CNBC – Aug 29 – According to joint research by Discover and Match Group, 58% of online daters say good credit score in a potential partner is more attractive than driving a nice car. 50% say good credit is more important than an impressive job title. And 40% said they favor good credit over a physical fitness. That's because credit "scores don't lie," said Kate Manfred, VP of brand communications and insights at Discover.
Category: Match Group
Tinder Represents A Third Of Total PMC In MTCH As Reported In Q2
SEEKING ALPHA – Aug 25 – Tinder has ~50M monthly users but only 2M are PMC. Match Group total PMC is 6M. Match Group revenue comes mainly from paying customers, indirect revenue from ads generates ~3% of the total revenue. Recently Tinder introduced a new feature that places ads with a similar format as regular user profiles. The ads appear among the deck of possible matches that the users swipe right or left. The ads are targeted for each user thanks to an agreement with Facebook and appear every 20 or 30 swipes or so. This feature will allow Tinder to monetize from non-paying users which represent the majority of the Tinder base.
by Mauro Solis
See full article at Seeking Alpha
Bumble Turned Down $450 Million Buyout Offer From Match Group
TECH CRUNCH – Aug 23 – Match Group offered to acquire Bumble for $450 million over the summer, according to sources close to the deal. Bumble launched in 2014, reached 1M users within a year of launch and reportedly has 18M registered users now. Since, they launched BumbleBFF (a service for meeting new friends) and BumbleBiz (for professionals looking for a new job) and introduced paid features. A source close to the company estimates the value of Bumble at over $1B.
by Fitz Tepper
See full article at Tech Crunch
Match Group Launches Lesbian Dating App In Brazil
JORNAL DIA DIA – Aug 16 – Match Group LatAm is launching Femme, a dating app for gay women looking for a serious relationship. The app was created and developed in Brazil. The launch is part of Match Group LatAm's strategy of investing in niche relationship sites and apps.
by Ray Santos
The full article was originally published at Jornal Dia Dia, but is no longer available.
Match Group Names Mandy Ginsberg To Succeed Greg Blatt As CEO
PRNEWSWIRE – Aug 2 – Mandy Ginsberg, CEO of Match Group Americas is going to be CEO of Match Group, effective January 1, 2018. Ms. Ginsberg will succeed Greg Blatt, who will remain in his role as Chairman and CEO of Match Group through the end of the year, and will stay on as CEO of Tinder until a replacement is named. Match Group also announced its Q2 2017 financial results. Revenue was $310M, a 12% increase from the prior year quarter, driven by 15% growth in Average PMC to 6.1M. Average PMC at Tinder exceeded 2M for the first time, an 86% increase over the prior year quarter.
Q&A With Match Media Group
Q: Tinder started experimenting with native ads a couple of years ago. What ad experiences are available on Tinder right now?
A: Today we are monetizing Tinder in two ways. One is in our direct business, which has a number of native ad opportunities within the cardstream. We have autoplay video, but it runs full-screen. The other is a display native unit that acts as a card, and when you right swipe you get a message or match. We also use Facebook Audience Network.
Q: Facebook has talked about running out of room to increase ad load in the future. With your scale, are you in a similar position, where you have more ad inventory than you choose to fill at a given moment?
A: For our direct business, we are not constrained in supply in the near or medium term. We are continuing to grow [sales], particularly in Tinder, which tends to be a focus of a lot of that direct business.
Q: What's different about monetizing via mobile app vs. mobile web?
A: For us, the difference is more about the properties. Tinder is 100% mobile app. What's been surprising is finding the right tech to participate in the middle, in between those two [mobile app and mobile web]. How do I do bidded mobile native with a beautiful execution that works consistently on a platform that everyone's plugged into? I think the market is coming along, but there is no established perfect framework to draw on.
Q: Why is it so difficult to execute bidded mobile native?
A: Programmatic native is more complicated. You're rendering multiple assets at a given time. In a bidded environment, you have to be prepared to do that for a number of different ad executions, and that's more complicated than the web, where when you win the auction your third-party tag serves the creative.
Q: Can anyone else besides Facebook deliver that bidded native experience at scale right now?
A: We would like to find the perfect partner to solve that problem. Facebook runs bidded native really efficiently. I need a solution that can come as close to that as possible.
Q: Dating traffic can be viewed by some marketers as not brand-safe. How do you see that playing out in your programmatic and direct business?
A: Less and less is that an objection we hear. By 2020, half of the population will be single. Not using Tinder or another dating product is now surprising because that’s the norm, using digital to meet people.
by Sarah Sluis
See full article at Ad Exchanger
Mandy Ginsberg, CEO Of Match: “Online Dating Hasn’t Solved The Hardest Part Of Finding Love”
BUSINESS INSIDER – July 20 – "No matter what medium you use to meet people, you're going to face the same challenges in finding a relationship", said Mandy Ginsberg, CEO of Match Group. "It's not like you're this holy grail that came into the dating category. You still heard the same things you heard, which is ability to have chemistry, or someone not being sure about their intent, or going out on endless first dates and nothing ever clicking. People are still people — now you're just being introduced to a bigger pool of them. That doesn't mean you won't meet the love of your life online but it may take some rejection and disappointment before you get there."
Why I Bought Match, The Meet Group And Spark Networks
OPW – June 26 – I picked up three stocks in the dating industry. Here's why…
Match Group – In this business, size matters, and Match Group operates at significant scale, along with an International footprint.
Meetme – Are essentially a family run business. They sit in the middle ground between dating and social networking. Fallow ground for growth IMHO. Momo has shown a clear path to monetization, and Meetme should be able to copycat their way to profits by modeling their success.
Spark Networks / Affinitas – Spark Networks has been bumbling along for years. Affinitas has the most to gain by buying them. They'll benefit from economies of scale and combining know-how. They'll be able to raise more money, more easily.
I do not make any recommendations in this post. I'm merely expressing my opinion, and putting my money where my mouth is. You can see one-pager summaries on publicly-held Internet dating companies on Online Personals Watch here.
Read the full post on Courtland Brooks blog.
See all posts on Match Group See all posts on The Meet Group
See all posts on Momo See all posts on Spark Networks
Post by Mark Brooks @ Courtland Brooks
Match.com Launches OurTime In UK
See full article at Netimperative
Match Group Declares Share Buyback Program
by Renee Jackson
See full article at The Cerbat Gem