by Emily Bary
See full article at MarketWatch
Category: Match Group
Bumble Responded To Match Lawsuit With An Ad
TECH CRUNCH – Mar 20 – Tinder's parent company Match Group is suing its competition Bumble, accusing the app of stealing trade secrets and patents. The complaint also says that Bumble has rolled out two new features that were "learned of and developed confidentially while at Tinder". Bumble is responding with a full-page ad in the New York Times, "We swipe left on your multiple attempts to buy us, copy us, and now, to intimidate us." The ad goes onto say that Bumble isn't afraid of aggressive corporate culture. "That's what we call bullying, and we swipe left on bullies," it says, noting the thousands of users the company has blocked for "bad behavior."
by Fitz Tepper
See full article at Tech Crunch
Match Group Is Suing Bumble For Patent Infringement
RECODE.NET – Mar 16 – Match Group is suing Bumble for infringing on two of its patents, including a design patent for Tinder's now-famous swipe-to-connect feature, according to the suit. Match also claims that early Bumble executives Chris Gulczynski and Sarah Mick, who both previously worked at Tinder, stole "confidential information related to proposed Tinder features," including the idea for a feature that lets users go back if they accidentally skip someone, according to the suit. Tinder and Bumble have a long and interesting history. Most recently, Match made an offer to buy Bumble last summer for $450M, according to TechCrunch. One source tells Recode that Match is still interested in acquiring Bumble, which means this lawsuit may very well be a bargaining chip – albeit an unfriendly one. Badoo is Bumble's majority owner, with a 79% stake.
by Kurt Wagner
See full article at ReCode
Match Group Stock No Longer Cheap But Could Rally Further, Says Analyst
MARKETWATCH – Mar 7 – Jefferies analyst Brent Thill raised his price target on Match Group shares to $50 from $44 late Tuesday, writing that he believes new investors haven't missed Match's rally entirely, despite the stock's 156% rise over the past 12 months. The S&P 500 is up 15% in that time. Thill wrote that Match Group shares still trade at a discount to shares of other subscription companies, including Netflix, Zillow Group and Angi Homeservices based on EBITDA. "The argument can no longer be made that Match is a cheap asset, but we still believe that upside remains," Thill wrote. Tinder continues to perform well and a new paid Tinder feature due out later this year is potentially "a catalyst that can move the stock."
Tinder Has Patented Swiping And Double-opt-in Matches
AXIOS – Mar 6 – Match Group CEO Mandy Ginsberg made an intriguing disclosure during Q4 earnings call: "On the product front, Tinder has been on the cutting edge of innovation since its inception in 2012, inventing the swipe gesture, which has since become this cultural phenomenon of 'swipe right' and 'swipe left' and that is often imitated on mobile products. Tinder also invented the 'double blind opt-in' whereby two users need to 'like' each other before they can message. In fact, these features are so innovative that Tinder was granted a patent in the dating category by the US Patent & Trademark office." The patent application is dated October 21, 2013.
A Day At The iDate Conference
VICE – Feb 26 – Vice spent a day at the iDate European Internet dating conference that took place last October in London. Over 40 CEOs, CTOs, COOs and CFOs attended the event. Like a lot of things that have the Internet as their bedrock, the online dating market is increasingly winner-takes all. A handful of companies control the roadway. Everyone else is hanging on. "It's one of those industries where the monkeys all mistake themselves for future gorillas," one attendee explains. "In any business, you have monkeys, chimps and gorillas. Gorillas are the market leaders. In online dating, it's The Match Group. They spend the most on marketing and product design, they get the numbers, they win the game. Now, there's still enough space in the market for copycats to take a bit off the gorillas – the monkeys – provided they simply copy and don't spend on R&D or marketing. Chimps are businesses that invested heavily in becoming the gorillas, but lost the race. So their best strategy is to find a niche – become their own gorilla in a smaller sub-market. There's a niche for everyone. But you've got to recognise which category you are, or else you'll invest too much, or too little. The amazing thing is that, despite all the cheap gags and easy scorn, it seems to be working. Last year, a UK study reported that half of all respondents had only ever asked someone out online, never face-to-face. In the States, 13% of dating survey respondents said they'd got engaged or married from an app. Those numbers will only rise.
Online Personals Watch PR Rankings – The Sites That Got The Most Press In 2017
#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.
New Match Group CEO Wants To Make Online Dating Friendlier For Women
MARKETWATCH – Feb 14 – Tinder will soon roll out a feature that lets women choose who makes the first move on that app. She also pointed to other efforts that the company hopes will make its online-dating platforms more female-friendly, such as a new campaign for OkCupid that emphasizes shared hobbies over hookups.
Q: What does the change at Tinder reflect about Match's efforts to appeal more to women?
A: Every time we talk about product, we talk about the female experience. On Tinder, women can choose if they want to start the conversation first or if they want someone else to start. For OkCupid, we started a campaign called "DT____," so "down to farmer's market," "down to fiesta," etc. The idea is that women don't want "DTF".
Q: Is there concern that if you make the product too good, people will quickly find love and stop paying?
A: On Tinder, people are younger. When you're 19, you're not going to find the love of your life – you might, but that doesn't always happen. If you've had a success, you're going to come back and start another one. And then the best marketing in the world is from people who have seen success.
by Emily Bary
See full article at MarketWatch
See all posts on Match Group
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See all posts on OkCupid
Young Japanese Are Less Hesitant When It Comes To Online Dating
THE JAPAN TIMES – Feb 14 – According to Hirokazu Nakamura, chief product officer and chief marketing officer of Tokyo-based startup Eureka, young people are not losing interest in love. "They have been placed in a situation where finding love is too difficult. They just have too many things that they want to prioritize," said Nakamura. Eureka, owned by Match Group, developed dating app Pairs that claims 7M registered users with 4K relationships being made every month. 80% of its users are 20-30 years old. But there is still a negative image in Japan about meeting someone online, as some shady deai-kei online dating services have been hotbeds for child prostitution and other crimes. But young people seem to be less hesitant in pursuing a relationship online as more well-known companies are entering the dating app market, such as matchmaking service Tapple Tanjo or e-commerce giant Rakuten which operates Rakuten O-net, a service designed for people who are serious. The dating app market in Japan is expected to more than double to ¥57.7B ($542M) by 2022 from ¥20.8B ($195M) in 2017, according to MatchingAgent.
Credit Score Is Important When It Comes To Dating
BUSINESS INSIDER – Feb 13 – The majority of online daters would prefer a partner with a good credit score than a nice car. A good credit score is perceived to be a sign of responsibility, trustworthiness, and intelligence, according to Discover and Match Group survey of 2,000 American adults. "Money talks, but your credit score can speak more about who you are as a person, and singles agree that those with good credit tend to be conscientious and reliable," says Dr. Helen Fisher, chief scientific advisor for Match.com.