Online Personals Watch: News on the Online Dating Industry and Business

OkCupid Data Reveals Top Dating Trends

OKCUPID BLOG - Here are the top 10 dating trends you can expect to see in 2022: the year of exploration in dating.

• More Singles Will Be Looking for a Match to Start a Family With - At the beginning of 2021, we saw a 125%+ increase in users saying they wanted children.
• Daters Will Explore Their Sexuality - Since the end of last year, we’ve seen a ~10% increase in users identifying as pansexual. Also a 250% increase in users identifying as bisexual compared to last year, and 29% increase in users identifying as non-binary.
• Kink Will Be Even More of a Thing - Each year OkCupid sees the taboo around kink and BDSM lessening. Daters are more open to it, and more vocal. In 2021, users saying they're kinky is up 55%: "BDSM" mentions in female profiles is up 17%.
• Money Will Matter Less - The likelihood of a single saying wealth is very important in a match nearly doubled during the pandemic. However, if we continue to see employment increase in 2022 we will see this number decrease.
• There Will Be More Open Relationships - Monogamy isn't out, but non-monogamy is definitely in. The majority of OkCupid daters seek monogamous relationships. In 2021 users seeking non-monogamous relationships increased 7%, and mentions of "non-monogamy" and "throuple" in profiles is up 21%.
• Politics Will Be the Biggest Dealbreaker - Political terms are up 10% increase in profiles.
• Safe Sex Will Be Hotter Than Ever - There's been a 16% decrease in singles who say they never or rarely discuss STD status, also a ~10% increase in singles who say they get tested.
• Divorced Singles Will Be Getting Back Out There - Since 2017, there's been a ~300% increase in profiles mentioning being recently divorced.
• Sober Dating Will Become Increasingly Popular - Over the past 5 years, daters have become 2x less likely to say that a date being sober was a dealbreaker. In the past month there's been a ~10% increase in terms such as "sobriety" and "sober dating" in OkCupid profiles.
• 2022 Will Kick Off With a Huge Boost for Dating! - Historically, we've seen up to a 70% increase in user activity the first dating Sunday of the year.

See full article at OkCupid blog

Mark Brooks: OkCupid does a great job of bubbling up these kinds of numbers and analysis. Kudos to OKCupid for pulling back the veil.

Matter, a New Audio-First Dating App

DAILY TROJAN - Dressed in red jumpsuits and mesh masks resembling the costumes in Netflix's series "Squid Game," promoters handed out brown business cards with a QR code to "USC Date Game," by Matter. Students went on audio blind dates only open to other students at their university. Matter was created by USC alumnus Monji Batmunkh. Matter was originally intended as a "clubhouse" focused on networking and friendships based on their shared interests. Batmunkh pivoted to dating. Users immediately talk after "liking" each other on the app by recording 10-second audio introductions. Profile pics gradually unblur. Following the reveal, users have the option to send a like or not.

by Grace Galante
See full article at Daily Trojan

Mark Brooks: Audio is played a backseat role in dating for too long. Using audio is a simple way to move beyond looks-based swiping and let people discover their fellow humans. We are so much more than our looks. But looks entirely bias users, and create an unsustainable economic imbalance in dating apps.

Bumble Has Surpassed $1B in Global Consumer Spend According to App Annie

PR NEWSWIRE - Bumble is the #2 dating app by lifetime spend and the highest ranking dating app that prioritizes women making the first move. The company went public in February 2021. The top markets contributing to its lifetime consumer spend include US, UK, Canada and Australia, but also India, Mexico which are high-growth markets on mobile overall and represent strong future potential for user acquisition growth. The full list of apps in the billion dollar club include: Tinder, YouTube, Netflix, Tencent Video, TikTok, iQIYI, Pandora Music, LINE, Disney+, HBO Max, BIGO LIVE, Google One, LINE Manga, piccoma and Youku.

See full article at PR Newswire

See the top news on Bumble

Ex-Facebook Exec, Venture Capitalists Lose Appeal Over Secretive Tinder Sale

GLOBE AND MAIL - An Ontario judge has dismissed appeals by a former Facebook executive and two Toronto venture capitalists to overturn a 2019 decision that found they owed more ~$15M in damages and lost profit to the investors' former business partners after the sale of a company that held an interest in Tinder. Justice William Hourigan took the original Superior Court of Justice decision further, ordering that the appellants pay the entire $29.5M profit from the sale, plus costs and interest, to the venture capitalists who successfully beat the appeal. In 2012, Extreme Venture Partners sold a software company called Xtreme Labs to Chamath Palihapitiya, a Silicon Valley investor and former Facebook executive, valuing the company at $18M. At the time, Xtreme Labs had a 13% stake in another company called Hatch Labs - which had developed a dating app called Tinder. Court filings show that two principals of Extreme Venture Partners, Amar Varma and Sundeep Madra, kept an interest in Xtreme Labs after the 2012 sale. Mr. Varma, Mr. Madra and Mr. Palihapitiya later sold Hatch Labs to an American company in 2014 for $29.5M.

by Josh O'Kane
See full article at Globe and Mail

See the top news on Tinder

MatchMde to Offer Biocompatibility Matching

MALAYSIAKINI - Leading Southeast Asia genomics company, Malaysian Genomics Resource Centre Berhad (Malaysian Genomics) is partnering with matchmaking platform, MatchMde, to roll-out Southeast Asia's first biocompatibility relationship matching service. Malaysian Genomics-MatchMde's biocompatibility matching involves measuring the dissimilarity of certain genetic traits between two people. The more different the genetic results are, the better the biocompatibility.

See full article at Malaysiakini

See the top news on MatchMde

Bumble Cofounder Whitney Wolfe Herd No Longer a Billionaire as Shares Plunge

FORBES - A steep drop in Bumble shares since the dating app owner's quarterly earnings call on Nov 10 has knocked the fortune of CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd - previously the world's youngest self-made woman billionaire - below $1B, Forbes calculates. The 32-year-old Wolfe Herd was worth ~$940M at Monday's closing price of $35.03 per share. Her net worth has fallen by ~$200M since Q3 earnings were released three weeks ago, as Bumble stock has tumbled by 26%. Wolfe Herd has a 21% stake in the company. Bumble is far from the only company to struggle after its IPO. An analysis published Sunday by the Financial Times found half of the companies that raised $1 billion at IPOs this year are trading below their listing prices.

by Jemima McAvoy
See full article at Forbes

See the top news on Bumble

Gamified Dating App XOXO Enters the US Market

GRIT DAILY - XOXO is a new gamified dating app. Launched in July 2021, it has reached ~100K downloads on App Store and Google Play and claims 35K monthly active users. Earlier this year, the company closed its Series A financing, having raised $5M.

See full article at Grit Daily

This post also appears on InternetDatingInvestments.com

Podcast With Coffee Meets Bagel's co-Founder

FOX NEWS RADIO - This week, Liz Claman is joined by the co-founder of dating app Coffee Meets Bagel, Dawoon Kang, to discuss how she went from Korean immigrant to a successful entrepreneur. Dawoon shares how challenging it was to assimilate into a new country and culture. She also explains how she faced adversity to build a new dating app focused on long-term relationships.

See full article at Radio NB

See the top news on Coffee Meets Bagel

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Match Settles for $441M in Valuation Case

SEEKING ALPHA - Tinder's co-founder and eight current and former execs sued Match and IAC for $2B in damages in 2018 alleging the valuation of the company was manipulated during a 2017 bank analysis that set the value for stock options. Match Group has agreed to pay plaintiffs $441M cash and will dismiss all claims presently on trial and in arbitration related to the 2017 Tinder valuation. Match rose 1.4% in premarket trading.

by Joshua Fineman
See full article at Seeking Alpha

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