PATCH – June 4 – A Beverly man will plead guilty in U.S. District this month and admit he sent threatening letters to the OkCupid's CEO after he was banned from the site. One letter addressed to CEO Ariel Charytan contained white powder and a handwritten note that read "Greetings from Beverly Ban me will ya Welcome to the wonderful world of ANTHRAX." He also mailed a piece of paper stained with blood that he claimed was infected with the AIDS. Between Oct. 4 and Dec. 21, 2017, MacLeod sent five more threats, each of which required a Hazmat team response.
Category: OkCupid
US Singles Are Crossing Party Lines Again After 2016 Elections
ABC NEWS – May 23 – Many Americans have dated people with a different political affiliation, but that changed after the 2016 election, according to Match Group. In fact, in 2016, there was a period when Americans seemed less interested in dating in general. "For a couple weeks after the election, our traffic went down significantly," said Match Group CEO Mandy Ginsberg. "We saw our female traffic going down. It was a little bit worrisome because you need women on the apps," Ginsberg said. But over time things have gone back to normal. Ginsberg said that in general, people tend to date over political, socioeconomic, racial and educational divides. However, different apps within Match Group tend to attract people with certain political leanings. Tinder doesn't ask for any political affiliation information. PlentyofFish is considered more "red state" app, according to Ginsberg, OkCupid is a "blue state app."
China’s Tinder – Tantan – Is Rising in India
QUARTZ – May 9 – Tantan, China's favourite dating app, is now the fifth-most popular in India by combined monthly active users on iOS and Android phones, according to App Annie. In May 2018, Tantan did not feature among the top 10, but zoomed to the 4th position by July. It has since slid one spot following the launch of Bumble in December.
Top dating apps in India
(as on May 2018) (as on March 2019)
1. Tinder 1. Tinder
2. Happn 2. Happn
3. Azar 3. Azar
4. Badoo 4. Bumble
5. OkCupid 5. Tantan
Tantan translates in Mandarin to "talk." Launched in 2014, the app bears a high resemblance to Tinder, and was acquired by the Chinese social network Momo in February 2018. Tantan has ~90M registered users in China. The dating app has been advertising aggressively on TikTok.
Rejected Man Sent Threats and White Powder to OkCupid CEO
FORTUNE – Mar 1 – A Massachusetts man who was banned from OkCupid was arrested Thursday for allegedly sending nine threatening letters to the online dating site, one of which contained a white powder. The man, 47-year-old Liam MacLeod, sent the letters between September and December 2017 and addressed all nine letters to OkCupid's CEO. MacLeod is charged with mailing threatening communications and conveying false information and hoaxes. If convicted, he could face up to five years in prison and up to 10 years in prison on each count, respectively.
Ways to Combat Competition in the Mobile App Industry
by Bhavya Kaushal
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Hottest Times for Singles to Be Online
THINKNUM – Feb 19 – According to data from OkCupid.com, the hottest times to log into dating apps is from 10:00 p.m. to 3:00 a.m. GMT. That five hour window is consistently a busy time to be online and looking for love.
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The Strategy Puzzle of Subscription-Based Dating Sites
HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW – Jan 11 – Computer matching started 1959. The biggest shift occurred in the mid-1990s, with the birth of online dating. 25% of U.S. couples now meet on the internet. Newer sites made matchmaking tech. an important value proposition. eharmony uses a "scientific approach to matching highly compatible singles" and OkCupid does "a lot of crazy math stuff to help people connect faster." But are the lovelorn better served for it? Upon finding a compatible partner, users typically terminate their subscription, hurting the firm’s revenue, therefore it's unclear whether profit-maximizing sites would strive for the most effective matchmaking technology, or deprioritize innovation. According to game theory, users have a better chance of finding a match in a larger community so as a firm reduces its matchmaking effectiveness, more consumers are left unmatched as time goes by, but their continued presence on the platform benefits the newly arrived consumers. Lesser technology can engender positive network effects for a firm. A commission-based model, in which matchmakers charge users based on successful matches, would align the interests of matchmakers and consumers. High-end matchmaking already operates this way. Where commissions are impractical, matchmakers could charge a sizeable, upfront payment to cover a longer subscription period. The key to achieve mutually beneficial outcomes is to resolve the matchmakers' strategy dilemma, making sure their revenue is not negatively affected by their technology innovations.
by Yue Wu & V. "Paddy" Padmanabhan
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Users Complain of Account Hacks, but OkCupid Denies a Data Breach
TECH CRUNCH – Feb 11 – A reader contacted TechCrunch after his account was hacked. He said the hacker broke in and changed his password, locking him out of his account. They changed his email address on file, preventing him from resetting his password. There were several cases of people saying their OkCupid account had been hacked. "There has been no security breach at OkCupid," said Natalie Sawyer, a spokesperson for OkCupid. "All websites constantly experience account takeover attempts. There has been no increase in account takeovers on OkCupid." "If you use the same password on several different sites or services, then your accounts on all of them have the potential to be taken over if one site has a security breach," says OKCupid support page. That's called credential stuffing, a technique of running a vast lists of usernames and passwords against a website to see if a combination lets the hacker in. The easiest, most effective way against credential stuffing is for the user to use a unique password on each site. For companies like OkCupid, the other effective blocker is by allowing users to switch on two-factor authentication. OkCupid is just one of many major dating sites that doesn't use two-factor authentication at all.
by Zack Whittaker
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Podcast With Sam Yagan
FORBES – Feb 10 – Sam Yagan is currently the CEO of ShopRunner which has raised ~$100M from the likes of Alibaba Group or August Capital. Previously, he served as CEO of The Match Group and led it through a period of growth culminating in its $400M IPO. Yagan cofounded OkCupid in 2003 and it was acquired by Match for $90M in 2011. Earlier, he founded SparkNotes, which he sold for $30M.
In this episode you will learn:
- How to deal with lawsuits and other threats to the business
- Building marketplaces and the important KPIs that make things work
- Lobbying with government and establishing a thought leadership position
- Using content marketing as a secret weapon
- Working at the company that acquires your business and scaling through the ranks
- Becoming an investor to pay it forward with other founders
- Difference between managing small teams and bigger teams
by Alejandro Cremades
See full article at Forbes
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OKCupid DTF Campaign Is Back
CAMPAIGN US – Jan 29 – "DTF is a derogatory label that, historically, men used to talk to other men about women," said Melissa Hobley, OkCupid's CMO. "Women weren't part of the label and we wanted to flip that." The DTF campaign launched 12 months ago. It was an instant hit. With a simple-yet-punchy play on words, the brand took control of the phrase and gave it countless new meanings. The 2018 campaign boosted social mentions of OkCupid by 50% and resonated with young women and members of the LGBTQ community. A new installment, developed by Wieden+Kennedy as well as artist and author duo Maurizio Cattelan and Pierpaolo Ferrari, has been rolling out across Washington D.C. and San Francisco this month with geo-targeted phrases like "DTFree Speech", "DTFinish a Mission Burrito" and "DTFisherman's Wharf." In February, the campaign will return to New York City.