HUFFINGTON POST – Feb 23 – Despite its success, Match's IPO was not without controversy. Questions were raised by IAC's decision to include two educational companies (The Princeton Review and Tutor) along with the dating sites in the newly-formed Match Group. By mingling two educational companies that feature large student populations with dating sites, does Match intend for a student's personal information to be accessed by those dating sites? According to the policy user's information can be shared "with vendors and other third parties" – sites like Tinder and Match.com.
Category: Match Group
Tinder Is The Darling Of The Press
OPW – Feb 23 – The press just loves Tinder. In our "Best And Worst Press Coverage" overview, Tinder was the absolute winner in 2015. The mobile dating app appeared in the news on a daily basis with mainly positive press hits (except when CEO Sean Rad was interviewed;).
Here is the list of dating sites/app with best press coverage:
- Tinder
- Match.com
- eHarmony
- Grindr
- POF
- OKCupid
- Happn
- Bumble
- The Grade
- Hinge
The worst press coverage:
On the other site, for AshleyMadison 2015 was an exceptionally horrendous year. The site was hacked, members data was leaked online, and lawsuits followed; without a doubt AshleyMadison was the company with the worst press coverage of all.
Match.com Aims To Stay Relevant
Analysts At BTIG Upgraded Match Group Stock From Sell To Neutral
by Martin Blanc
The full article was originally published at BIDNESSETC, but is no longer available.
Analysts Say Tinder Is ‘A Real Business’
BUSINESS INSIDER – Feb 5 – Match Group released its first ever earnings report on Tuesday and banks are feeling confident about Tinder's ability to make money. Deutsche Bank said that "Tinder is a real business." The stock market, however, wasn't so bullish on Match Group. The shares were down 16% on Thursday, which followed a 13% drop the day before. On its earning call, Match Group said that ~60% of Tinder users come from outside North America but did not disclose how many people pay for Tinder.
Match Group: Looking Beyond The Dating Business
SEEKING ALPHA – Feb 4 – Match Group has two big online education platforms (The Princeton Review and Tutor.com) that will play an important role in company's future success. In its latest earnings report, the company said that 2016 will be a year when its e-learning platforms will take off. According to IBIS Capital, e-learning is one of the fastest-growing sectors in the world. It's expected to grow 23% from 2012 to 2017. Match.com revenues from the educational platforms were $26.1M.
Match Group Q4 And 2015 Results
Founder Of Lavalife Interviews Founder Of POF
BETAKIT – Jan 30 – Bruce Croxon, founder of Lavalife, sat down with Markus Frind, founder of POF, for an interview. While Lavalife had 400 employees and a paid service, Frind worked on the site alone and made it the largest dating site in the world. Frind said he wasn't too focused on beating Lavalife, and instead turned toward the US market. Lavalife was sold in 2010 for ~CAD$ 200M. POF was sold to The Match Group for ~CAD$ 800M ($575M).
Privacy Issues Could Kill Match Group
INVESTORPLACE – Jan 27 – The real value in many online businesses is consumer data. However, that data carries the risk of being hacked. IAC spun off Match.com and lumped in The Princeton Review as well as Tutor.com. Lumping them together makes no sense unless there is a cross-promotion or data sharing between them. Jennifer Kohn, SVP of Communications at The Princeton Review said that its data is stored and managed completely independently of any other Match company. There are no US laws regarding data sharing but government crackdown on privacy and data sharing is coming. It could gut Match.com and its ability to cross-promote and share data.
Barry Diller Examines IAC’s Portfolio
BLOOMBERG – Jan 28 – Barry Diller, founder, chairman and senior executive at IAC, explains the evolution of and various reorganizations of the company and breaks down the state of each division.
The full article was originally published at Bloomberg, but is no longer available.