LAW360 – Mar 13 – Tinder filed an appeal to the California Supreme Court this week following a ruling in January that the app discriminated against people older than 30 by charging them higher prices. In a petition to the state high court, Tinder said the Jan. 29 ruling "sharply diverges" from decades of case law that says "benign and widely accepted age‐related business practices" do not flout California discrimination law.
by Bill Donahue
See full article at Law360
HORIZONT.NET – Mar 13 – Tinder's product chief Brian Norgard has made a major contribution to Tinder's success. Prior Tinder, Norgard founded startup Newroo, which was acquired by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp in 2006. He does not pay attention to competitors like Lovoo and others. "We do not wake up in the morning, check the headlines and see what our competitors are doing. Our motto is "Customer first". Data protection experts recently criticized Tinder for collecting and sharing personal information of users. When asked if Tinder shares user data with third parties, Mr Norgard denied it. "No, we do not do that," he said. He is also not concerned about Tinder's bad image as a hook up app. "Our users are looking for new friends, contacts in a new city or serious relationships."
CNN MONEY – Mar 11 – "I don't believe revenge is part of my agenda. I'm a firm believer that just like hate spreads hate, love and kindness spread love and kindness. We're doing our own thing," said Wolfe Herd. Last month, Tinder confirmed it will launch a setting that makes it possible for women to interact only with the men they message first. The move has long been the differentiating factor between Tinder and Bumble. Bumble expects to bring in $150M from paid subscriptions this year, Wolfe Herd said, noting that 45% of paying users are women.
by Sara Ashley O'Brien
See full article at CNN Money
CITY AM – Mar 7 – Tinder said today it will be carrying out a comprehensive review of its compensation structure to assess any pay discrepancy and tackle the gender pay gap. "Following the assessment, we will reveal findings and encourage other companies to do the same. If any wage discrepancy issues are found, then we will take all necessary steps to promote an equitable compensation programme for all employees in 2018," Tinder said. The gender pay gap has been increasingly in the spotlight of late – the UK government has required all firms with over 250 employees to publish their data on it by next month. So far, 1609 firms have published the information of ~9K that will need to. Among those, some have revealed hefty pay gaps, but a few – such as Royal Mail and Majestic Wines – have revealed that women's average pay is higher than men's.
by Rebecca Smith
The full article was originally published at CityAM, but is no longer available.
MASHABLE – Mar 7 – Nothing has changed at Tinder after its chief competitor Bumble made a declaration to ban guns from user profile photos. Rosette Pambakian, Tinder's head of brand, said: "We are not banning guns. Our terms of service has clearly said we have a zero tolerance with anything offensive. We don't have a blanket ban of guns. If there's a weapon or firearm used in a threatening or offending way, then yes, we will remove it."
AXIOS – Mar 6 – Match Group CEO Mandy Ginsberg made an intriguing disclosure during Q4 earnings call: "On the product front, Tinder has been on the cutting edge of innovation since its inception in 2012, inventing the swipe gesture, which has since become this cultural phenomenon of 'swipe right' and 'swipe left' and that is often imitated on mobile products. Tinder also invented the 'double blind opt-in' whereby two users need to 'like' each other before they can message. In fact, these features are so innovative that Tinder was granted a patent in the dating category by the US Patent & Trademark office." The patent application is dated October 21, 2013.
BUSINESS INSIDER – Mar 6 – The online dating market continues to grow in Japan as well. The market size was ~ 25.6B yen in 2017 (~ 200M Eur), and according to forecasts, it should grow 37.4B yen (~290M Eur) in 2018, or by 46% according to Business Insider Japan. However, Tinder is not the largest dating app on the Japanese market. It is Pairs, a Facebook-based dating app that is also owned by Match Group.
by Jonas Grundler
See full article at Business Insider
DAILY MAIL AUSTRALIA – Mar 5 – The new feature, which was rolled out just ahead of Sydney's Mardi Gras parade on Saturday, means users are now able to edit their selection using a 'More Genders' option. Tinder Australia is quite late to the game in terms of offering the new feature – the app has offered gender diverse options on the US and UK since November 2016.
MAXIM – Feb 27 – An exhaustive new Tinder study all about interracial dating has revealed some interesting benefits to dating outside your gene pool. The study, which surveyed ~4K respondents, found that 77% of Tinder users become more open-minded about dating outside of their race when they use dating apps. 55% of people said they believe dating apps and online dating in general helps remove the stigma around interracial dating. 66% said dating someone of a different race "enabled them to experience places they weren't previously aware of," and 63% said it gave them an opportunity to try new and exciting things, such as eating delicious foods, experiencing beautiful traditions, and trying to fit in with foreign families.
