JAPAN TIMES – Mar 8 – The number of cybercrimes confirmed by police nationwide in 2018, including many cases of child pornography and fraud, stood at 9,040, rising slightly to reach a record high for the third consecutive year, National Police Agency data showed Thursday. Among the 9,040 cybercrimes, the highest number, at 2,057, were related to child prostitution and child pornography, followed by 972 cases of fraud and 926 related to juveniles, such as sexual misconduct involving youth age 18 or younger through online dating.
Category: All Worldwide (non UK/Euro/US)
Lunch Actually Launches ‘Dating Success Program’, a Coaching Program
VULCAN POST – Mar 5 – Singapore dating company Lunch Actually wants to help singles become their best selves to maximise their dating success. Lunch Actually co-founder and CEO Violet Lim said: "A simple tweak can make a whole big difference to a person and their dating life, but the industry has become so fixated only on arranging dates that they miss out on adding value to their clients' dating journey." The programme is customisable and personalised, with modules created based on today's dating challenges.
Some of the modules include:
- Find your unique strengths & characteristics
- Understand your past dating experiences
- How to identify red flags
- Dating trends and hacks
- How to sep up an attractive profile, use dating apps effectively
The Dating Success Program is available for 4-months, 6-months and 12-months durations.
by Melissa Chan
See full article at Vulcan Post
Date Check Provides Background Checks for Online Daters in New Zealand & Australia
SCOOP.CO.NZ – Mar 5 – Watching friends walk through the rigmarole of online dating, Date Check founder Cheney McGlynn saw the need for a service that background checked potential online partners before getting romantically involved. Date Check provides clients with a full report in as little as 24h. The report costs $99 (for 3-5 days turnaround) or $149 (ready in 24h).
Tech-matrimony Crossover: Banihal Uses AI to Find Users the Perfect Match
ECONOMIC TIMES – Mar 4 – Ishdeep Sawhney, Co-Founder and CEO of matrimonial dating site Banihal.com, describes the AI engine for matchmaking and how it can now predict matches from data.
Q: Why did you choose to implement AI for matchmaking?
A: AI is a technology that can closely resemble human decision making. Banihal has developed Rae, which is the AI engine for matchmaking and it can now predict matches from data so that 90% of most compatible matches connect with each other.
Q: How does AI work for the matchmaking process?
A: AI in matchmaking is similar to the decision making of an individual when they meet a potential partner in real life. The AI system is doing the same process with all the thousands of potential matches at the same time in less than 1 second. There are two main areas where AI is being used at Banihal. 1. Finding the best potential matches. 2. Learning about an individuals’ preferences from their actions on Banihal.
Q: What is your competitive advantage?
A: Banihal is the only pure AI matchmaking system. A user completes a profile with facts about themselves and no information about the match they are looking for. There is no search on Banihal. All introductions on Banihal are made by the AI system Rae.
Zhenai Lets Users Date Via Live Stream
ABACUS NEWS – Feb 28 – Chinese dating app Zhenai is allowing its users to have blind dates through video streams. These dates happen live, in public and for everyone to watch and comment. Similar to Tinder, Zhenai allows swiping through profiles – except, in this case, getting a match leads to a direct voice call with the person.
by Masha Borak
See full article at Abacus News
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China’s Master Matchmaker Brings Love to 2,000 Couples
XINHUA – Feb 28 – On stage, girls wearing masks take turns introducing themselves, and men, sitting behind two lines of desks, express their interest by turning on a light on their desk. This is a dating event held at a matchmaking service center in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. Since opening in 2015, the center and its founder Pang Yufang have seen 2k people find love. In Pang's service center, ~40K people have signed up, and ~300 volunteers work to examine and sift through the documents. Volunteers at the center are mostly retirees like Pang, who are keen to help young people find love.
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Shaadi: Women Take Charge to Find Life Partners in India
by Sindhu Hariharan
See full article at Times of India
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Where Will Momo Be in 5 Years?
THE MOTLEY FOOL – Feb 27 – We're a couple of weeks away from Momo posting its Q4 results, and investors are probably nervous. The Chinese social-video and online-dating company burned investors last time out, landing at the low end of its earlier revenue forecast and offering up guidance calling for continuing deceleration. Analysts at Citi and Morgan Stanley would go on to downgrade the stock following the uninspiring results, sending the shares to their lowest levels in nearly a year. Momo stock has started to bounce back in recent weeks. The shares are trading 49% higher in 2019. Revenue at Momo has more than tripled over the past two years. Momo is hot right now. It attracted 110.5M monthly active users, up from 94.4M a year earlier. No one knows what the hot mobile platforms will be in 2024. One thing that does help Momo here is that it is very profitable, with a cash-rich balance sheet to boot. Momo has nearly $1.5B in cash on its books. Tantan won't be the last of Momo's purchases.
by Rick Munarriz
See full article at The Motley Fool
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Chinese Dating Site Sues Catfishing User
SIXTH TONE – Feb 26 – Chinese dating site Jiayuan.com is suing a user who lied in her profile to attract suitors and extort them for expensive gifts. According to Jiayuan, ~190M users are registered on the platform. In September 2017, the company faced intense scrutiny following the high-profile death of a former customer – a tech entrepreneur who wrote in his suicide note that his ex-wife, whom he'd met through Jiayuan, had driven him to despair. The same month, the Communist Youth League, the Ministry of Civil Affairs, and the National Health and Family Planning Commission issued a joint directive requiring real-name registration on dating sites. Jiayuan said that it is working with a third party to establish a social credit system for its users, and that in the meantime it had assembled a team specifically tasked with reviewing and verifying personal information.
by Fu Danni
See full article at Sixth Tone
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Sugar Dating App SugarBook to Open Office in New Zealand
NZ HERALD – Feb 23 – SugarBook runs a sugar dating app and claims to have 10K members signed up in New Zealand. Its Malaysian creator and CEO Darren Chan, 31, wants to extend its online service to set up an office in New Zealand and Australia because of the "rising trend of sugar relationships down under". Sugarbook is being watched by police in Singapore and accused of facilitating illegal prostitution in Malaysia. Another sugar dating website, SeekingArrangement, based in the US, claimed last year to have ~50K members signed up in New Zealand.
by Lincoln Tan
See full article at NZ Herald
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