BBC – Mar 25 – Shahzad Younas is the founder and CEO of Muslim dating site and app Muzmatch. Two years ago, Shahzad was in San Fran pitching Muzmatch at a global competition to win backing from prestigious Silicon Valley investment firm Y Combinator. He opened his address to the room by saying: "Muslims don't date, we marry." Y Combinator offers financial and practical support to a number of new start-ups per year. ~13K applied at the same time as Muzmatch, and it was one of 800 whose founders were invited to pitch in person. Muzmatch was given $1.5M (£1.2M), one of 100 start-ups that got backing in 2017. Today the fast-growing company says it currently has ~1M registered users across the UK and other countries. With a second office in Bangladesh, Muzmatch operates a "freemium" business model. It is free to use its basic service, but users can pay ~£10 a month for extra features such as unlimited viewing of profiles, and having their profile seen by more people. The company says its annual turnover is now~£4.5M.
Category: Outlets – BBC
Dating Agency Brings ‘Hope’ to Adults With Learning Disabilities
BBC – Feb 23 – Not-for-profit Safe Soulmate has been launched by Christine O'Neil and Vicky Baddeley. About 130 people have signed up to its first event in Cambridge on Saturday. Safe Soulmate, which caters exclusively for adults with autism and learning disabilities, is due to run as a pilot for six months after receiving £10K from the National Lottery Community Fund. Mrs O'Neill said there would also be a twice-weekly social group in Cambridge for people who wanted to "find like-minded friends and love".
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Women ‘Victims in 63% of Romance Scams’
BBC – Feb 11 – Victims of romance scams – the majority of whom are women – lost an average of £11,145 each last year, according to new data from police reporting centre Action Fraud. ~£50M was lost in these scams in 2018 when fraudsters pretend to be romantically attached. In 2018, 4,555 reports of romance fraud were made to Action Fraud. Total losses were up by 27% compared with the previous year. The total is likely to be higher as many victims are thought to have suffered in secret. The average age of a romance fraud victim is 50 and 63% of victims are women.
by Kevin Peachey
See full article at BBC
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Late Night Discussion on BBC Asian Network About Online Dating with Mark Brooks
OPW – Jan 9 – Mark Brooks was interviewed on BBC Radio Asian Network on Tuesday night about dating apps and Indian dating. You can listen to the episode here (Mark is at 52:56).
Apple in Court Over 30% App Commission
BBC – Nov 29 – Apple is facing the US Supreme Court to defend the commission it makes on iPhone app sales. The company takes a 30% commission on every sale and is accused by a group of consumers of breaching anti-trust laws because there is no alternative place to buy an iPhone app. Apple is appealing against a previous decision made by a lower court. The case began in 2011 and was revived last year. Apple says if the legal action is allowed to proceed, it could affect other technology giants as well – Google and Microsoft, for example, also take 30% commission on app sales.
Taiwan Rejects Same-sex Marriage in Referendums
China Shuts Down 4,000 Websites
BBC – Sep 25 – China has shut down thousands of websites and online accounts following a three-month campaign against "harmful" content, the state news agency Xinhua has announced. The content, on 4K sites, included infringements of copyright and material spreading "improper values, vulgarity or obscenity", it said.
Sugar Daddy Phenomenon In Africa
BBC – Sep 6 – In Kenya, more and more young women are using sugar daddies to fund a lifestyle worth posting on social media. This year the Busara Centre for Behavioural Economics conducted a study for BBC Africa in which they questioned 252 female university students between the ages of 18 and 24. They found that ~20% of the young women who participated in the research has or has had a "sponsor." No-one really knows how many sugar relationships end in sexual abuse or physical harm. Kenyan academics and NGOs have made extensive studies of domestic violence, and of the risks faced by sex workers. But on the subject of transactional sex there is no research.
Grindr To Go Public
BBC – Aug 29 – Gay dating app Grindr is going to list its shares on international stock exchanges, under a plan submitted by its Chinese parent company Kunlun Group. Kunlun Group's board said that going public would "strengthen" Grindr's competitiveness and help the business continue to develop. The Chinese tech firm originally bought a 61.5% stake in 2016 from the company's US founders. It then took full control in January.
This post also appears on InternetDatingInvestments.
Google Adds Digital Wellbeing Controls To Its OS
