FAST COMPANY – Malgosia Green is three months away from uprooting her life in Vancouver and fully immersing herself in Singapore as CEO of Match Group Asia. She was appointed to the newly created role earlier this year by Match Group CEO Bernard Kim. Prior to taking over as CEO of Match Group Asia, Green led Plenty of Fish for five years. Malgosia Green will be focusing on expanding the company's presence in Asia, particularly in Japan, where there is significant potential for growth. ~50% of women and 70% of men in their 20s in Japan are single, according to a 2022 white paper from the Japanese Gender Equality Bureau. Green also aims to bring the Hinge app to new Asian markets in the coming quarters. It currently operates in India. Much of Green's mission is focused on Hyperconnect, the Seoul-based social media and video tech company Match acquired in 2021 for $1.73B. Part of that development will be in AI, Green says.
Category: Outlets – Fast Company
Tinder Explores $500/Month Subscription With ‘Tinder Vault’ for High-Value Dating Experiences
Dating App Snack Sends AI Avatars on Virtual Dates
Grindr Reports Revenue Growth of 34% in Fiscal Year 2022 Results
FAST COMPANY – Grindr reported 2022 earnings of $195M, a YOY growth of 34%, and expects its revenue to grow by 25% in 2023. The app also reported an increase in monthly average users to ~12M and paying users grew to 873,000 from 703,000 YOY. Grindr's CEO, George Arison, says that the company is looking at launching a lower subscription tier and improving its monetization by optimizing pricing segments better. The company is also adding more features to its app to convert non-paying users to paid or partly paid offerings. Despite the decline in Grindr's stock price since its debut in November, Arison is confident that the stock price "will take care of itself" as the company continues to show growth potential.
Hinge Is Rolling out Its $50 per Month Subscription Today
Facebook Groups Became the New Matchmaker
FAST COMPANY – Burned out on dating apps, singles are turning to Facebook's private Groups. Depending on the group, users will share pictures of themselves or of a friend who is looking for a relationship, and then will field the responses. Date Him New York, for example, has amassed 2K members since its creation in August.
Forging Connections Inside “The Fourth Place”
Tech Startups to Watch in 2022
FAST COMPANY – Dating app SoSyncd is one of the top 15 tech startups to watch this year, according to FastCompany. Founded in 2021 by sisters Jessica and Louella Alderson, SoSyncd has a different approach that leans on science. Instead of swipe-right-swipe-left routine, SoSyncd' app matches people based on their Myers-Briggs Personality Type, which is derived from a five-minute test. SoSyncd then matches people who might have some commonalities. The company says it already has ~100K users.
Ghosting on Dating App Snack Will Make Users Invisible
FAST COMPANY – Snack, a video-centric service that pitches itself as TikTok meets Tinder, says people who ghost too frequently will become less visible on its platform. Users who ghost other users too frequently can be reported for doing so, Snack says, and if the behavior keeps up, the visibility of their profile will be reduced over time. Snack launched early last year with $3.5M in pre-seed investment led by Kindred Ventures and Coelius Capital. The Vancouver-based company was founded by Kimberly Kaplan, a dating-app veteran and former executive at Plenty of Fish, now owned by Match Group.
How Background Check Startup Garbo Protects Online Dating Users
FAST COMPANY – Aug 10 – Kathryn Kosmides's experience leaving an abusive relationship inspired her to create an easy way for people to find out more about who they're dating. She created the nonprofit background check platform Garbo, which allows individuals to access public records of violent crimes for a nominal fee. With just a first name and phone number, Garbo users can look up records for someone they've matched with on an online dating app. Following a seven-figure investment by Match Group in March, Garbo's technology will be piloted on Tinder later this year. Garbo doesn't disclose sensitive personal details like home addresses when users search for a record. The platform already filters out non-violent offenses like marijuana possession and minor traffic violations.