Category: Outlets – Washington Post
Silicon Valley Singles Giving Up On Dating
WASHINGTON POST – Feb 18 – One thing distinguishes the Silicon Valley dating pool: The men-to-women ratio for employed, young singles in the San Jose metro area is higher here than any other major area. There were 150 men for every 100 women, compared to 125 to 100 nationwide, of never-married young people between 25 and 34 in San Jose, U.S. Census data from 2016 show. Women here said they feel outnumbered, overworked and underwhelmed by the tech industry's egos and eccentricities. Men, in return, said they feel outmatched or overlooked. In the San Francisco and San Jose areas, the marriage rate for adults ages 18 to 49 fell ~6% between 2005 and 2016. Just one in four here are married by age 30. Bumble, whose 400K users in Silicon Valley have matched up 20M times since 2014, said users here have a "lower-than-average right-swipe proportion" than other large metro areas. In other words, they typically like what they see a bit less.
Good Sex Or Political Compatibility? Surprising Poll Results
What Men And Women Really Want In A Mate
WASHINGTON POST – Feb 12 – In one study conducted by economist Raymond Fisman and colleagues for Columbia University, 392 singles were invited to participate in a speed-dating event. Each participant went on 10 – 20 four-minute dates. They then rated them on a 1-to-10 scale and indicated whether they would like that person's contact. 43%of them requested the contact information of the person they had just met. The data collected reveals that both men and women really care a lot about attractiveness (though men care ever so slightly more). However, women care about intelligence roughly twice as much as men. Men valued women's intelligence only until it matched their own, and they actually found women whose ambition exceeded theirs to be off-putting. A team of economists at the University of Chicago showed that when women out-earn their husbands, marital satisfaction is lower, and divorce is more likely.
Chinese Government Might Now Get Access To Grindr’s Users Data
WASHINGTON POST – Jan 11 – China experts and former intelligence officials are raising concerns about user data privacy following the acquisition of Grindr by a Chinese technology firm. The Chinese government could be in a position to demand sensitive details on the lives of millions of non-Chinese citizens. More and more, the U.S. government is worried about the acquisition of American technology companies by Chinese firms, which are subject to undue influence and control by Beijing. Only last week, the U.S. government rejected a huge Chinese acquisition. The Committee on Foreign Investment in the US blocked Ant Financial, the investment arm of Alibaba Group, from buying Moneygram, the second-largest financial remittance firm in the US. Congress had raised concerns that allowing a Chinese company to own all the data of Americans sending each other money represented a national security issue for the US. The Trump administration agreed and killed the deal. Grindr's VP of marketing, Peter Sloterdyk said Grindr has never disclosed any user data to the Chinese government nor does it intend to do so. Grindr remains a U.S. company governed and protected by the laws of the US, he said.
Hinge’s CEO Says A Good Dating App Doesn’t Rely On Algorithms
WASHINGTON POST – Sep 30 – In 2012, Justin McLeod founded Hinge. Initially, the app was very similar to Tinder except that it aimed to pair users with friends of Facebook friends. In 2015, after Nancy Jo Sales's story in Vanity Fair about how Tinder had created a "dating apocalypse" went viral, Hinge nixed its Tinder-like swiping interface and relaunched, calling itself "the relationship app." Part of Hinge's re-branding involved adding profile questions that would allow users to highlight their more authentic selves. "We found that most people don't think some super-special algorithms would be able to find their right person. I don't think we're there yet", he said.
In The Era Of Dating Apps, Craigslist’s Missed Connections Lives On
WASHINGTON POST – Aug 21 – The popularity of Missed Connections might have peaked somewhere between "You've Got Mail" – era chat rooms and the creation of dating apps, but it's still common to find at least a dozen new posts on the D.C. page each day. Seventeen years after its was established, the Craigslist section lives on.
by Sonia Rao
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Trump Era Sparks Interest In Muslim Matchmaking
WASHINGTON POST – July 6 – Beyond Chai is a Muslim matchmaking service run by a team of Internet-savvy young Muslim adults based in the D.C. area. The service was founded 2 years ago and saw a surge of interest after the inauguration of Trump, who said "I think Islam hates us" and proposed banning Muslims from the country while on the campaign trail. In the past six months, membership in the matchmaking service has nearly doubled.
by Julie Zauzmer
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Mark Brooks: Check out Beyond Chai pricing. Unlike other matchmakers that require an in-person meeting and charged $5k+, they're doing consultation calls, and not meeting. They charge $100 for people to get into their database, and then there are 4 additional active-matchmaking packages from $80 to $300 a month. This is a real sweet spot, that I think we'll see more matchmaker-dating services go after. I think there's a growing portion of our paying membership bases that want more service. Why not give it to them?
Dating Via Twitter
WASHINGTON POST – May 26 – Twitter doesn't bill itself as a dating service or even a place to meet people. Since its founding in 2006, however, it has emerged as an unlikely matchmaker for singles who share highly specific interests, made searchable using hashtags. The hashtag #WeMetOnTwitter, which has been used in ~500 Twitter posts suggests there are many couples who found lasting romantic partnerships on Twitter. UK dating app Loveflutter works just like Tinder but displays users' Twitter-like bios, which must be 140 characters or less. It has recently launched a feature that embeds users' 10 most recent tweets into their profiles.
A Poor Credit Score Can Make Singles Less Attractive
WASHINGTON POST – May 11 – Creditscoredating.com requires users to disclose where they fall in a range of credit scores. But the reporting is on the honor system. Almost two in five U.S. adults said knowing someone's credit score would affect their interest in dating that person, according to the Bankrate.com report released this week. 50% of women said a certain credit score might have them think twice about dating someone, while just 35% of men said it would factor into the appeal of a date.
by Michelle Singletary
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