TELEGRAPH.CO.UK – Aug 17 – Early-stage funding to Internet dating companies has climbed in recent years, from $10.3M in 2010 to almost $65M in 2014, according to the investment database CB Insights. But many VCs still have a blanket ban on dating apps.There are the ethical considerations, which cause some investors to lump dating apps alongside tobacco and gambling companies under the category “do not touch”. Dating apps are also much harder to monetise. A successful product means to lose users, and this high churn requires these apps to rebuild their customer base constantly. Historically, exits from dating investments have been hard to come by, with an early shareholder’s best hope being that IAC will acquire the company.
Category: Outlets – Telegraph
Binder Is The Tinder Of Breaking Up
TELEGRAPH.CO.UK – June 23 – "Binder" allows users to enter a partner's gender, name and number and then swipe right to "bin" them. Within seconds, the unlucky soon-to-be ex then receives a text message and short pre-recorded phone call with the reason for breaking up.
One Third Of Tinder Users Are Married
TELEGRAPH.CO.UK – May 7 – 30% of Tinder users are married, according to a research by GlobalWebIndex. Men outnumber women 6:4, and the majority of users (45%) are aged between 25-34. ~38% are aged 16-24, while 1% are between 55-64. A quarter of Tinder users said they'd paid for an online dating service in the last month.
Spark: A Dating App Designed To Be Used On The Tube
TELEGRAPH.CO.UK – Mar 5 – Spark is a new dating app that aims to connect people in places such as the Tube. It works both with and without an Internet connection. The app can cleverly function over Bluetooth. When users see someone attractive they open the app, find their profile and send them a Spark. The Tube crush will need to be signed up to the app too, so its usability ultimately depends on how many people create an account. The recipient will only receive the Spark once they have parted ways, saving any potential embarrassment. 4K users signed up before it launched last Sunday. That's still some way behind Tinder's estimated 50M users, but it's a positive start. Although the app was primarily designed with the Tube in mind, it has been rolled out across the UK and is already proving popular in Bristol and Manchester.
Match.com Is 20 Years Old
TELEGRAPH.CO.UK – Feb 11 – This year, Match.com celebrates its 20th anniversary. The site is responsible for 517K relationships, 92K marriages and 1M babies, according to Karl Gregory, Match.com UK manager. Its users are spread across 40 countries and exchange 415M emails a year. When Match.com launched in April 1995, there were only 25M Internet users worldwide, compared to 2.92B in 2015. Bill and Freddie Straus, aged 76 and 72, were among the first in history to have gone on an online date in 1996. Eric Klien created a 170-point questionnaire, covering users’ horoscopes, their preferred mode of transport, taste in music, etc. He called it the “Electronic Matchmaker” and uploaded to his private Internet database just after Christmas 1992. In 1993, Klien sold his questionnaire and the domain name Match.com so he could focus on a new mission. It was called the Atlantis Project and it aimed to build an independent city called Oceania in the middle of the Caribbean Sea. Match.com’s buyer was Gary Kremen. He purchased Match.com for $2,500 and launched it as a dating service on the open Internet in 1995. In 1998, he argued with his board and the company was sold. Its current owner, IAC, bought it in 1999 for $50M. Officially called “Synapse”, but known by insiders as the “magic sauce”, the Match.com algorithm is based on a streamlined version of Klien’s original matchmaker. The results of the algorithm’s sums are shown in users’ “daily six”: a series of previously-unseen, tailored profiles that are sent to users' inbox each day.
Antidate: The Dating App Where Women Are Invisible
TELEGRAPH.CO.UK – Jan 27 - Antidate is a new dating app that puts men in the passive position. Antidate was launched by Hatty Kingsley-Miller and Mo Saha. "Girls can see the guys on a map, but guys can't see the girls at all unless they are approached via a 'tap'. The girls have to make the first move." It's still early days for Antidate but the signs are positive. “We're relying on word of mouth, especially Twitter," says Kingsley-Miller. "We have ~600 users, but the feedback has been really positive".
Match.com Launched Android Wear App
TELEGRAPH.CO.UK – Nov 26 - Match.com has launched its first Android Wear app, bringing the popular dating app to smartwatches and other wearables. Users can browse profiles featuring just their name, picture, age and city. Match.com is among the first dating apps to make the transition to wearables, which will play a "big role in the future of dating services" according to the company's country manager Karl Gregory.
by Rhiannon Williams
See full article at Telegraph.co.uk
This post also appears on Wearable.ai.
Muddy Matches Goes Mobile With New Android And iPhone App
TELEGRAPH.CO.UK – Sep 21 – Many country-loving singles aged 18-26 join Young Farmers, an organisation with 25K members that arranges ski trips and dances for young country dwellers. Lucy Reeves and her sister Emma failed to meet anyone through Young Farmers, so they founded Muddy Matches in 2007. The site has now 100K members and 50% of its traffic is via mobile. Muddy Matches launches a new app, destined to become 'Tinder for country types'.
by Anna Tyzack
See full article at Telegraph.co.uk
Mark Brooks: MuddyMatches gets 55k hits a month according to Similarweb. Mostly in the UK. The big daddy in this niche is FarmersOnly.com with 1 million visit a month mostly in the USA. It's hard to believe the farming dating niche is so huge. But farmers are in demand, and they have good coin to spend on dating. They don't have so much time to be going to bars.
InvisibleGirlfriend.com: The Website That Fakes Relationship
TELEGRAPH.CO.UK – Sep 16 - Invisiblegirlfriend.com (and invisibleboyfriend.com) is a new site, still in private beta, that claims to provide social and real world proof that a user is in a relationship. Users create their own girlfriend, give her a name, choose her age and photo and create her personality. The site also provides a real-time interactive texting service. The whole thing is weirdly reminiscent of the virtual relationships which are becoming increasingly popular in Japan. More and more Japanese men are conducting online romances with what are essentially intelligent computer games known as "otaku".
by Helen Coffey
See full article at Telegraph.co.uk
LoveFlutter Experiment: Speed-Dating With Bags On Participants’ Heads
TELEGRAPH.CO.UK – June 29 – Thanks to apps like Tinder, modern dating has become increasingly focused on looks. LoveFlutter a matchmaking service, hosted a speed-dating event where everyone wore a bag on their head. It was a social experiment in conjunction with London's Science Museum that aimed to allow participants to delve a little bit deeper into finding that special someone.