Category: Outlets – The Guardian

Tinder Turns 10: What Have We Learned From a Decade of Dating Apps?

Posted on August 12, 2022

Tinder for social media2THE GUARDIAN – A decade ago, online dating existed through sites such as match and OKCupid tended to attract older users, and had a stigma. Apps like Grindr (launched 2009), and Tinder (2012) radically changed online dating. Emily Witt, the author of Future Sex, a book that examines sex in the internet age, tells Nosheen Iqbal about the origin story of Tinder, meeting the founders, and why it was such an instant success. Dating apps have grown in response to a culture where people are single longer and a changing sexual morality that's open to different kinds of relationships.

Listen to the podcast here

by Nosheen Iqbal
See full article at The Guardian

See the top news on Tinder
See the top news on OkCupid
See the top news on Grindr

UK Dating App Fluttr Aims to Beat the ‘Tinder Swindlers’ With Biometric ID

Posted on February 14, 2022

Fluttr icon 2022THE GUARDIAN – Dating app Fluttr is promising to eradicate Tinder Swindler-style romance fraud, which cost duped daters ~£100M last year, by ensuring that all members complete biometric ID verification before they digitally mingle. Fluttr has partnered with digital verification firm Yoti, which has clients including the NHS, Post Office and National Union of Students, to ensure all would-be daters are providing the correct personal details matched to government-issued documents.

by Mark Sweney
See full article at The Guardian

See the top news on Fluttr

Romance Scams Robbed Britons of £100M Last Year

Posted on January 10, 2022

Scammers picTHE GUARDIAN – According to Action Fraud, the UK's reporting center for fraud and cybercrime, 8,863 cases were reported to the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB) between November 2020 and October 2021, up from 6,968 the previous year, with total losses for the past year amounting to £92M. These figures are likely to be the tip of the iceberg – Action Fraud says the shame and stigma around romance fraud mean many people don't report it. The love-bombing tactic used by such scammers can be hard to resist.

by Lizzie Cernik
See full article at The Guardian

The Start of the Post-Tinder Era

Posted on June 30, 2021

Once iconTHE GUARDIAN – June 29 – Women are at the forefront of developing new dating tech. Following on the heels of Whitney Wolfe Herd there are others trying to build more female-friendly platforms. Clementine Lalande, 37, launched Pickable in 2018 for women who wanted more discretion. Women don't need to upload a photo or give their name, so they can browse men's profiles anonymously. In 2015, along with a friend, Lalande also helped create the "slow dating" app Once, which delivers one match a day. The app has 10M users. "Online dating is a market designed by men for men and is governed in a non-transparent way," says Paris-based Lalande, CEO of the Once Dating Group. Jessica and Louella Alderson set up So Syncd in January 2021 after raising ~$1M (£700,000) through a combination of venture capital, an investment club, angel investors and family. The app matches couples based on the Myers-Briggs personality test. One of the first employees at Plenty Of Fish, Kim Kaplan shifted to angel investing before setting up video dating app Snack in Sep 2020. The app, whose engineering team comprises 43% women, aims to combine the matching algorithms of dating platforms like Tinder with streaming platforms such as TikTok.

by Tina Walsh
See full article at The Guardian

See the top news on Once                        See the top news on So Syncd
See the top news on Pickable                   See the top news on Snack

Apple’s New Policy Doesn’t Mean It’s Banning Grindr

Posted on June 16, 2021

Apple store logoTHE GUARDIAN – June 15 – Apple's announcement last week that it was cracking down on some "hookup apps" sparked widespread confusion and concern that the company planned to remove dating apps – particularly Grindr and Scruff – from its app store. A spokesman from Apple said dating apps such as Grindr and Scruff would not be rejected based on the new guidelines. The guidelines ban "overtly sexual or pornographic material" including "'hookup' apps that may include pornography or be used to facilitate prostitution". The company defines this as "explicit descriptions or displays of sexual organs or activities intended to stimulate erotic rather than aesthetic or emotional feelings". Apple did not name any apps that would be affected.

by Kari Paul
See full article at The Guardian

See the top news on Grindr
See the top news on Scruff

‘People Are Looking for Something More Serious’, Says Hinge’s CEO

Posted on May 22, 2021

Hinge justin mcleod 2021THE GUARDIAN – May 21 – Justin McLeod, CEO of Hinge, talks about its massive rise in users, his difficult romantic past, and why people are now ditching their partners and looking for someone new. The pandemic has had a big impact on the dating landscape, he says. People switched to video dating, for a start. It was moving that way anyway, he says, but the "pandemic accelerated it". "There have also been reports of people being in 'quarantine relationships', where it was good enough for the lockdown, but not the person [they were] really looking to be with. And so those relationships are starting to end."

by Emine Saner
See full article at The Guardian

See the top news on Hinge

Is It Worth Paying a Premium to Find Love?

Posted on April 26, 2021

Tinder gold logoTHE GUARDIAN – Apr 25 – Tinder has three levels of subscription, Tinder Plus, Tinder Gold and Tinder Platinum, each with different prices. The monthly fee is also linked to age. Users aged ~30 are being charged £27.49 or £29.49, while those under 30 are being charged £13.99 or £14.49. Tinder Plus seemed more random. Some users over 30 are being charged £19.49, most are being asked to pay £4.99, £8.99 or £9.99. Bumble charges £14.99 a month for Bumble Boost, and £32.99 for Bumble Premium. Coffee Meets Bagel charges £34 a month for its Premium service. Grindr also offers a more expensive package – Unlimited, at £31.99 a month. While most apps allow users to pay for premium services for just a month at a time, Plenty of Fish has a minimum premium subscription of three months for £39.99. The minimum time period to subscribe to eharmony's premium subscription is six months for £99.99. The dating and relationships coach Kate Mansfield argues that the most dateable people will be snapped up before they sign up for a paid-for service. Quality, confident people don't need to pay for matchmaking services. Instead of a paid-for app, she advises working on yourself: "Invest in coaching or therapy to get yourself in the best place possible and then use apps' free version to find love."

by Robert Beck
See full article at The Guardian

See the top news on Tinder                      See the top news on Bumble
See the top news on POF                          See the top news on Coffee Meets Bagel
See the top news on Grindr                      See the top news on eHarmony

Tinder’s Plan for Criminal Record Checks Raises Fears of ‘Lifelong Punishment’

Posted on April 13, 2021

Garbo logoTHE GUARDIAN – Apr 13 – Match Group recently announced a partnership with a non-profit background check company called Garbo to integrate background checks into its online properties. But critics argue the new integration could mimic notoriously faulty background checks and effectively discriminate against the nearly one-third of the adult working population in the US with criminal records, without necessarily making dating apps safer. The Garbo team has yet to decide how far back in time background checks will search, a source of concern for advocates that argue that using criminal history against people who have served their time is another form of "lifelong punishment". Another core issue with the Match Group's approach lies in the unreliability of background checks.

by Hope Corrigan
See full article at The Guardian

See the top news on Match Group
See the top news on Tinder

93% of OKCupid’s UK Users Would Still Go on a Date

Posted on March 17, 2020

Okcupid coronavirus storyTHE GUARDIAN – Mar 16 – OKCupid has asked its users if coronavirus affects their dating life. OKCupid was prompted to ask the question after noticing a rise of 262% in the number of mentions of the virus in UK profiles between January and March. 93% of users said that they would carry on seeing people in real life, but the virus has apparently prompted people to spend more time looking for love: OKCupid has had a 7% increase in new conversations over the last five days, the company said. Tinder has started warning users of the risks of meeting in person, with an interstitial screen that pops up advising users to wash their hands.

by Alex Hern
See full article at The Guardian

See the top news on OKCupid

Sharon Stone Blocked From Bumble

Posted on December 30, 2019

Screenshot_2019-12-30 Sharon Stone blocked from Bumble dating appTHE GUARDIAN – Dec 30 – Writing on Twitter, the actor complained to the dating app Bumble that she had been blocked from the service after her account was deemed to be fake. Bumble's editorial director Clare O'Connor replied to Stone, unblocking her account and apologizing for the error.

by Ben Beaumont-Thomas
See full article at The Guardian

See all posts on Bumble