CNA LUXURY – Mar 23 – After 17 years, Lunch Actually is still playing Cupid. Founded in 2004, Lunch Actually is the brainchild of 41-year-old Violet Lim. In her early 20s, Lim was working as a management associate in a bank when she realised that most of her peers, though successful, were single. At the age of 24, Lim took the plunge and left her job to start Lunch Actually together with her now husband, Jamie Lee. To date, it has arranged ~140K dates and matched ~ 4,500 happily married couples. The company has also established offices in Indonesia, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Thailand. Thanks to dating apps, people have become more open to engaging an external party to help them find love, Lim shared. "The trouble with dating apps is that there are all sorts of characters." Lunch Actually started off as a service to match singles for a lunch date but is now offering coaching services. It launched its own dating app, LunchClick, in 2015 which is meant only for serious daters. Last year, the company also launched the Lunch Actually App, which helps its clients to set up appointments with consultants, view their matches, arrange dates, submit their feedback, and chat with dating coaches. Most recently, the company tapped into livestreaming. Lim has witnessed firsthand the changing preferences of Singaporeans. Interestingly, the Korean drama fever has had some effect. More people now are more concerned about physical appearance. "It could also be a result of Korean dramas, or just TV dramas in general," shared Lim. "Or it could be because of dating apps. On dating apps, the first thing you see is a person's photo."
Category: LunchClick
IDEA Launches Social Safety Badge for Dating Apps
BUSINESSWIRE – Dec 9 – IDEA (The Internet Dating Excellence Association) is launching the Social Safety Badge and Guidelines for high quality dating apps. "The goal of this badge is to help users identify dating, matchmaking and social apps that are distinguished in their commitment to a safe and exceptional experience for users," said IDEA President Mark Brooks.
The guidelines cover:
- Respect For Others
- Respect For The Rights Of Others
- Respect For Minors
- Respect For The Community
- Respect For Larger Community
The following dating apps are in the initial launch group and have signed on to the badge, stating that they will adhere to the guidelines:
- CitySwoon
- GlobalMuslimMatch
- Happn
- Jaumo
- LunchClick
- MeetMe
- muzmatch
- Namoro
- Once
- Say Allo
- Skout
- Tagged
- Vouch
IDEA was formed in 2007 as the Internet Dating Executive Alliance and changed to the Internet Dating Excellence Association in 2018. The group is made up of 700+ dating industry executives and dating company leaders and innovators from around the world.
Online Dating Is Hot Money In China
by Samantha Cheh
See full article at Tech in Asia
See all posts on Tinder See all posts on LunchClick
See all posts on Happn See all posts on Peekawoo
See all posts on Paktor
LunchClick Changes The Way Singles Communicate
PRESS RELEASE – Mar 20 – Asia's dating app for serious daters LunchClick recently introduced a new communication feature. Singles can now create their own personalized questions and send to their matches without the social awkwardness of being too straight-forward. LunchClick, a dating app developed by the team behind Lunch Actually Group, entirely removes the use of chatting in its platform because chatting rarely leads to real dates. In previous version, singles could communicate with each other from the limited list of pre-set Q&As on LunchClick. Now ~500 customized Q&As has been created.
Fierce Competition Between Dating Apps In Asia
SEA GLOBE – Feb 24 – Southeast Asian users have caught on to the mobile dating trend, with local dating apps – such as Thailand-based Noonswoon, Peekawoo in the Philippines, Indonesia's Wavoo and Singapore's LunchClick. Paktor is one of Asian's biggest dating apps, boasting 6M users in six key Asian markets. Competition is fierce. Paktor is the only dating app out of 13 that entered the Southeast Asian market at the same time that is still standing. Capturing market share in Southeast Asia involves understanding the social norms of each country. While most of Paktor's advertising in Singapore appears online, regional marketing director Shn Juay says the company adopted a different tack in Indonesia. "We go into university campuses and identify people who could be influencers. We let them try the app, and then share it through word of mouth."
Dating App LunchClick Killed In-App Chat
TECHINASIA – Nov 7 – LunchClick is a new dating app from a Singapore-based dating agency, Lunch Actually. It takes a few hours for users to go from downloading the app to using it. Every profile is exhaustively verified by humans to keep out creeps, fakers, and scammers. Users can’t engage in small talk via in-app chat. There’s no endless swiping either, as they only get one match a day. Instead of chat, LunchClick devised a Q&A-style interaction where matches take turns asking questions chosen from a predefined list. The app charges entry fees for singles meetup events, and will soon make money from restaurant booking fees, in-app purchases, and gifts.
by Terence Lee
See full article at TechInAsia
Lunch Actually Acquires Thailand’s #1 Matchmaking Company
PRESS RELEASE – Oct 1 – Lunch Actually, Singapore based high-end matchmaking company, has acquired MeetNLunch, the number one matchmaking service for busy professionals in Thailand. This acquisition comes after Lunch Actually Group's recent launch of its dating app, LunchClick, in April 2015, as well as its expansion into Jakarta in October 2014. To date, LunchActually has ~400K members. Last year their revenue grew ~50% and hit a new revenue milestone of $5M. MeetNLunch has been connecting singles in Thailand since 2006.
See all posts on LunchActually
This post also appears on InternetDatingInvestments.