WALL STREET JOURNAL – Sep 26 – IAC is considering spinning off one or both of its biggest assets: Online-dating giant Match Group and ANGI Homeservices, which owns HomeAdvisor and Angie's List. Analysts estimate Match and ANGI combined will comprise 71% of IAC's total revenue in 2019. Investors seem to be puzzled, sending IAC shares down ~14% this month, although some of this weakness was related to the Federal Trade Commission suing Match. Analysts, however, see hidden value in IAC's remaining assets such as Vimeo and Dotdash. The full remaining portfolio could be worth quite a bit if it had the company's complete attention. IAC could generate revenue of $1.5B in 2020, rising to $2B by 2024. Assuming IAC unloads $1B of debt to Match and ANGI, analysts see valuation upside of 9% to 26% from current levels if both assets are spun off.
Category: Outlets – Wall Street Journal
Dating Apps Are Making Marriages Stronger
WALL STREET JOURNAL – Aug 29 – Researchers from the University of Chicago found that more than a third of U.S. marriages between 2005 and 2012 started online – and that online couples have longer, happier marriages. They also found that more anonymous online communications produced greater self-disclosure. "Humans started down a path to becoming isolated the moment the first person put on the headphones of their Sony Walkman," says Eric Resnick, a professional dating profile ghostwriter in Orlando, Fla., who met his wife online. "We hide in our phones. Online dating sites and apps make it possible to reach out in a way that doesn't make most people uncomfortable." It also helps them open up. "Most online daters have a tendency to discuss the reasons their last relationships have failed without even realizing it," says Mr. Resnick. A 2017 study by researchers at the University of Essex in the U.K. and the University of Vienna in Austria, published in the social-science journal SSRN, found that marriages created online were less likely to break up within the first year than marriages that started offline. The researchers suggested that people who meet online are more likely to be compatible precisely because they're matching with partners they might have otherwise overlooked.
Russian Web Activists Joust With Kremlin to Keep Internet Free
WALL STREET JOURNAL – Aug 22 – As Vladimir Putin's Russia increasingly cracks down on Internet freedoms, a band of self-styled pirates is fighting back. The group of fewer than a dozen lawyers and techies calling themselves Roskomsvoboda (Russian Communications Freedom) has unblocked banned websites, mounted legal cases and recently revealed that Moscow had ordered dating app Tinder to share user information with security services, setting off fresh debate over Moscow's tightening grip on the Internet. Roskomsvoboda's main objective now is to prevent Mr. Putin's government from advancing plans to install a "kill switch" that would allow Russia to firewall itself from the rest of the Internet, much as China does. Russia has banned ~200K sites, and bloggers are now required to register as media, which subjects them to greater government pressure. The new kill switch is scheduled to go live in November.
Young Saudis Are Starting to Date More Openly
by Rory Jones & Donna Abdulaziz
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Bumble Owner, Facing off With Tinder, Boosts Spending
by Parmy Olson
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Females ‘Ship’ MatchGroup’s New Dating App
WALL STREET JOURNAL – May 21 – Match Group has teamed up with millennial digital brand Betches to create Ship, which was launched in January. Ship allows friends to vet potential mates for one another. On its first-quarter conference call in early May, Match said Ship is seeing strong engagement in big cities. The company said ~70% of registrations thus far are female and ~60% of matches are made by friends.
U.S. Orders Chinese Firm to Sell Dating App Grindr Over Blackmail Risk
WALL STREET JOURNAL – Mar 27 – U.S. national-security officials have ordered a Chinese company to sell gay-dating app Grindr, citing the risk that the personal data it collects could be exploited by Beijing to blackmail individuals with security clearances, according to people familiar with the situation. Beijing Kunlun Tech Co. Ltd., which acquired a majority stake in Grindr in 2016, would have no choice but to share information on Grindr users if demanded by the Chinese government, U.S. officials believe. That triggered the recent order from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S., known as Cfius. National-security experts said a Chinese company would never be allowed to buy a company like Facebook Inc., for example.
"If Cfius only applies to companies China acquires from the U.S., and not companies China builds, what can it possibly solve?" said Geoffrey Cook, CEO of The Meet Group.
Potential buyers for Grindr could include Match. Mark Brooks, a consultant in the dating industry, said Spark Networks and The Meet Group could be among other potential contenders.
by Georgia Wells & Kate O'Keeffe
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Matchmakers Emerge as an Antidote to the Agony of Online Dating
WALL STREET JOURNAL – Mar 8 – In a 2018 Match.com survey, 55% of respondents said technology makes personal connections harder to make, and 54% felt overwhelmed by the work involved. Melissa Brown, CEO of It's Just Lunch, a matchmaking service founded in 1991, says the company has seen its fastest growth in the past couple of years among daters in their 20s and 30s. "They're sick of the swiping and the countless hours of talking to people that goes nowhere," she said. Three Day Rule, another matchmaking service, grew out of Talia Goldstein's LA apartment, where in 2013 she would host large parties in hopes of fixing up friends. Now CEO of the company, she secured funding from Match Group, and her company boasts ~700 users across 10 cities. Its services start at $5,500. Clients receive professional photo shoots, and matchmakers help them write texts to prospective dates and shop for appropriate clothes. After each date, the matchmaker will check in with both parties and give the client feedback.
by Michelle Hackman
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Match Won’t Burn From Facebook’s Heat
WALL STREET JOURNAL – Feb 4 – Match Group is betting love seekers will still pay up for privacy in their dating lives. Given Facebook's struggles over data leaks recently, that seems like a solid bet. Data suggest Match's users prefer the separation of their dating lives from their social lives. Originally, new users joining Tinder had to do so with Facebook. Now they are given the option of signing up via SMS. Match reported in May that 75% of new users sign up via SMS rather than Facebook after the change, which took effect in 2017. Match Group shares are now up more than 48% for the last six months, fetching a valuation of about 35 times forward earnings.
Tinder’s CEO Swipes Right on These Advisers
WSJ – Jan 25 – Tinder CEO, Elie Seidman, says he invites criticism but doesn't act on every piece of advice he receives. He prefers feedback from people with whom he's worked closely so he knows how to interpret their suggestions. Here are his trusted advisers:
Allen Kay, Retired partner at Korey Kay & Partners
Mr. Seidman first sought out Mr. Kay in 2009 while looking for an advertising firm to represent his first startup – hotel review site Oyster.com. In the years since, Mr. Seidman regularly calls on Mr. Kay for branding advice.
Nick Hammerschlag, President of Entangled Group
Although Mr. Hammerschlag is 12 years his junior, Mr. Seidman considers his former colleague at General Atlantic Partners a vital mentor. Mr Seidman calls on Mr. Hammerschlag, now leading an education strategy consultancy, for a "perspective that is generationally relevant" given that Tinder's audience is skewed toward users in their 20s.
Jocelyn Goldfein, Managing director at Zetta Venture Partners
"She's one of my thinkers for management, engineering and product," says Mr. Seidman.
James Bennett, Chairman and CEO of Midcon Midstream LP
Mr. Seidman says he takes insights from Mr. Bennett's fresh approach to managing a workforce with diverse educational backgrounds.