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

Announcing Trust & Safety Connect Event on 'Offline Conduct'

OPW - Trust & Safety Connect (TSC) is on Wed 27th October starting 11am EST (New York) and for this quarterly online event we're focused on 'offline conduct.' We have a half hour of networking on virtual tables, then a 45 minute panel with three world-class panelists from East Meet East, Grindr and Inner Circle and moderator Norman Petty, who is head of Trust & Safety at The Meet Group, and then another short networking session. 1.5 hours all-in.

If you hold a full time leadership role at an Internet dating company then you are welcome to join IDEA for free, and welcome to join TSC (and LTR) events for free. See the Trust & Safety Connect speakers and invite page here. Email mark@courtlandbrooks.com to RSVP for TSC. There are 40 places only.

Trust & Safety Connect is kindly sponsored by RealMe, vPaaS by Meet Group, Women in Dating and Courtland Brooks

Match Acquisition Strategy

OPW - This week, a startup CEO asked me what acquirers are looking for. I think Sam Yagan spells it out quite nicely in this video. Sam Yagan presided over Match at the time that they acquired Tinder.

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Raya and the Promise of Private Social Media

THE NEW YORKER - Raya is the rare social network that ensures that all of its users are who they say they are. Since it launched in Los Angeles, in 2015, it has gained a reputation as the "celebrity dating app" and "Illuminati Tinder." The app is private; aspiring users must undergo an application process that can stretch on for months. Once accepted, members must adhere to a rigid code of silence - no exposing other people's profiles and no screenshotting within the app. Even tweeting too much about Raya, or publicly mentioning another member, can be grounds for a ban. Raya was launched by Daniel Gendelman out of his apartment in West Hollywood. Most social-media platforms rely on selling ads. Raya, instead, charged a subscription fee of $7.99 per month (now $9.99). The app's popularity was driven by FOMO. In 2020, Raya added a series of new features including its Directory, a kind of bespoke Rolodex that allows members to search one another by city, industry, or company. You can find a Raya-approved architect or graphic designer to plan a renovation or make a portfolio. According to the company, the Directory has seen more than a million searches to date.

by Kyle Chayka
See full article at The New Yorker

See the top news on Raya

Tinder Is Releasing a New 'Plus One' Feature to Help Users Find a Wedding Date

TECH CRUNCH - Tinder is rolling out a new way for its users to find a plus one for the upcoming end-of-year wedding season. The new feature is accessible within Tinder's Explore section, which launched last month and offers ways to discover matches by interests and more. Starting today, the first 100 eligible Tinder users to join Plus One will receive $460 to help cover the costs associated with upcoming weddings, such as travel, gifts and accommodations.

by Aisha Malik
See full article at Tech Crunch

See the top news on Tinder

Match Group Celebrates Dutch Court Decision to Curb in-App Apple Payments

FORTUNE - Match Group's CEO Shar Dubey has long argued the in-app payment policies that force app developers to exclusively use these payment systems were unfair. Apple's in-store payment policies, which take commissions that range between 15% and 30%, have long drawn complaints from app developers, who first filed their complaint to the Dutch court in 2019. The case was later whittled down to just cover dating apps. As 98% of users download Match Group's apps from either the Apple or Google app stores - which Dubey refers to as the "gatekeepers of the Internet" - the commission creamed off the top has forced Match Group to increase prices for consumers and has prevented it from making investments in the business. This year alone, Match Group expects to pay transaction fees of ~$500M to Apple and Google; it is currently looking to build an alternative-payment option.

by Sophie Mellor
See full article at Fortune

See the top news on Match Group

Egyptian Matchmaking App Hawaya Officially Launches in France

CAIRO SCENE - Hawaya has already expanded into 12 countries in 2020, helping facilitate relationships all across the Muslim diaspora. Now, the app is launching in France, a country with ~6M Muslims. Since its founding in 2017 by Sameh Saleh, Tamer Saleh and Shaymaa Ali, Hawaya is now one of the most popular muslims matchmaking apps globally with 5M users across 13 countries.

by Menna Shanab
See full article at Cairo Scene

See the top news on Hawaya

Dating App Entwine Takes Sexual Expectations out of Dating

OPW - Entwine is a new dating app, founded by a Chicago area woman and breast cancer survivor. The app is for those who can't or don't want to have intercourse due to personal or medical reasons. Anna Leonarda came up with the idea of Entwine Dating while recovering from breast cancer and going through a divorce.

See the top news on Entwine

Bumble Founder Whitney Wolfe Herd Is Looking Ahead 'Decades Not Days'

FORBES - After a $2.2B IPO last February, Bumble dating app founder and CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd is operating "business as usual". Shares on the Nasdaq sagged to $40 in the summer after debuting at $76. "I'm not obsessed with the stock," she said, "I'm obsessed with the customer, the team, the innovation we're planning for the future." "If you're trying to get to that next milestone, don't focus on the short-term. Stay married to the long-term vision," Wolfe Herd told the audience of Forbes 30 Under 30 list honorees.

by Katherine Love
See full article at Forbes

See the top news on Bumble

Vietnamese Dating App Fika Raised $1.6M

TECH IN ASIA - Fika was founded in 2020 by Denise Sandquist and Oscar Xing Luo who have professional backgrounds in finance and AI. It focuses on improving women's experiences in meeting people online. After signing up, all users must pass a verification check. Once they're in, users can look through AI-suggested matches based on their interests. Fika will use the new funds to expand its team, improve its AI, and grow its user base in Vietnam. The app is tailored to Vietnam, where it has 750K downloads and 40% of its users are women.

by Roehl Niño Bautista
See full article at Tech in Asia

This post also appears on InternetDatingInvestments.com