FORBES – Apr 22 – Executives from Apple and Google fielded accusations of anti-competitive behavior from lawmakers and other technology companies during an antitrust hearing on Wednesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Executives from Spotify and Match Group contend that the tech giants have used their dominant positions in the app platform space to charge commissions as high as 30% of app developers' total sales. Rebutting the allegations were Apple's chief compliance officer and VP of corporate law, Kyle Andeer, and Google's senior director of public policy and government relations, Wilson White. Both highlighted how their platforms have helped developers reach billions of customers worldwide. "When we introduced the App Store in 2008, creating software was difficult and often expensive," said Andeer. "Apple has invested "significantly" to build 250K application programming interfaces. The App Store isn't just a store. It's a studio stacked with canvases and brushes and paints – the tools that artists need to create their works. And it's a gallery where they can display and sell their creations." Match Group's chief legal officer, Jared Sine, meanwhile, sharply criticized both marketplaces as anticompetitive monopolies. The fee from the App Store is Match Group's single largest expense, at over half a billion dollars. Sine also criticized Google, contending that it lured the online dating company to the Android ecosystem "under false pretenses" that the platform was free. "We're all afraid, is the reality, Senator," he added.
Category: Outlets – Forbes
Why to Consider React Native When Building an App From Scratch
FORBES – Apr 20 – Aleksandr Pasykov is the founder of Hily Dating App and Taimi, the biggest LGBTQ+ platform featuring a social network and dating app. He started working on Taimi in 2017. "We realized there's a demand for a safe online space where LGBTQ+ people could build relationships. We needed a framework that would allow us to create the app from scratch in a short time, and our developer built the app in less than two months using React Native." React Native is an open-source app framework that was released by Facebook in 2015. It allows developers to combine native code with React, making it perfect for updating existing applications. React Native offer unprecedented speed and efficiency, and you can create and update apps on Android and iOS simultaneously. One issue is the framework’s performance. For example, if you want to add a newsfeed to your app, React Native may not have high enough speed and performance levels, so such changes will have to be made in native code. Another challenge companies may face is the lack of React Native experts.
How Female Entrepreneurs Are Changing the Online Dating Landscape
FORBES – Mar 8 – Bumble founder Whitney Wolfe Herd recently became the world's youngest self-made billionaire after her dating app's wildly successful IPO. Bumble's success serves as a wake-up call for an industry that has traditionally been dominated by male leadership. Kim Kaplan, who was also part of the founding team of Plenty of Fish, launched Snack, a dating app that blends video with communication features popularized by Tinder and Bumble. Wolfe Herd and Kaplan are not the only women founders and executives changing the dating app game for the better. Based in San Francisco, the three Kang sisters – Arum, Dawoon and Soo – cofounded the dating app Coffee Meets Bagel. Another female founder, Amanda Bradford saw the need for ambitious, working professionals. She launched The League, a dating app that draws member information from LinkedIn.
by Serenity Gibbons
See full article at Forbes
See the top news on Bumble See the top news on The League
See the top news on Coffee Meets Bagel See the top news on Snack
Billionaire Ruben Vardanyan Invests in AI-Based Dating Service iris Dating
FORBES – Feb 24 – Vardanyan became a shareholder in iris Dating (NYC) which is powered by AI. "I understand that if by 2030 45% of Europeans are single, and if we see that people live another 30-40 years longer and at the same time many of them do not have a second half, then loneliness becomes one of the most important elements of the future world," Ruben reasoned.
iris Dating uses AI to understand the visual preferences of each user. AI determines what is interesting to a particular person and finds the photo which the user will like. On dating apps women like 3-5% of male profiles. On iris, girls like 30%. The service has selfie verification, and a reliability rating. Growth Director Daniel Mori is on the team and was VP Marketing at Zoosk for 5 years.
Mark Brooks (of Courtland Brooks) says "AI is most useful when we can see if people are successful in relationships. But this is difficult to do because users remove dating apps when they decide to end their online dating, which usually means they are happy or unhappy. Typically, we don't know the exact cause, and the AI isn't getting the most optimal information." He estimates that it will cost $400,000 to develop a scalable, world-class dating application.
Exploring AI Revenue Generation Opportunities In Dating Apps
FORBES – Feb 10 – Dating apps are already exploring the ways in which AI can help with revenue generation. AI can assist users in making decisions in their real-world relationship, based on their interactions on dating apps. AI can suggest gifts users can purchase, and companies like Uncommon Goods are already implementing these types of tools. AI can also suggest activities for the dating user to help them engage with their partner. Dating apps can partner up with third-party apps in order to generate additional revenue and aid in each other's growth. Loveflutter, a British dating app, analyzes chats to establish the inherent compatibility of two users before offering places to meet. It can suggest relevant meeting places. Such suggestions can be redirected to custom-apps of the restaurants or restaurant aggregator apps, like Uber Eats or Grubhub.
Compatibility Before Photos? A New Dating App Takes a Personality-First Approach to Online Dating
FORBES – Jan 20 – The team at Birdy, a new dating and relationship app, has built their entire business around the premise that compatibility is more important than appearance. When users download Birdy, they take a personality survey, inspired by the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), to determine which of the 16 different personality types they are. Based on the compatibility matching algorithm, the app will suggest users with the most compatible personality types. Next, they have to create a Story that shows who they are without showing their face.
Five Experts Share 2020 Lessons About App Marketing and Engagement
FORBES – Jan 8 – From time spent in mobile apps to revenues generated by in-app purchases and subscriptions, metrics broke the records in 2020. Downloads reached 130B, and consumer spending grew to $112B by year end. However, marketers will need to invest more than money to sustain current growth and engagement. Most markets are saturated, and many consumers are taking longer to convert.
#1 Amaze customers with coherent user journeys
While it's tempting to focus on top-funnel metrics to attract new users, it's critical to deepen engagement with existing ones, says Noa Gutterman, Director of Marketing at VSCO, one of the largest photo/video editing apps on the market. Marketers should also focus on high-value users, not high volume. Her advice: Create a coherent user journey with creatives.
#2 Educate consumers with contextual campaigns and cues
"In 2020, mobile payment apps turned from a nice-to-have to an essential in this pandemic," says AJ Wang, Head of Acquisitions and Performance Marketing for fintech app GCash. His advice: Marketers should shift gears to become "lifestyle enablers," showing consumers how they can continue to manage all aspects of their financial lives and well-being from home.
#3 Listen, act and innovate to drive customer connection
A December Morning Brew/Harris poll found that 40% are using dating apps more, and 44% have anxiety over lost time dating in real life. "Covid has changed the face of dating, ushering in a new era of video dating with more daters opting to video chat and date virtually than ever before," according to Jade Worobec, head of performance marketing at The Meet Group. Her advice: Adapt to user needs quickly to show you have their back.
#4 Unravel data to retain subscribers in a post-IDFA world
Costs to acquire app subscribers hover at the high end of the scale, which is why marketers must optimize the events that deliver high-intent users likely to stay for the long haul. Apple's decision to revoke its identifier for advertisers (IDFA) makes an even bigger challenge. Oliver Wang, a Senior Growth Manager at Elevate Labs, a company that offers a suite of brain-training tools to help users boost practical skills, disagrees. His advice: Optimize events to improve the signals you send ad networks.
#5 Get out of your comfort zone and leverage new channels
Depending on where you sit, TikTok is at the center of controversial debate or the epicenter of successful and viral campaigns. 2020 will go down as the year the video-sharing social networking service broke into mainstream media. "We found early success on TikTok through its influencer network, particularly as it relates to engagement with our ad creative", says Chy Seng, Mobile Marketing Manager GRAMMARLY.
Hiki Is Reimagining What It Means to Be a Dating App With Neurodiversity
FORBES – Jan 8 – The New York-based Hiki is taking a decidedly different approach to online dating than answering a questionnaire, building a profile, and swiping right. The company bills the app as a "friendship and dating app for the Autistic community." "Hiki is a friendship and dating app for Autistic adults," said Jamil Karriem, Hiki's founder and CEO. "It is a safe space where neurodiversity is celebrated and the lived experiences of Autistic adults are honored and validated." Hiki's name is derived from the Hawaiian word for "able." Hiki is venture-backed, and Karriem told me it was challenging in the beginning to get investors to literally buy into helping Autistic people combat isolation. The vast majority of Hiki's employees, over 70%, are Autistic.
Homegrown Indian Dating Platforms
Relationship Experts Weigh in on the Impacts of AI
FORBES – Dec 11 – Romantic attraction is difficult to predict. "Because so much of how we relate to others is due to our subconscious beliefs, self-reported personality data cannot accurately capture how individuals operate in relationships," explains Maria Abramovich, MT-BC Board certified music therapist and Founder of Empowerment By You. She continues, "In order for AI and machine learning to better predict romantic compatibility, the data would have to include data on subconscious programming." The problem with relying on algorithms for something as complex as love is that it will often leave us disappointed. Current AI, or Machine Learning, can capture casual human interaction but it is not yet capable of processing the depth and complexity of the human psyche.