Category: Match.com
Could Hinge Be Match Group’s Next Tinder?
THE MOTLEY FOOL – Nov 10 – Tinder dominates Match's revenue. It has grown from around zero revenue in 2014 to ~$1.4B this year. Match.com and other legacy websites like PlentyofFish make up around a third of sales. The smallest part of Match's current portfolio is the "emerging opportunities." It includes brands like Ablo, Pairs, and Hawaya, but is led by Hinge. Hinge is "designed to be deleted," meaning it targets people in the slightly older millennial cohort looking for long-term relationships. Match doesn't disclose Hinge's nominal revenue numbers. However, the app downloads year-to-date were up 82%. In fact, the company disclosed in its Q2 report that Hinge users have grown more than tenfold since 2017. With ~10M downloads globally, Hinge may be on the verge of what Tinder achieved a few years ago: hitting escape velocity in its target market.
by Brett Schafer
See full article at The Motley Fool
Match’s Annual Singles in America Survey – Video Is the New First Date
PR NEWSWIRE – Oct 6 – Match has released initial findings from its 10th annual Singles in America study. This 2020 data on 5k singles provides insight into how singles navigated dating during a year of unparalleled political, economic and social change. 58% of single app daters have shifted toward more intentional dating in the wake of the pandemic. 52% have changed the qualities they look for in a potential partner and 44% say they had more meaningful conversations with a date in the last month. Daters are focusing less on looks and more on honesty, transparency and meaningful conversations. About one in four singles broke up during lockdown (26%), and 22% of singles lost contact with a potential date. One in five singles video dated during the pandemic (19%), including half of Gen Z singles (50%) and 1/3 of Millennials (29%), an ~25% increase in video dating over the last 3 years.
Muzmatch Expands Ethnicity Filters
by Heba Hashem
See full article at Salaam Gateway
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Match Is Launching New Feature Called Dates
MASHABLE – Sep 15 – Match will prompt users and ask if they're ready to move to the next step if a conversation looks promising. The pop-up allows them to share how they're feeling about someone without the potential awkwardness of their match not reciprocating. According to Match's recent survey, 93% of users said they'd like to know if someone on a dating app is as into them as they are. 66% have wrongfully assumed a match's interest level. Once both people are ready, the profiles move to "Dates," a dedicated section of the app. From there, they'll learn about their match's dating preferences like how they prefer to social distance, and what their ideal first date is.
How the Pandemic Has Changed Dating
TODAY – July 28 – Tinder recorded its highest single day of swiping this year, while Bumble hit a milestone of 100M users. Some apps, like Hinge, are integrating new features, like in-app video chatting, to help people connect online. Dr. Helen Fisher, a biological anthropologist and the chief science advisor at Match.com, says that the pandemic has led to a major change on dating apps. "This pandemic has led to more conversations, more meaningful conversations, more self-disclosure, more intimacy (and) less anxiety about sex and money," she said.
by Kerry Breen
See full article at Today
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What Was the First Online Dating Site?
FOX BUSINESS – June 15 – Gary Kremen founded the Match.com as one of several online classified ad businesses he planned to develop. The idea for the revolutionary platform came to Gary Kremen while he was in the shower. "I thought it would be really interesting to use the Internet for relationships, and to do it right," he said. By 1994, he owned the domain Match.com. The website went live in April of 1995. In 1997 Match was sold for $7M to Cendant, a Connecticut consumer-services company. In 1999, IAC acquired Match.
by Daniella Genovese
See full article at Fox Business
Mark Brooks: Not quite true. Webpersonals was started by Andrew Conru in 1994, and sold to the company that would become Lavalife in Canada. Webpersonals was the first. Not Match.com. Dr Conru then went on to start FriendFinder in 1996.
Match Is Still Refusing to Let Bisexuals Choose More Than One Gender
PINK NEWS – June 3 – Despite the fact that bi+ activists have been rallying for the feature for years, the company refused to allow users to choose more than one gender. Moreover, it emphasised that it offers "two-gender preferences", stonewalling non-binary users from joining. "Our site is for everyone but at the moment it's only set up for two gender preferences," the website's Twitter account stated. "Members can set up two profiles with their preferences and they only have to pay for one."
Q&A With CEO of Match.com Hesam Hosseini
DMAGAZINE – May 22 – The coronavirus pandemic has forever changed the way singles connect, says CEO of Match and Match Affinity, Hesam Hosseini.
Q: How are you coping amid the COVID-19 crisis?
A: Our mission of sparking connections has never been more important. We want to do everything we can to help singles feel less isolated and more connected.
Q: Did your business continuity plan work, or were there surprises?
A: We had to reprioritized our roadmap and went to work building new ways for our members to connect.
Q: What are the short-term ramifications for your specific industry?
A: The tools singles are using to connect changed overnight. Now 70% of our members would use video chat; before pandemic, it was only 6%.
Q: Have you found silver linings in these difficult times?
A: I think our team has become closer than ever.
Q: How are you maintaining your company culture?
A: We hold all of our meetings over video and we use Slack constantly. We get together via virtual happy hours, puppy parties, story time with kids, mindfulness activities, and we even celebrated our 25th anniversary over Zoom this week.
Q: What will things look like for your company and industry in another six months?
A: We will likely keep some work-from-home flavor for a little while as we slowly dial back to normal, whatever that may look like.
by Ben Swanger
See full article at DMagazine
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The Top Dating Industry News for May 12th
OPW – May 12 – Tinder's Video Dating Feature, Match Group Q1 Financial Results, Helen Fisher on Dating in Pandemic, The Meet Group Q1 Financial Results.
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