NEW-BUSINESS.DE – June 22 – Slow dating app Once wants to expand its presence in Germany. The app has hired Morad Adjaoud, the former Head of International Growth of Tinder. Adjaoud joins Once as Chief Marketing Officer. Adjaoud will be responsible for worldwide marketing, but will pay special attention to the German market. Once launched in France in 2015; claims 2.1M French users and 1.5M German users.
See full article at New-Business.de
THETIMES.CO.UK – June 25 – "I think #MeToo was a turning point for dating apps, making them react to help women feel safer online," says Clémentine Lalande, the co-chief executive of Once, an app that matches users with a single suitor each day. Last month, Bumble wrote an open letter to a college swimmer after he sent a female user abusive messages. The open letters serve as a warning to people joining the app that this behaviour won't be tolerated. Tinder is considering adding a Bumble-like feature so women need only interact with men they have messaged first. Bumble is considering allowing its female users to put an initial instead of their name to protect their identities. Meanwhile Once has introduced a five-star rating system. Women can "review" men, rating conversations, offering post-date analysis and giving a verdict on the accuracy of photos. It's not just the apps: women themselves are using technology to hit back in innovative ways. The artist Anna Gensler makes naked sketches of men who have sent her crude messages, then sends them to the men and posts them on Instagram. The blogger Samantha Mawdsley replied to an unsolicited penis pic with a catalogue of photos of male genitalia.
by Rosamund Urwin
See full article at TheTimes.co.uk
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BUSINESS INSIDER – Mar 22 – Dating apps are starting to offer fewer, more curated matches. Dating app Once delivers users one match per day. Then, users have 24h to decide whether they are interested. Once has been available in Europe since 2015; it launched in the US in Feb 2018 and now has 200K US users. Coffee Meets Bagel, which launched in 2012, also presents women with one "bagel" (match) a day. (Men receive up to 21 matches every day and select the people they like, so the app chooses women's bagels from among the men who indicated they liked them.) The League, which launched in 2015, is a more selective dating app for ambitious professionals. Then there's Happn, which debuted in 2014 in Paris. Users who subscribe to Happn Essential get 10 chances to "Say Hi" to another user every day. It's possible that daters and app-developers alike have begun to observe the effects of what social scientists call "choice overload" or the "paradox of choice." The more options you have, research suggests, the less likely you are to make any decision at all.
by Shana Lebowitz
See full article at Business Insider
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PR NEWSWIRE – Feb 27 – European dating app, Once, is launching in the US. Once has a rating system, similar to Uber, that allows women review their conversation, dates and profile picture accuracy of the men they went on dates with. These ratings are then available to other Once users. Launched in October 2015, Once is a slow dating app that focuses on quality over quantity by picking the best matches for users every day at noon. The app claims 6M users in 7 countries and raised $9M.
THE LOCAL – May 12 – Digital news publisher "The Local" in Germany has launched a new online dating site powered by Once, the dating app that mixes high-tech with a human touch.
GRUENDERSZENE – Mar 20 – Mayze, a new Munich-based dating app, has been launched recently. Marianne Kraai, the app's founder, calls her app "Parship for the young generation". While the Tinder aims at young mobile users, who are mainly looking for casual relationships, Parship attracts older users who are looking for serious relationships. Mayze wants to position itself in the middle. The market is crowded. There is Tinder, Lovoo and Spotted but the apps don't attract any investors. Lovoo, for example, did not receive any external money. According to TechCrunch, there were only $47M for dating startups in 2016 – $32M went to a Chinese player. "Investors are often afraid of dating apps," says Romain Lavault, partner of the French VC Partech Ventures who led the investment in Once. "The apps do not hold their users, and it is very difficult to get users to pay," says Lavault. In addition, the exit market for dating startups is quite limited. Anke Hecht from VC Target Global sees a lack of innovation. "The dating market has not changed for years", she says.
by Yessi Bello Perez
The full article was originally published at TechCityNews, but is no longer available.
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IT ESPRESSO – May 23 – Once, a dating app that offers only one match per day, specially selected by a team of matchmakers, has raised EUR 5M in its latest round of funding from LG Capital and Partech Ventures. Once will use the funds to strengthen the product.
See full article at It Espresso
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by Luigi Fiorillo
The full article was originally published at Lupokkio.it, but is no longer available.