TECH 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.
Category: CoffeeMeetsBagel
Coffee Meets Bagel Launching In Dallas
WHATEVER 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
CCTV America: Technology Has Made Dating Far More Convenient
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
TECH 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."
Jason Calacanis Interviews Coffee Meets Bagel CEO
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.
Coffee Meets Bagel Launches In Washington DC, LA And Chicago
THE NEXT WEB – Mar 20 - Coffee Meets Bagel a dating site that asks a few light questions and provides a daily match (or “Bagel”) based on its members’ friends-of-friends on Facebook, has passed 640K matches. The site is now launching in Washington DC, LA and Chicago.
Location Based Apps: Women Are Overwhelmed And Creeped Out
NEW YORKER – Feb 27 – Blendr is a location-based dating apps for straight people. It was created by the same folks who made Grindr, the hookup app that has 4.5M users. The founders weren’t willing to disclose the number of Blendr users. When it comes to apps, men tend to be more willing to use location-based dating features. Women are different. Women may initiate contact less frequently, but they are comfortable reaching out first if they see a profile that appeals to them. Maybe the real failure is that no one has built an app that women want to use. On Check Him Out, women are “shoppers” and men are “products.” Only women can initiate contact, though men can “favorite” profiles. The site claims that 59% of the users are women. Women want authenticity, privacy, a more controlled environment, and a quick path to a safe, easy offline meeting. Coffee Meets Bagel, founded by three sisters, sends you a match and then sets a deadline by which you have to either “like” or “pass.” Three Day Rule caters to women who are searching for Mr. Right as opposed to Mr. Right Now. It functions as an intermediary. It shows just a few carefully selected matches at a time—bypassing the deluge problem, and saving busy professionals from scrolling through pages and pages of profiles. The site is still in beta mode and not open to the general public, and will eventually be for paying users only.
by Ann Friedman
The full article was originally published at New Yorker, but is no longer available.
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Coffee Meets Bagel To Launch In San Francisco
FORBES – Oct 25 – Coffee Meets Bagel, a dating site aimed at young people. At noon every day all the single ladies/gentlemen are sent one match based off of their Facebook connections. Then they have 24 hours to choose to go on a date or pass and wait for who will be sent tomorrow. The site is launching in the San Francisco area using $600K in funding from Lightbank (started by the Groupon founders) and Peng Ong of Match.com. In fact the entire Coffee Meets Bagel team set up a new headquarters in SF. The site first launched in New York and Boston but already has ~1K users in SF. After the SF launch CMB is looking to expand to Chicago, Seattle and LA.
Coffee Meets Bagel Lands $600K From Lightbank, Match.com Co-Founder
TECH CRUNCH – Sep 26 - Coffee Meets Bagel is a dating site that provides one match per day, every day at noon. The startup is now announcing $600K funding, led by Lightbank and including Match.com co-founder Peng T. Ong. It will be used to help Coffee Meets Bagel expand to San Francisco, where the startup recently moved its offices. The site is growing 50% month-over-month, setting up ~100K introductions which have resulted in 6K actual direct connections. 70% of users actively checking the service for matches every day. Coffee Meets Bagel is free, but it also uses a freemium model based around virtual credits to unlock the identity of mutual friends users share on Facebook.
by Darrell Etherington
See full article at Tech Crunch
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This post also appears on InternetDatingInvestments.
Mobile Dating Apps Grow In Popularity
WASHINGTON POST – Aug 19 – Americans now use dating apps more than online dating sites, according to a 2011 report by Flurry Analytics. Globally, the mobile dating market is expected to be worth $2.3 billion by 2016, up from $1 billion in 2011, according to Juniper Research. In June, six participants signed up for a mobile dating boot camp, organized by cyber-dating expert Julie Spira, at the iDate Mobile dating conference. They sat before a roomful of industry executives to discuss the apps they used for two weeks and provided honest feedbacks. Developers are turning to real-life concepts to woo users, like the common friend. That’s where Facebook comes in, with apps like Zoosk and Are you Interested? A new wave of apps such as Coffee Meets Bagel and Yoke focus on common friends and use Facebook profile information to match people. “You can judge a person by the company that they keep,” said Mark Brooks, analyst and consultant to the Internet dating industry. "There is no secret formula for an app to succeed", said Brooks. But “the more you can model the real world, the better you’ll do,” he said. New mobile app developers realize this and are tapping into the wealth of information available on Facebook, while trying to balance users’ privacy concerns. Spira says that just like online dating, people should apply common sense with an app.
by Amrita Jayakumar
See full article at Washington Post
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