NEWSWEEK – Nov 22 – State Senator Ling Ling Chang of Diamond Bar, California announced Thursday that she plans to introduce a proposed law in January that would make it a misdemeanor to send explicit photos in texts or online to people who did not ask for them. Lawmakers in TX partnered with Bumble to pass a similar bill which took effect in September.
Category: Bumble
Tiffany Haddish Partners With Bumble To Offer Dating Tips and Advice
ESSENCE – Nov 18 – Comedic actress and TV host Tiffany Haddish has teamed up with the Bumble to give singles tips to beef up their dating success. Bumble users in "date" mode can match with Tiffany's in-app card to see her top dating tips and advice. Additionally, users who connect with Haddish's card will get the chance to have a one-on-one profile makeover from the Girl's Trip star via Bumble's video chat feature.
Q&A With Priti Joshi, VP of Strategy at Bumble
YOURSTORY – Nov 18 – Bumble's VP of Strategy, Priti Joshi, talks about her journey with the company, and how it is trying to put women first when it comes to making important moves in life. Priti is a second-generation Indian American based in Austin, Texas. Born in Mesquite, Texas, she grew up in Dallas, and as a child participated in Indian dance competitions, completed her undergraduate degree in Business Honors and Finance from the University of Texas in 2009, and a Master's in Business Administration from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania in 2014. She worked for over seven years at McKinsey. At Bumble Priti looks after strategy and expanding Bumble's presence in international markets.
Q: What does your role at Bumble entail? How big is the India team?
A: I focus heavily on expanding Bumble's presence internationally. Our team on the ground in India is small but mighty, and our global teams – specifically at our HQ – also dedicate a lot of time and resources to supporting our efforts in India.
Q: What does Bumble offer the modern Indian woman that is different from other networking and dating apps?
A: We developed a feature specific to India where only the first initial of a woman's name would show on her Bumble Date profile. We make it easy to 'Block and Report' anyone you don't want to see on the app and we have 'Photo Verification' and 'Request Photo Verification' to help ensure that the person you're connecting with is who they say they are.
Q: How has Bumble been received in India?
A: Women in India have made the first move over three million times, and are sending 2x as many messages as women in the rest of the world. Furthermore, 60% of women in India use two or more modes within Bumble.
Q: What kind of market does India present in terms of size, geography, and culture?
A: In urban India, the percentage of women mobile Internet users stands at 40% and men stands at 60%. We've also seen that from a user behaviour perspective, these smartphone savvy women above the age of 19 have the highest propensity for social networking, browsing and text chatting.
Top Grossing Dating Apps Worldwide for October 2019
SENSORTOWER – Nov 13 – The top grossing dating app worldwide for Oct 2019 was Tinder with ~$88.7M in user spending, which represented 18% growth from Oct 2018. ~43% of Tinder's revenue was from the U.S., followed by 7% from UK and 5% from Australia. Bumble was #2 with ~$20M in gross revenue, which represented 44% growth YOY. 77% of Bumble's revenue was from the U.S., followed by 9% from UK. The next top grossing app was Tantan, followed by Pairs and Badoo.
OPW Podcast – The Top Dating Industry News for Nov 12th
OPW – Nov 12 – Match Results, Magic Lab Acquisition, The Meet Group, Facebook & Tinder whitelisting.
For the top weekly dating industry news in ~2 minutes subscribe to OPW's Two Minute Tuesdays (TMT) podcast on Breaker, Google podcasts, Spotify, Anchor.
Andrey Andreev Sells Stake of Bumble’s Parent Company MagicLab to Blackstone
by Ingrid Lunden
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Mark Zuckerberg Let Tinder Get Special Access to Users’ Data
FORBES – Nov 8 – Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg considered entering the online dating business as far back as 2014, but he put the idea on the back burner, instead giving Tinder special access to its users' data, leaked emails between top executives show. The leaked correspondence is part of an ongoing lawsuit between Facebook and Six4Three, a now-defunct app developer that sued Facebook in 2015 for restricting user data access, alleging the actions were uncompetitive. The correspondence shows how perilously close Tinder came to losing key access to Facebook user information that helped Tinder grow rapidly in its early years, when members often used their Facebook logins to access the app. When Facebook further restricted the kind of information third-party apps could access after the Cambridge Analytica scandal broke in March 2018, Tinder's app crashed. Tinder was on Facebook's radar in 2013. Zuckerberg wrote in January 2014 to two executives: "Tinder's growth is especially alarming to me because their product is built completely on Facebook data, and it's much better than anything we've built for recommendations using the same corpus." In 2014, Facebook announced it would start preventing third-party app developers from having access to data on users' friends, including birth dates, photos and pages they liked. The company gave a May 2015 deadline for developers to comply with its new set of access rules. However, Zuckerberg made some companies and apps an exception. Tinder was one. Facebook agreed to give Tinder a special data-sharing agreement, internally known as "whitelists," if the dating app shared trademark rights on "MOMENTS." which was the planned name for a photo app that Facebook wanted to launch, an email exchange in March 2015 showed. When asked about this agreement in 2018, a spokeswoman for Tinder said: "Tinder never received special treatment, data or access related to this dispute or its resolution." Other dating apps that had whitelist agreements with Facebook include Bumble, Badoo, Coffee Meets Bagel, Hinge and jSwipe.
Match Group Q3 Earnings, Shares Plummet Following a Weak Q4 Forecast
WSJ – Nov 6 – In Q3, Match Group's profit rose to $151.5M, from $130M in Q3 '18. The revenue rose 22% YOY to $541.5M, topping analysts' expectations of $540.7M. Yet total operating costs and expenses jumped 20% in the quarter as selling and marketing, product development, amortization and general operating expenses nudged higher. Overall average subscribers rose to 9.6M in the latest quarter, up from 8.1M in the year-ago period. Shares of Match Group dropped 16% after the company's financial targets for the current quarter came in below analysts' estimates. Match Group said it expects total revenue for the Q4 to be $545M – $555M, falling below analysts' estimates of $559M in revenue. Match also projected adjusted EBITDA in the range of $205M to $210M, behind analysts'target of $228M, and also said it expects to spend ~$25M in long-term investments and incremental legal costs in the Q4. Match Group is involved in several legal tussles, most recently with the Federal Trade Commission over claims that it induced nonpaying users to subscribe to its Match.com app based on "fake profiles." Match is also involved in an intellectual-property battle with Bumble, as well as multiple suits against a Tinder co-founder.
Bumble to Host an Astrology-themed Singles Dinner
METRO.CO.UK – Nov 4 – Bumble is hosting an astrology-themed singles dinner on 12 November with its in-house astrologer, Michele Knight, to teach people how the stars influence personality traits and could be key to finding a compatible lover. The event will be held at Chez Moi in Notting Hill during a full moon.
Top Female Entrepreneurs Share Their Lessons at Bumble Bizz Summit
SG TATLER – Nov 1 – Enterprising women leaders from around the region discussed the ups and downs of running their own brand, and what they learned in between at the region's first Bumble Bizz Summit in Sydney. Bumble is all about women empowerment and to further drive that notion, it organised its very first Bumble Bizz Summit in Sydney, Australia this month. There were two goals. First, to promote awareness about the platform's overall mission to "empower women to make the first move in dating, friendship and professional networking"; and secondly, to also fuel the entrepreneurial spirit in its users. The summit programme included panel discussions on topics such as breaking the mould, failure and creating a sustainable business.
Here are four key takeaways from the talks.
- Be open to making mistakes.
- Work with smarter people than you.
- Build an authentic brand.
- Respect is the cornerstone of success