TECH CRUNCH – Mar 2 – Tinder Plus is rumored to launch today for $9.99. Tinder has been testing pricing on the app in a number of markets over the past few months, with prices ranging from $.99 all the way up to $19.99/month. Though sources say that pricing will vary from market to market, they also say that they expect the service to hit the U.S. market at a price under $10.
Category: Outlets – Tech Crunch
Coffee Meets Bagel Lands $7.8 Million In Series A
TECH CRUNCH – Feb 18 - Coffee Meets Bagel has closed a $7.8M Series A financing round led by existing investor DCM Ventures. Question Ventures and Azure Capital also participated in the round. Launched in 2012, Coffee Meets Bagel aims to find one quality match for their users every day by using friend-of-a-friend connections on Facebook. IF both parties like their match, Coffee Meets Bagel gives the budding couple a discount on a first date activity, like grabbing a coffee or a drink. Users have 24 hours to respond to a match before it expires.
by Jordan Crook
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This post also appears on InternetDatingInvestments.
Rise Of Niche Tinders
TECH CRUNCH – Feb 17 – Tinder-like app keep popping up. There is Hinge for yuppies, The League for elitists, Bumble for shy guys, The Catch for wordsmiths, Meld for black professionals, Willow for those who care about personality not looks, HeavenlySinful for those who want to get laid, etc. Right now, Tinder seems to be sticking with its one-app-fits-all approach with no plans on catering to niches. It’d be wise for IAC to at least explore the idea of building its own Micro-Tinders, adding some more segmentation into its main app. There are a lot of hot people to swipe right, but finding someone who is a good match can take plenty of train wreck dates. Better sorting preferences could connect people who are actually compatible.
A Bot Selects Tinder Dates
TECH CRUNCH – Feb 10 – Vancouver-based developer Justin Long created a software that automates Tinder swiping. The software analyzes the facial features of each potential mate — and then likes or dislikes each based on the users' own previously expressed aesthetic choices. The user is required to make 60 yes/no choices before the bot has enough data to choose on their behalf. The Tinder bot can even start conversations with potential mates.
Bumble Introduces Direct Photo Messaging
TECH CRUNCH – Feb 9 – Bumble, the dating app that puts the ladies in charge, has introduced photo-messaging. “It’s a big risk for a dating app,” said Bumble co-founder Whitney Wolfe. “But we see it as a great ice breaker for girls who want to start a conversation in a more Snapchat-like way.” When a user sends a photo message, the photo is blurred unless the user is holding down on the screen. Whenever the user is holding down and the photo is clear, it’s water-marked with the the sender’s name and a picture of their face. This prevents anyone from sending something that they wouldn’t want forever attached to their identity online.
Tinder Tests Limited Right Swipes
TECH CRUNCH – Feb 3 - Tinder is rolling out a beta feature "Bouncer" (as they call it internally). It is only meant to be shown to spammers and bots. Spam bots and other malicious behavior will be detected by algorithms and introduce a paywall to limit the amount of likes a user can give. The paywall lasts for a day and disappears the next morning. Regular users should really never hit this pay wall. Only a fraction of the Tinder population reflexively swipes right on every single recommendation without even looking at the potential suitor.
Tinder Plus To Arrive In U.S. Next Month
TECH CRUNCH – Feb 3 -Tinder Plus, the paid version of Tinder, offering features like an Undo button for errant swipes and a Passport option for searching outside users' current geographic region, is going to launch in the U.S. in March. Tinder Plus is rumored to cost $6.99 per month.
Couplelizer Encourages Offline Dates
TECH CRUNCH – Feb 3 – With the increasing popularity of dating apps like Tinder, Hinge, Antidate and Bumble, singles are spending a lot more time swiping than going on dates. Couplelizer, a new dating app that launched in November, is aiming to incentivize and accelerate the ‘going on a date’ component. Users can wait around to be invited on dates or they can create dates themselves. Invites include a dynamic expiry time to encourage snappier decisions. If a date doesn’t turn up they can expect to get a negative review from whoever they stood up. The app has ~2K registered users, who have sent ~4K invitations so far. It's free but there’s a virtual currency mechanism to charge for dating events, and for the ability to chat with other users.
Dating App The League Raises $2.1M
TECH CRUNCH – Jan 22 – Investors in the round include IDG Ventures, Structure.vc and Sherpa Ventures along with angel investors, including Allen DeBevoise, Naomi Gleit, Mark Leslie, Russ Siegelmann, and Peter Kelly. One additional undisclosed venture fund and an undisclosed angel investor also participated. The cash will be used to double its two-person engineering team and continue its very methodical rollout strategy.
by Jonathan Shieber
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This post also appears on InternetDatingInvestments.
Andrew Weinreich Launches Intensive Startup Bootcamp
TECH CRUNCH – Jan 22 – Weinreich, the founder of dating app MeetMoi, is joining the ranks of business schools, serial entrepreneurs and even national foundations offering startup entrepreneurs a compressed education in how to succeed in (starting up) a business. Rather than charge hefty fees to participants, Weinreich is partnering with service professionals like the law firm Goodwin Procter and others to defray the cost of the two-day program Weinreich calls "Roadmaps To Entrepreneurship".