Category: All Worldwide (non UK/Euro/US)
Korean Dating App Chemi Uses AI Voice-based Algorithm
Bumble India and Safetipin Partners to Make Urban Spaces Safer for Women
YOUR STORY – Oct 23 – Bumble aims to raise $15K in support of Safetipin, an online data collection platform striving for women's safety, to help create safe urban spaces for women across the country. Bumble plans to raise money from every match made on the platform's three modes for networking – Bizz, Date, and BFF. Safetipin, founded by Kalpana Vishwanath, is a crowdsourced app that allows users to check the safety of a location.
China’s Momo to Collaborate on Beijing-set Drama
SCREEN DAILY – Oct 14 – Momo is moving into film production with Beijing-set drama, The Best Is Yet To Come, to be executive produced by Chinese filmmaker Jia Zhangke. The film revolves around a group of young people who move to Beijing in the early 2000s, just as the city's economic development was starting to take flight. Momo started out as a dating app, similar to Tinder, before moving into the live streaming space as it started to boom in China. Momo also moved into reality TV production last year, as competition for talent that can attract eyeballs to the country's growing number of live streaming platforms heats up.
HIV Cases Soar in the Philippines, as Dating Apps Spread
Egypt Matchmaking App Harmonica Is a Catch for Match Group
THE ARAB WEEKLY – Oct 6 – Match Group has announced the acquisition of the Egyptian emerging matchmaking application Harmonica. Harmonica relies on an AI engine to determine compatibility among users to help them find relationships. Before being launched in November 2017, Harmonica joined a 4-month programme of a regional early-stage investor and accelerator, Flat6Labs, during which it received financial, legal and technical support, as well as access to the Flat6Labs' network of partners and investors. By the end of the programme, the application had attracted ~5K users, a figure that would increase 700% in the following weeks. Following its stage at Flat6Labs, Harmonica entered the early-stage venture fund and seed accelerator 500 Startups, where it raised $150K. The start-up was selected by the Egyptian Technology Innovation and Entrepreneurship Centre (TIEC) to join its incubator Start IT, which grants a similar package to that of Flat6Labs but for a more advanced stage.
by Marc Espanol
See full article at The Arab Weekly
Japan’s Local Governments Operate Dating Services
THE ECONOMIST – Oct 3 – Match-making services that promote iju konkatsu, meaning "migration spouse-hunting", are increasingly common in Japan. They are typically operated by local governments. Along with online matching services, municipalities across Japan host parties to help singles mingle. They also organize group tours in rural prefectures, in which half the participants are locals and the other half from cities, to encourage urbanites to marry and move to the countryside. Hundreds of singletons participate in these tours every year.
The Rise of Bharat Matrimony
THE NEWS MINUTE – Sep 23 – BharatMatrimony's origin began in the US in 1997 when Murugavel Janakiraman started a website for the Tamil community, called sysindia.com. The site included features like the Tamil daily calendar, festival reminders, tips and matrimonial service which later became BharatMatrimony. In 2000, he returned to India to start his own office in Chennai. Muruga was inspired by IAC and began to create his network of websites. Clickjobs.com and Indiaproperty.com were launched in 2005. Indialist.com (local classifieds modelled on Craigslist), Loanwala.com and Indiaautomobile.com were next in line. In 2005, things started changing. Companies that had been around for a while and had survived the dot-com crash were seeing a lot of interest from investors. The biggest competitor Shaadi.com raised $8M. Muruga met more than ten investors around that time but couldn't raise money from any of them. "We were generating $4M in revenue and some of the investors made lowball offers of $10M valuations," he said. Suddenly, out of nowhere, the investment bankers organised a meeting with Yahoo! Cannan Partners got the wind that Yahoo! was considering an investment in BharatMatrimony and jumped in to participate in the round. In August 2006, BharatMatrimony announced an $8.65M financing from Yahoo! and Cannan Partners. Yahoo! dumped Shaadi.com as their exclusive partner and replaced them with BharatMatrimony. "We kind of spent most of the money on marketing. We had a play in all these classifieds like jobs, matrimonial, real estate, and vehicles with competitors in each. It turned out that $8M was too little for the entire portfolio to grow and succeed." Thankfully, for Muruga, right before they ran out of cash in early 2008, they managed to raise ~$11.75M. This time, Mayfield Fund led the round and there was participation from existing investors, Yahoo! and Canaan Partners. "We plan to leverage this fund to expand our matrimony business in the international markets and to strengthen our classifieds offerings."
by Sidharth Rao
See full article at The News Minute
Tinder Japan’s Latest Ad Says the App Is a Good Way to Learn English
TIMEOUT – Sep 23 – Earlier this month, Tinder released a video ad for its Japanese market, which shows a young woman wearily studying English over a pile of books late at night. Tired of her notebooks, she opens the Tinder app on her phone and swipes right on a friendly looking female westerner. The subsequent scene reveals the two singing karaoke together, presumably picking up some language skills as they sing a variety of different songs. The video's tagline translates to 'I want to know the world more'.
by Emma Steen
See full article at TimeOut
80% Young Singles Sign up for Online Dating Service
XINHUA – Sep 21 – A recent survey by the China Youth Daily found that 78.8% of the ~2K respondents used marriage websites, mobile apps or social media to seek spouses. 60% of those surveyed are interested in the matching services. 54% of the respondents said they had friends who found partners through online dating services.