each event, so more people can enjoy and learn from them. LTR stands for Love, Tech, Relationships and is where IDEA members learn, share and connect online. See www.IDEA.gp.
Steven is a lifetime entrepreneur who’s spent the past 8 years developing and operating online dating communities, including DateFit. With a strong passion for fitness and healthy living, Steven built a community for singles that provide them a place to find others with the same passions and zest for life. Datefit launched in Jan 2019. Steven spoke about his experience with influencer marketing – finding the right influencers, negotiating with them and managing them, and creating effective content.
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.
LTR – As the Group CEO of Paktor & GaiGai, Alex oversees online and offline matchmaking brands as well as the associated dating and image coaching businesses in Singapore, Taiwan, Malaysia, and Hong Kong. GaiGai was started for singles to meet in casual settings without the hours of swiping and chatting. Prior to starting GaiGai, Alex worked as an investment analyst at hedge fund Lionport Capital in Singapore. He graduated with a double degree in Accounting and Business Management. Alex mentioned that localisation is important in dating apps. Paktor's local branding is through the use of stickers and gifts to engage local singles. Paktor also partners with local businesses including tourist attractions.
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.
LTR – Adam has spent 8 years of his career working with leading dating companies. First, he worked with The Meet Group, then after some time in consulting, he joined Magic Lab as the MD of Chappy. Then he started S'More.
Adam found that, although singles have been swiping for 10+ years, 81% of them have not found long-term relationship success on "swipe apps." The evolution of dating is the transition from transactional dating which is focused on profiles to communities where there are much more organic ways to discover someone new. He mentioned that S'More is the first social network for singles powered by content.
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.
LTR – Dr. Akin is an operations research analyst and web expert. He's developed complex operations research projects for the US Navy and a Fortune Global 50 company. He's also worked for top Turkish social networks, and e-commerce companies on web analytics, and large-scale SEO. Pembe Panjur is Turkey's meaningful relationships dating service. Launched in 2010 it now has 6M+ users. It uses scientific matching with 60+ socio-economic questions and 60+ personality questions. Dr. Akin noted the solution to technical, financial & other problems with managing multiple products/brands that he does with his team in Pembe Panjur: (1) A unified technology that has fewer languages and fewer server types (2) An automated code build process and (3) A simplified code deploy process.
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.
OPW – Paul has been focused on payment processing for online subscriptions for the last 30 years. He has run Paul Larsen Consulting since 2003 and advises dating and social and other subscription companies on payment processing strategy and tactics. Paul mentioned 8 points regarding the current subscription economy after its continued 10-year rise:
Subscriptions are saturated, yet, subscriptions are expanding relentlessly.
The Economy is soft.
Involuntary churn is climbing rapidly.
The networks have created havoc by redefining declines.
The networks are cracking down on chargebacks.
The networks have developed challenging recurring rules.
Merchants will be penalized with higher fees for not using tokens.
But there is a silver lining in each of these.
He brings a world of payment processing knowledge, and specific context experience and gives us the latest scoop on payment processing in our sometimes challenging field.
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.
OPW – Bill Alena, the CIO of Social Discovery Ventures, a master of digital revenue and social, presents how and why Digital Intimacy is the future. The next dating evolution will focus on building intimate relationships within a strictly digital ecosystem. Current dating apps are very transactional. More social and engaging platforms will thrive as products to solve loneliness are built. Bill digs into how video, AI, and the MetaVerse will forever transform space.
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.
OPW – Courtney presents the vision and purpose of Women in Dating and provides a roundup of 2021 initiatives, along with what’s in store for 2022. Courtney founded Women In Dating, an initiative sponsored and supported by RealMe. Women in Dating is for women, including trans women and people of marginalized genders wishing to access a women-centered community. The mission is to work together to provide thought leadership and guidance to women in the industry, create a space where women can learn and inspire one another, guide and shape the direction of the industry, and drive meaningful change toward a diverse and inclusive dating industry.
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.
