HEARST – Tawkify is a matchmaking service, not a traditional dating app, that pairs users with a personal matchmaker. Unlike app-based platforms, Tawkify provides human touch by having matchmakers get to know users, find compatible matches, and even plan dates. The service focuses on long-term relationships, vetting users through background checks and identity verification, ensuring a serious dating pool. Tawkify claims an 80% success rate within 12 matches, with membership starting at $4,900. It's designed for those tired of swiping and seeking a more curated, personalized approach to dating.
Category: Outlets – San Francisco Chronicle
Court: Dating Services Can’t Charge Older Folks More On Belief They Are Wealthier
SF GATE – Jan 29 – Tinder Plus costs $19.99 a month to customers over 30 and $9.99 or $14.99 for younger customers. The company said its research showed that younger customers had less money and were unlikely to enroll without discounts. Some age-based price differentials may be justified by social policies or economic realities, like movie discounts for children or seniors, said the Second District Court of Appeal in LA. But the court said a pricing system based entirely on a customer's age amounts to "prohibited arbitrary discrimination" under California law. The 3-0 ruling was written by Brian Currey, a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge temporarily assigned to the appeals court.
Matchmakers In San Francisco
SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE – Sep 15 – A luxury matchmaking service, The Bevy, has launched in San Francisco. The Bevy, started in New York in 2014, compares its services to an executive search. It pre-screens and interviews potential candidates before setting up its male clients with a handful of curated contenders. The membership begins at $25k for a one-year. The company reports a 95% success rate. Three Day Rule has 8k members. Services for paying clients start at $4.5k, but the service also has a free database. 60% of it's clients are female. Both companies report that clients are seeking relief from dating apps. Still, free dating apps can be an equalizer. The newest such offering to San Francisco is The Inner Circle, an app founded in Amsterdam in 2012, whose founder, David Vermeulen, is looking for "inspiring and ambitious" members who are 25 – 45 and live in major cities.
by Maghan McDowell
See full article at San Francisco Chronicle
See all posts on The Bevy
See all posts on Three Day Rule
See all posts on The Inner Circle
Biometrics, Real-time Data Poised To Change Dating
by Marissa Lang & Dominic Fracassa
See full article at SF Chronicle
See all posts on Match Group
See all posts on eHarmony
See all posts on Her
eHarmony CEO Wants To Court The Tinder Crowd
Critics Challenge The ‘Science’ Behind Online Dating
SF CHRONICLE – Mar 4 – There is no evidence that dating sites do anything much more than increase the pool of potential partners", said Eli Finkel, a psychologist at Northwestern University who studies relationships. Or, as Stanford sociologist Michael Rosenfeld put it, “The algorithms for matching at dating sites are mostly smoke and mirrors.” eHarmony was founded by a clinical psychologist who felt most marriages that ended involved people whose personalities were too different. A research has found both similarity and complementarity have little impact on relationship quality at all. And people are terrible at figuring out what they actually want in the first place. Finkel and his colleagues also issued a challenge to dating sites: Submit their algorithms to clinical review. “No one was interested in working with us,” said Finkel.
Niche Sites – A Way To Fine-tune The Search For Compatible Partners
SF GATE – Feb 17 – GlutenfreeSingles.com is a fairly new niche dating site that was created in July 2013. It now has ~25K users, ~6K of them are active on a weekly basis. “Niche sites are like traditional dating on steroids,” said Eli Finkel, a psychologist at Northwestern University who studies relationships. "The idea is to meet someone who is especially compatible." Niche sites help cut down some of the noise of dating online. Sam Yagan, head of Match Group, is skeptical that sites catering to smaller niches will really take off. “For one, the marketing is very hard,” he said. “How do you even reach a gluten-free single? It’s just crazy.”
Dating Apps That Give Women More Power
SF CHRONICLE – Feb 21 – When designing her new dating app, Bumble, Whitney Wolfe was inspired by the Sadie Hawkins dance, in which women reverse traditional courtship rituals by asking the men to the dance. The app works similarly to Tinder, which Wolfe co-founded. The difference? With Bumble, only the woman is allowed to send the first message after a mutual match is made. The Catch, launched on Valentine’s Day, “gamifies” the selection process with a Q&A from the woman to a handful of candidates. Project Fixup, ensures that the guy actually wants to date, rather than simply chat, with a pay-per-date model that arranges the person, time and place; the two parties only have to “accept” and show up.
by Maghan McDowell
See full article at SF Chronicle
See all posts on Bumble
See all posts on Project Fixup
See all posts on The Catch
IAC Owns Online Dating
SF GATE – Aug 23 – Online dating is a saturated marketplace, dominated by Barry Diller's IAC/InterActiveCorp. It controls ~27% of the U.S. dating services market. Its next closest competitor, eHarmony, has half that. Tagged, a social discovery startup, killed its dating app, Swoon, this year, in part because of the saturation of IAC dating products. "Any company should be cautious in innovating in the dating market," said Steve Sarner, the company's VP of marketing. In 2014, IAC's dating-related profit is expected to grow by 14%. "They have been very aggressive and bought companies that were very well-placed strategically and by design. That is a big part of how they have grown," said Mark Brooks, an online-dating analyst. "They are at this point running out of companies they can buy." Tinder, the company's latest hit, is a version of what Hot or Not pioneered a decade ago and what the app Grindr had perfected for the gay community. "Basically, they are shaking trees," said Brooks.
Love Blooms On Dating Website For Farmers
SF CHRONICLE – Jan 1 - FarmersOnly.com is an online dating site for agricultural types. When Miller created FarmersOnly in 2005, most of the areas he wanted to target didn't have Internet service. The company stumbled along for a few more years until Wi-Fi became more widespread. Now, the site has ~1M members. The membership costs $21.95 a month.
by Stacy Finz
See full article at SF Gate