TECH CRUNCH – Aug 12 – OkCupid is making a big move today in the mobile space—the service is adding location-based functionality to its Android and iOS mobile apps. For background, OkCupid singles tend to be younger, which is one of the reasons why IAC’s Match.com decided to buy the dating startup for $50M earlier this year. You can now broadcast if you are free, want others to join in plans and more. The bonus of OkCupid is that you can set up the feature to only send these broadcasts to people who are personality and interets matches for you in your location.
Category: Outlets – Tech Crunch
Mobile Dating Apps Capture More Flirting Time Than Online Sites
TECH CRUNCH – Aug 2 – According to mobile app analytics firm Flurry mobile dating apps command more time compared to online dating sites. ~ 8.4 minutes are spent in mobile dating apps vs. 8.3 minutes online. Mobile dating app usage has grown from 3.7 minutes in June 2010 to 8.4 minutes in June 2011.
Time Spent on Mobile Apps Has Surpassed Web Browsing
TECH CRUNCH – June 20 – According to mobile app analytics firm Flurry, the average user now spends 9% more time using mobile apps than the Internet. In June users spent an average of 81 minutes daily on mobile apps, compared to 74 minutes on the web. This compares to 66 minutes on mobile apps daily in December of 2010, and 70 minutes spent daily on the web. Games and Social Networking categories dominate, capturing 47% and 32% on consumer time spent daily, respectively.
by Leena Rao
See full article at Tech Crunch
This post also appears on SocialNetworkingWatch.
Company Sells Bracelets With Facebook Status Messages
TECH CRUNCH – May 16 – French company, Buump has begun selling colorful bracelets with the 5 different Facebook relationship statuses as well as the 5 “looking for” options. The packs of 5 are €5.99 each or €10.99 for all 10. Bracelets may be purchased in bulk and customized for orders of 1,000 or more. They are currently available in English only.
Nigerian Scammers Online Dating Schemes
TECH CRUNCH – May 15 – A group of Nigerian scam artists known as the Yahoo boys, run complex schemes to defraud people of their money. Their latest scam involves online dating and the targeting of lonely men. One of the Yahoo boys is particularly adapt at running these schemes, carrying up to seven relationships at a time while pretending to be a woman. The scam artists use carefully constructed porn clips or hire actresses to portray the fictional girls to seduce the victims out of money.
by Sarah Lacy
See full article at Tech Crunch
Zin.gl Mines SN Data To Help Singles Find Their Perfect Match
TECH CRUNCH – May 5 – Dating site Zin.gl was designed not to appeal to masses of users. Zin.gl instead aims for quality, not quantity, having developed a way to mine existing social networks such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Foursquare for valuable ‘dating information’, and then feeding that data into its ‘social matching’ systems. People who sign up for Zin.gl will find compatible dating partners, with unquestionable real identities. Zin.gl was founded by Alexander Dresen, who previously started place.to.be, the first chat site in Belgium, as well as its first social network, LookNMeet. The company has raised $600K from angel investors.
FriendFinder Revisits Plans To Go Public
TECH CRUNCH – Mar 17 – More than a year after cancelling its IPO, citing terrible market conditions, FriendFinder has filed an amendment to the Registration Statement on Form S-1 with the SEC in connection with a re-launch of its proposed IPO. The company says it intends to use the net proceeds of the public offering to repay a portion of its existing indebtedness.
JDate Slaps Zoosk, OkCupid, And 2RedBeans With Patent Lawsuit Over Secret Admiring
TECH CRUNCH – Mar 13 – JDate has filed a patent lawsuit against 2RedBeans, Zoosk, and OKCupid. JDate alleges that all three companies are infringing the same patent, which states that Sparks Networks (JDate’s parent company) has invented a method or apparatus for automating the process of confidentially determining whether people feel mutual attraction or have mutual interests. JDate has a patent on detecting secret crushes. The suit calls out OkCupid’s QuickMatch, Zoosk’s Scientific Matching Service, and 2RedBean’s Secret Admire function as infringing JDate-owned patent # 5,950,200, titled “Method and Apparatus for Detection Of Reciprocal Interests or Feelings And Subsequent Notification.” Spark Networks wants the three companies to pay damages to JDate for the infringement.
by Leena Rao
See full article at Tech Crunch
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