Category: happn

Why Dating Giants Are Betting On AI

Posted on June 25, 2018

Match.com lara screenshotTELEGRAPH.CO.UK – "I don't think dating services should be able to tell you that you have a 95% chance of falling in love with someone," says Xavier de Baillenx, tech chief at Match. "The human brain is very complex. We are just helping users find their 'plus-one' in a less painful way." Dating expert Kate Taylor is similarly apprehensive. "I think the most important thing that technology can do is get you on a real-life date in front of a person," she says. Yet Match is investing heavily in the technology to stand out from the crowd. Match.com has created a virtual assistant that converses with users through a smart speaker. "Lara" can offer dating tips and locations to meet dates. She can even suggest when it is appropriate to have sex. Last week, Happn introduced a new feature: an AI-fuelled interactive map that shows people that visited the same venue in the past seven days. It has big plans to use the increasing amount of data people generate. Facebook can also offer what each dating app on the market can combined. It has one of the most advanced facial recognition tools, not to mention a huge pool of behavioural data.

by Margi Murphy
See full article at Telegraph.co.uk

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Summarized by the IDEA team

Happn Is Adding A Map That Reveals Users’ Movements In The Last 7 Days

Posted on June 20, 2018

Happn mapsDAILYMAIL.CO.UK – June 19 – Dating app Happn is adding a new feature that will let potential love matches revisit users' past movements. Some may find the idea of strangers tracing their movements more than a little creepy. 'The crossing of paths between two people has always been the DNA of Happn,' says Didier Rappaport, CEO and co-founder of the app. 'With Happn maps, we go further in our promise by separating the dimensions of space and time, because time flies, but places stay still.'

by Tim Collins
See full article at DailyMail.co.uk

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Summarized by the IDEA team

Ashley Madison’s CTO: Facebook’s Dating Will Be Just Another Ad Platform

Posted on May 14, 2018

Ashleymadison ruben buell plainBUSINESS INSIDER – May 12 – At the beginning of May, Facebook announced it was launching a dating product. It drew a lot of attention from other leaders in the industry, including the CEO of Happn, Didier Rappaport, who said the announcement was just "trying to distract" from the recent data scandal. According to Ashley Madison's CTO Ruben Buell, if Facebook is sticking with its traditional methods of making money, it will be pushing an ad based model so users are essentially the product. This, Buell said, may conjure up some concerns from users. In general, people are getting more savvy about how much of their information on Facebook is publicly available to view. So Buell said this may be a challenge for Facebook going forward.

by Lindsay Dodgson
See full article at Business Insider

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Summarized by the IDEA team

Dating App Happn Launches ‘Invisible’ Mode

Posted on May 1, 2018

Happn logo 2018PINKNEWS.CO.UK – May 1 – Invisible mode can be switched on or off depending on their location, to give users complete control over when and where their profile is viewable. The Invisible setting is particularly useful for users of Happn. The app uniquely throws up matches of the people users have interacted with throughout their day. The most popular option thus far allows users to switch off 'crossovers' during the working day, so users don't 'cross' with colleagues or people who work in the building.

by Adam Bloodworth
See full article at PinkNews.co.uk

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Summarized by the IDEA team

The Latest Relationship Trend Is ‘Slow Dating’

Posted on March 26, 2018

Once logo new 2018BUSINESS INSIDER – Mar 22 – Dating apps are starting to offer fewer, more curated matches. Dating app Once delivers users one match per day. Then, users have 24h to decide whether they are interested. Once has been available in Europe since 2015; it launched in the US in Feb 2018 and now has 200K US users. Coffee Meets Bagel, which launched in 2012, also presents women with one "bagel" (match) a day. (Men receive up to 21 matches every day and select the people they like, so the app chooses women's bagels from among the men who indicated they liked them.) The League, which launched in 2015, is a more selective dating app for ambitious professionals. Then there's Happn, which debuted in 2014 in Paris. Users who subscribe to Happn Essential get 10 chances to "Say Hi" to another user every day. It's possible that daters and app-developers alike have begun to observe the effects of what social scientists call "choice overload" or the "paradox of choice." The more options you have, research suggests, the less likely you are to make any decision at all.

by Shana Lebowitz
See full article at Business Insider

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Summarized by the IDEA team

Online Personals Watch PR Rankings – The Sites That Got The Most Press In 2017

Posted on February 20, 2018

Press coverage 2017OPW – Feb 20 – Every year we take a look at who scored the most press summaries on Online Personals Watch. We look for top tier news and summarize what we think is most interesting to you, our audience of Internet dating industry leaders, app designers and marketers.

#1 Tinder (123 posts published on OPW last year)
#2 Bumble (48 posts)
#3 eHarmony (42)
#4 Match Group (41)
#5 Match (37)
#6 OKCupid (37)
#7 Grindr (34)
#8 Happn (22)
#9 The League (21)
#10 Matrimony.com (17)

Other companies that did well and got a solid press coverage last year were Hinge, The Meet Group, Zoosk, Hater, Matchpoool and Chappy.

See full article at Courtland Brooks blog

Post by the IDEA team

Dating App Happn Wants To Become The Pokémon Go Of Love

Posted on February 14, 2018

Happn didier rappaport 2018THE NEXT WEB – Feb 14 – Thanks to real-time geo-localization, Happn allows users to connect with the people they've crossed paths with. If the feeling is mutual, they have a "crush" and can start messaging. "We're the sidekick of serendipity," said proudly Didier Rappaport – the CEO and founder of Happn.

Q: Happn has been around for 4 years. How did it change over time?
A: We never introduced major changes in the product, but this is going to change soon, very soon.

Q: What's going to change?
A: I can't reveal the details yet, but I can say that we'll massively implement artificial intelligence.

Q: It seems that matchmaking apps are more about data than dating. What’s your take on the matter?
A: Dating businesses have always also been data mines. We have huge flows of fresh data that roll-in every day.

Q: You're surely aware of the criticism that dating apps aren't careful enough with people's data. Are you concerned by this issue?
A: No. The safety and privacy of our users is the central pillar of our company and our mission. Most of our data comes from Facebook and is already publicly shared.

Q: What has been the biggest challenge to the growth of Happn?
A: The high marketing expenses. But we're really close to profitability. It’s a 2018 goal.

by Davide Banis
See full article at The Next Web

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Summarized by the IDEA team

Making It Happn In India

Posted on February 5, 2018

Happn iconTHE HINDU – Feb 5 – Online dating has caught up in India as is evident with the plethora of apps and sites like Tinder, Truly Madly, Woo, Bumble, Moco and OkCupid. Considering the growing market, new players are entering with Happn being the latest one. Launched in Paris in 2014 and spread across 18 countries, it has 45M users. Happn reached India in 2017 and now boasts ~1M users in Delhi alone besides having a sizeable presence in Mumbai, Bengaluru and Allahabad. Didier Rappaport, the app's founder says, "Unlike others we don't provide a catalogue of people's profiles which can be swiped. We connect people as it happens in real world by using two important technologies, hyper-localisation and real time." Making the app interactive is its See You There feature. It informs that the user is up for sharing an activity, like going for a walk, catching a movie, or go for a walk or grab a bite, in the next six hours.

by S. Ravi
See full article at The Hindu

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Summarized by the IDEA team

Researchers Say It Is Easy To Hack Tinder, OkCupid, And Others

Posted on October 26, 2017

Kasperskylab logoGIZMODO – Oct 25 – Using exploits ranging from simple to complex, researchers at the Moscow-based Kaspersky Lab say they could access users' location data, their real names and login info, their message history, and even see which profiles they've viewed. They tested Tinder, Bumble, OKCupid, Badoo, Mamba, Zoosk, Happn, WeChat and Paktor. Most apps have minimal HTTPS encryption, making it easy to access user data. The researchers say they have already sent their findings to the respective apps' developers.

by Sidney Fussell
See full articl at Gizmondo

Summarized by the Courtland Brooks team

Happn Adds A Bit Of Gamification With CrushTime Update

Posted on October 24, 2017

Happn crushtime screenshotFORBES – Oct 21 – Happn offers up people that you cross paths with on a daily basis. This is not a new feature of the app, it's the entire selling point of the app. The newly released CrushTime feature takes crossing paths with potential exes to a new level of user engagement, to lead matches to a real date. CrushTime randomly notifies users that one of four other Happn members they crossed paths with that day liked their profile. Users will then have a chance to guess which of the four members liked their profile. If they pick the right one, it's an instant crush. If not, they still sent a "like" to that user and hopefully, the user will "like" them back. Similar to Tinder, conversation will still require mutual likes.

by Curtis Silver
See full article at Forbes

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Summarized by the Courtland Brooks team