PYMNTS – India's competition watchdog, the Competition Commission of India (CCI), wants to look into Apple over reported violations of antitrust law. The order comes as a nonprofit group, "Together We Fight Society," said Apple had been forcing developers to use its in-app purchase system. The complainant also said that Apple's 30% in-app fee on the distribution of paid digital content had been harming competition.
Category: All Worldwide (non UK/Euro/US)
A Chinese City Is Building a Dating Database for Its Singles
VICE.COM – Communist Party officials from the northern city of Luanzhou have begun work on gathering the personal information of unmarried men and women, and entering collected data in a central database. Two group dating parties have been organized already this year, with a virtual dating party scheduled to be held on New Year's Eve on app Douyin, the original Chinese version of TikTok. But the government's intentions, however good, were lost on many Chinese internet users, who remained skeptical about their approach to finding love. Gender imbalance remains a huge issue in Chinese society, a hangover of the country’s decades-long one-child policy which saw a strong preference for boys over girls.
Chennai-based Matrimony Enters Bangladesh’s Matchmaking Market
THE FINANCIAL EXPRESS – Matrimony, believes that the market has huge potential in the country following societal and lifestyle changes of urban people. BangladeshiMatrimony says it gets ~1,000 clients a day now. It provides round-the-clock call-center service to those who are looking for life partners. Matrimony.com Limited, whose flagship brand is BharatMatrimony, has ~4K employees working at ~20 offices across India.
by Jasim Uddin Haroon
See full article at The Financial Express
Gaming Dating App FRND Raises $6.5M
INC42 – Bengaluru-based gamified audio-based romance and friend discovery startup FRND has raised $6.5M in a Series A round led by South Korean gaming giant and PUBG maker KRAFTON. Existing investors India Quotient and Elevation Capital also participated in the round. The funds will help FRND to expand its vernacular availability, strengthen the technology ecosystem and grow its global footprint.
by Laxitha Mundhra
See full article at INC42
This post also appears on InternetDatingInvestments.com
Shaadi.com Is Looking to Enter Into Matchmaking for LGBTQ+
BUSINESS INSIDER – One of the biggest matchmaking platforms in India, Shaadi.com, is on a hunt for new business opportunities, according to the company's founder and CEO Anupam Mittal. Shaadi wants to launch two more products. "We are planning to launch something in January, which will tilt the entire industry on its head and open up a lot of avenues for us. This is a completely new way for finding a match," Mittal said without revealing further details. Mittal also said that the company will be looking forward to entering the matchmaking arena for the LGBTQ community or people living abroad.
Blued’s New Seasonal Feature Bridges Online-Offline Gatherings
PR NEWSWIRE – Blued connects 60m+ LGBTQ people worldwide, in 13 languages, across 170 countries. 'Flash' is a new event-based feature that enables users to connect in-person by opening their offline and online activities to fellow members. Already released in South Korea and Vietnam, the feature will be available in more markets in the coming festive seasons. Blued also launched Quick Chat, a live video speed dating feature, and Voice Chat Room, a vocal message feature that enables audio communications between multiple users.
CEO of TrulyMadly: “Global Apps Are Not Building Apps for Real India”
LIVEMINT – Snehil Khanor, CEO and co-founder of TrulyMadly, who drives the startup's marketing function, explains why his platform is getting traction in smaller towns. He says the pandemic did not impact the business of serious dating apps. In fact, it further fuelled the need for having a serious, long-term partner because you were confined to your home. Women are the drivers of offline meetings. TrulyMadly targets singles 26+ . Only those people who are looking for something serious get matches. The app blocks anybody who is not a serious seeker. "International players are not building an app for real India", he says. "They are just pushing the same product that they have built for the world, especially, for the West. It is working for tier-I, but it will never work for tier-II and tier-III towns."
Chinese LGBT Social Media App Ban Users From Posting Religious Content
BITTERWINTER – Gays in China are prohibited from talking about religion or expressing their religious beliefs on social networking apps that they usually use. If they try to do so, they will have their posts deleted or even their accounts blocked. Although Blued is famous for its success, it is less well-known that Blued explicitly prohibits religious content as a violation. Article 10 of the Blued Code of Conduct lists religion-related content as a "violation of Blued platform regulations," which list Buddhism, Taoism, Christianity, Catholicism, Islam, religious associations, Buddhist studies, * churches, and other "prohibited words," and states that users who violate the regulations "will have their signatures, avatars and other information deleted."
by Chen Tao
See full article at BitterWinter
MatchMde to Offer Biocompatibility Matching
MALAYSIAKINI – Leading Southeast Asia genomics company, Malaysian Genomics Resource Centre Berhad (Malaysian Genomics) is partnering with matchmaking platform, MatchMde, to roll-out Southeast Asia's first biocompatibility relationship matching service. Malaysian Genomics-MatchMde's biocompatibility matching involves measuring the dissimilarity of certain genetic traits between two people. The more different the genetic results are, the better the biocompatibility.
Tinder Launches Safety Campaign
MANNING RIVER TIMES – Tinder has launched a safety campaign amid concerns that "sexual assaults linked to online apps are becoming more frequent". Queensland Police and Tinder launched the joint campaign on Friday, which will see messages appear while users are swiping for potential matches within the app. "Report sexual assault for yourselves and others," one of the messages read. "We're all here for different things. Hook up. Doggos. Friendship. Relationship. Nothing is set in stone," another read.