THE HINDU BUSINESSLINE - Apr 20 - The app will be deploying the fresh capital to build new product offerings and expanding to new geographies. The round saw participation from Venture Catalysts, 9 Unicorns, early stage investor advisor Jana K Balan, Neil Bahal from Negen Capital, angel investor Ruchi Sihare and existing investors Inflection Point Ventures, The Chennai Angels and AngelList. The platform has ~850K users. The start-up raised ₹8.1 crore ($1.1M) from Inflection Point Ventures, The Chennai Angels and AngelList last year along with some angels and start-up founders.
OPW - Apr 20 - The online dating market has focused on search, communications, and compatibility in its efforts to meet the relationship needs of users. Mark Brooks, CEO of Courtland Brooks, believes that compatibility has seen the greatest investment of resources and research over the years, but there is still significant opportunity for improvement. Academia is thirsty for data and will deliver incredible insight in exchange. SensorTower has released its analysis of the top 25 dating apps, indicating a 4% increase in downloads and 24% increase in revenues from Q4 2019 to Q4 2020. This growth occurred despite, or perhaps because of the COVID-19 lockdowns. The average age of users has also trended downward with an influx of people in their early 20's joining dating apps. Mark Brooks discusses innovations, key metrics, and other market insights in the latest video in the LTR Conference series.
LTR stands for Love, Technology, Relationships and the online conference covers the Internet dating and Online Social Communities space. It is for members of IDEA and OSCA.
PR NEWSWIRE - Apr 20 - He Health, the BlueCity's health service platform for men, has officially obtained an Internet hospital license in China, presenting great prospects for the brand's nascent, yet fast-growing health business. BlueCity can now offer a complete set of health services from men's health consultations. Since its launch in March 2019, He Health has promoted awareness of men's health and HIV prevention, and its services have gradually expanded from sexually transmitted diseases to the field of men's everyday wellbeing. BlueCity's mobile app Blued enables users to conveniently and safely connect with each other, express themselves and access professional health-related services. BlueCity's portfolio of brands of apps also includes Finka, a leading gay social networking app for a younger generation in China, and LESDO, a leading lesbian social networking app in China.
BLOOMBERG - Apr 20 - Google will send a top policy executive to testify at Wednesday's Senate app store antitrust hearing, while legal executives from Spotify, Tile and Match Group will serve as witnesses. Spotify, Tile and Match have all been embroiled in antitrust fights with Apple recently, with Spotify and Match filing complaints about Apple's App Store rules and fees. The Senate subcommittee is investigating Apple and Google over competition issues and concerns from app developers. Apple's Andeer previously testified on several matters for Apple before the House of Representatives and other U.S. lawmakers. Google often argues that it differs from Apple since Android device owners are free to download alternative app stores. But Google does require device manufacturers to install its app store and other mobile services, giving its properties a competitive advantage. That arrangement was the centerpiece of a European Union antitrust case against Google. The company disputed the EU charges.
BUSTLE - Apr 20 - Intro is a Bachelor-style matchmaking service and live blind-dating show hosted by Chloe Burdette, a millennial matchmaker. Intro began as a joke. She posted a TikTok video of her single friend that quickly went viral. Within a week, her friend had thousands of confident women introducing themselves in his DMs. She started receiving more messages from people asking where they could submit their application, and Intro was born. With 20K Intro submissions, Chloe is working on an actual dating app.
BBC - Apr 20 - It was back in 2010 when the word "catfish" took on a new meaning - someone who uses a fake identity online to target specific victims. The phrase came from documentary maker Nev Schulman, who fell in love with a 19-year-old girl online, only to find out she was actually a housewife using fake photos and a false story to chat to others online. Nev turned his story into an incredibly successful documentary and reality TV show, which after eight seasons in the US, is now getting a UK version. It's hosted by radio presenter Julie Adenuga and journalist Oobah Butler - and they say catfishing is now a completely different beast in 2021. Everyone is kind of a catfish as photo editing is so common that people often don't look like their Instagram profile in real life.
FORBES - Apr 20 - Aleksandr Pasykov is the founder of Hily Dating App and Taimi, the biggest LGBTQ+ platform featuring a social network and dating app. He started working on Taimi in 2017. "We realized there's a demand for a safe online space where LGBTQ+ people could build relationships. We needed a framework that would allow us to create the app from scratch in a short time, and our developer built the app in less than two months using React Native." React Native is an open-source app framework that was released by Facebook in 2015. It allows developers to combine native code with React, making it perfect for updating existing applications. React Native offer unprecedented speed and efficiency, and you can create and update apps on Android and iOS simultaneously. One issue is the framework’s performance. For example, if you want to add a newsfeed to your app, React Native may not have high enough speed and performance levels, so such changes will have to be made in native code. Another challenge companies may face is the lack of React Native experts.
TNN - Apr 19 - Dating app QuackQuack witnessed a 12% spike in female users in 2020, signifying that more women are comfortable using dating apps now. Female users login to the app 48x times a day whereas male users login 24x. Also, chat statistics are higher for women daters as compared to men. Women chat with 25 users while men chat with 10 users. More women (52%) are also keen to meet people from other cities while 48% of them are fine with dating from their location. Initially, 90.8% women prefer longer text conversations over video calls as they feel uncomfortable to start a conversation directly on a video call.
DAILYMAIL.CO.UK - Apr 19 - Daniel Gendelman, 36, founded LA based dating app Raya in 2015. Celebs who've used the app include Sharon Stone and Channing Tatum. With a waiting list of 100K and stricter vetting procedures than any private members' club, Raya is the most exclusive match-making service ever devised, and the most private, too. The first rule of Raya is not to talk about Raya. Some have had their memberships terminated for just mentioning on social media that they are using the app. Raya says they 'periodically review' their community and remove anyone who isn't respecting the members' privacy, but leaks still happen. Members pay £5.99 a month. Because the pool is small - 10K in total - users aren't limited by location but can match internationally. Most users tend to be in London, Paris or LA. Users choose a 'theme song' that accompanies their photos. There is also a feature solely for networking for work purposes.
TORONTO SUN - Apr 19 - Hinge saw app downloads increase 96% in Canada, a 40% increase in dates in this country, and a 40% increase in dates in Toronto, in 2020 compared to 2019. "Generally speaking more people are digitally dating right now," said Tim MacGougan, Hinge's chief product officer. "We also find that people are reflecting more on who they want in a partner and what they want out of life."
FINANCIAL EXPRESS - Apr 18 - AYA, a home-grown dating & social networking app built exclusively for the Indian LGBTQ+ community, prides itself on being a no-pressure zone. The app also aims to offer matchmaking services to the community one day. While the annulment of Section 377 may have granted the Indian LGBTQ+ community legal status, it did not neutralise or de-stigmatise the social taboos. AYA aims to create a safe space to counter the challenges of queer dating. With 9,500-plus downloads to date, the app is currently available for Android users. The user base accounts for 40% from tier-1 cities, 40% from tier-2 cities, and the rest from all over the country.
ENTREPRENEUR - Apr 17 - In Mexico there are ~183k 'sugar daddies' available on SeekingArrangement. 2nd is Brazil, with 141k 'papitos', 3rd is Colombia with 73k. The relationship between the men and women is not a simple exchange of money for company or other benefits. "Sugar daddies not only provide financial assistance, they can also be mentors", explains Brandon Wade, CEO/Founder. SeekingArrangement is the world's largest sugar dating app/site, with 22m members. "Both 'mature men' and girls "seek mutually beneficial relationships, on their own terms."
Here's an in-depth and intimate interview with Dmitriy about his life, love, and what brings him joy. Philosophy, jazz, art, theater, and Dmitriy's first break in cinema. He's an MSU Professor, investor, and dating industry, and digital entrepreneur. Learn a lot more about Dmitriy in this tour de force video bio.
This video was originally run in Russian, by businessman Oscar Hartmann on his Youtube channel. See original video.
Full Disclosure: Social Discovery Ventures was a prior client of Courtland Brooks, and I was Chief Strategy Officer in 2013. - Mark Brooks
THE VERGE - Apr 16 - Facebook first introduced its dating product as a test in Colombia in 2018 and brought it Stateside in September 2019. Since then, the company hasn't said much. However, The Verge has found multiple screenshots that suggest the actual size of Facebook's dating product isn't all that large but that it's growing. The company runs in-house ads that advertise the number of users it has in specific regions. In the country's largest city, New York, the company advertised 278K singles "currently dating" in the city this week. In Indianapolis, it advertised 43K people, and in Ottawa, Canada, it claimed to have 24K.
