PRESS RELEASE – Julie Spira, a longtime online dating expert and creator of the Digital Matchmaker brand, released The Valentine’s Dating Playbook, a free 60-page guide to help singles navigate dating apps around Valentine’s season. It focuses on clarity, helping people assess real progress, avoid ambiguous connections, and date more intentionally.
PRNEWSWIRE – Surf Dating has been named the official dating partner of HYROX Americas, becoming a national partner across North American events in 2026. The partnership integrates Surf into HYROX races by allowing users to filter for HYROX athletes and trainees in the app, hosting on-site activations such as singles wristbands, pre-race runs, recovery events, and official after-parties, and encouraging offline connections among fitness-focused singles.
PRESS RELEASE – UK Matchmaking agency Dating Options reported £2.1M in sales in 2025. The company was founded in 2003 by Mike Parker and is currently led by Managing Director Andrew Parker-Dennis. It operates nationally across the UK, with its head office located near Stratford-upon-Avon. During 2025, Dating Options facilitated 2,222 new relationships. Its service model requires clients to be personally interviewed and then assigned a dedicated matchmaker who provides curated introductions; many packages also include professional coaching.
LINKEDIN – 2025 was a year of execution for Feels, a mobile dating app built around short video profiles and personality-first discovery rather than static photos. The company generated $8.5M in revenue, up from $4.7M in 2024, an increase of 80% YOY. EBITDA margin improved from -22% to -6%. Feels expanded into three new geographies during the year and reached 8M total downloads.
THE DRUM – Breeze, a dating app designed to move matches quickly from the screen to an in-person date, is launching in the UK. The launch is promoted with a national campaign created by Cloudfactory that focuses on the moment of agreeing to meet rather than prolonged messaging.
NEW YORK TIMES – The Love Symposium, held in San Francisco, brought together tech founders, dating app builders, researchers, and philosophers to discuss whether dating and relationships can be improved through data, A.I., and optimization. The event featured talks on predicting relationship outcomes, psychometrics, alternative matchmaking models, and the broader loneliness and marriage decline debate. One of the apps represented was Keeper, which uses extensive personal data and A.I. to match users and ties its fees to long-term relationship outcomes.
THE INDEPENDENT – A new UK law makes cyberflashing a priority offence under the Online Safety Act, forcing dating and social platforms to proactively detect and block unsolicited nude images. Regulators, including Ofcom, can fine non-compliant companies up to 10% of global revenue or block services. The move shifts responsibility from users to platforms, with Bumble cited as an early example through its AI-based nudity detection. The goal is to significantly improve online safety, particularly for women and girls.
PARSHIP – Singles increasingly seek relationships as a safe emotional space, especially women (70%). Shared hobbies rank second. Men prioritize sexual fulfillment and reducing loneliness, while women focus more on emotional security, everyday support, and future planning (travel, home, career changes). Singles in their 40s and 50s show an above-average desire to re-ignite their sexual lives, while those aged 60 to 69 are particularly likely to seek companionship, shared interests, and a new beginning in later life (27%). Overall, the data shows that while men are more driven by loneliness relief and sexuality, women are more focused on emotional safety, everyday reliability, and the future.
JAPAN TIMES – Loverse is an AI dating app launched in 2023 by Goki Kusunoki that mimics real dating mechanics – swiping, matching, and rejection – but all matches are AI partners. Unlike typical AI companion apps that cater entirely to user preferences, Loverse deliberately recreates the friction, uncertainty, and emotional risk of real romance to trigger genuine emotional responses. The app uses thousands of distinct AI personalities rather than a single shared character to increase realism. Its core audience is unexpected: over 60% of users are married, most are over 40, and many seek safe, pseudo-romantic experiences similar to those found in games, fiction, or fandom culture.
NEWS24ONLINE – WedKnott, a premium matchmaking platform for Ivy League alumni and high-achieving professionals, has secured strategic investment from blockchain entrepreneur Sir Pratik Gauri, founder of $1.5B blockchain company 5ire. The funding supports WedKnott’s international expansion into Dubai and London, targeting wealthy Indian diaspora. Founded in 2018 by Abhinav Gandhi and Misha Malik, WedKnott operates from Noida and Mumbai. It has built a network of 250K members, and offers tiered memberships with psychology-based matchmaking.