BUSINESS INSIDER – Mar 24 – Tokyo-based Mrk & Co has recently launched a new dating app in the US and Canada called "Dine." The goal of Dine is to get users offline as quickly as possible. After filling out a profile, members pick three restaurants where they'd want to go on a date. Dine then shows them 2-5 people per day to invite on a date.
Category: Outlets – Business Insider
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.
Small Design Tweak Encourages Millions More Users For Dating Apps
BUSINESS INSIDER – Jan 22 – A handful of major companies including Google, Facebook, Twitter, and Amazon encourage developers to let new users to co-opt their existing account information instead of creating a new identity. Facebook recently made a small design tweak that hugely boosted its number of new logins. "We found by using the words 'Continue as [first name]' on the Login opening screen we increased new logins by millions per month," Deb Liu, VP of Platform said. Happn says that once it added Facebook login, it increased its conversion rates by nearly 90%.
Startup CEO Recruits Chefs On Tinder
BUSINESS INSIDER UK – Dec 10 – Ariella Young, the CEO of Mychefit, a platform that sends chefs to cook in your home, has recruited two chefs through Tinder so far and she's looking for more. "I was using Tinder for dating and then I saw some profiles where they were wearing aprons," said Young. "I approach them and ask if they're a chef, before explaining that I'm interested in hiring them." So far she's managed to successfully hire two chefs via Tinder.
Happn Can’t Be Used For Stalking, Says The Dating App’s CEO
Dating App Happn Is Adding 1.2M Users A Month
BUSINESS INSIDER – Nov 21 – Mobile dating app Happn is growing like crazy and is rolling out new features including voice messages. The app, which launched in Paris in 2014, connects people who have crossed paths in real life. Happn now has 8M users worldwide. The app is gaining 1.2M users a month.
The Grade Dating App Wants To Be Yelp For Online Dating
BUSINESS INSIDER – Oct 12 - The Grade is a dating app that lets users submit reviews of people they've dated. The app launched last year, and in its first iteration, it relied on an algorithm to weed out the worst people. But feedback from women led The Grade's team to the idea of letting people dictate the rating. The ratings won't allow any text, only "yes/no" to given questions. The Grade then takes the sum of all these "yes/no" answers to generate a grade (A-F).
A Former Ashley Madison CTO Wants To Sue A Journalist Who Says He Hacked Nerve.com
BUSINESS INSIDER – Sep 10 – Raja Bhatia, former AM CTO, is threatening to sue tech blogger Brian Krebs who published a story titled "Leaked AshleyMadison Emails Suggest Execs Hacked Competitors." Bhatia, who left Avid Life Media in 2009, denies the claims. Krebs reported that in Nov 2012, Bhatia told Biderman that he had discovered a "huge security hole" in Nerve.com. He said that he had "access to all their user records including emails, encrypted password, if they purchased or not, who they talked to, what their search preferences are, last login, fraud risk profile, who they blocked or are blocked from, photo uploads, etc."
Grindr’s Revenue Expected To Reach $38M
BUSINESS INSIDER – Aug 27 – This month, hackers of AshleyMadison.com began to leak internal company data online, which also includes sensitive documents and the emails of CEO Noel Biderman. Included within Biderman's email correspondence is a "Management Presentation" for Grindr, created in June 2015. Accoring to the presentation, Grindr is expected to generate $38.1M this year. By the end of 2018, it predicts annual revenues ~$77M. Grindr claims that the average daily time its users spend on the app is 54 minutes daily, compared to Facebook's 42.1 minutes.
by Rob Price
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The Japanese Are Clueless About Online Dating
BUSINESS INSIDER – Aug 4 – In the face of a serious population decline, Japan hasn't got a clue when it comes to online dating. According to a 2012 report by Japan's National Institute of Population and Social Security Research, the number of Japanese people will fall from 127M to around 87M by 2060. Many Japanese still view online dating as a scam. One bright spot for online dating in Japan is the rise of social media. Many dating apps now require a Facebook login, which helps reassure users that the person they're speaking with is real.