Category: CoffeeMeetsBagel

Mobile Dating Apps Attract More VCs

Posted on November 4, 2014

Mobile dating app2PEHUB – Oct 31 – Venture capitalists are giving online dating apps their confirmation. More than a dozen mobile apps and social sites have collectively raised $70M. Coffee Meets Bagel, which started in 2012, has raised $3.4M from Lightbank and others. The growth in mobile and the increased attention to dating apps come as Tinder is gaining more attention. Josh Breinlinger, venture partner with Sigma West, has not funded a mobile dating app, but he said there “is a huge market for it." "It’s not a new industry, but with mobile, there’s a whole new opportunity.”

See full article at PEHub

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This post also appears on InternetDatingInvestments.

Summarized by Courtland Brooks Internet Dating Marketing Consulting

New Dating Apps Match Facebook Friends

Posted on September 18, 2014

Dating appsHOUSTON CHRONICLE – Sep 16 – Hinge launched in Houston last month. The dating app mostly matches users with their second- and third-degree connections on Facebook. Other sites and apps are taking the same route. Coffee Meets Bagel gives users a single daily match culled from their extended Facebook network. SparkStarter, which launched earlier this year, lets users match up with friends of Facebook friends. Even Tinder has a Facebook component that reveals whether the users know any of the same people. Connecting over Facebook takes away the relative anonymity of online dating.

by Alyson Ward
See full article at Houston Chronicle

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Summarized by Courtland Brooks Internet Dating Marketing Consulting

How The Endless Quest For Love Is Sparking Massive Growth In Dating Apps

Posted on July 24, 2014

Mobile dating25BUSINESS INSIDER – July 24 – We've got new apps popping up every day: Coffee Meets Bagel, Hook, Pinch, Instamour, Wyldfire, Whim, Floret… Online dating can often be frustrating, which in turn leads to more willingness to try new apps. A lot of people see a need to come up with new ideas. Mark Brooks, the iDating consultant behind Courtland Brooks, thinks that dating apps more closely translate the real-life experience of meeting someone. "The mobile platform is simply a superior platform for internet dating. Mobile daters will go on many times during the day but just for a few minutes, they’re chatting and then they go back to work, and then jump back on. Internet dating has never really meshed with true user behavior," he said. "The true user behavior is when someone starts chatting someone else up, they’ll be in a continuous conversation and reel them in for a date. The problem with online dating is the incentive structures are quite broken. Mobile gets us closer." These dating apps all need to figure out the revenue model. Brooks thinks in-app spending is the way to go. And then there's always ads. Larger corporations acquiring the smaller startups when they run out of money. We saw this happen with IAC. Brooks sees Match Group holding out as the powerhouse. Match Group is currently under IAC, but Brooks anticipates a future separation that would leave Match Group as the ultimate online dating umbrella. "Starting a dating app is rather like starting a restaurant," Brooks said. "It looks very easy to do. It's a very sexy business. But it's a lot more difficult because of the critical mass problem. "What I typically find happens is that entrepreneurs spend 90% of their money building the app. But it does require cold hard cash to grow. Although there may be many startups, there will be few survivors. Very few have that unique way of driving eyeballs. Tinder did well."

by Rebecca Borison
See full article at Business Insider

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Coffee Meets Bagel Replaces Twilio With Own IM

Posted on May 23, 2014

Coffee meets bagel logoTECH CRUNCH – May 23 - Coffee Meets Bagel released a major update today, which ended its use of Twilio for messaging in favor of its own IM. The feature retains its 7-day expiry. CMB has found that users who exchange texts within the first 24 hrs are more likely to exchange phone numbers and were chatting at 2.6x the volume of those who didn’t, so the update gives them more control over this experience. The company has raised $2.8M in funding.

by Jordan Crook
See full article at Tech Crunch

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Dating Apps: Millenials Crave Speed, Simplicity

Posted on May 21, 2014

Coffeemeetsbagel mobileASSOCIATED PRESS – May 20 – Dating apps are on the rise, particularly among millenials who crave speed and simplicity in their search for love. Tinder users swipe through photos, left for no, right for yes. Mutual right swipes result in a match and the users can message. Hinge matches users with friends of friends. Coffee Meets Bagel offers only 1 match per day at noon. According to Pew, 9% of U.S. adults have used a dating app or service. It jumps to 38% of those identifying as 'single and looking.' The largest group of users is between 25 and 44. IBIS estimates the dating industry will hit $2.2B in revenue this year.

See full article at DailyMail.co.uk

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Coffee Meets Bagel Launches iOS App

Posted on August 22, 2013

Coffeemeetsbagel mobileTECH CRUNCH – Aug 22 – Launched in New York City in 2012, the startup is also today releasing its iOS app, which includes the same features as the free web service. Coffee Meets Bagel works like this: After signing up through Facebook, users can specify personal details as well as what they look for in a date. At noon each day, they receive one match, or “bagel” as the company calls them. They then have a time limit to either “Pass” or “Like.” If two people mutually like each other, they are put in touch through a private company texting line. Coffee Meets Bagel has raised $600K from Lightbank and has accumulated ~80K users. The startup has made ~1.5M matches, with 70% of members checking the service daily.

by Stephanie Yang
See full article at Tech Crunch

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Coffee Meets Bagel Launching In Dallas

Posted on July 18, 2013

Coffee meets bagel logoWHATEVER BLOG – July 17 – Users in Dallas now receive one exclusive match per day via e-mail and have 24 hours to like or pass on their “bagel.” If two users both “like” the other’s picture and details, they can text for seven days on a private line to shield their phone numbers. After the seven days, the line expires, forcing them to meet up for a date or exchange contact information to pursue a relationship. CoffeeMeetsBagel is available in Boston, San Francisco, Chicago, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., Austin and Dallas.

by Meagan Clark
See full article at Whatever Blog

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CCTV America: Technology Has Made Dating Far More Convenient

Posted on July 16, 2013

OPW – July 16 – CoffeeMeetsBagel was founded by three sisters – Arum, Soo and Dawoon Kang. It gives users 24 hours to decide whether they like or pass on proposed dates. If there is a mutual interest, the site sets up a private chat line for them. WhatsYourPrice.com was founded by Brandon Wade. The site lets male users to bid on first dates. It is not prostitution, Brandon Wade, argues. He said there is no sex guaranteed on the first date and it is just a compensation for the cost associated with going on a first date. VideoDate is a dating app, founded by Marcel Caferata, that allows users to connect before first date via video dates. So far ~100K people have downloaded the app.

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Are You Interested Makes 2M Connections

Posted on May 9, 2013

AYI areyouinterested logo new march 13TECH CRUNCH – May 9 – Are You Interested has been in the online dating game since 2007, predominantly focused on the Facebook platform as a way to connect people. In the past few months AYI launched a new feature that connects you with friends of friends. There are ~20M Facebook profiles connected to AYI and 3M active users per month. And since they implemented their friends of friends feature in March, AYI says that ~2M connections have been made through the new feature. Matching friends of friends is the “next big thing”. Another startup that’s been around since last year is Coffee Meets Bagel, and it could be said that they were the first ones to match friends of friends together, albeit at a much smaller scale.

by Jordan Crook
See full article at Tech Crunch

We asked Cliff Lerner, CEO of Snap Interactive, to comment. He said:
"We're very excited by the user reaction and early data around connecting through your mutual friends.  The new feature is increasing engagement, with US women being 41% more likely to connect with a man when there's a friend in common. It's also providing viral growth opportunities with 1,000's of users messaging their friends directly to learn about a potential date.

We look forward to continuing to  iterate on meeting new people through mutual friends as well as building a deeper mobile integration. Our mission is to improve the online dating experience for meeting new people. We believe we are uniquely positioned to offer the friend functionality due to our Facebook scale of 20 million Facebook connected profiles, ensuring users have a robust experience to meet through their friends."

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Jason Calacanis Interviews Coffee Meets Bagel CEO

Posted on March 29, 2013

OPW – Mar 29 – This is the most interesting idating startup I’ve seen in a while. Coffee Meets Bagel has raised $650k. They send a daily match that they call a ‘bagel.’ Users have 24 hours to accept or reject. If they both accept they are connected via phone or SMS. Simple! They’re introducing a virtual currency credit based system called ‘beans.’ People can spend beans in various ways, for example they can pay 65 beans to see what friends they have in common with a particular match. Oh yeah, and they have a partnership with Starbucks.

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