TECH CRUNCH – Jan 24 – Founder Andreas Kröpfl has spent almost a decade building a videoconferencing business. His Austria-based startup's current web-based videoconferencing system, eyeson, which launched in 2018, has had some nice traction since launch, garnering a few million customers. Last summer the team decided to branch out by building their own video dating app. The app, called Ahoi, is now generating 100k video calls and 250k swipes per day, says Kröpfl. They picked India for the test launch because it has a lot of people on the same timezone, a large active mobile user-base and cheap marketing is still "easily possible".
Category: Reporters – Natasha Lomas
Blindlee Is Chatroulette for Dating With a Safety Screen
TECH CRUNCH – Dec 18 – Blindlee is Chatroulette for dating but with female-friendly guardrails in the form of a user-controlled video blur effect. Singles are matched randomly with another user who meets some basic criteria (age, location) for a three minute 'ice breaker' video call. The app suggests chat topics to get the conversation flowing. After this, each caller chooses whether or not to match – and if both match they can continue to chat via text. The call starts "100% blurred". Female users have control of the level of blur during the call. They can elect to reduce it to 75%, 50%, 25% or nothing if they like what they're (partially) seeing and hearing. The app is a free download for now but the plan is to move to a freemium model (£3-4/month0 with a limit on the number of free video chats per day.
Muzmatch Raised $7M
TECH CRUNCH – July 26 – Muzmatch, a matchmaking app for Muslims, has just raised a $7M Series A. The app has now ~1.5M users, across 210 countries. The funding will help fuel growth in key international markets, is jointly led by US hedge fund Luxor Capital, and Silicon Valley accelerator Y Combinator – the latter having previously selected Muzmatch for its summer 2017 batch of startups. Last year the team also took in a $1.75M seed. The team has grown from four people seven months ago to 17 now. With the Series A the plan is to further expand headcount to almost 30. Muzmatch was already profitable two years ago.
by Natasha Lomas
See full article at Tech Crunch
This post also appears on InternetDatingInvestments.com
Facebook Settles With FTC: $5B and New Privacy Guarantees
by Devin Coldewey & Natasha Lomas
See full article at Tech Crunch
Reasons Not To Trust Facebook To Play Cupid
TECH CRUNCH – Sep 21 – Facebook getting into dating looks very much like a mid-life crisis – as a veteran social network desperately seeks a new strategy to stay relevant. Facebook is starting its dating experiment in Colombia, as its beta market. Its take on dating looks a lot more ‘marriage material’ than ‘casual encounters’. Though products don’t always pan out how their makers intend. The question is whether any sensible person should be letting Mark Zuckerberg fire cupid’s arrows on their behalf? Here are just a few reasons why we think you should stay as far away from Facebook’s dalliance with dating as you possibly can…
- It’s yet another cynical data grab. Facebook’s ad-targeting business model relies on users data to exist.
- Facebook’s history of privacy hostility shows it simply can’t be trusted.
- Singles already have amazingly diverse app choice.
- Facebook claims it has the algorithmic expertise but there’s no algorithmic formula to determine what makes one person click with another.
- Dating takes resource and focus away from problems Facebook should actually be fixing.
- By getting involved with dating, Facebook is mixing separate social streams.
by Natasha Lomas
See full article at Tech Crunch
Badoo Adds Live Video Chat
TECH CRUNCH – May 2 – Live video in a dating app context raises some immediate risk flags, including around inappropriate behavior which could put off users. "I pressed 'play' last night and after about 45 clicks on 'Next' encountered 5 straight up penis shots," said TechCrunch's former co-editor Alexia Tsotsis when she tested video chat app Chatroulette back in 2010. Clearly Badoo will be hoping to achieve a much better ratio of quality conversation. The video chat will only be switched on once both parties have matched and exchanged at least one message each. The company also says live video can help enhance dating app safety – saying the feature can be a way for users to suss out a stranger to see whether seem trustworthy before risking meeting in person, and also help to weed out fake profiles and catfishing.
YC-backed Muzmatch Doesn’t Want To Be Tinder For Muslims
TECH CRUNCH – Aug 3 – Muzmatch's dating app might look best described as a 'Tinder for Muslims' but co-founders Shahzad Younas and Ryan Brodie argue that Muzmatch is for people who are looking for a partner in order to get married. Two years after the launch of the first version of the app, Muzmatch has ~200k users, and is growing ~10%, month on month, according to the co-founders. The founders say the app has led to ~6k couples getting together so far. All users have to take a selfie via the app so their profile can be manually verified to help boost trust and keep out spammers. Users are also asked to rate others they have interacted with to promote positive behaviors.
Swiss Dating App Blinq Acquired By Outdoor Ad Firm APG|SGA
by Natasha Lomas
See full article at Tech Crunch
This post also appears on InternetDatingInvestments.
Online Dating Use Jumps Among Youngest US Adults And The Middle Aged
TECH CRUNCH – Feb 11 – In the past two years, use of online dating has surged among the youngest U.S. adults, according to a new study by the Pew Research Center. 15% of American adults have used online dating sites and/or mobile dating apps, up from 11% in 2013. The usage of dating sites/apps among 18 to 24 rose from 10% in 2013 to 27% now. Pew also notes a spike in usage among 55-64, with digital dating rates doubled from 6% two years ago to 12% now.
Blume To Kill Catfishing With Ephemeral Selfies
TECHCRUNCH – Jan 16 – A real-time selfie will only be shown for 7 seconds, before disappearing – during which period the user must decide whether they really do want to match with the person in the photo or not. If both Blume users confirm the match they unlock each other's full profiles plus messaging function. Blume soft-launched in the U.S. in late November with 25K users and raised a small, pre-seed round ($250k) from three Danish Business Angels and early stage Danish VC firm SEED Capital.
by Natasha Lomas
See full article at TechCrunch
This post also appears on InternetDatingInvestments.