GAYSTAR NEWS – Sep 18 – Grindr is working with leading Turkish LGBT association, KAOS GL and digital LGBT activists at All Out to petition Turkey to lift the ban. There were 125K active monthly Grindr users in Turkey. Istanbul’s Criminal Court of Peace blocked Grindr as a ‘protection measure’ on Sep 11th.
Category: Grindr
Indians Hit Mobile Apps To Find Love
TIMES OF INDIA – Sep 15 – Grindr has ~11K monthly users in India. "In conservative regions where being gay may be taboo, Grindr allows for connections that wouldn't happen face-to-face so it's not surprising that it is popular in India," says a Grindr spokesperson. SinglesAroundMe claims they have 66K Indian subscribers. "India is third after the US and UK and represents only 5% of our user base presently, but the number is growing very quickly," says CEO Christopher Klotz. Thrill is another app that is getting popular in India. Thrill's 'he applies she decides' approach enables women to choose the men they want in. Thrill won't be enabling their locator technology at the moment.
by Sonal Nerurkar
See full article at Times if India
Turkey Bans Grindr
GAY STAR NEWS – Sep 11 – According to the gay rights group, Istanbul’s Criminal Court of Peace blocked the app as a ‘protection measure’. ‘It is most likely related to “general morality”, an ambiguous term used often against trans sex workers.’
by Joe Morgan
See full article at Gay Star News
Grindr To End Anonymous Signups
THE VERGE – July 26 – Earlier this year, users of Grindr started seeing a sharp increase in the number of attractive men saying hello to them. Some of the most provocative profiles on Grindr aren’t men at all, but spambots designed to lure credulous users into turning over their credit-card information. Spambots are not unique to Grindr; the world of dating apps is filled with scam artists. Grindr will soon release an update that requires users to verify their accounts by providing a valid email address and creating a password. Joining Grindr requires only downloading the app and opening it up — immediately, the user is greeted with profiles of dozens of nearby men. Competitors like Scruff and Jackd have long required users to create an account, and seem to be less prone to spam. But they’re also less popular.
Q&A With Grindr Founder Joel Simkhai
Q: What were you doing five years ago?
A: I worked in finance and in news for a little bit. I had my own magazine subscription business.
Q: You founded Grindr because you wanted an easier, discrete way to hook-up?
A: The main reason for me was just to find out who else is gay.
Q: So gaydar is a myth?
A: It's not a sure thing, right?
Q: Can you tell us about your premium business model?
A: A paid version doesn't have ads, shows you more guys, has push notifications, and has a bunch of extra features. The cost varies from $3.75 to $5.99 per month. 75% of our revenue comes from our subscribers and the other 25 percent comes from our advertisers.
Q: Do you advertise Grindr at all?
A: We don't currently. Most of our growth is based on word of mouth, press-mentions.
Q: How is Blendr doing?
A: It's growing nicely. We quite like where it's at right now but it's not our focus.
Q: Can you tell us about your backers and how you gained funding?
A: We're self-funded and we are glad for it.
Q: What sort of return you've had on your $5,000 investment?
A: I don't know; I've never quite calculated it. But as you can imagine it's been a good return.
Grindr’s Appeal Is Its Simplicity
NY TIMES – Mar 10 – Grindr is approaching its fourth anniversary and has amassed ~5M users who spend ~90 minutes each day using the app. Billions of messages fly across the service every year, and 76% of the company’s revenue comes from money generated by Grindr premium users. Jamie Woo, author of the book, Meet Grindr, How One App Changed the Way We Connect, says Grindr’s main purpose is to facilitate hookups that are “spontaneous and intimate". He said the primary appeal of Grindr is its simplicity. The app also focuses on proximity rather than location.
Social App Monetization Kicks In
THE NEXT WEB – Mar 8 – Monthly revenues for the social networking category on the App Store jumped 87% YOY in January, according to a new study from App Annie. The social networking apps category is now the third highest in terms of monthly revenue, behind games and productivity. In terms of downloads, social networking was sixth overall among categories on the App Store in January. According to App Annie, monthly downloads were up 30% YOY and now account for 5% of total downloads. Globally, the list of top social networking apps with respect to downloads was predictably dominated by Facebook, Apple’s Find My Friends, Twitter and Skype. Dating apps like Zoosk, Badoo, Grindr Xtra and eHarmony also proved capable at monetization.
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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Love In The Time Of GPS
CHICAGO TRIBUNE – Feb 27 – 25.3M people accessed personals sites through mobile devices in Dec, versus 21.3M through a fixed computer, according to comScore. Location-based dating apps have been wildly successful in the gay community (Grindr – 4M users) but slower to catch on among heterosexual daters, likely because women are more wary of announcing their location. SinglesAroundMe, which features a map with drop pins showing where nearby singles are, recently launched an "approximate location" option that lets users displace their coordinates by 1 to 2 miles. Tinder scours a user's Facebook connections to see which friends of friends are single and nearby. MeetMoi sends members a push notification if a match is in the vicinity, getting no more exact than "within .2 miles," and only if both parties agree to chat does the app allow a connection. The app has 3.7M users. Of the 4M active users on OkCupid, half of whom access the site through their mobile phones, 1M have the Locals app. OkCupid also recently launched the mobile app Crazy Blind Date, which sets up a blind date — no photos, no profiles. As with online dating, mobile dating started off catering to people looking for casual relationships, but as it becomes mainstream more serious relationship-seekers are using it as well, said Mark Brooks, an analyst and consultant to the Internet dating industry. "It's more natural, you're out and about," said Brooks, who predicts that dating via mobile phone will change the game profoundly because apps can gather instantaneous feedback about how a date went, resulting in better matches. "People don't really know what they want, so the best way to match people is to look at their behaviors," Brooks said. "Your phone is going to get to know you, it is going to get to know your buying behavior."
by Alexia Elejalde-Ruiz
See full article at Chicago Tribune
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Mobile Apps Tap The Changing Face Of Online Dating
USA TODAY – Feb 13 – The mobile dating revenue is projected to double over the next five years ($415M). There is a site for everybody, many with their own apps as well. The niches range from ethnic, religious or age-based to sites for occupations (FarmersOnly.com) or eating preferences (VeggieDate.org). For gay men, there's Grindr.com and Stagg, DateMyPet for pet lovers. With the dating industry moving so rapidly, the phrase "online dating" will soon disappear from the lexicon, says Sam Yagan, CEO of Match. "The idea of differentiating online and offline in five years will be anachronistic," he says. Nielsen reports that the number of Americans using apps or a mobile version of a dating site was 13.7M in November 2012, more than double the previous year's 5.8M. Mark Brooks, a consultant who has studied the industry from its infancy, says the online and mobile dating industry is more than just a business: "Going from where it is now and where it's going to be in the next 20 or 30 years time, I'd be hard-pressed to think of a business — outside of the medical industry — that will have more impact on society."
by Sharon Jayson
See full article at USA Today
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