TELEGRAPH.CO.UK – July 26 – The Omnivore, the literary review site, has launched a dating service that matches couples up by their book tastes.
Category: All UK & Europe
Concerns Raised Over Web Dating ‘Fake Profiles’
BBC.CO.UK – July 26 – A BBC investigation has found that fake profiles are apparently being used to encourage people to pay a subscription to Cupid Plc. Earlier this year the company hired auditors after users told a BBC 5 live investigation they had lots of messages when they signed up to the sites as free users, but when they paid up, interest rapidly tailed off. Cupid commissioned KPMG to look at working practices. The report found that "scammers" were a problem but said there was no evidence of "a Company organised" use of fake profiles. But the BBC has been contacted by Cupid daters, complaining of disappearing messages and fake profiles. The programme team created a profile of a man called James from Glasgow, to see how many of the people who approached "James" were real. "James" profile was matched with Kaz B. However, Kaz B is Karen Bartke, a Scottish actress, who never signed up for Cupid's sites. These profiles did not appear to be the work of scammers. The bulk of Cupid plc's work is done in Ukraine, where journalist Svitlana Tuchynska from the Kyiv Post newspaper went undercover. She applied for a job as a motivation manager. She said: "I was told the job is to communicate with customers on the sites. Cupid described Ms Tuchynska's allegations as "wholly incorrect".
Cupid Falls Out Of Love With Commercial Director
PROACTIVE INVESTORS – July 19 – Cupid waved goodbye to commercial director Mark Doughty after dumping its casual dating business. Doughty handed over the role of CFO to Niall Stirling in December as it expanded its board and his new job was to grow the company internationally.
Alexandre Lubot Named CEO of Meetic
BOURSORAMA – July 17 – Meetic has appointed Alexandre Lubot (previously CMO of Meetic since 2011) as its CEO. Former CEO Philippe Chainieux decided to focus on a new career path but will remain a member of the Board of Directors.
Cupid Sells Casual Dating Sites For £43 Million
INDEPENDENT – July 15 – Cupid sold its BeNaughty.com, Flirt.com and other casual dating sites to Grendall Investment for £43.1M (€50M). The company would retain Cupid.com, LoveAgain.com and UniformDating.com. It also signed a software licensing agreement with Grendall that would generate £2M of revenue over four years. Grendall Investment is managed by Max Polyakov, co-founder of Cupid, who also holds a 15% stake in the company.
See full article at Independent
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eDarling Announces UK And Ireland Expansion
VENTURE VILLAGE – July 11 – Shortly after eDarling bought back its shares from eHarmony (May 2013) comes the news that the German company will be expanding to the UK and Ireland. Until now, the dating service had avoided expanding to areas where eHarmony was already active. The new UK and Irish versions of the company will be called “EliteSingles”, similar to Hamburg-based service ElitePartner. Both dating sites connect singles that have certain academic qualifications. eDarling is keen to move forward under the generic Affinitas brand, which explains the new name for the UK and Irish branches. eDarling is planning on funding it via its own operative cash flow.
The full article was originally published at Venture Village, but is no longer available.
UK Global Personals Rank 13th In The Sunday Times HSBC International Track 200
GLOBAL PERSONALS – June 8 – The league table recognises Britain’s mid-market companies with the fastest growing international sales, based on the last two years of audited accounts.
TrueView: New Micro-blogging Dating App
DAILYMAIL.CO.UK – July 7 – TrueView is a new dating app that uses real time micro-blogging to hunt down potential matches. The app enables users to create a simple profile and then update it minute-by-minute with whatever they are doing, just like Facebook, Instagram or Twitter. Users can also mark their location so they can see if any potential dates are nearby.
by Martha DeLacey
See full article at DailyMail.co.uk
Cupid Cleared Over ‘Fake Profiles’
THE INDEPENDENT – July 1 – Online dating group Cupid was today cleared of using fake profiles to lure new members but warned it needs to overhaul its operations. The Company said a review by KPMG found there was “no evidence” its staff were misleading registered members into becoming fully paid subscribers. However, KPMG said Cupid’s staff needed to identify themselves more clearly to customers in the future because their current methods “could potentially lead to confusion”. Cupid was also told to sharpen up its marketing, governance, technical controls and risk management. Cupid said: “The board is pleased to have concluded this review and will continue to innovate and enhance the customer experience, whilst taking steps to ensure its recommendations are implemented and policies and procedures and best practice are complied with.” Shares in the company rose by more than 6% on the back of the findings of the probe, which took KPMG two months to complete.
by Jamie Dunkley
See full article at The Independent
Dating Site For Baby-ready Singles
ICENEWES – June 28 – Danish dating site babyklar.nu (baby-ready) connects people who are ready to have babies. The site launched last Monday and gets ~50 new members per hour, with slightly over half of them being men. Last year, Denmark’s birth rate dropped to its lowest level in over 20 years, about 1.7 children per women.