BLOOMBERG - Sep 20 - IAC claims Tinder co-founder Sean Rad paid former employees to back his allegations in a $2B lawsuit that he was shortchanged because IAC unfairly valued Tinder. IAC believes Rad promised "millions of dollars" to two then-current Tinder employees in exchange for testimony supporting his claims, and also says the employees are bitter because they cashed out too early. New York State Supreme Court Justice Saliann Scarpulla denied IAC's request to dismiss the lawsuit, although she threw out some claims, including unjust enrichment and a merger-related breach of contract claim. She allowed claims of breach of contract and tortious interference, to go ahead.
IAC Claims Former Tinder CEO Paid Employees to Bolster Lawsuit
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Facebook Dating Is a Threat to Match, But Not to Tinder
SEEKING ALPHA - Sep 20 - Facebook Dating isn't likely to kill Tinder, but investors seem to be forgetting that Match also owns other dating properties that may be under threat from Facebook. Facebook Dating focuses on long-term relationships and skews towards older people, which puts it in direct competition with apps like Hinge or OurTime. Match's current valuation is also far higher than when Facebook Dating launched.
See full article at Seeking Alpha
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More Details About Tinder's SwipeNight Series
NEW YORK TIMES - Sep 20 - Tinder has created a scripted choose-your-own adventure series that it hopes will supply its young users with raw material for conversations. The project, called SwipeNight, consists of four episodes. One will air each week on the Tinder app. In each episode, users will be ushered through an apocalyptic scenario and prompted to make a series of choices. The show features a cast of young diverse actors and, like a video game, gives the user a first-person perspective on the action. Participants will then show up in each other's lists of potential matches. Episodes of SwipeNight will be available on Tinder on Sundays in October from 6PM to midnight in a user's time zone. For now, the show will be available only to Americans. It is reported that SwipeNight production had a budget of ~$5M. A Tinder spokeswoman said that figure was inaccurate, but would not say whether that meant it was low or high.
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Facebook Puts Unauthorized Dating Service Ads on Philly Streets
94.5PST - Sep 20 - Someone has placed ads for Facebook Dating on streets in Philadelphia without permission. No one knows who exactly did this. When asked how the sidewalk ads got there, the city's deputy communications director, Kelly Cofrancisco, said "We all saw these on social media today and have the same questions too!" Normally the standard procedure to do something like this would be to go through a lengthy approval process that involves the Art Commission. However, no record of Facebook going through this process exists.
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Tinder Serves Wild Trademark Infringement Notice Over Flame Icon Use
PR NEWSWIRE - Sep 20 - Tinder targets rival dating app, Wild, claiming that any use of the flame symbol is in direct violation of trademark owned by the dating app giant. Wild has owned the trademark of the "Flame Outline" logo since its launch over four years ago. "The sudden interest in our logo is a bit perplexing," says Catherine Malone, the marketing director of Wild. "Out of respect for Tinder's request, however, we did modify our flame icon and published the modified version to the App Store and Google Play. But Match Group is requesting removal of the flame symbol from Wild brand.
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China Ranks Top in the Number of Online Daters
IB TIMES - Sep 20 - U.S. has a large percentage of adults who are online daters and a large share of paying online dating users compared to other countries, according to the Statista Global Consumer Survey. The country beating the U.S. at the dating game is China.
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App Annie Webinar: Mobile Marketing Trends
APPANNIE - Sep 18 - Here are the key takeaways from the "Mobile Marketing in 2009" webinar:
- Mobile's growth and widespread market disruption
- Mobile marketing trends from the biggest players
- The importance of mobile web and app for a robust data-fueled marketing strategy
- How to succeed in mobile marketing with organic app store optimization and paid user acquisition
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Apple Is About to Reveal Facebook's Shady Location Tracking
THE MOTLEY FOOL - Sep 18 - Apple is releasing iOS 13. The update will include more features designed to strengthen privacy protections for users. Specifically, iOS 13 will have additional location controls and more detailed notifications so users can know when an app is tracking them in the real world. People might start wondering why Facebook wants access to their device's Bluetooth connection. Facebook has no apparent need for that connectivity. It's not as if the Facebook app streams audio to Bluetooth speakers or otherwise needs to transmit data using the short-range wireless protocol. Instead, Facebook is using Bluetooth data in conjunction with other information like Wi-Fi networking data and cell towers to track physical locations. Facebook explained that it collects things like cellular signal strength, mouse movements on computers, GPS location, IP addresses, time zones, Bluetooth signals, nearby Wi-Fi networks, and much, much more. Location data is used to check in to pl
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POF Study: Pressures Faced by Singles in Today's Dating Climate
PR NEWSWIRE - Sep 18 - Regardless of age or gender, singles feel immense pressure to be interesting (41%) on first dates, followed by being talkative (16%) and fun (12%), according to a new POF study. 50% of respondents have not been on a single date in the last year. The study also found that more than half of singles feel pressured to embellish their interests and hobbies, even over looks and appearance (45%), income and career (34%), and level of education (31%).
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Children Victims of Sex Crimes Linked to Dating Apps
SKY NEWS - Sep 17 - Children as young as six years old have been sexually groomed or assaulted after contact with adults on 18+ dating sites. Dating companies must do more to keep children off their sites. It is really easy for children and young people to be able to download sites like Tinder or Grindr onto their smartphones. Simon Bailey, chief constable of Norfolk police and national lead on child protection, said current verification systems were simply not robust enough. Tinder said it takes its duty of care seriously. "Tinder is for users 18+, and we use a network of industry-leading moderation tools - and spend millions of dollars annually - to prevent and remove minors from our app," said the app's spokesperson. The UK government's £30M boost to tackle online child exploitation will include more resources for the UK's Child Abuse Image Database (CAID), a resource that provides law enforcement agencies with tools to search seized devices for indecent images of children.
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60% of Women Have 'Dumbed Down' on a Date
MIRROR.CO.UK - Sep 17 - A new survey by Match asked 2K participants about their behaviours when it comes to dating. 52% of female respondents struggle to find someone who stimulates them intellectually, with 37% feeling like they intimate men with their intelligence. 59% have actually 'dumbed down' on a date to seem less intelligent. But 82% of respondents said they’d go on a date with someone who wasn't clever, as long as they were attractive.
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Dating App Tinder Is Building out a Safety and Moderating Team in Dublin
FORA - Sep 17 - Tinder is assembling a trust and safety compliance team in Dublin that will moderate the dating app to investigate abuse, reports from users and other violations of the terms and conditions. The company has similar teams based at its other offices globally.
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Is Facebook Dating Mining for More User Data or Making Love Matches?
IB TIMES - Sep 17 - Facebook rolled out the dating app in the U.S. on Sept. 5, matching users to those that have common interests, events, groups, and preferences. Facebook's user base is shrinking in the U.S. as its younger users move to other popular social media sites. To help with this situation, Facebook has integrated the dating app with Instagram to take advantage of where users are still growing, allowing for the cross-use of posts and a new opportunity for Facebook to gather data.
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Why Tinder Beats Bumble
E27 - Sep 17 - Bumble launch was a powerful social statement globally, where it sent off a strong message about women empowerment, encouraging women to make bolder choices in not just dating, but in business and life. A lot of celebrities has been supporting the app, including support of the app, including Kris Jenner, Priyanka Chopra and Karlie Kloss. So why did Tinder still manage to retain itself as the crowd favourite? Tinder is much easier and quicker to sign up and get going. Bumble asks users to answer a series of questions and build a more detailed profile, which can sometimes feel like a matrimonial page. The sexist nature of the app, which only allows women to pick who they want to speak with can potentially carve down the entire niche of the market, making it more attractive to women. Male users can sometimes feel alienated by this system.
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Tinder to Launch Its First Scripted Video Series
REUTERS - Sep 17 - Tinder has wrapped filming on its first television series. Making new shows is part of a larger strategy that will be revealed in the near future. The multi-episode series centers on an "apocalyptic" storyline and includes a relationship sub plot. It was filmed in Mexico City in late August. Offering original content is an increasingly popular strategy for the technology and retail industries. The strategy seeks to engage users on a deeper level even when they are not using the service.
by David Alire Garcia & Angela Moon
See full article at Reuters
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Apple Introduces a Grace Period for Lapsed App Store Subscriptions
TECH CRUNCH - Sep 17 - Apple is changing how subscriptions work on its App Store. Before, any lapse in payment could cut off the customer from being able to use the app's subscription-based features and make it more difficult for the developer to reacquire the customer. Now, developers will have the option to instead offer a "grace period" for auto-renewable subscriptions, which gives Apple more time to collect payment on the developer's behalf. The new Grace Period, which is opt-in, not opt-out on the developer's part, is enabled from App Store Connect, where developers manage their apps.
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Bumble Launches Pitch Competition for Women-Founded Businesses in Asia Pacific Region
INDIANWEB2 - Sep 16 - Bumble has launched its first APAC Bumble Bizz pitch competition that will award women-founded businesses across the Asia Pacific region $5K grants to help them establish their companies. The competition will run in Australia, Hong Kong, India, New Zealand, the Philippines and Singapore, the six APAC markets in which Bumble currently operates, with one winner chosen from each country. The inaugural APAC Bumble Bizz Summit will take place in Sydney on October 10, 2019. Applications for the APAC Bumble Bizz pitch competition are now open through Sep 27, 2019.
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Racism on Grindr Is Bad for the Brain
OUT.COM - Sep 16 - A new study shows that racism on dating apps does real harm to mental health. The research is the result of a survey of ~1K men on Grindr. Researchers learned that race-based sexual discrimination was significantly associated with lower self-esteem and, in turn, lower life satisfaction. The data suggest that Latino, Middle Eastern, Indigenous/Pacific Islander, and multiracial participants experience significantly less discrimination than Asian and South Asian participants, which is consistent with other studies.
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Bumble's Success in India
INDO ASIAN NEWS SERVICE - Sep 15 - Bumble has attracted 1.7M Indian users within 10 months of its launch in the country. Since its launch, women in India have made the first move over 3 million times.
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