NEW YORK TIMES – Mar 28 – Online dating coaches have been around since online dating began, but their focus has shifted. In 2009, when Laurie Davis Edwards started a company called eFlirt Expert, her most popular offering was a dating "concierge" who would write profiles, suggest matches and respond to messages. She now runs a group video chat session called Abundant Love and the Abundant Love seminars through her new company, The Worthy One, which helps single women find confidence in dating. Her husband runs a similar program for men called Fearless Dating. Tripp Kramer, whose YouTube channel "Tripp Advice: Dating Advice for Shy Guys," has ~500k subscribers, runs a three-month Skype-based coaching program for $3k, including six one-on-one calls, weekly webinars and unlimited email questions. Blake Jamieson, author of the book "TinderHacks," offers a Tinder profile "audit" for men for $49 – $99. Relationship Hero, which has 20 coaches and has raised $620k in funding, provides "tactical relationship advice".
Category: Outlets – New York Times
Grindr To Offer H.I.V. Test Reminders
Dating App Bumble Bans Gun Images After Mass Shootings
NEW YORK TIMES – Mar 5 – Following a string of mass shootings and nationwide calls for gun control in recent weeks, Bumble is banning images of firearms. Some 5K moderators will scour new and existing profiles and remove gun-related content, said Whitney Wolfe Herd, Bumble's founder and CEO. Bumble will not censor images that appear in users' Instagram feeds, which can be integrated into Bumble profiles. Ms. Herd plans to eventually filter out mentions of guns in written content as well.
Instagram Is Now A Dating Platform, Too. Here’s How To Navigate It
NEW YORK TIMES – Dec 21 – Instagram has ~ 800M users worldwide who engage with the app at least once a month. Of those, 300M use Instagram Stories every day. Some of them use Instagram as a supplemental match-making tool. Instagram provide a visually driven collage of our life, a way of expressing interest through likes and comments, and connecting in the form of a private chat. And though Instagram can offer more depth than an abbreviated Tinder or Bumble or Grindr profile, it is still a curated highlight reel.
Meeting A Gay Pride Grand Marshal, Founder Of Blued
NEW YORK TIMES – June 19 – The NYC Pride celebrations continue this week, leading up to the march on Sunday. Mr. Geng is a former police officer who set up one of China's first gay advice and networking sites, and later created Blued, one of the country's most popular gay dating apps. He was selected to be a grand marshal in recognition of his successful use of the Internet to raise awareness among China's gay community and of his passion for L.G.B.T. rights.
Q: What was it like growing up gay in China?
A: Until 1997, gay sex was considered a crime in China, and homosexuality was classified as a mental illness in the country until 2001. My parents still think being gay is a disease.
Q: What is it like being L.G.B.T. in China today?
A: Things have gotten better since, but the situation remains challenging. People who come out as gay risk losing their jobs.
Bumble Founder: “We Are Helping To Change Some Very Archaic Norms”
by Jessica Bennett
See full article at NY Times
For Online Dating Sites, A Bumpy Road To Love
NY TIMES – Dec 24 – JDate was created in 1997; ChristianMingle was added in 2001. Spark Networks, the parent company, eventually grew to ~30 dating sites, but the crown jewel has always been JDate. Since 2011, Spark Networks has been led by a rotating array of chief executives — four over five years. According to Spark Networks' 2015 filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the number of paid subscribers to its Jewish networks declined to ~65k last year from 85k in 2012. Its total for all networks dropped by ~55k people, to under 204k. Some of the decline could reflect Spark's management turnover, but it is also indicative of the challenges facing the online dating industry. "It's never been cheaper to start a dating site and never been more expensive to grow one," said Mark Brooks, a consultant for the Internet dating industry who also runs Online Personals Watch. Part of the problem, he said, is that 70% of Internet dating in the US is now on mobile. "It used to be 10% of those who registered converted to paid," Mr. Brooks said. "Now it's more like 2 to 3%." Some also see a move toward ever more niche sites like MouseMingle.com (Disney lovers) and GlutenFreeSingles.com. Spark Networks already offers niche products, but Lisa McLafferty, Spark's new chief revenue officer, says its aim is now to "refresh the brand."
by Alina Tugend
See full article at NY Times
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Building A Community, And An Empire, With A Gay Dating App In China
Researchers Give Out H.I.V. Self-Testing Kits On Grindr
NEW YORK TIMES – July 11 – The study used banner ads on Grindr to offer free test kits. Recipients received a kit in the mail, a voucher that could be redeemed for a kit at a pharmacy, or a code that would produce a kit from a vending machine in the parking lot of the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center. The study was confined to Los Angeles, and fewer than 400 test kits were distributed, but the idea has broader potential.
by Donald G. McNeil Jr.
See full article at The New York Times
The Tinder Dating Pool Isn’t Completely Shallow
