REUTERS – German broadcaster ProSiebenSat.1 Media is holding off on plans to list its dating division for the time being due to the current market environment and war in Ukraine. "We are totally prepared and I'm not ruling out anything for this year" when it comes to listing ParshipMeet Group, said CEO Rainer Beaujean. An IPO of ParshipMeet Group had been planned for the first half of 2022 and was intended as a way for U.S. co-owner General Atlantic to sell initial shares or step out entirely.
Category: Outlets – Reuters
Dutch Watchdog Fines Apple $5.7M Again in App Store Dispute
REUTERS – The Dutch antitrust watchdog on Monday fined apple Apple 5M euros ($5.72M) for a third time for failing to allow software app makers in the Netherlands to use non-Apple payment methods for dating apps listed in the company's App Store. The Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) has been levying weekly fines of 5M euros on Apple since the company missed a Jan. 15 deadline to make changes ordered by the watchdog.
Tinder’s CEO Talks Metaverse and Virtual Currency
REUTERS – Tinder is exploring how to blur the boundaries between offline and online worlds, said CEO Renate Nyborg at the Reuters Next conference. Asked about the company's plans around dating in the metaverse, Nyborg said: "From a Tinder perspective, we've been talking about a Tinderverse internally, which is more about blurring the boundaries between offline and online." The metaverse broadly refers to the idea of shared virtual spaces that people can access through different devices and where they can move through digital environments. These spaces may use virtual reality (VR) or augmented reality (AR). Facebook, which recently changed its name to Meta Platforms Inc, is one of the many tech companies making bets on metaverse technologies. Bumble said during its November earnings call that it wants to prepare for "whatever emerges in the metaverse." To watch the Reuters Next conference register here.
Match Group Asks Dutch Regulators to Reveal Possible Apple Antitrust Decision
Tencent-backed Soulgate Halts U.S. IPO Plans
REUTERS – June 23 – Soulgate, the Chinese social networking app backed by Tencent Holdings, has halted plans for its IPO in the U.S. because it received other offers to raise capital. The Shanghai-based company, which launched its mobile app in Nov 2016, was looking to raise ~$198M. In March, the company had 9.1M daily active users on average.
Dating Apps Say Sex Isn’t Everything in a Post-pandemic World
REUTERS – June 22 – "There's a really interesting trend that has been taking place in the connection space, which is this desire to have platonic relationships," said Bumble founder and CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd. Her company is investing in its Bumble BFF (best friends forever) feature, which it said comprised ~9% of Bumble's total monthly active users in Sep 2020. Meanwhile Match Group paid $1.7B this year for South Korean social media firm Hyperconnect, whose apps let people chat from across the world using real-time translation. Hyperconnect's revenue jumped 50% last year. Gay dating app Hornet, meanwhile, aims to be more of a social network focused on users' personal interests, rather than solely a hook-up service.
by Aniruddha Ghosh, Subrat Patnaik & Sarah Morland
See full article at Reuters
See the top news on Bumble
See the top news on Match Group
See the top news on Hornet
Grindr’s US Security Review Disclosures Contradicted Statements Made to Others
REUTERS – Mar 29 – When Grindr's Chinese owner sold the app to an investor consortium last year to comply with a U.S. national security panel order, the parties to the deal gave information to authorities that contradicted disclosures to potential investors and Chinese regulators. They told the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) that James Lu, a Chinese-American businessman who is now Grindr's chairman, had no previous business relationship with a key adviser to the seller, a man named Ding'an Fei. Fei, a former private equity executive, was acting as an adviser to Beijing Kunlun Tech Co Ltd, Grindr's owner at the time, on the deal, the documents show. The duo had also done business together in other ventures. This could lead to civil penalties and criminal charges under the false statement provisions of the U.S. penal code.
AI Company Escapes Lawsuit Over Use of OkCupid Photos
REUTERS – Mar 18 – An Illinois federal judge has tossed a proposed class action against AI company Clarifai over its alleged unlawful use of dating profile images to train facial recognition technology, finding the court lacks jurisdiction.
Tokyo to Help Fund Japanese AI Cupid Upgrades-report
REUTERS – Dec 7 – The Japanese government plans to step up efforts to stem the country's tumbling birth rate by helping to fund more sophisticated AI matchmaking systems. The number of births in 2019 was down 5.8% to 865K, the lowest annual figure ever: a drop in the number of marriages and a rise in the age of marriage both played a part. In a country with a long history of human matchmakers, local governments have already moved on to AI matching systems to pair people up, but many only consider criteria such as income and age and only produce results if there is an exact match. The latest funding will allow access to systems which pair people with a potential partner even if those income or age wishes do not match.
Match Says DOJ Closes Probe Into FTC Complaint
REUTERS – Sep 8 – Match Group said the U.S. Department of Justice has closed its investigation relating to a lawsuit filed by the Federal Trade Commission on the dating apps owner's business practices. The FTC last September sued Match, alleging that it knowingly sent automated advertisements via Match.com with expressions of interest from accounts which it knew were likely fake to draw in potential subscribers.