GQ – July 16 – The popular TV show, 90 Day Fiancé, explores the lives of partners, always an American and a foreigner, who hope to marry and stay in the U.S. with the help of a K-1 visa – which, if approved, allows the noncitizen to live here for 90 days, at which point they must wed or catch the next flight home. While the series' couples meet in a nightclub in Mexico or at a Jamaican resort – the most intriguing affairs stem from long-distance digital hookups. Some dating sites bring happy stories. Viewers didn't have a lot of hope for Paul Staehle and Karine Martins on 90 Day Fiancé. The two originally met via MiCrush, a self-described free "Latino Dating App," which is inactive as of this writing. They are still together and just had their first son. ColombianCupid costs $35 a month for a subscription allowing users to message people back and forth. It's part of the Cupid Media network operating 35 "niche dating sites" including AsianDating, ChinaLoveCupid, BBWCupid, BlackCupid, and InterracialCupid. The company claims to have "helped ~30M people look for love."
Category: Cupid Media
Millions Of Muslims Are Signing Up For Online Dating
BBC – Dec 9 - SingleMuslim.com now boasts more than a million members. The site aims to provide clients with a partner for life. There is also Muslimmatrimony.com, which allows members to search for partners by the particular doctrine of Islam that they follow. HipsterShaadi.com used to market itself as the site for people looking for a partner but of whom their parents will also approve. Muslima.com claims ~5M members worldwide, and is owned by Cupid Media.
by Lydia Green
See full article at BBC
Cupid Media Found In Breach Of Privacy Laws After Being Hacked
ABC.NET.AU – June 25 – Cupid Media, an online dating company that operates ~35 niche dating sites such as ChristianCupid, MilitaryCupid and SingleParentLove has been found in breach of privacy laws after hackers accessed the personal information of ~245K of its Australian users. At the time of the incident, Cupid did not have password encryption processes in place.
Cupid Media Adds Danish Language Option To Sites
PR.COM – Dec 21 - Cupid Media has launched a Danish language option on ten of its 35 online dating sites in a roll out that began on November 15th. The goal of the language localization is to provide global Danish users with a high-quality experience across their sites. The roll out includes RussianCupid.com, Thailovelinks.com and AfroIntroductions.com.
Hack Of Cupid Media Sites Exposes 42M Passwords
ARS TECHNICA – Nov 20 – A hack on niche online dating service Cupid Media earlier this year has exposed names, emails and plain-text passwords for 42M accounts. This could set off chain of account hijackings on other sites.
by Dan Goodin
See full article at Ars Technica
Andrew Bolton, co-founder of Cupid Media adds: "The accounts affected included many old, inactive and deleted accounts. The number of active members affected was considerably less than the number quoted. We do not store any credit card information and that no customer’s credit card data was compromised."
Anonymous Calling For The Internet Dating Industry – What Exactly Is Going On?
OPW – May 28 – Anonymous calling and chat service provider offerings in the internet dating space have been a bit of mystery. PrivateCall by Phone Matrix made a strong case for anonymous calling but then faded. Jangl got off to a strong start, and then got folded into JaJah. JaJah successfully partnered with eHarmony, FriendFinder and Match. Then Match partnered instead with Twilio. ICallU is now on the scene and working with Seeking Arrangement and SugarDaddyForMe.
Dating sites' needs appear to have remained the same – their users want to communicate with one another without immediately divulging their personal information. What are telephony providers doing wrong? Could it be that the increasingly prevalence of messaging apps like WhatsApp and TextNow, combined with online daters' collective comfort with contemporary lines of communication, is diminishing the need for text- and voice-based telephony services? Let's discuss. Please comment if you have knowledge and an opinion.
(btw, Spikko are our new client, and have a solid offering on a proven platform for anonymous/private calling).
FilipinoCupid.com: Two Female Members For Every Male Member
PR NEWSWIRE – Sep 24 – ~2M Filipina women now actively using FilipinoCupid.com. The female/male ratio is 2:1. FilipinoCupid.com asserts its services are designed for serious-minded men and women looking for a committed relationship – not just a casual fling. FilipinoCupid.com is part of the Cupid Media online dating network, made up of ~30 niche dating sites and attracting ~30M members internationally.
The full article was originally published at Herald Online, but is no longer available.
Cupid Media Expands Internationally With DirectTrack
GLOBE NEWSWIRE – Sep 13 – Cupid Media operates interactive dating sites focused in niche markets. With ~ 30M customers around the world, Cupid Media requires a solution that seamlessly handles multiple currencies and languages, and offers unique commission options to pay affiliates based on user engagements beyond the initial user sign-up. The currency conversion feature from DirectTrack allows clients like Cupid Media to gain more control over payments that have fluctuating exchange rates.
The full article was originally published at Virtual Strategy Magazine, but is no longer available.
This post also appears on InternetDatingAffiliates.
Cupid Media Runs Profile Verification
OPW – June 11 – Will you make money from selling profile verifications? Probably not. Will it help raise the perceived value of your services, by raising the 'quality' of your database of users. Quite possibly. A power user pointed out to us that Cupid Media is experimenting with profile verification checks on KoreanCupid.com. See image.
Mark Brooks: I emailed the CEO of Cupid Media, and he allowed us to run this comment…
Andrew, CEO, Cupid Media: Verification is important for a certain group of users and gives extra confidence in profiles for those users. It’s too early too tell on what type of uptake we will get, but at least users have the option to do it.
RussianCupid.com Crosses 1 Million Member Mark
PR NEWSWIRE – Apr 28 – The newly rebranded RussianCupid.com attracts~1K new members every day and with ~1M active members internationally achieved a major milestone. The new look and name of RussianCupid.com are aimed at strengthening its association with its parent company Cupid Media. Established in 2000, Cupid Media is the Australia based parent company of 33 dating sites covering a variety of demographics such as ethnicities, religion, physical appearance, sexual preferences etc; attracting over 20M people internationally.