YAHOO SPORTS – Feb 8 – According to research by Ocean Finance, dating under lockdown has on average saved singletons up to £3,224 ($4,442). Ocean Finance also found from a survey of 1K singles that almost 2/3 (64%) would prefer to date in-person – suggesting that money doesn't matter when it comes to finding love. The research also showed that only one in 12 (8%) would continue dating virtually when life is back to normal.
Category: All UK & Europe
Dating Apps and Videoconferencing Could Be Monitored in New EU Data Rules
EURACTIV – Jan 21 – Dating apps and videoconferencing tools could come under the scope of new EU efforts to monitor online communications in a bid to stamp out child sexual abuse material. In a series of private exchanges between MEPs and Commission services, the EU executive has attempted to clarify a number of concerns related to proposed rules that would allow online communications services to be vetted for child abuse content. In one exchange, the Commission is pressed on whether it considers 'dating apps,' such as Tinder, Bumble and OkCupid, part of the new rules. The response was that while assessments should be made on a case-by-case basis, "the communications features of dating apps may constitute NI-ICS, unless they are merely ancillary features."
Mamba to Invest $3M to Drive Growth in Germany and Italy
ROEM.RU – Dec 15 – Mamba, the Russian dating app, is expecting to be in the top 5 dating apps in Italy and Germany by the end of 2021. So far, the app is not even in the top 10. It faces competition from Tinder, Badoo, Bumble, Happn, Meetic, Lovoo and Lovescout24, as well as the recently launched Facebook Dating. To scale up in Italy and Germany, the company is going to apply a model that has already proven successful in Turkey and Israel. In Israel, Mamba overtook Tinder in terms of the number of downloads. Mamba is 65% owned by Finam and 35% by Mail.ru Group, and claims 60M users.
Dating.dk to Celebrate Singles Day
VIA RITZAU – Nov 10 – Dating.dk, Denmark's largest dating site, invites all singles in Denmark to its online Singles' Day event which is today (Nov 11th) to celebrate the Singles' Day. The event is called "What is love", it's free, and starts at 5pm. Singles' Day was invented in China, where the day was originally an occasion for singles to meet each other. The participants can meet sexologists, behavioral experts and couple therapists. There will be fun quizzes, competitions and the opportunity to meet other singles.
Facebook Dating Launches in Europe After 9-month+ Delay Over Privacy Concerns
TECH CRUNCH – Oct 21 – From today, European Facebook users can opt into Facebook Dating by creating a profile at facebook.com/dating. Among the dating product's main features are the ability to share Stories on users' profile; a Secret Crush feature that let people select up to nine of their Facebook friends or Instagram followers who they'd like to date (without them knowing unless they also add them – triggering a match notification); the ability to see people with similar interests; and a video chat feature called Virtual Dates. Since the launch of Facebook's dating product in 20 countries around the world – including the U.S. and a number of markets in Asia and LatAm – the company says ~1.5B matches have been "created".
Online Daters Are More Likely to Catch an STI
DAILY MAIL – Oct 21 – People using dating apps to 'hook up' are more likely to have an sexually transmitted infection and not use protection than those who meet in other ways, a study has found. A team from the Public Health Agency of Sweden surveyed ~14,500 men and women aged 16 to 84 about their sexual behaviour, online dating and health. 11% of men said they'd used the Internet to meet sexual partners, compared to 7% of women.
Dua Signs Romania Partner, Interview With CEO Valon Asani
OPW INTERVIEW – Oct 16 – Dua is a dating and networking app for Albanians and diaspora. But that's not the entirety of their business play. They're proving out their app in Albania but then they've been on the prowl for partners to expand to other countries with considerable portions of their natives who form as diaspora around the world. They're uniting diaspora in their apps. Brilliant. We've seen World Singles do something similar in the past with Eligible Greeks and Iranian Personals. Now Dua is following a similar path. Starting with Albanians, and now Romanians. They just announce that they have a partner helping them to expand into Romania (see news). I interviewed CEO/Founder Valon Asani. – Mark Brooks
How is Dua different from the likes of other matchmaking and online dating apps? What is your focus?
260 million people are living outside the country they were born in. We are on a mission to revolutionize the way how globally fragmented communities connect with each other. We understand the importance of the community and how to connect people living in diasporas with their home countries. Diaspora Intelligence is the new way of operating diaspora engagement and interconnecting people of global communities.
Our focus is not only in niche markets, but we have a hyper-focus on niche markets with a huge diaspora. Our Diaspora Intelligence Platform is made to connect people from the same community within the diaspora and with their home country. Specific features like 'Change virtual location', 'Hot Places' & 'Cross-Path' make that possible.
Why is Romania your next partner-vertical?
Romania is a super interesting market, over 26 million people and 6.6 million Romanians living in the diaspora. In Europe, Romania is the third largest remittance recipient. The diaspora is well connected and sends over 4 billion Euro yearly back to the home country. 10% yearly growth in social media users. The country is investing billions in digitalization. A perfect match for our matchmaking technology with our local partners in Romania. We started with the Albanian market (dua.com) and the Romanians have a similar culture and therefore the differences are minimal, which makes it easier for us to enter this market.
What are you looking for in an ideal partner?
We're looking for marketing partners who understand the local culture and help to connect their diasporas. People with an entrepreneur spirit, well connected, understanding the value of technology and matchmaking. These are the basics. From that point, we can start talking about how to implement our Diaspora Intelligence Platform with our partner into the next market.
What will Dua look like in 2 years time?
We will have crossed 10 million users in 4 different countries with big diasporas. Our Diaspora Intelligence Technology is changing the way how global communities are connected.
One day, all people who got separated from their communities will have the opportunity to connect again with their community members. Anywhere. Anytime. Anyone. People of socially connected communities are more likely to thrive, to love, to make an impact. Social impact. Business impact. Positive impact. Sources: dua.solutions & dua.com/en/
Sending Unsolicited Dick Pics Soon to Be Illegal in Finland
Albanian Dating App Dua.com Launches With Cisgender and Heterosexual Options Only
German Dating App, LemonSwan, Raised a 7-Digit Round
GRUENDER – July 29 – There are currently ~17M single people in Germany. The online dating revenue in the country will be reach ~212M euros in 2020. The market is dominated by large providers such as Parship or Elitepartner, who aggressively advertise on TV and at S-Bahn stations. So are the large pieces of the cake already distributed? Arne Kahlke and Paul Uhlig don't believe that. The two are founders of dating app Lemon Swan. The app, which claims 250K users, launched 3 years ago. Kahlke has a lot of experience in connecting people. He not only built up Parship's marketing, but also founded ElitePartner in 2004 and sold the company to ProSiebenSat1. Lemon Swan's matching process is similar to that of ElitePartner and Parship – the app works with a psychological personality test and a matching algorithm – but so-called bouncers are also used to check users identity. After a capital injection in January 2019, the start-up has now received fresh capital in the seven-figure range. With the money, LemonSwan wants to become profitable in the German-speaking region in the Q1 2021, and to expand internationally.
by Marie-Charlotte Maas
See full article at Gruender
This post also appears on InternetDatingInvestments.com