WALL STREET JOURNAL – Apr 13 – George Felix, a former marketing executive for Pizza Hut, KFC and Procter & Gamble, is joining Tinder as the dating app seeks to recruit new users, especially those under 25 years old. He succeeds former Tinder CMO Jenny Campbell, who left the company in Nov 2020.
Category: Outlets – Wall Street Journal
You’ve Got a Friend in New Social-Media Apps
WALL STREET JOURNAL – Mar 6 – Dating apps are taking a platonic turn. An analysis by venture-capital firm Andreessen Horowitz showed friend discovery is the fastest-growing category of mobile social apps in the U.S. Citing data from Apptopia, with friendship apps like Itsme, Wink and Yubo being the fastest-growing apps nationwide. Bumble BFF accounted for 9% of its total monthly active users as of Sep 2020. That traffic seems to have come mostly organically. Match Group has also been chasing friendships and other platonic connections. It estimates this market is twice the size of dating. Match Group paid $1.7B in cash and stock for South Korean social-media company Hyperconnect in its biggest acquisition ever. Hyperconnect is already generating profits and did $200M in revenue in 2020, up 50% YOY. Hyperconnect owns two video apps in Azar, which is the highest grossing one-to-one video chat app in the world; and Hakuna, which offers group live video, audio and avatar-based streaming.
Tinder, Bumble and Hinge Show Surge in Americans Looking for Love Online
by Yan Wu
See full article at Wall Street Journal
See the top news on Tinder
See the top news on Bumble
See the top news on Hinge
Bumble Stock Surges 70% in Market Debut
WALL STREET JOURNAL – Feb 10 – Bumble's stock opened at $76 a share, well above its IPO price of $43 to bring valuation to $8.6B. Bumble joins rival Match on the public market. Match unsuccessfully tried to acquire Bumble, and it later sued Bumble in 2018 for infringing patents for "swiping" and other features that have made Tinder popular. Bumble called Match a "bully" and filed a $400 million lawsuit in response. The two companies in June 2020 said they settled all litigation between them.
by Dave Sebastian & Michael Wursthorn
See full article at Wall Street Journal
Match Owns Dating’s Past, Present and Future
Bumble’s Bet on Women Won’t Pay off Everywhere
WALL STREET JOURNAL – Jan 21 – A higher percentage of the Bumble app's users convert to payers than the market average among dating apps, according to OC&C Strategy Consultants – ~9% paid conversion among its 12.3M monthly active users, the company said. But a women-centric approach also could pose some limitations to growth. Historical gender norms might be more difficult to disrupt outside the U.S. In India, Bumble didn't break the top 10 in terms of consumer spending. Interestingly, Tinder tested a feature in India around the time of Bumble's launch there called "My Move," which allowed women to initiate conversation. Depending on its success, Tinder said it would consider launching the app more globally. Ominously for Bumble, Tinder hasn't indicated plans to roll out the feature anywhere else.
More Young Indonesians Skip Dating, Go Straight to Marriage
WALL STREET JOURNAL – Jan 14 – Dating still remains the main method of courtship for young Indonesians. Dating apps such as Tinder are popular in large cities like Jakarta, and a 2017 government survey found that two-thirds of Indonesians aged 15 to 24 have dated. But many Islamic figures say it encourages young men and women to engage in premarital sex, which is forbidden in Islam. Some couples chose a speedy marriage, with much of the getting-to-know-each-other process occurring after the wedding. The practice is known as "taaruf." Taaruf differs from arranged marriages, as it is often initiated by young people themselves rather than their families. There are even online taaruf apps, such as Taaruf Online Indonesia which currently has 18K active users.
Bumble’s Buzz Won’t Sting Match
WALL STREET JOURNAL – Sep 3 – Bumble IPO would disrupt the virtual monopoly that Match Group has long enjoyed in the public dating scene. But whether Bumble can turn investors' heads likely has less to do with what it could print in a public offering filing and more to do with the pace at which it manages to grow over time. The company has held its metrics close to the vest, but is widely seen as a solid competitor to both Tinder and Hinge. Match saw an increase in usage among younger users and females during the lockdown. That would bode well for Bumble since younger female users are a key demographic. Messages sent on Bumble increased 20% in the U.S. the week ended May 1 versus the week ended March 13, while Match said the average number of daily messages sent across its platforms was 27% higher during the month of April versus the last week of February.
Match Group Looks to Capitalize on Video Dating During the Pandemic
WALL STREET JOURNAL – Aug 10 – Match Group is now in the beginning stages of developing features such as games and icebreakers to make one-on-one video calls more engaging – part of a broader strategy to find new ways to generate revenue from its millions of users, according to CFO Gary Swidler. Match declined to provide a date for when its new features would become available.
by Kristin Broughton
See full article at Wall Street Journal
Mark Brooks: Tis the season for video, finally. It took a while for people to warm up to video. Webdate was the first to offer video dating, in 2004 no less! But now it's the norm and I think any app that doesn't inspire people to find and do first dates on video will lose some market share to those who do. Meanwhile, The Meet Group continues to grow from strength to strength on the back of its video and video gamification capabilities. POF is powered by The Meet Group's video platform, btw. (Full Disclosure: Webdate and POF are prior long term clients, and The Meet Group are a current client of Courtland Brooks)
Dating Apps Pivot to Video
WALL STREET JOURNAL – July 1 – With social distancing recommendations and laws in effect across the country, meeting people online and developing relationships virtually has never been more popular. Georgia Wells, WSJ's technology reporter and Mark Brooks, CEO of the Courtland Brooks consultancy-agency explore what this shift means for the future of online dating.