Category: All Worldwide (non UK/Euro/US)

Personal Data of Thousands of Australians Sold for Just $60

Posted on June 3, 2019

Data from dating profiles soldABC.NET.AU – May 31 – For just $60, a company registered in New York state is selling the data of ~2K Australian women who have signed up for online dating services. Dating sites often include the right to share or on-sell client data as part of the terms and conditions of starting an account. There are companies that are scraping people's data of all types. The companies that accumulate and combine this information are known as data brokers. The US Federal Trade Commission found that one data broker alone had 3K pieces of data on nearly every person in the U.S. Brokers would use data to classify people into certain categories that could be discriminatory, such as "elderly and gullible" and then selling their information to gambling marketers. Services like Paypal shares its user data with ~600 different third parties.

by Flint Duxfield & Scott Mitchell
See full article at ABC.net.au

Tinder Is Launching Its ‘Festival Mode’ in Australia

Posted on May 30, 2019

Tinder festival modeLADBIBLE – May 29 – Tinder's 'festival mode' will be available to people in Australia for the first time at this year's Splendour in the Grass festival near Bryon Bay. Users who are going to a festival can slap on a sticker to their profile and the app will start connecting them with singletons also attending.

by Stewart Perrie
See full article at LADBible

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Momo’s Momentum Returns as Censorship Fears Fade

Posted on May 30, 2019

Momo logo 2018THE MOTLEY FOOL – May 29 – Momo, the owner of two top dating apps in China, shed 30% of its value over the past 12 months as investors fled Chinese tech stocks amid the escalating trade war. It was also hit by a triple whammy of bad news over the past month – regulators ordered the removal of its Tantan app from Chinese app stores, Apple suspended in-app payments for Tantan, and the company voluntarily suspended news feed posts in both Momo and Tantan for an internal review. Momo's revenue rose 35% annually to $555M in the first quarter, beating estimates by $23M. Its monthly active users on Momo and Tantan increased 11% to 114.4M, while its paid users on both apps jumped 73% to 14M. Those growth rates look solid, but Momo's growth in revenue and MAUs decelerated significantly over the past year. Momo expects its revenue to rise 27% to 30% annually during the second quarter. That forecast is encouraging, since it indicates that Momo can still squeeze out revenue from its namesake app's existing users. It also suggests that Momo could easily beat its own guidance if its services are fully restored during the quarter.

by Leo Sun
See full article at The Motley Fool

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BharatMatrimony Continues to Match Millions of Indians in the Times of Tinder

Posted on May 30, 2019

Bharatmatrimony logo 2018YOURSTORY – May 28 – With 3.72M active profiles as on date, every year, more than 100K success stories are reported by members on India's largest matrimonial site, Bharatmatrimony. Bharatmatrimony started in 1997, and is now a listed company with estimated revenue of Rs 350 crore in 2018 ($50M). The company is now eyeing the $56B wedding services market in India, with services like MatrimonyMandaps (makes wedding venue booking easy), MatrimonyPhotography, MatrimonyBazaar (wedding related products and services like honeymoon packages, jewellery, and catering), and MatrimonyDirectory (a wedding classifieds portal with ~50K vendors). The company's founder Murugavel Janakiraman got married through his own portal. He does not see the rise of online dating apps as posing much threat. He is playing the 'tradition' game. And for all practical purposes, tradition trumps everything else in India.

by Dipti Nair
See full article at YourStory

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Lebanon Blocks Grindr in Latest Attack on LGBT+ Community

Posted on May 30, 2019

Grindr icon1INDEPENDENT.CO.UK – May 28 – Grindr has been blocked for most users in Lebanon, sparking concern over a widening crackdown on the LGBT+ community in the country. Lebanon has traditionally been seen as more forward-thinking with regards to LGBT+ rights in comparison to the rest of the Middle East. But despite some gains in recent years, the community still faces widespread discrimination.

by Richard Hall
See full article at Independent.co.uk

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Momo Q1 Results – Revenue Up 35%

Posted on May 28, 2019

Momo app logoPR NEWSWIRE – May 28 – Net revenues increased 35% YOY to RMB3,722.9M ($554.7M) in the Q1 of 2019. Net income attributable to Momo decreased to RMB289.3M ($43.1M) from RMB825.2M in the same period of 2018. Monthly Active Users on Momo app were 114.4M in March 2019, compared to 103M in March 2018. Total paying users of live video service and value-added service, including 5M paying users of Tantan, were 14M, up from 8.1M in Q1 2018. Live video service revenues were RMB2,689.4M ($400M), up 14% YOY. The growth in live video revenues was contributed by the increase in quarterly paying users, as well as the increase in average revenues per paying user per quarter.

See full article at Momo website

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Gay Dating App Taimi Launches in Singapore

Posted on May 27, 2019

Taimi logoGAYSTAR NEWS – May 25 – Singapore is the first country in Southeast Asian Taimi has launched in. Male homosexual sex remains criminalized in Singapore under British colonial-era law, Section 377A. While the law is rarely enforced, LGBT rights supporters in Singapore have made numerous calls for Section 377A's repeal. The company says they will not share personal information with the authorities of countries where same-sex sexual activity may be illegal or be met with persecution.

by Calum Stuart
See full article at Gaystar News

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Japan to Stop Labeling People Unmarried at 50 as ‘Lifelong Singles’

Posted on May 24, 2019

Japan older singlesJAPAN TIMES – May 23 – The government will no longer use the term "lifelong singles" as a label for people who have not married by age 50, deeming the term inaccurate as people are increasingly tying the knot later in life. The label has been used in annual white papers and statistics on the grounds that the fertility rate for women falls significantly when they enter their 50s. In 1985, under 5% of people were classified as unmarried before 50, but the figure rose above 20% for men and 10% for women in 2010. In 2015, the proportion of people who had not married by age 50 hit a record 23% for men and 14% for women.

See full article at Japan Times

India Among Top e-Dating Countries

Posted on May 24, 2019

Tinder passport1TIMES OF INDIA – May 23 – Four Indian cities feature in the top 10 most frequented international destinations on Tinder Passport. Tinder Passport is an exclusive feature available only to Tinder Plus subscribers that let's one change location and connect with people anywhere around the world. One can search by city or drop a pin on the world map to start swiping.

by Rachel Chitra
See full article at Times of India

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Chinese Singles Start Blind Dating at a Younger Age

Posted on May 21, 2019

China blind datingCHINA DAILY – May 21 – As the single population in China reached 240M, Chinese start going on blind dates at a younger age than before, according to a recent survey. 40% of the post-1995 generation already has experienced blind dates and 38% of Chinese singles are younger than 23 years old when they have their first blind date, according to survey by zhenai.com, an online dating platform.

See full article at China.org.cn

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