by Paresh Dave
See full article at LATimes
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This post also appears on InternetDatingInvestments.
Category: Outlets – LA Times
Gay Dating App Grindr Gets $93M Investment From A Chinese Company
LATIMES – Jan 12 – Gay dating app Grindr has handed majority ownership to Chinese gaming company Beijing Kunlun World Wide Technology for $93M valuing Grindr at $248M post-investment. Grindr had been exploring a sale or fundraising round for much of last year.
by Paresh Dave
See full article at LATimes
This post also appears on InternetDatingInvestments.
Whim Dating App Sets Up Dates Quickly
LA TIMES – Jan 28 – Eve Peters, the former product lead at OKCupid Labs, launched Whim, a dating app that takes people offline as soon as possible. If two people are interested in each other (both swipe right), they're going on a date. They tell the app when they're available, and it'll tell them when and where they're meeting. Whim will launch as a subscription service priced from $12 to $30 a month. Clover, another dating app, recently added On-Demand Dating, similar to what Whim has planned.
by Tracey Lien
See full article at LA Times
Train Spottings: Matchmaking For New Yorkers On The Move
LA TIMES – Jan 8 – Erika Christensen started Train Spottings, a matchmaking service for New York's subway riders. "If you want to meet someone, you have to go where people are. They're on the subway," said Christensen, who launched Train Spottings two years ago. Train Spottings recently claimed its first marriage. Erika approaches both men and women on the subway platforms and asks them whether they are single. If they say yes, she gives them her business card.
Lulu: Controversial App For Rating Men
LA TIMES – July 14 – Lulu lets women rate their male friends, lovers and ex-boyfriends. When women download Lulu, it syncs with their Facebook accounts to verify that they’re female. Men are blocked. Once in the app, women can read anonymous reviews posted by other Lulu users and add your own ratings and create a profile for a male. The percentage of real and independently written reviews is unknown. Males can tell their sides or remove their profiles from Lulu through a separate app called LuluDude. Lulu founder Alexandra Chong originally raised $1M in 2011, and secured an additional $2.5M in seed financing in 2012.
eHarmony Study: Couples Who Met Online Have Happier Marriage
LA TIMES – June 3 – The study was led by John Cacioppo, a respected social psychologist at the University of Chicago's Center for Cognitive and Social Neuroscience and scientific advisor to eHarmony. Those who turn to the Internet to find a mate may be more committed to finding a long-term relationship than those who don't. People open to online dating may have other strengths, including certain cognitive skills such as empathy, persistence or impulse-control, that help foster happiness in committed relationships. Online daters may also be hunting for a mate from a larger and more diverse pool of prospects, he said. As a result, they may be more likely to find a compatible long-term match. Finally, online dating sites may give potentially compatible partners more opportunities to reveal themselves to one another before meeting face-to-face.
by Melissa Healy
See full article at LA Times
Tinder Aims To Make Dating Easier
LA TIMES – Mar 10 – Tinder, a new free dating app that, in a twist on the "hot or not" game, matches users with potential partners in their area without the risk of rejection. Since October, the app has helped make ~20M matches, the company said. Tinder is financially backed by InterActiveCorp's business accelerator Hatch Labs. After downloading the app, Tinder syncs to your existing Facebook profile and integrates public data about you to rate your compatibility based on your shared friends, interests, networks and location. If you're interested in a person, you swipe left; if you're not, you can move on to the next candidate by swiping right. It's all anonymous until both Tinder users say they like each other. Then they can chat using the app.
by Jessica Naziri
See full article at LA Times
eHarmony Founder Has His Heart Set On Reviving The Dating Site
eHarmony declined to release financial details but said new memberships increased 20% in the last month from the month before. It also said a member's average total amount spent on the site is up 15% year over year.
Hybrid Social Networks Help Users Connect Online, Meet Up Offline
LA TIMES – Nov 9 – Hybrid social networks are connecting strangers with similar interests online, then directing them to meet in person. The sites are doing especially well among 20s – 30s. Grubwithus is a Venice start-up that enables users to attend group meals. Grubwithus has tripled its user base since the beginning of the year, with meal reservations growing 15% month over month; the company claims 80K subscribers. It launched out of start-up accelerator program Y Combinator and has raised $7.6M in financing from investors including Ashton Kutcher and venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. Still, some of the start-ups have been slow to get off the ground. After receiving $5M in funding in the spring, Lifecrowd, an experience marketplace for in-person group activities such as kickball and kayaking, went offline a few weeks ago. On its website, the company promises to "be back soon with an even better Lifecrowd." Another rising tech start-up is Grouper, which connects two groups of friends for face-to-face hangouts after pairing them online. Users apply for membership and are matched with someone else on the site. Each person then invites two other friends to join in for drinks; after prepaying online for the first round of drinks, the group of six meets at a bar chosen by Grouper. The setup takes away some of the awkwardness of meeting someone new alone, said Michael Waxman, Grouper's co-founder and chief executive.
Niche Dating Sites Changing The Dating Game
LA TIMES – Oct 28 – Hyper-specific niche matchmaking sites are changing the online dating game. Site like Atlasphere, VeggieDate and DisabledCupid allow users to find potential matches from people who share very important common traits. Dr. Robert Epstein, a San Diego County research psychologist, believes this can be the basis for a successful relationship.