THE DRUM - Apr 24 - With engagement levels that are twice that of the second most popular platform, Instagram, Grindr is a cash cow with 95% brand awareness in the LGBTQ community. It could be the most valuable media acquisition of 2019. It is likely to sell at a discount given the US government's recent ultimatum and the likelihood that Kunlun will sell it at auction. The LGBTQ market has enormous buying power, boasting ~$100B in the US. If the right media company acquires Grindr and repositions it as the leading LGBTQ media company, the brand could conceivably expand into other businesses. While many in the industry believe the company will sell between $250 - $500M, there is no reason why Grindr couldn't evolve to become a $5 – $10B business.
Why Grindr Could Be the Next Media Powerhouse
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Bumble Appoints BBDO India Marketing Agency
THE DRUM - Apr 23 - Bumble has appointed BBDO India to its creative account following the launch of its first campaign in the region. In India, Bumble has recently ran a campaign dubbed 'Equal Not Loose' which aimed to fight the stereotypes that women that use the app are 'loose', preventing them from fully pursuing their professional and relationship goals.
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Trademark Row: Matrimony.com Claims Interim Order
THE NEW INDIAN EXPRESS - Apr 23 - Indian matchmaking company Matrimony.com has obtained an interim injunction from the Madras High Court against Kalyan Matrimony, owned by Kalyan Jewellers, for infringement of its trademarks Tamil Matrimony, Telugu Matrimony, Kerala Matrimony and Kannada Matrimony through the Google Adwords Programme and in SEO. "We are pursuing legal action against those who deceptively use names similar to our trademarks and attempt to ride the goodwill and the reputation of our long-standing brands, on which we have invested heavily over the past two decades," said S. Ravichandran, GM (Legal & Regulatory) at Matrimony.com.
See full article at The New Indian Express
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CEO of Hinge: I Had Heartbreak So I Built My Own Dating App
TELEGRAPH.CO.UK - Apr 23 - Earlier this month, Hinge revealed a redesign, with a more 'sophisticated' look, to encourage less swiping and more meaningful communication. The technology behind most dating apps is, says CEO & Founder, Justin McLeod, "literally designed to be addictive". "They're hacking your biology and your neurochemistry to keep you coming back. The parallels to addiction are really striking." In his twenties, he battled drug and alcohol addictions, which saw him in and out of rehab. He now considers himself adept at spotting addictive tendencies. "The drug of choice is now social media, which is free and just as destructive. Hinge is designed to be deleted, and everyone else is designed to be addictive," he adds.
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Geoffrey Cook Likes to Add Video to the Online Dating Mix
TWST.COM - Apr 19 - Geoffrey Cook has been CEO of The Meet Group since March 11, 2013. He co-founded myYearbook, where he served as CEO from 2005 until the merger in 2011. During his tenure at myYearbook, Mr. Cook grew myYearbook to profitability and ~$30M revenue with 100 employees. He previously founded EssayEdge and ResumeEdge while a student at Harvard University in 1997 and sold them to The Thomson Corporation in 2002. In an interview with the Wall Street Transcript, Cook reveals all of the strategy of this young compay. "To grow video DAU, we're working on things like one-on-one chat. We're going to be putting nearby videos in front of them, and if they do find somebody to chat with, we're going to make it very easy to start a video chat with them."
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Inside Dating-App Bumble's Bid For Global Domination
VOGUE - Apr 18 - Bumble began as a dating app with a simple concept: Give women the agency to dictate their own relationships and overturn the dynamics of online courtship by letting them make the first move. The app, which now includes BumbleBFF and BumbleBizz, claims ~50M users, and adds half a million more every week. Bumble is profitable, in the range of $200M in revenue last year. The app is active in 150 countries, but the company has been especially focused of late on India. Bumble has plans to open physical meet-up spaces, start producing Netflix-style content, even introduce a beauty line - all of this while weighing a public offering (an IPO would make Wolfe Herd the youngest female CEO of a publicly traded company).
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The Meet Group: Momo of the West
MEDIUM.COM - Apr 18 - The Western live streaming industry is still in its early stages yet surprisingly, only The Meet Group has adopted the Momo playbook successfully at scale outside of China. The Meet Group has experienced a similar growth trajectory as Momo. 25% of Momo users were using video within six quarters of launch; it took MeetMe five quarters to achieve that same penetration. In about 11 months after starting monetization, 750k users were viewing video, generating a $42M annualized video run-rate; The Meet Group sees $70+ average revenue per paying user. Live streaming can be extremely engaging and interactive, and loyal viewers often form a tight bond with their favorite streamers, thinking of them as close friends. Live is the opposite of loneliness.
by Lauren Hallanan
See full article at Medium.com
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MillionaireMatch Announces 4M Users Milestone
PR NEWSWIRE - Apr 18 - Founded in 2001, MillionaireMatch connects wealthy and attractive individuals including both certified millionaires and women who have verified their income and profile images.
See full article at PR Newswire
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Asian Internet Dating and Matchmaking Conferences
OPW - Apr 18 - Want to get your head around Asia? There's a couple conferences we'd like to put on your radar. But best book soon, as they're coming up fast. They're in Singapore at the amazing Marina Sands Hotel. I'm speaking at both of them.
The 1st is the GDI Singapore Dating Conference on May 13-14th, and is 250 GBP. Leaders from Paktor, Pairs, The Meet Group, Matrimony and Spark Networks will be speaking.
The 2nd is the Global Love Conference on May 15-16th, is $295, and will be more matchmaking focused. Leaders from Viola.ai / Lunch Actually, 2 Red Beans, Paktor, and the Matchmaking Institute will be speaking. (Here's a feel good $50 discount code 50OFFSG)
I hope to see you there. - Mark Brooks
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Hinge CEO: Advertising Would Be 'Antithetical' to Our Message
THE DRUM - Apr 17 - Hinge brands itself as the dating app that's 'designed to be deleted'. Justin McLeod, founder and CEO of Hinge, said the goal is to create an entertaining but ultimately effective user experience that takes people off the app and out on dates. "We don't use advertising...because that would be pretty antithetical to the way that we work," said McLeod. "If you run ads, then you need people to spend a lot of time on your platform so that you get a lot of ad impressions, and we're trying to get you to spend less time in the app." McLeod said he could see Hinge exploring brand partnerships that "deliver value to our users," but the app will "almost certainly" never sell ad inventory.
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Walt Disney and Badoo Join Companies Pledging Money to Rebuild Notre-Dame
TECH CRUNCH - Apr 17 - Walt Disney and dating app Badoo are the latest companies to pledge funds for the rebuilding of Notre-Dame after the historic cathedral sustained severe damage in a fire earlier this week. Disney is giving $5M, while Badoo will donate all of its April profits from its 22M users in France. In total, ~$1B in total has been pledged from individuals and companies. President Emmanuel Macron has set an ambitious five-year plan to restore Notre-Dame, though restoration experts say it may take as many as 15 years.
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Dating App Hily Is Now Also Popular in Ireland
IRISH POST - Apr 16 - Right after its recently launch in the UK and Ireland, the app made it to the top charts in Apple Store, beating its top competitors in overall download numbers. It is considered to be one of the fastest growing dating apps. "The most interesting things on Hily happen when a user actively engages with the application, swipes left or right, writes messages, sends bubbles," says Hily's co-founder Yan Pronin. "Based on this information, Hily identifies the interests and preferences of each user – things like who this person really likes and which potential matches will generate the best quality interaction."
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How U.S. Patent and Litigation Abuse Can Deter Small Inventors: The Story of Cheek'd
IP WATCH DOG - Apr 15 - "I wish I'd never filed for this patent," says Lori Cheek, founder of Cheek'd dating app. Her patent No. 8543465 addressed: A method, software product and card for personal online/offline meeting. She applied for this patent in 2010 and it was granted on Sep 24, 2013. Soon after, a friend suggested she apply to be a contestant on Shark Tank. Her episode aired in 2014. The criticism she received on the show did cause Cheek to reconsider the business idea. She and her partner soon after developed a Bluetooth dating app, abandoning the card-based approach.
Q: What happened after your Shark Tank appearance?
A: I got an email from Alfred Pirri lawyer. After seeing a rerun of my Shark Tank episode, he was claiming he had the idea for my business in 2006, told his therapist about it in 2008, and that she had then told me - even though I've never met the therapist in my life. He is suing me for ~$5M.
Q: How has this experience made you feel about the U.S. patent and legal systems?
A: I just don't understand how it can even go this far. I've joined forces with a group of other inventors who are reaching out to Congressman Jerrold Nadler to see if he can change the system to make it easier for inventors to hold onto and enforce their rights.
Q: What advice do you have for other aspiring inventors?
A: I would still say go through the motions and read up on the risks—definitely still get a patent, and trademarking is important. I've asked my lawyer what I could have done differently, and he said I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time and that if I hadn't gone on Shark Tank, I wouldn't be here.
Cheek's lawyer, Lawrence Goodwin, said that Pirri's lawsuit is "a fantasy". "We've got solid evidence that she came up with the idea before Pirri even started the therapy," Goodwin said. But that doesn't change the fact that Cheek will have to shell out thousands while the case makes its way through the system.
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Momo: A Great Tech Stock No One Is Talking About
PROFIT CONFIDENTIAL - Apr 15 - Part of the problem might be that Momo is based not out of Silicon Valley, but China. And the U.S. and China have not exactly had the closest friendship over the years. Fraudulent Chinese stocks have also been an ongoing concern. With a market cap of $7.6B, Momo is not exactly a tiny company operating in a shady business. It's a leading mobile social networking app and deserves much more attention than it receives from the average investor. The company's monthly active users (MAUs) reached 113.3M in December 2018, up from the 99.1M YOY. Momo stock is up 71.5% year-to-date.
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'Spottle' App Matches Singles During a 30-Second Video Chats
NEWSWIRE - Apr 17 - Spottle is a new dating app that lets users meet people in real time with a 30-second video chat instead. It takes place every Thursday and Saturday night at 9 p.m. ET. To play, users give the bottle their best spin, and when it stops, they'll enter into a 30-second video chat with their potential match. They can give their date a virtual "kiss" and see if they return the affection. If they do, it's a match! With that mutual kiss, users can then send messages, view profiles, and continue video chatting inside the app.
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Match Group to Increase Headcount in Asia
FINANCIAL TIMES - Apr 15 - Match Group is planning to expand headcount in Asia by 40% this year and overhaul its executive team, as part of a push into the region's online dating market. The group is planing to invest tens of millions of dollars a year on a hiring spree as well as additional marketing in the region. Several directors for individual brands in Asia will now become general managers across all the Match apps. In the past two years, the company has opened offices in South Korea, Japan and Indonesia, and continued to expand its presence in India. The plan is to open an office in Singapore in the coming months. But it does not operate in China, where Tinder is banned. The company is hunting for opportunities for either "incubating or buying" a Chinese dating app.
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Atari Is Investing in Qutie, a LGBT Dating App
PR NEWSWIRE - Apr 16 - Atari, one of the world's most iconic consumer brands, announced today an additional investment in LGBT Qutie. Since its launch last May, Qutie has seen ~400% growth in monthly user acquisition. "This new larger investment from Atari will allow us to scale our growth," said Jordan Weiss and Rachel Kimelman, Co-Founders of Qutie.
See full article at PR Newswire
This post also appears on InternetDatingInvestments.com
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Facebook Dating Will Allow Users to Connect Instagram Account
SOCIAL BARREL - Apr 15 - Facebook Dating is working at allowing users to connect to their Instagram account via their dating profile. This is in line with Facebook's vision of interconnecting its trio of apps, which include WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook.
See full article at Social Barrel
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Ashley Madison to Launch TV Campaign
THE DRUM - Apr 15 - Ashley Madison's latest TV campaign features two female members who are cheating. The ad reveals what women like most about their affairs. It will be running from April 15 to May 11 on the Viacom network's Paramount TV station.
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Sex Attacks Involving Dating Apps on the Rise
BBC - Apr 15 - Offences where a dating site was mentioned in a police report increased from 156 in 2015, to 286 last year, according to figures from 23 of the 43 forces in England and Wales. Match Group said it uses "industry-leading automated and manual moderation and review tools, systems and processes - and spends millions of dollars annually - to prevent, monitor and remove people who engage in inappropriate behaviour from our apps".
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