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BUSINESS WIRE - July 30 - Mobile revenue which represents 75% of total revenue was $8.3M, up 47% YOY. Total revenue was $11.1M, up 4% YOY. Net income was $1.2M compared to a net loss of $1.4M in Q2 2014. MeetMe total mobile monthly users increased 42% YOY. MeetMe is a social discovery and chat service. 80% of traffic comes from mobile.
The full article was originally published at SeekingAlpha, but is no longer available.
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DNAINFO - July 30 - Dating app Cheekd now wants to connect people who walk past each other in real life. Users will be automatically notified if someone else within 30 feet of them also has the app. If they like their profiles, they can "get cheeky", which means express interest in each other. CEO Lori Cheek started working on the project years ago. She went on ABC's "Shark Tank" show to pitch an earlier version of the app, where users handed out cards to people they were interested in. None of the sharks wanted to invest $100K in the company, but Cheek ended up raising more from other sources. That's when she started revamping the idea.
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IAC - July 29 - The Match Group revenue increased 19% to $254.7M. Operating income is down 16%. The number of paid subscribers grew 18% YOY globally to ~4.1M. Tinder was the major contributor. It is interesting to note that Tinder has more paying subscribers outside of North America. The Match Group international paid subscribers grew 34% YOY. On July 14, 2015, Match announced the acquisition of PlentyOfFish for $575M in cash. Gregg Blatt, Chairman of Match Group, disclosed that IAC paid about 13 times EBITDA.
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TELECOMPAPER - July 29 - French data protection agency CNIL has served notice to eight dating sites including Meetic, Attractive World, AdopteUnMec, Easyflirt, Rencontre and Mektoube after an investigation revealed a number of breaches of privacy. The sites did not ask for permission to collect sensitive data.
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AFP - July 29 - While dating apps in the West encourage one-on-one meetings, many singles in in Asia find it awkward and prefer dating in groups. Valenice Balace developed Peekawoo app in the Philippines two years ago. The app discouraged users from meeting one-on-one and offered a chaperone service for those who requested it. As Peekawoo expanded (it has now 7K members) it was no longer practical so they started organising meetups instead. It is a model shared by Hong Kong-based app Grouvly, which sets up groups of six people for dates. Hong Kongers now make up 50% of Grouvly's users. There are plans to roll out the service to Japan, South Korea, Australia and China.
by Theo Merz
See full article at Phys.org
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BIV.COM - July 25 - Last year POF was ordered to pay $48K fine for violating Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL). The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) alleged POF was sending emails to members without a proper unsubscribe button.
by Tyler Orton
See full article at BIV.com
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BUSINESS WIRE - July 27 - eHarmony has moved from Santa Monica to Los Angeles to accommodate the record growth. Following the return of founder Dr. Neil Clark Warren as CEO, eHarmony has reached ~66M users.
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IBTIMES.CO.UK - July 28 - The recent attack on Ashley Madison is not the first security breach of a dating site. Other sites including extramarital dating site Gleeden, have had their user data accessed and sold on the dark web. The end-users were never alerted. The ugly truth about dating sites is that many of them get breached.
by Alex Holden
See full article at IBTimes.co.uk
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ABC NEWS - July 27 - The Kang sisters from Coffee Meets Bagel stunned everyone when they said no to $30M from Mark Cuban. They believe their dating app is worth a whole lot more. Coffee Meets Bagel raised $7.8M in external funding and has more than doubled its user base since January. The app is free and delivers one match (bagel) by noon each day. Users have 24 hours to “Like” or “Pass” on their Bagel, and if two people “Like” each other, then the app will open a private chat to set up a date. A majority of the app's users are females.
by Juju Chang, Hana Karar & Lauren Effron
See full article at ABC News
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NY TIMES - July 27 - Brandon Wade started a new controversial dating site for cheaters. It is called OpenMinded.com and it is for couples who have no problem being unfaithful, and be open about it. “Monogamy is not working for the majority of us,” said Mr. Wade. "There is a growing movement of people who are able to be honest with their mate that the traditional model isn’t working.” His site claims 150K users with more than half of the members identifying as couples who are in open relationships.
by Katherine Rosman
See full article at NY Times
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FORBES - July 24 - Spark Network's Jdate discreetly filed a lawsuit late last year against Jswipe, the Jewish ‘Tinder’, claiming intellectual property over the letter “J” within the Jewish dating scene. Jdate also claims it owns the patent on software that “confidentially determines matches and notifies users of mutual matches in feelings and interests.” Jswipe, like Tinder, notifies users when their romantic interest ‘swipes right’ on their picture, violating Jdate’s patent. It is not clear why Jdate only goes after Jswipe. There are other apps using "J" including Jcrush, Jwed, Jzoog. Spark Networks refused to comment.
by Gregory Ferenstein
See full article at Forbes
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MASHABLE - July 24 - Last year, there was one divorce for every four new marriages. While the divorce rate in China is still relatively low, it’s been on the rise for 12 consecutive years. (In the U.S., the divorce rate is declining.) People blame social media. Married men and women in China are increasingly using the popular messaging service WeChat and dating app Momo to have affairs, according to a recent report in the Chinese magazine Banyuetan. "When people get divorced and look back on what they have done, they realize it was the computer with whom they spent most of their time", said Wang Jun, a counselor at Beijing Weiqing Marriage Consultants.
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PRESS RELEASE - July 24 - Parship has relaunched its social discovery app One2like as a chat, flirt and dating community. One2like app is for users who are looking for a date, life partner or just a new friend.
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