by Dr. Tim Sandle
See full article at Digital Journal
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Category: POF
Veteran Tech Industry CMO Christina Kozloff Joins Plenty of Fish
PR NEWSWIRE – Christina Kozloff has led teams and programs at Expedia, Microsoft, and Zillow. Most recently, she has been credited with turning around the legacy language brand Rosetta Stone. In her new position at Plenty of Fish, Christina will oversee brand, performance marketing, and public relations.
Why People Behave Badly on Dating Apps
BBC – Cheating, ghosting and swiping – online dating brings out the worst in many people. "The screen mediates our courage, so we will do and say things online that we would never do in real life," says Dr Joanne Orlando, an Australia-based researcher and author who focuses on digital wellness. Dana Weiser, an associate professor at Texas Tech University, began collecting data from 550 undergraduate students about infidelity on Tinder, which was published in a 2018 study. 64% reported seeing someone on Tinder whom they knew to be in an exclusive relationship, 17% of the study's participants themselves admitted to messaging someone on Tinder while in a relationship, and 7% said they'd had a sexual experience with someone they met on Tinder while dating someone else. A 2016 survey by Plenty of Fish showed 80% of respondents between 18 and 33 years old reported having at least one relationship end via ghosting. 35% of respondents to the 2020 Pew Research Center study reported someone had sent them an "explicit message or image they didn't ask for" on a dating app, and that number rose to 57% among female users aged 18 to 34.
Match Group Q1 Results – Revenue up 20%, New CEO
MATCH GROUP – Total Revenue grew 20% YOY to $799M. Operating income was $208M, an increase of 10% YOY. Payers increased 13% to 16.3M, up from 14.4M in the prior year quarter. Tinder Direct Revenue grew 18% YOY, driven by 17% payers growth to 10.7M. All Other Brands collectively grew revenue by 22% YOY driven by 14% RPP growth and 7% payers growth to 5.6M.
Key points from Match Group's letter to shareholders:
- Match Group CEO Shar Dubey is stepping down. She will remain as a director and advisor to the company, and Bernard Kim will resume his role as CEO.
- Match Group has published its 2nd annual Impact Report to share its progress on social, environmental, and governance initiatives.
- In Japan, Tinder launched a co-marketing campaign with Netflix for the dating reality TV show Love is Blind: Japan.
- Tinder Coins, its in-app virtual currency, is on track to launch globally this summer.
- Hinge is on track to launch in its first non-English speaking market, Germany, in Q2.
- Hinge is on pace to more than 10x revenue from 2019 to 2022.
- Match, Meetic, Pairs, and POF all successfully leverage tech features from Hyperconnect into their products.
Dating Apps Join Forces for Valentine’s Vaccination Push
Match Group Financial Results – 2021 Revenue Just Under $3B
MATCH GROUP – Total Q4 Revenue grew 24% YOY to $806M. Operating income was $232M, up 9% YOY. Payers increased 15% to 16.2M, up from 14.2M in the prior year quarter. Tinder Direct Revenue grew 23% YOY driven by 18% Payers growth to 10.6M and RPP growth of 4%. All Other Brands collectively grew Direct Revenue 26% YOY, driven by 16% RPP growth and 9% Payers growth to 5.7M. In 2021, Match Group's Total Revenue was just under $3B with operating income of $850M. Tinder generated ~$1.7B in Direct Revenue in 2021, up 22% over 2020. Hinge produced $525M of Direct Revenue in 2021, achieving a 91% YOY growth rate. Hyperconnect saw better performance in December compared to the preceding months. Several Match Group brands have begun to leverage Hyperconnect's technology. Meetic opened online video cafes, and Match is offering 1:1 video chat on its app. Pairs and POF intend to leverage Hyperconnect's tech into their apps in early 2022.
41 % of Brits Taking Extreme Measures to Alter the Way They Look on Dating Apps
THE SUN – More than three in five images relating to beauty in online content feature women who are white, slim, have long hair and are wearing make-up, according to new analysis by Plenty of Fish and social psychologist Dr Sandra Wheatley who looked at 1,455 images from 67 of the largest-reaching online media and content outlets in the UK. It comes after a POF poll of 2K adults found that despite a spotlight on diversity and representation over recent years, more than a third (35%) still don't see themselves reflected in cultural content, media and advertising. The study also found 21% of adults have felt judged by others for dating someone who does not conform to stereotypical notions of beauty, with 27% admitting this has impacted their decision to date them. 41% have even turned to the extremes of altering the way they look in real life and online to conform to society's standards. After banning heavily filtered photos across its platform in 2019, Plenty of Fish is launching the 'Pretty Clever Plan', created in partnership with Dr Sandra Wheatley, to help dispel beauty biases and combat societal privileges.
by Richard Jenkins
See full article at The Sun
Tinder and Match Asking Users to Urge Senators to Pass Violence Against Women Act
THE HILL – Match, Tinder, OkCupid, BLK, Chispa and Plenty of Fish, all of which are part of Match Group, have prompted their users to send an email to their senators "with one click," urging them to support the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act. The Violence Against Women Act, originally enacted in 1994, lapsed in 2019 and has not been reauthorized since. The bill would provide grants to state and local governments for programs addressing domestic abuse, sexual assault, dating violence and stalking, in addition to further narrowing the so-called boyfriend loophole to prohibit dating partners convicted of domestic violence or abuse from buying or owning guns. Current law only restricts gun purchases for spouses or formerly married partners who were convicted of abuse or are under a restraining order.
Plenty Of Fish Announces “Plenty Of Pets” Campaign
PR NEWSWIRE – Aug 17 – Plenty of Fish launches new "Plenty of Pets" campaign to feature exclusive livestreaming pet content, including a performance by Moshow (The Cat Rapper), who was featured on an episode of the Netflix show, "Cat People," and a commitment by Plenty of Fish to donate $50K to the lifesaving nonprofit Petco Love. According to a recent Plenty of Fish survey, 97% of single pet owners in the U.S. believe that pets are a part of their family. 49% of singles see owning a pet as a turn-on, and most singles (52%) say it's sexiest when someone has adopted their pet vs. purchased from a breeder.
How COVID-19 Transformed Match Group’s Online Dating Empire
TEXAS MONTHLY – July 27 – Match Group adapted well to the pandemic. The company garnered $2.39B in 2020, up 17% YOY. It reintroduced video dates, and 40% of Tinder users plan to continue using video dates even after the pandemic eventually ends. That expectation led Match to purchase Hyperconnect, a South Korean social-media company, for $1.73B. Hyperconnect's technology, which is expected to be incorporated into all Match apps, can translate text and voice messages across 20 languages, and its live-streaming app, Hakuna, allows users to create their own video streams. It's similar to Plenty of Fish Live! which allows users to create their own communities around themselves and whatever they choose to broadcast. "Match has just won every battle, and the war….. They are the behemoth of the industry, and they've had a very good acquisition strategy," says industry analyst and former Plenty of Fish advisor Mark Brooks. Some of Match's success, Brooks says, can be attributed to the consistency of its leadership. Thombre has been at Match Group for over a decade, and Sharmistha Dubey, who was named its CEO last year, joined the company in 2006. "They come from a supply-chain background, both of them, and they're the two leaders," Brooks said. "Shar is very pragmatic . . . a smart operator." Mark Brooks says that the future for Match Group lies in expanding its reach to other countries, and not getting usurped by aggressive newer players like Bumble. "Match will only be unseated in the next major media shift, which is augmented reality," Brooks says, adding that it will be "exceedingly creepy and hugely challenging from a legal perspective, but absolutely transformational." Brooks suggests that there's also room in the industry for more of a human touch in dating, such as personalized matchmaking as a premium service. "At some stage, certain people will pay more to have help and feedback and a bit of sugarcoating on that feedback from people who know how to communicate," he says.