Category: Outlets – Wall Street Journal
Avid Life Rebrands Itself As Ruby Corp.
WALL STREET JOURNAL – July 12 – The renaming is "an important step in our journey to completely rebuild the company as a relevant, digital dating innovator that truly cares for our customers," said recently-named Ruby Chief Executive Rob Segal. They also plan to repositioning its Ashley Madison brand, dropping its tagline "Life is Short. Have an Affair" for "Find Your Moment." The brand's logo – a wedding ring icon and "hush" imagery—has been replaced by a "modern, discreet" wordmark. A new global digital campaign and TV advertising will take a more understated approach, with no dialogue and a cinematic feel.
by Anne Steele
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Ashley Madison Parent Appoints New CEO
by Maria Armental & Austen Hufford
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ChristianMingle Opens Doors To Gay Singles Under Settlement
by Jacob Gershman & Sara Randazzo
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South Asian Dating App Dil Mil Raised $2.7M
WSJ – Mar 31 – Dil Mil Chief Executive KJ Dhaliwal realized apps like Tinder, Hinge and Coffee Meets Bagel weren't inclusive of the needs of the South Asian community, where dating can be taboo and arranged marriages still occur. Mr. Dhaliwal said 90% of South Asians marry within their own community and those users needed their own app. His matchmaking app Dil Mil has now made ~1.3M matches. The company recently raised another ~$2.7M. It has raised $3.8M in seed financing to date.
by Cat Zakrzewski
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This post also appears on InternetDatingInvestments.
Lisdoonvarna, Tiny Irish Town, Draws Big Crowds Looking For Love
WSJ – Dec 9 – This year, ~60K singles descended on Lisdoonvarna, a former spa town, for a six-week-long matchmaking festival. Matchmaking has become a cottage industry for the town of ~700 residents, which gets an annual boost from those looking for love. People meet at the dances throughout the festival, starting at noon and often ending at 3am. Most attendees are Irish, but more English and Americans have been coming in recent years.
Baihe To Buy Chinese Dating Site Jiayuan
WSJ – Dec 7 – Jiayuan.com International, the largest online dating platform in China, agreed to be bought by Baihe for $7.56 per share in a deal that values the company at ~$250M. The deal is expected to close in Q1 of 2016. Jiayuan executive Linguang Wu will become co-executive of the new company, which will be changing its name.
by Austen Hufford
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This post also appears on InternetDatingInvestments.
Match Group Files For IPO
WSJ – Oct 16 – Match Group, owner of Tinder, OkCupid and Match.com has filed to go public on Friday. Their shares would be listed on Nasdaq under the symbol MTCH. The preliminary filing indicated Match would raise up to $100 million. Match Group's parent company IAC will retain over 50% of voting rights after the IPO.
The company logged $888.3 million in revenue in 2014, up about 11% from the previous year, according to its filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Match's net income for 2014 was $148.4 million, up 18% year over year. All Match's dating properties have more than 59M MAU and approximately 4.7M paid members.
by Georgia Wells & Maria Armental
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This post also appears on InternetDatingInvestments.
Proper Grammar Is Really Hot On Dating Sites
WSJ – Oct 1 - Match.com asked ~5K singles what criteria they used most in assessing dates. Beyond personal hygiene, it was grammar. 88% of women and 75% of men care about grammar most, putting it ahead of a person’s confidence and teeth. The Grade, a new dating app, checks messages for typos and grammar errors and assigns each user a letter grade from A+ to F. One reason people judge grammar and spelling snafus so harshly is that they can reflect the level of effort, or lack thereof, that folks put into their bio. Certain types of typos are also associated with fraud.
by Georgia Wells
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The Ashley Madison Hacker Might Be Tweeting
WSJ – Aug 27 – The Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Federal Bureau of Investigation are investigating the hack of Ashley Madison. Security blogger Brian Krebs thinks he has a clue. A self-described hacker who calls himself Thadeus Zu on Twitter appears to have had intimate knowledge of the hack, has defended the hackers and appears to be a fan of the AC/DC song, "Thunderstruck," which played a key role in the breach. "It's not uncommon for people involved in hacks to have trouble keeping their mouths shut," said Mr. Krebs.
by Danny Yadron
See full article at WSJ