TECH CRUNCH – May 2 – On Tastemates, users are asked to swipe to indicate whether they liked a given movie, TV show or music. Then, as the app gets a better sense of what users like, it will recommend other things they might like. And it will bring up the activity of users with similar tastes, so they can connect. Tastemates is currently available for Android and the team behind the app is also working on an iPhone app.
Category: Reporters – Anthony Ha
The League Launches A Rebuilt, Event-centric Dating App
TECH CRUNCH – Apr 29 – The League, the elite dating startup, is launching version 2.0 in LA. The League is best-known for its screening process of new members before they can join. The screening is still part of the app, but what's new is a focus on events. Members will now be able to create interest groups with group chat and also organize events.
Squad Is Like Tinder For Groups
TECH CRUNCH – Oct 20 – Squad, a New York base startup, is officially launching its iOS app today, it's also announcing a raise of $1.7M in seed funding. According to founder and CEO Adam Liebman, squad is designed to facilitate more casual group meetups. Dating and hookup is not its main goal. He said the idea came from a trip to Montreal, where he "hacked Tinder" by turning his profile into a group profile that allowed him and his friends to meet new people while traveling. The Squad app is free. Liebman said the current focus is on "creating a great product," but eventually, he plans to make money through ads.
by Anthony Ha
See full article at Tech Crunch
This post also appears on InternetDatingInvestments.
Barry Diller: “Tinder Succeeded Because We Left Its Founders Alone”
TECH CRUNCH – Dec 4 – IAC Chairman Barry Diller talked about Tinder while onstage today at Business Insider’s Ignition conference. He did not directly address the fact that co-founder Sean Rad will step down from his role as CEO. Instead he said that leaving Tinder to the founders was key to its early success. Rad’s co-founder Justin Mateen had already been suspended from the company following a sexual harassment lawsuit from former VP of marketing Whitney Wolfe.
Tinder Has Made 1 Billion Matches
TECH CRUNCH – Mar 14 - Tinder is announcing that it has made 1B matches between its users. The company isn’t disclosing how many registered or active users it has.
HowAboutWe Goes Free In 30+ Countries
TECH CRUNCH – Oct 31 – HowAboutWe, a startup that recommends date activities for both singles and couples, is launching the first internationalized versions of its iOS app. The app is now available in 15 new languages covering ~30 countries, including Japan, France, and Russia. All features in the app are free for international users (US users pay $8-$35/month).
by Anthony Ha
See full article at Tech Crunch
Things You Need to Know Before Internationalizing Your App
HAW – Nov 4 -
- All of your translatable copy should be stored in strings. Make sure that all copy in the app is dynamic and represented in localized strings files.
- It is easier to internationalize a native app without addressing email or web interfaces, but it’s not easy. There are often many server-side changes to make. Don’t underestimate this part of a “native app only” translation project.
- Your backend systems will need to be translated and adjusted.
- Other languages often require grammatical differences for men and women. Modify copy to be genderless or add rules around gender.
- There aren’t great tools for figuring out string length requirements, especially when your UI is customized. Japanese is very wide in the iOS system font, you have to be more judicious with your copy to fit into your custom UI space requirements without awkward linebreaks.
- Location-based sign up flows built for the US often need reworking in other countries.
- It’s important for your translators to put significant time and thought into how culturally relevant your app is for each country to which you’re expanding.
- Be mindful of all unit-related aspects of your app such as distance, time, calendar date, and currencies.
- Some app features require significant market penetration in order to work efficiently.
- It will always take 3x longer than you think.
The full article was originally published at HAW blog, but is no longer available.
Tinder Sees 350M Swipes A Day
TECH CRUNCH – Oct 29 – Sean Rad, founder and CEO mobile dating app Tinder, suggested that there’s been a larger shift, where social networks allow people to improve existing relationships, but they haven’t made it easier to meet new people. Tinder, which already filters its recommendations by proximity, could become more closely tied to real-world locations. The apps sees 350M swipers a day and 3.5M matches.
Down, the App Formerly Known as Bang With Friends, Relaunches on the iPhone
Zynga Tells CupidWithFriends To Stop Using ‘With Friends’
TECH CRUNCH – May 17 – Zynga has told the makers of the dating site CupidWithFriends that they need to change the site’s name, because it allegedly infringes on Zynga’s trademarks. CupidWithFriends was built by the startup Apartment 7. The site launched a couple of months ago, allowing users to build and edit dating profiles for their friends. There’s also Bang With Friends which was recently booted from the Apple App Store.
New Dating Startup: WednesdayNight
TECH CRUNCH – May 13 – With a new startup called Wednesday Night, users connect their Facebook accounts and are then given three recommendations. If they’re interested in dating one of them, they then pay $50 and are set up with a date on Wednesday night at 8 p.m. They’re also connected with a dating coach who can provide advice via email or text. The website comes from the team of Jared Tame and Teng Siong Ong who are already working on two other dating services — Flock and CupidWithFriends. (They sold their previous startup, Y Combiantor-backed GraffitiGEO, to Loopt.)