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.
REFINERY29 – 'Are We Dating The Same Guy?' started as a Facebook group for New Yorkers that allows women to anonymously share warnings about guys they've dated, or request intel on potential suitors. The group has accrued 60k members in just a couple of months and spawned sister groups in most major US cities and internationally. 'Are We Dating the Same Guy?' was founded just a few weeks after 'West Elm Caleb' went viral on Tik Tok. 'West Elm Caleb' is a twenty-something Brooklynite whose Tinder screenshots blew up after multiple women all shared negative experiences with him on TikTok. The saga underscored the power of the wider community to share intel and compare experiences. According to cyber dating expert and relationship coach Julie Spira, seeking out a 'reference' can be a way to vet your date and feel safer while navigating the digital courtship process. "In a perfect world, everyone should have a friend or family member as a reference, but don't count on it," says Julie. "The most valuable part of dating online is that there are digital tools to help you find information about your date."
by Elizabeth Whitehead
See full article at Refinery29
NEW YORK TIMES – Ambyr Club is a new speed dating service that launched last December and has since hosted seven events at trendy bars in Manhattan. "What's old is new again," said Julie Spira, a dating coach who runs a company called Cyber-Dating Expert. She noted that the first documented speed dating event was held at a coffee shop in Beverly Hills in 1998. Using data from a speed dating company called HurryDate, a 2005 University of Pennsylvania study found that most people gauge attraction within three seconds of meeting. Maxine Williams founded We Met IRL, a speed dating company for people of color, in January. "I came up with the idea in December after attending a speed dating event in Manhattan that wasn't very diverse," she said. CWAQ, which stands for "connect with a qutie," was also inspired by disappointment. Kevin Rabinovich, a freelance event producer, was let down by the lack of structure and diversity at such events.
by Becky Hughes
See full article at New York Times
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PRESS RELEASE – May 7 – Julie Spira, founder of Cyber-Dating Expert, has launched Love in the Age of COVID-19: How to Keep Love Alive in Quarantine. It is an advice site to help couples during social-isolation. In addition to providing relationship advice, Spira is offering a new suite of support services on the site, including:
Earlier last month, Spira launched DatingintheAgeofCovid19.com: How to Find Love in a Pandemic, to help singles master virtual dating.
OPW – Jan 26 - The 2017 iDate Awards winners were announced and provided trophies at a ceremony last night in Miami. The iDate Awards are the dating industry's most recognized awards, highlighting the best and most innovative aspects of the business.
The 2017 winners are:
Best Affiliate Program:
Wamba & Mamba.ru
Best Niche Dating Site:
Christian Filipina
Best Dating Coach:
Julie Spira
Best Payment System:
CCBill
Best Dating Site:
Match.com
Best Product Design:
Dating Pro
Best Marketing Campaign:
eHarmony
Best Software & Saas:
Dating Pro
Best Matchmaker:
Andrea Messent (Drawing Down the Moon)
Best Up & Coming Dating Site:
Lively
Best Mobile Dating App:
Bumble
Most Innovative Company:
eHarmony
Best New Technology:
Smart Match App
WASHINGTON POST – Jan 6 – Dating experts are calling 2016 a bad year for dating trends. Having constant access to a pool of potential matches at their fingertips is making people more impatient, causing unrealistic expectations for first dates and a general decline in effort. There are so many dating apps, the market is getting saturated and daters are feeling overwhelmed. So online dating is trending toward niche apps. Julie Spira, founder of CyberDatingExpert.com, believes that 2017 will see more of a push for people to meet in real life. She predicts a rise in apps like Whim, which skips the pre-date conversation and immediately matches people for meetups.
PRWEB – Feb 2 – Seven years ago, author Julie Spira released her memoir and online dating book, The Perils of Cyber-Dating, which chronicled her 15-year journey while looking for love online after she broke up with her former long-time love. She is now re-leasing the book, updated with new dating advice and how she reunited with the love of her life after 16 years.
WASHINGTON POST – Sep 9 - Julie
Spira and Northwestern University psychology professor Eli Finkel tell
Nia-Malika Henderson where online dating sites' matching algorithms fall
flat. "I'm
skeptical that you can learn from browsing profiles and skeptical that
anyone has yet cracked the mathematical code for love," said Finkel,
"really the only way that you are going to know if somebody is
compatible with you is meet up with them, and mobile dating is a really
efficient way to do that. It resurrects the spontaneity in dating".
TRIB LIVE – Feb 26 – What seems like a return to the old days of singles mixers and blind dates is actually a move among companies to improve user experiences, industry insiders say. “The goal has always been to bridge the online dating with the offline world,” says Cayla Gebhardt, Match.com spokeswoman. Match.com launched The Stir, events that can include everything from happy hours with ~100 people to smaller happenings like wine-tastings or rock-climbing. There have been 1,500 events since the launch. “The ultimate goal is to meet somebody in the real world,” said Julie Spira, online-dating expert, “Otherwise, you end up with a digital pen pal.”
by Rachel Weaver
See full article at Trib Live