TELECOMPAPER – Jan 13 - Mail.ru owns a 31.19% stake in the dating service, and Russian company Finam owns the rest and is considered a potential buyer. Experts estimate Mamba is worth RUB 4-5 billion.
See full article at Telecompaper
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DAILYMAIL.CO.UK – Jan 3 – Peter Greenhouse, of the British Association for Sexual Health and HIV, said: "These apps make having casual sex a damn sight easier." Advocates say it works because it is spontaneous and discreet, but critics believe it is making casual sex more normal. Mr Greenhouse said: 'Thanks to Grindr or Tinder, you can acquire chlamydia in five minutes.'
by Stephen Adams
See full article at DailyMail.co.uk
INDEPENDENT – Dec 16 – Over 150K Irish people now use Tinder, according to researchers for Ipsos MRBI. The chances of them making a match are only one in a hundred. Those who use the app are more likely to be under 25. According to Tinder's own figures, user spends between an hour and 90 minutes using the app every day, logging in 11 times. That rivals Facebook or Twitter.
NEWSSLASH – Dec 14 – German based dating app Lovoo has now 20M members and 5M active users. The company said the revenue has more than tripled in one year. The app went from 10M users to 20M in just six months. Half of Lovoo's users come from outside the DACH region.
FINANCIAL TIMES – Dec 12 – Richard Griffiths, the former chairman of Evolution Securities, has raised his stake in Cupid to above 10%, as the company nears a crucial vote on December 23 to offload its websites and turn into a shell company. Cupid has proposed to sell its dating websites, including Cupid.com and Uniformdating.com, to Tradax and Together Networks, which are chaired by Max Polyakov.
See full article at Financial Times
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TECH CRUNCH – Dec 11 – French dating app Happn just raised an $8M Series A round from Alven Capital and DN Capital, as well as business angels, such as Fabrice Grinda. Happn uses phone’s location to show users potential matches. Happn is now available in Paris, London, Berlin, Barcelona, Madrid and New York. Out of its user base of 1M people, 200K people use Happn every day.
by Romain Dillet
See full article at Tech Crunch
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DAILYRECORD.CO.UK – Dec 8 – Cupid's shares dropped 24% on Monday on the announcement it plans to sell off its remaining dating sites as it looks to reclassify as an investment company. Cupid has agreed to sell off its core dating sites Cupid, UniformDating and LoveBeginsAt, to Tradax IP Licensing, Together Network Holdings and Together Networks for £3M. It also proposes to rename itself Castle Street Investments plc if plans to reclassify as an investment company are approved.
by Scott McCulloch
See full article at DailyRecord.co.uk
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STV EDINBURGH – Dec 4 - Tangle is a new location-based dating app developed with Cupid. On top of matching people who 'like' each other, it also sends push notifications to users when they walk past each other in the street or are in the same cafe or club.
by Claire White
See full article at STV Edinburgh
HUFFINGTON POST – Dec 4 – Rachael Wardle, 26, has launched datemy.co.uk, an online matchmaking site that encourages singles' nearest and dearest (sibling, daughter, son) to find them matches and help find love.
Q: How did you get the idea for "Datemy”?
A: I was inspired by a real life matchmaking story. My dad was a single widow when I was growing up. He was set up with a family friend and went on to marry two years later. Datemy was originally going to be a single parent matchmaking platform, but a lot of people know someone single they would love to set up.
Q: How did you get the money for it?
A: I crowd funded datemy back in January on banktothefuture.com.
Q: What is the ambition for the business?
A: For datemy to be an international and profitable brand.
BBC NEWS MAGAZINE – Nov 11 – The book "London: The Information Capital" is a series of data portraits based on figures from the 2011 Census that reveal that singles in London make the move toward marriage by their 30s and tend to migrate from inner to outer London. The young and single prefer to live close to town in trendy areas like Hoxton and Clapham. Once people have started living with a partner, many prefer to move a little further away from the centre of the city, and finally settling in outer London as they marry.