Category: The Meet Group

The Meet Group to Be Acquired by NuCom for $500m

Posted on March 5, 2020

Themetgroup logoBUSINESSWIRE – Mar 5 – The Meet Group shareholders will receive $6.30 per share in cash. The deal is expected to close in the 2nd half 2020. NuCom Group is a joint company owned by of ProSiebenSat.1 and General Atlantic's. NuCom's portfolio, under Parship Group, currently includes Parship, Elite Partner and eharmony. The purchase price represents a 30% and 43% premium to the unaffected 30 and 60 trading day volume weighted average price.

Geoff Cook, CEO of The Meet Group said. "This transaction will allow us to tap new strategic growth opportunities by leveraging our video platform and ProSiebenSat.1's experience with content and entertainment. What's more, with this transaction and the participation of both General Atlantic and ProSiebenSat.1, we will achieve a new level of financial scale and backing, which has the potential to further accelerate our growth."

Max Conze, CEO, ProSiebenSat.1 Media SE said, "The acquisition of The Meet Group is one of ProSiebenSat.1's largest transactions. It will significantly advance our ambition to create one of the leading global players in online dating and interactive live video. We believe the combination of these two successful and complementary businesses will also create synergies within the ProSiebenSat.1 universe and accelerate the growth of our market share in the German live video apps sector."

Tim Schiffers, CEO Parship Group said: "Following a successful acquisition of eharmony, we have proven that we can manage new businesses and accelerate their growth by combining the best of both worlds."

See full article at Businesswire

Mark Brooks: The Meet Group is a wonderful fit. Great news for the industry. The dating industry is heating up again. (Full Disclosure: The Meet Group are a client of Courtland Brooks, and I own shares)

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This post also appears on InternetDatingInvestments.com

Growlr Suspended Many Accounts Without Explanation

Posted on February 19, 2020

Growlr logoQUEERTY – Feb 19 – Social media has erupted with a massive growl of anger following mass account suspensions on gay dating app Growlr. The mass suspensions appear to have begun February 17. Growlr was sold to The Meet Group for ~$11M last year.

by David Reddish
See full article at Queerty

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Safer Dating With 3D Face Verification

Posted on February 14, 2020

The meet group facetecMEDIUM.COM – Feb 14 – While many dating apps have developed solutions intended to address verification, those solutions have certain limitations. They often rely on the user to take a selfie in a certain pose or hold a piece of paper containing a specific code. Checking these images manually is time-consuming, labor-intensive, and not exactly foolproof. The Meet Group has begun leveraging technology from FaceTec to build a better solution of verification. FaceTec builds authentication software that compares a live 3D person to their 2D photos. Users who prove their liveness and match their uploaded profile photos will get a badge displayed on their profiles throughout the app. The Meet Group plans to launch this new verification in Q2 2020.

by Geoffrey Cook
See full article at Medium

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ODA Launches “Safety First” Campaign & Expands to U.S.

Posted on February 10, 2020

Oda-logo 2020ODA – Feb 10 – The Online Dating Association (ODA: www.onlinedatingassociation.org.uk) is launching a "Safety First" campaign in the UK and US to promote best practices. The campaign recommends how they could encourage their users to behave and is supported by leading internet safety, fraud prevention and law enforcement bodies including the Date Safe group of law enforcers, UK Finance, Get Safe Online, and dating operators including The Meet Group and leading US service providers. The ODA is looking to expand its membership.

George Kidd, CEO of the ODA, said: "Our Safety First initiative provides tools that any and every service can use to review and, if possible, improve their arrangements. …It is time to be up-front with users about expected and unacceptable behaviour online."

Fred Beckley, General Counsel and EVP Business Affairs at The Meet Group, said: "…by bringing together law enforcement, fraud prevention agencies and corporations, the Safety First campaign creates a powerful force to influence safety standards."

Katy Worobec, Managing Director of Economic Crime, UK Finance, said: "This important initiative will help online dating providers protect their users from romance scams, working together with law enforcement and the banking and finance industry. …If you think you may have fallen victim to a romance scam, contact your bank straight away and report it to Action Fraud."

The Safety First campaign includes a "Framework for User Safety", which seeks to promote best practice among service providers, and the "Model Code of User Conduct" which outlines how users should behave.

See full article at ODA website

Match Group Reportedly Approaches The Meet Group About a Takeover

Posted on February 7, 2020

Match group tmg logosTHE STREET – Feb 7 – Shares of Match Group jumped yesterday following a report that it had contacted rival The Meet Group about a takeover. It's not certain a deal will be completed, the sources said.

by Dan Weil
See full article at The Street

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Dating Apps Face US Inquiry Over Underage Use and Sex Offenders

Posted on February 1, 2020

Dating apps many on screenASSOCIATED PRESS – Jan 31 – Bumble, Grindr, The Meet Group and the Match Group are the current targets of the investigation by the U.S. House Oversight and Reform subcommittee on economic and consumer policy. The subcommittee is seeking information on users' ages, procedures for verifying ages, and any complaints about assaults, rape or the use of the services by minors. It is also asking for the services' privacy policies and details on what users see when they review and agree to the policies.

by Barbara Ortutay
See full article at Associated Press

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What You Should Know About Project Artemis

Posted on January 30, 2020

The meet group microsoft project artemisTHE MEET GROUP – Jan 30 – Many well-respected tech companies came together to form a consortium called Project Artemis, a multi-year, multi-company effort for a multi-faceted text-based analysis system designed to detect child grooming. Teenagers sometimes masquerade as adults. Artemis is an A.I. system that relies on a database of common textual patterns derived from confirmed child predator conversations. The flexible design allows companies to incorporate their custom detection methods into it so multiple industries can use it. The database of common textual patterns employed by child predators was compiled using data from multiple companies and platforms. The modular architecture of Artemis permits adaptation and expansion based on the needs of different platforms, which allows platforms like The Meet Group to add features and functionality to it. The Meet Group added real-time processing functionality and support for profile metadata as well as two NLP algorithms. These additions improve Artemis for all companies who use it. The Meet Group believe Artemis is an essential component of any social-oriented company's predator detection toolkit and commend Microsoft on its openness in broadly sharing this capability across the industry to protect children everywhere.

by Jonah H. Harris
See full article at Medium

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Microsoft Partners With The Meet Group on ‘Grooming Detection Technique’ for Messaging Apps

Posted on January 14, 2020

Themetgroup logoTECHNICAL.LY – Jan 13 – Microsoft has announced a new initiative called Project Artemis, a grooming detection technique it developed along with a handful of companies, including The Meet Group. The technique works with text-based conversations, and will scan, evaluate and "rate" conversation characteristics to determine if the language being used could be predatory. The rating will be sent to human moderators at participating companies for review, who can then identify threats and inform law enforcement. Project Artemis came out of a 2018 Microsoft hackathon which was sponsored by the WePROTECT Global Alliance and the Child Dignity Alliance. This new technology is the result of 14 months of cross-industry work from Microsoft, along with gaming and messaging app makers The Meet Group, Roblox, Kik and others to help identify potential instances of child online grooming for sexual purposes and to operationalize an effective response.

by Paige Gross
See full article at Technical.ly

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OPW Podcast – The Top Dating Industry News for Dec 17th

Posted on December 17, 2019

Opw tmtOPW – Dec 17 – Acquisition rumor?, Rankings Update, Hily growth, The League video dates.

For the top weekly dating industry news in ~2 minutes subscribe to OPW's Two Minute Tuesdays (TMT) podcast on Breaker, Google podcasts, Spotify, Anchor.

S’More Dating App Doesn’t Rely on Swipes

Posted on December 17, 2019

Smore logoNEW YORK BUSINESS JOURNAL – Dec 17 – New dating app S'More, which stands for "Something More," prioritizes getting to know a person before users see profile photos. Photos start out blurry. The more users engage and chat with each other, the more their profile photos unblur. S'More offers a collage-like feel and can be customized to reflect the personality and priorities of the user. S'More requires photo verification that reduces "catfishing:" and helps prevent underage users. All profiles also feature a publicly visible rating score, based in part on user behavior. Investors liked this unique spin on the dating app model, including Benson Oak Ventures, which led a recent $1.1M seed round. Social Discovery Ventures CEO and Founder Dmitry Volkov also joined the effort, along with investor Joshua Black and SideCar Angels. Aslatei most recently served as managing director of Chappy, Bumble's gay dating app. Before that, he consulted for The Meet Group.

by Anthony Noto
See full article at New York Business Journal

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