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

A Chinese Dating App for Gay Men Is Helping Them Have Kids, Too

Posted on March 21, 2019

Bluedbaby picBLOOMBERG BUSINESSWEEK – Mar 21 – The urge to have a child hit Blued's founder Geng Le hard after age 35. Surrogacy is illegal in China. Another option was Thailand, but by 2015 that country had banned foreign surrogacy. Geng decided on California, which offered the best legal protections for "intended parents" such as himself, excellent advanced medical care for the surrogate and the newborn, and a U.S. passport for the baby. The surrogacy process was a long drumbeat of tests, contract signings, and administrative details. When the due date came around, Geng flew to LA for the birth and held his son for the first time. He returned home with his son, Xiao Shu, in March 2017. He also brought back a new idea for Blued: an overseas surrogacy service for gay men – Bluedbaby. Bluedbaby shepherds clients through such choices, connecting them with steps such as choosing an egg donor, finding a surrogate, signing contracts, and navigating American culture.

by Dune Lawrence & David Ramli
See full article at Bloomberg Businessweek

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Q&A With CEO of Lunch Actually Violet Lim on Class95 Radio

Posted on March 18, 2019

Lunchactually violet lim 2018RADIOSINGAPORE – Mar 18 – The presenters on "People In Our Neighbourhood" radio show chatted with Violet Lim, dating expert and CEO of Lunch Actually, about what's it like playing cupid in an age where the dating scene has changed so much due to technology.

Q: Why did you decide to set up a dating company?
A: At my first job at a bank I came across a lot of different people. I was surprised that a lot of my colleagues were single. I noticed that most of my friends who were getting married met their other half at the university. So I realized that if you miss that window, it is very hard to meet somebody later on. I had this idea of "lunch dating" and I could see how it would fit into the busy lifestyle of my colleagues.

Q: How do you help people?
A: Our focus now is on how to help people maximize their chances of meeting someone. Because just sending them on multiple dates might not help.

Q: How has Tinder and other dating apps affected your business?
A: They have actually helped our business. Before, people were not as open to using dating companies as they are now.

Q: How gratifying is to see people getting married?
A: It is very gratifying. One of the reasons I left the bank was that I could not see how my work translates to results.

Q: Do you have a secret book where you write down your successes?
A: 8 years ago, I published a book called Lessons from 15000 first dates. I have a new book coming up – What Dating Apps And Algorithms Do Not Tell You.

Q: What advice would you give to someone who is interested in working in the dating business?
A: Be very sure why you are joining this industry. It is very personal. Make sure this is your passion and you really want help singles find love. Understand it's not always an easy path, be a good listener, and don't be judgmental.

See full article at People In Our Neighbourhood

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Momo: High Growth, Stock Still Cheap and a Special Dividend

Posted on March 15, 2019

Momo logo 2018SEEKING ALPHA – Mar 15 – Momo is a mobile platform in China. It consists of the main Momo app, which combines live video streaming, chatting, gaming and TanTan, the Tinder of China. On Tuesday, March 12, Momo jumped 12% after it had released its Q4 and FY 2018 earnings before the market opened. Momo has beaten expectations every single time since its IPO in 2015. Momo is hugely profitable. And without Tantan's financial impact, the profitability would even have been higher. Momo invested heavily in 2018. With an extra 57% spending, a lot of companies would see their bottom line wither. But not Momo. Tang Yan, Momo's founder-CEO, was righteously very proud of the bottom line margins, which grew despite the very heavy investments. Because of that huge profitability, Momo is able to give a present to its shareholders: a special dividend. The special cash dividend is $0.62 per ADS, a 1.64% one-time yield at the current price ($37.76 at the moment of writing). The total amount of cash dividends the company will have to pay will be ~$128M. Tantan has still less users than Tinder. The dating app started the monetization only in Q1 2018: in January it started its VIP service. Then later, in July, it added two extra paying services: A See Who Likes Me stream and Super Exposure. With these three services, TanTan already has 3.9M paying subscribers which is already 90% of Tinder's number of subscribers. In Q4, TanTan's total revenue was $33M up 36% QoQ. While this is only a small number, I think the Chinese dating market could still be in its infancy and I expect it to grow for at least a decade.

See full article at Seeking Alpha

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Time Out Singapore and Paktor Group Partner for a Dating Event

Posted on March 14, 2019

Gaigai eventMARKETING MAGAZINE – Mar 13 – Time Out Singapore has collaborated with dating agency Paktor Group's GaiGai to increase brand awareness of its product offering by hosting a dating event called "Find Me a Blind Date". Both Time Out Singapore and Paktor Group will also be presenting this event, while Winestone at Novotel Singapore is the exclusive venue and F&B partner.

by Farzanah Farveen
See full article at Marketing Magazine

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BharatMatrimony Rolls Out a New Safety Feature for Women

Posted on March 14, 2019

Bharatmatrimony logo 2018OPW – Mar 13 – On Women's Day, BharatMatrimony launched 'SecureConnect', a new calling feature that enables women to receive calls from male members, who have a premium membership, without revealing their contact number.

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Momo Predicts Big Growth in Eastern Markets for Its Dating App Tantan

Posted on March 14, 2019

Tantan logo 2017KR ASIA – Mar 14 – The founder and CEO of Chinese location-based social app Momo, Tang Yan, said the company will pursue opportunities in overseas markets for its dating app Tantan. Momo acquired Tantan last May in a $735M cash and stock swap deal. Tantan is one of the top ten social apps on Android in Nepal, Singapore, Indonesia, and the Philippines, with ~10M installs. Tantan had 3.9M paying users in the Q4 2018.

by Song Jingli
See full article at KrASIA

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Momo’s Financial Results: 2018 Annual Revenue ~$2B

Posted on March 12, 2019

Momo app logoPR NEWSWIRE – Mar 12 – Q4 2018 net revenues increased 50% YOY to $559M. Net income increased slightly YOY to $96M. Monthly Active Users ("MAU") on Momo app were 113.3M in Dec 2018, compared to 99M in Dec 2017. Total paying users, including 3.9M paying users of Tantan were 13M, compared to 7.8M in Q4 2017. Live video service revenues were $430M in the Q4 2018, up 36% YOY. Annual revenues increased 51% YOY to $1,950M. Net income was $409.5M, up from $320M.

See full article at Momo website

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Aussie Sexual Health Firm Ads Blocked on Tinder

Posted on March 12, 2019

Stigmahealth logoSTUFF.CO.NZ – Mar 12 – James Sneddon wants to boost awareness of his Australian startup Stigma Health, but a sales representative of Tinder told him that there was little chance the startup would be able to advertise on the app because "we won't run anything that involves sexual behaviour". Stigma Health lets patients book referrals for pathology centres online so they can undergo sexual health tests and have their results messaged directly to them without the need for face-to-face interactions or phone calls. The business has just started generating revenue in the tens of thousands of dollars, but Sneddon says there's an opportunity to scale significantly in the next two years. The trouble has been developing a digital advertising strategy. Nine of the company's ads have been removed from Facebook for failing to meet advertising standards.

by Emma Koehn
See full article at Stuff.co.nz

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Indian Dating App Woo Launches Woo Phone Feature to Empower Women

Posted on March 11, 2019

OPW – Mar 11 – Woo Phone allows women to call their matched profiles from within the dating app without revealing their phone numbers. This feature is exclusively available to women.

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Why Self-employed People Get More Response on Matrimonial Sites

Posted on March 9, 2019

Indian matrimonyINDIA TIMES – Mar 9 – In India, matrimonial profiles of self-employed people have traditionally been preferred by the business community. Rajasekar KS, general manager at Matrimony.com, which runs matchmaking website Bharat Matrimony, said there's been a marked increase in the preference for entrepreneurs over the last few years. "It is largely driven by the increasing success stories of entrepreneurs," he said. Gourav Rakshit, CEO of Shaadi.com, said: "Over 20% women have shown interest in entrepreneurs." Another change is that more women are now in control of their profiles, as opposed to their parents doing the monitoring.

by Anjali Venugopalan
See full article at India Times

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