TECH CRUNCH – The dating app Hatched, which hides user profiles within egg icons that reveal through answering questions, has expanded to the East Coast and introduced new paid features. The app uses an in-app currency, "Yolks," for premium actions like "super hatch." Focused on fostering deeper connections through personality traits rather than physical appearance, Hatched provides questions designed by therapists to unlock profile information. The app limits users to six daily matches, with options to purchase more using Yolks.
Category: Outlets – Tech Crunch
Tinder Gets More Social by Letting Friends Play Matchmaker
Keepler: Bridging Dating Expertise With Community Support
TECH CRUNCH – Keepler is a new dating and relationship app that connects users with expert advice and community support. While it's free, professionals can offer paid services. The app features peer-to-peer advice tools and a "Wheel of Life" chart for self-assessment. Aimed at addressing modern dating challenges, it emphasizes the importance of community. Currently available on iOS, an Android version is underway.
Queer Social App Lex Gets a New CEO and $5.6M to Grow
TECH CRUNCH – Lex, an app inspired by vintage lesbian personals, has secured $5.6M in seed funding. The app's co-founder, Jennifer Lewis, has been promoted from COO to CEO, while the founding CEO, Kel Rakowski, becomes the chief creative officer. Michelle Parsons, previously from Hinge, has been appointed as the chief product officer. The app is popular among the LGBTQIA+ community in major cities like New York and LA, offering a platform for various social interactions beyond just dating. Recently, the app underwent a redesign emphasizing community over just hookups. The new funds will be used for expansion. Their monetization strategy will differ significantly from major platforms like Facebook or TikTok, emphasizing in-person meet-ups over prolonged app usage.
by Harri Weber
See full article at Tech Crunch
This post also appears on InternetDatingInvestments.com
Bumble CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd Shares How AI Will ‘Supercharge’ Love and Relationships
TECH CRUNCH – Bumble CEO, Whitney Wolfe Herd, envisions a future where AI significantly enhances online dating experiences, focusing on improving user compatibility and safety. She foresees AI acting as a digital matchmaker, with users sharing their values, preferences, and lifestyle to determine compatibility, negating the need to interact with numerous potential matches. Herd emphasized that while Bumble's AI advancements will focus on refining safety measures and fostering meaningful connections, they won't delve into creating virtual partners. The AI will facilitate more precise matches, allowing users to converse with a select few who meet their specified criteria, streamlining the dating process.
Dating App The League Launches ‘GoalMate’ Feature
Cosmic: a Unique, Free Dating App Using Personality Quizzes
TECH CRUNCH – Cosmic, a new dating app from startup Friendly Apps, introduces a unique approach to dating profiles: instead of user-written bios, it offers a personality quiz. The answers, kept private, are then processed using machine learning to create a profile. Founded by Michael Sayman, an experienced app developer with stints at Facebook, Google, and Twitter, Cosmic aims to combat superficial dating app experiences and better capture a user's personality. Unlike other platforms, Cosmic doesn’t charge users for essential features like undoing swipes or seeing likes. The app, available in select countries, stands out by not having ads, boosts, or subscriptions. How it plans to monetize remains uncertain.
Match Group Bolsters Dating Apps With AI, Appoints Former Zynga Exec
TECH CRUNCH – Match Group, responsible for apps like Tinder and OkCupid, is boosting its AI efforts. They've hired former Zynga executive, Mark Kantor, to spearhead innovations. Kantor's team, named ASL (Art x Science Lab), will delve into generative AI to improve user experience. Initiatives include an AI-driven photo selector for Tinder and the potential for AI-generated dating bios.
Background Check Provider Garbo Ends Its Partnership With Match Group
by Sarah Perez
See full article at Tech Crunch
Also read the Wall Street Journal article
Mark Brooks: Background checks are a very tough nut to crack and require extremely nuanced knowledge on how to combine numerous databases to properly serve our dating context. This challenge remains undone, but there are a couple of promising providers.
Google Pushes Match for More Money in Antitrust Battle
TECH CRUNCH – Google has filed a new motion to the court in its antitrust battle with Epic Games and Match Group, where it claims that Match Group owes additional fees beyond the $40M that had been previously set aside in escrow. Those funds are Google's cut of Match's in-app payments on Google Play that Match argues are "illegal under federal and state law" – something the court case will decide. By Google's calculations, the new figure should total ~$84M instead, based on Match's public earnings. The escrow account was one of a handful of concessions from Google to get Match to drop a temporary restraining order it filed after first suing Google, accusing the tech giant of wielding unfair monopoly power in its Google Play Store. Google also committed to not rejecting or deleting Match-owned dating apps from the Play Store for providing alternative payment options. As part of this agreement, Match was to place up to $40M in the escrow account in lieu of paying fees directly to Google for the in-app payments that take place outside of Google Play's own payment system while the courts decide whether or not the commissions Google charges app developers on in-app purchases are legal.