FORBES – A Dutch antitrust authority ruled that Apple must allow dating apps to use alternative payments or face a weekly fine of $5.6M. Investors should consider buying Match Group. A filing at the Securities and Exchange Commission in June revealed Match had 15.1M paying subscribers, up 15% from a year ago. Annualized revenue was $2.7B and profits reached $978M. Match shares closed on Thursday at $133.44. The stock trades at 72.6x forward earnings, and 13.1x sales. Market capitalization has fallen to $37.2B, following a share price decline of 11% in 2021. Shares can easily trade to $190 during the next 12 months on the Apple news alone, a gain of 42% from current levels.
Category: Outlets – Forbes
How Dating Apps Are Countering ‘FODA’ This Covid-19 Christmas
FORBES – "With the vaccines and other changes in the pandemic, people want to get back out there and date," said Logan Ury, director of relationship science at Hinge, citing her research into 2021 dating trends. "But we also understood that more than half of singles have FODA." "FODA," Ury explained, "is fear of dating again." "People need love. People need connection," said Wolfe Herd in her CNBC interview. "That does not go away, irrespective of the changing landscape of this pandemic so our business remains largely unaffected during this new wave." Bumble adapted during the pandemic using video and voice. Hinge has adopted this tech, too, but not with a nod to its competition. Its team said they found inspiration in Clubhouse and added voice to users' profiles.
Bumble Cofounder Whitney Wolfe Herd No Longer a Billionaire as Shares Plunge
FORBES – A steep drop in Bumble shares since the dating app owner's quarterly earnings call on Nov 10 has knocked the fortune of CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd – previously the world's youngest self-made woman billionaire – below $1B, Forbes calculates. The 32-year-old Wolfe Herd was worth ~$940M at Monday's closing price of $35.03 per share. Her net worth has fallen by ~$200M since Q3 earnings were released three weeks ago, as Bumble stock has tumbled by 26%. Wolfe Herd has a 21% stake in the company. Bumble is far from the only company to struggle after its IPO. An analysis published Sunday by the Financial Times found half of the companies that raised $1 billion at IPOs this year are trading below their listing prices.
Bumble Founder Whitney Wolfe Herd Is Looking Ahead ‘Decades Not Days’
FORBES – After a $2.2B IPO last February, Bumble dating app founder and CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd is operating "business as usual". Shares on the Nasdaq sagged to $40 in the summer after debuting at $76. "I'm not obsessed with the stock," she said, "I'm obsessed with the customer, the team, the innovation we're planning for the future." "If you're trying to get to that next milestone, don't focus on the short-term. Stay married to the long-term vision," Wolfe Herd told the audience of Forbes 30 Under 30 list honorees.
How Advances in Technology and Science Could Impact the Dating and Matchmaking Industry
Blockchain Technology
Companies such as Hicky and Viola have both implemented blockchain to increase transparency by requiring users to validate their identity via face and voice recognition, which is then fully encrypted and stored into the blockchain.
Artificial Intelligence
AI can help gather in-app user behavior data for machine learning algorithms to curate more relevant matches based on its users' core values, beliefs and personality traits. Coffee Meets Bagel, Hinge, Tinder and Badoo all now use AI .
Augmented Reality
AR can be described as a visual or audio overlay of digital life on real life, distinct from the purely digital landscape of virtual reality (VR).
DNA Matchmaking
DNA Romance is a dating app that matches partners based on the information hidden in their DNA to forecast romantic chemistry. Dr. Tim Sexton built the app on the basis that partners with opposite immune system genes (MHC genes) have much higher romantic chemistry.
Ateam Dating App Is Intersecting Wellness and Dating
FORBES – June 21 – A couple who met during the pandemic, and are now engaged with a baby on the way, were tired of dating app culture. Both of them valued activities like yoga, meditation or sweaty workout but they would always end up on dates where it only involved late night cocktails and small talk. Dan Ilani and Megan Baldwin founded ateam, a new membership-based dating and networking app for people who are passionate about health, wellness and fitness. The name ateam comes from the belief that the best relationships in life function as "a team" and is driven by the motto that fitness is a mindset, not a body shape, look or size. The ateam has partnerships with 30 boutique fitness studios across the US. Members will have access to weekly drops of free group classes, members-only events, and opportunities to socialize.
S’More: “Tinder-fication” of Online Dating Is Over
FORBES – May 26 – New data gathered by the dating app company S'More suggests that putting chemistry ahead of "hotness" and relationships over casual encounters may become the new norm in online dating, and some of the biggest players in the industry are getting in on the trend. S'More survey found that physical attraction was no longer rated as the most important factor when searching for a potential match. "Covid-19 certainly changed the equation," says CEO Cohen-Aslatei. "But beyond that, our data shows that people are starting to expect more from dating apps. They want real connections, not the fake photos and hyper-sexualization that has characterized so much of online dating over the past decade." S'More has developed a suite of features aimed to reduce the superficiality of online dating, and slow down the process. For one, users aren't able to view a clear photo of a potential match until they have had a meaningful conversation with that person. S'More is not alone in its effort. Tinder and Bumble recently added games to their video product, MeetMe added blurred video dating, and Chispa, a Match Group app for Latino and Latina singles, connects daters based on answers to trivia games. MuzMatch, a Muslim-focused dating app, also lets women keep their profiles blurred from men.
Dating App Snack Is Disrupting the Dating Industry With Gen-Z in Mind
FORBES – May 18 – It was a TikTok video that gave Kimberly Kaplan the lightbulb moment she needed to inspire her to create a video-first dating app. Snack looks to merge the popularity and format of TikTok with the dating world. Kaplan wants to build an easy way for people to flirt, have fun, and actually see inside a dating prospect's real life.
Q: Where does the name Snack come from?
A: It was actually a couple of Gen-Zers who came up with the name. They also came up with the logo.
Q: What obstacles did you face as you were building Snack?
A: Dating is a really tough industry to break into. But as soon as I started to talk to investors about the idea, they immediately saw the opportunity. I approached investors and fundraised all virtually. It was over Zoom. It was way less intimidating than the experience when you're walking into their boardroom, where they hold the power and you're in their domain.
Q: How does the app work and how is it different from others?
A: You sign up like a typical dating app but instead of you moving over to a messaging screen, you can just scroll through videos of your matches in your feed.
Q: What was the timeline from concept to launch?
A: I was about to start fundraising in March of last year and then Covid hit. Markets tanked, VCs were trying to think about their companies. No one was fundraising, so I paused. In August, I started putting everything back together, and after about three weeks of pitching, I had multiple term sheets.
Q: What advice would you give to others starting their own business?
A: Great ideas disrupt the best laid plans. If you have a really great idea, don't be afraid to go for it.
Seniors Are Using Dating Apps and Tinder Leads the Pack
FORBES – May 14 – According to a new survey conducted by Choice Mutual, an independent insurance agency, seniors are increasingly turning to dating apps. The study found roughly a third of seniors who have dated within the last five years have turned to dating apps for help and according to Choice Mutual many have found success. 66% of those using dating apps had a relationship with someone they met through the platform. 35% used Tinder, followed by Match.com (28%), Hinge (25%), Plenty of Fish (25%) and Bumble (24%).
Comedy Duo ‘Jake and Amir’ Started a New Dating App
FORBES – May 6 – Created in collaboration with programmer Jeff Carbine (web designer for Headgum's Not Another D&D Podcast) and designers Craig Silva and Don Naylor of 16thirty Design, Orion has been in the works for the last 5-6 years. What sets the app apart from Tinder, Hinge, Bumble, etc. is a "personality-forward" interface. Users build their profiles, not just with personal photos, but also with general images that give a better snapshot of who they are. Each photo is preceded by a specific prompt, which encourages the individual to put more thought and meaning into their collage. Once two people match, the app helps facilitate a more natural conversation with different prompts. The app launched in early April and quickly attracted 3K users (many of them established Jake and Amir fans).