Category: Grindr

Blendr Social App Raises Fears

Posted on October 3, 2011

Blendr logo BOSTON HERALD – Oct 3 – Blendr, a new location-based app, is raising concerns that it could be used to prey on teens. Blendr, which doesn’t bill itself as a dating app like Grindr, lets users know how close they are to others by relying on a smartphone’s GPS or Facebook’s location software. But child advocates aren’t viewing the new app as just a way to make friends and review places. When asked for its position, the company pointed to a 2010 statement: “As an added protection, we encourage parents to add Apple’s parental controls to their children’s iPod Touches, iPhones and iPads to help ensure that their children cannot access 17-and-over sites and apps. Grindr strongly condemns the inappropriate and criminal use of our service and actively cooperates with local authorities on any alleged illegal activity on our service.”

by Cameron Sperance
The full article was originally published at Boston Herald, but is no longer available.

Mark Brooks: LBS enabled idating is a double-edged sword. But ultimately, it will take off.

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Mobile Dating Apps Show Who’s Single Without the Mingle

Posted on September 29, 2011

PlentyofFish Mobile THE JAKARTA GLOBE – Sep 29 - The phone apps, from Match.com or newcomers such as howaboutwe.com, pack in the features, from IM and video profiles to "check-ins" at hot nightlife spots. "It's all about getting people off-line", says Aaron Schildkrout, touting howaboutwe.com, the app he co-created. Users post specific date ideas such as attending a baseball game or having drinks on a rooftop bar. In the service's first month live, there were ~60K downloads; the user base was 60% female, ages 22 to 40. Andrea Martinez, 24 found her new boyfriend on plentyoffish.com's mobile app version. She preferred the app over the computer version because uploading photos from her phone was easier. Grindr founder and CEO Joel Simkhai says company surveys show that 85% of members used the app for making new friends, especially when they were new to town. That's why Simkhai believes the next evolution of apps won't be about dating but will focus on friendships.

by Sheba R. Wheeler
The full article was originally published at Jakarta Globe, but is no longer available.

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OKCupid Mobile Dating

Posted on August 3, 2011

Okcupid mobile DIVINE CAROLINE – Aug 3 - Last month, OKCupid began beta testing GPS-based features on its mobile app that will allow members to broadcast when they’re in the mood to mingle, to suggest activities, and to notify nearby matches that they’d like to meet up. The idea has already taken hold in the gay community thanks to Grindr, a mobile app that specifically targets gay and alerts users when other Grindrers are nearby. Many, including Grindr founder Joel Simkhai, were skeptical that such a product would translate well with women. Women obviously want to see someone that they might find attractive, but they need to know more than that. OKCupid narrows the pool of potentially strange strangers by sending out notifications and broadcasts to best matches based on the lengthy personality survey each member fills out upon joining the site.

The full article was originally published at Divine Caroline, but is no longer available.

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Grindr Hits 2 Million User Milestone

Posted on June 13, 2011

Grindr logo GRINDR – June 10 - Grindr, the world's largest Gay Social & Lifestyle App, hit 2M users today. Grindr has 45K active users per second on all 3 Grindr platforms (Android, BlackBerry, Apple) with 250 users refreshing their 'Cascade' display per second. Grindr launched in March 2009 and currently has 499,700 Grindr members logging on daily and spending an average of 1.5 hours a day using the app.

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Grindr Has Over 1 Million Users Across 180 Countries

Posted on May 28, 2011

Grindr logo VANITY FAIR – May 27 – Grindr, the popular location based social networking and dating tool for gay men, has more than 1 million users in 180 countries. Grindr is most popular in the UK with 160,000 users, 62,000 of which are in London alone. The app even has members in Sri Lanka, Djibouti, Haiti, Iraq and Iran, where homosexuality isn't tolerated.

by Matt Kapp
The full article was originally published at Vanity Fair, but is no longer available.

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Grindr And Manhunt, Gay And Growing + Manhunt To Charge Membership In UK

Posted on May 19, 2011

Manhunt grindr loga OPW – May 19 – Grindr and Manhunt have enjoyed considerable growth over the last few years.  They don't charge in the UK yet.  But that will change within days.  (you saw the news here first!).  Manhunt's typical member sticks around for 15 months and conversion rates are upwards of 15%.  Typically, it costs in excess of $40 to bring in a paying member to a PG straight dating site.  But Manhunt's cost of acquisition is less than half of that.  See our first interview with the Co-founder of Manhunt, Jonathan Crutchley in April 2007, here. 

Grindr is a phenomenon with 1,980,000 users worldwide, as of 30th April, 2011, and 8,000 new users per day.  Not too shabby considering that Joel started the company with $5k capital and is yet to do anything in the way of advertising!  So the cost per new user is, get this, $0!  In the USA Grindr has 741,800 users and in the UK there's 254,600 users as of 30th April, 2011.  We captured the founding story of Grindr in December, 2010 when we interviewed Joel Simkhai, the founder and CEO of Grindr right here on Online Personals Watch.

Public companies have to show their numbers. Grindr and Manhunt don't.  Wouldn't it be nice if we could collect these numbers from the entire industry to be able to show the  trending in our humble little industry?  Or at least to the rest of the Internet Dating Executive Alliance so you could have some sense of the industry numbers in the aggregate.  Your comments please.

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Location Based Dating: Concerns Over Privacy

Posted on May 4, 2011

Meetic philippe chainieux BLOOMBERG – May 4 – Meetic is joining start-ups including MeetMoi in offering location-based dating services. Meetic will introduce features this year that let handset users find out real-time who’s around them and interested in meeting, and match potential soulmates who, for example, frequent the same gym, Managing Director Philippe Chainieux said in an interview.The number of European Web users visiting a dating site “almost every day” through their mobile rose 49% between February 2010 and 2011 to 2.8M, according to comScore. The number doing so at least once a week climbed 44%. Convenient mobile services will give dating sites a chance to boost their “conversion rate". Location-based iPhone and Android app FlirtMaps topped 500K downloads last month, with that figure expected to double by the end of the year. Grindr, an app for gays boasts 62K users in London alone. Still, safety concerns may slow the adoption of location- based dating. To ease some of those concerns, FlirtMaps limits geo- localization to a one-kilometer radius. Meetic is considering making only men visible on its pending real-time “flirting” service, keeping women’s locations at a given moment mostly off the map.

by Matthew Campbell
The full article was originally published at Bloomberg, but is no longer available.

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A New Kind Of Love Story

Posted on May 3, 2011

Mobile-dating1 AD WEEK – May 3 – Not so long ago, you’d assume that a girl alone at a bar on a Friday night, furiously thumbing her smartphone, had been stood up. Now, thanks to apps like meetMoi NOW, SinglesAroundMe, and Skout, she could just be planning her evening’s assignation. While dating sites sift and sort according to compatibility, apps pre-screen for something else: instant availability. There’s another name for the inefficiency these apps eliminate: courtship. They might dance around it, but what the apps are really offering is the ability to order up sex on demand. One of the pioneering location-based apps is Grindr. Launched in 2009, it allows gay men to locate other nearby users. It claims ~1M users. The developers of Badoo, Facebook’s fastest-growing third-party app, liken its ambiance to a club. Friend.ly makes the search for love a more convivial experience by quizzing users about friends and interests. It has ~4M monthly active users. Among the newer apps is Singlesquare, a Foursquare offshoot launched in Jan.

by Hephzibah Anderson
See full article at Ad Week

Mark Brooks: Finally, location aware apps are gaining significant traction. Facebook has driven people to be more willing to share private info. The tech is now mature. Apple has driven the smart phone into ubiquity. iDating will morph considerably now.

(Full Disclosure: Friend.ly is a former client of Courtland Brooks)

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Grindr Gaining 8,000 New Users Daily

Posted on March 24, 2011

Grindr logo GPS BUSINESS – Mar 24 – Grindr, the all-male mobile date-finding app, now has ~1.5M users in 180 countries, with 280K of them logging on daily and spending an average of 1.5 hours using the service. Grindr launched on Android earlier this month and is now getting 8K new members every day – prior to the launch it was 3K. For 2010 ~60% of Grindr's revenue came from advertising and ~40% from subscriptions.

See full article at GPS Business

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Project Amicus Launches

Posted on March 16, 2011

Project amicus logo PRESS RELEASE – Mar 15 – The team that developed Grindr announces the official launch of Project Amicus, the codename and website for a new location-based mobile app that lets users discover, interact, and meet with nearby people. Amicus, a Latin word meaning 'friend,' highlights the project's social emphasis. The app will allow users to connect with other people based on their physical location and facilitate new social relationships. Grindr, the world's largest all-male location-based network, has 1.5M members in 180 countries, with 300K active daily users. Grindr is currently available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry mobile devices.

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