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ASKMEN - Jan 30 - Shed Simove created an app called Shinder, where women have access to only one profile – his. With the tagline, 'Quality, not quantity,' the app works like Tinder, where users can swipe right or left, depending on whether they like what they see. The London-based product designer and motivational speaker, says, "I joined all the usual dating apps and sites… I quickly realised that it's tough to stand out and get noticed."
by Jessica Brown
See full article at AskMen
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TMZ - Jan 30 - Matthew Herrick, a Grindr user claims the app is being run recklessly and as a result someone actually tried to rape and murder him, although the lawsuit is thin on specifics regarding the 2 allegations. Although the suit cites no specific instance of attempted rape and murder, it does offer up several examples of aggressive men coming to his home and workplace. Herrick says he lodged 50 complaints to Grindr and 14 police reports, to no avail.
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MASHABLE - Jan 30 - Bumble BFF, the friendfinder side of Bumble, the female friendly dating app, donated 10 cents for every mate match they made. It was done as part of a 12-hour campaign, and in that time there were 438,790 BFF matches.
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DAILYMAIL.CO.UK - Jan 30 - The social networking app Yellow, which has 7M users, has been described as 'Tinder for teens'. Mother, Tanith Carey spent two months monitoring the activities of youngsters on the site and says it is an 'unedifying meat market' for 'sexual fishing' which puts teens at risk Just like Tinder, Yellow was launched as 'a virtual flirting app'. Users make a profile, posting a selfie photograph or video, then flick through all the other people on the site. They can then 'swipe right' if they like the look of someone, or left if they don't. Getting onto the site is easy for everyone regardless of their age. The founders say they are five millennial friends, who met at college: Emmanuel Khayat, Sacha Lazimi, Arthur Patora, Jeremie Aouate and Anthony Tuil. The makers insisted the site is moderated, children can report problems and 'a significant number of profiles are checked every day' — although they twice declined to say how many.
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VENTURE BEAT - Jan 28 - One of the biggest emerging technologies of 2016 was AI with chatbots. e.g. Amazon's Alexa voice assistant, Google Home, and Microsoft released its Bot Framework. A trend that started with SMS messaging led to chat "conversational interfaces" being at the heart of how we communicate with businesses in the future? Match UK quietly released a chatbot. Visit the main page and wait around a bit. It replaces a sign-up form. A UX/UI Designer from Zurich used a conversational web bot to replace his site and said traffic was up 1,000% and in 48 hours he got 250 emails from people chatting with the bot. In the 2016 Facebook study More than a Message 56% of a survey group said they'd rather message than call customer service. Facebook's $19 billion WhatsApp acquisition in 2014 should tell you all you need to know about the future of messaging.
by John Jackson
See full article at Venture Beat
Mark Brooks: Fascinating. Marc Lesnick is working on Mobile Dating Conference Los Angeles speakers now. Please let us know if there's any particular chatbot technology speakers you'd like there. btw, Date.com tried this a few years back, but I don't think the tech was up to par, as they pulled it quickly.
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ECONOMIST - Jan 28 - After Donald Trump was elected president, Maple Match, a dating app which connects Canadians and Americans, was inundated with people signing up. TrumpSingles.com is the opposite. It connects Trump's supporters. The site increased its monthly fee from $4.95 to $19.95 in December following Trump's victory. It enjoyed a bump in users even after the price increase. Match.com, Bumble and Tinder cater for everyone. That has left lots of room for "niche" providers. Making money is difficult, however. It is hard for new businesses to charge subscription fees while building brand awareness. "To be successful, niche dating sites need critical mass and a mobile platform," says Mark Brooks of Courtland Brooks, an online-dating consultant.
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CNET - Jan 27 - Girlfriend "rental" apps are enjoying a boost as Chinese New Year approaches this weekend. Prospective girlfriends (and boyfriends) for hire are charging up to 10,000 yuan a day. That's around $1,500. Channel News Asia reports that there are at least five of these rent-a-date apps in China.
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BUZZFEED - Jan 26 - The app launched this month to connect people with disabilities and promote transparency between users. App creator, Geoffrey Anderson, was inspired to create Glimmer after working at nonprofit for people with disabilities, as well as witnessing his own brother overcome adversity. While the app is disability-inclusive, it's definitely doesn't exclude any other users.
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OPW - Jan 27 - Each year we review press hits to see who got the most and the best and worst coverage. Here's the Online Personals Watch press rankings for 2016.
1. TINDER - 122 posts on OPW (in 2016)
And Tinder is the winner again, it's safe to say, not just on OPW but in general when it comes to press coverage. Again, some negative news were covered during the year, i.e. they were sued over the "Super Like" feature, experienced a global outage in November, also the lawsuit against 3nder got some quite negative mentions. But overall, Tinder did well in the press. A few more examples: they bought contact management startup Humin in March, launched Tinder Social, first in Australia in April, than worldwide in July, invested in Hey! Vina app in September, launched "Tinder Boost" feature first in Australia in September and a month later worldwide, and Tinder was recognized as the strongest part of Match Group. Tinder also lost Sean Rad as CEO again last year, but on the other hand made some interesting hires - see the news here and here.
2. MATCH GROUP: 46 posts on OPW (last year, we didn't have separate categories for Match Group and Match.com yet, and Match got 70 press hits that made OPW. Match.com got just 26 in 2016!).
Also Match Group got good and bad press coverage during last year. Financial results got a lot of coverage last year, and were analyzed by multiple experts, along with predictions for Match Group's future. Mandy Ginsberg returned to Match as CEO of Match US, and safety concerns were discussed on multiple occasions, Match Group got sued by their investors, and launched their Fresh app in June. Some major stock sales and changes in company management were also covered, i.e. the company got new CEOs for OkCupid and Twoo, but also lost some people, i.e. their CFO of Dating.
3. eHARMONY - 32 posts on OPW
eHarmony's news coverage was positive overall during last year. The company finally launched Elevated Careers. eHarmony's founder Dr. Warren stepped down and Grant Langston became new CEO and this change got a a lot of mentions in the press, along with numerous interviews with the new CEO talking about what's next for eHarmony. On the other hand eHarmony lost it's COO, Armen Avedissian in August. Eventually, in December, big changes were announced.
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BUSINESS INSIDER - Jan 28 - Dating app Hinge now allows users to pay $99-a-month for a personal assistant that will message their dates for them. This new feature is called "Audrey", and is currently in a testing mode.
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FORBES - Jan 28 - 85% of Tinder's 50M users are 18-34 years old. That creates a great opportunity for brands to connect with the young crowd. But only a handful of advertisers are taking advantage of Tinder's market potential. Here are a few tips for kicking off a clever Tinder ad campaign:
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OPW - Jan 26 - The 2017 iDate Awards winners were announced and provided trophies at a ceremony last night in Miami. The iDate Awards are the dating industry's most recognized awards, highlighting the best and most innovative aspects of the business.
The 2017 winners are:
Best Affiliate Program:
Wamba & Mamba.ru
Best Niche Dating Site:
Christian Filipina
Best Dating Coach:
Julie Spira
Best Payment System:
CCBill
Best Dating Site:
Match.com
Best Product Design:
Dating Pro
Best Marketing Campaign:
eHarmony
Best Software & Saas:
Dating Pro
Best Matchmaker:
Andrea Messent (Drawing Down the Moon)
Best Up & Coming Dating Site:
Lively
Best Mobile Dating App:
Bumble
Most Innovative Company:
eHarmony
Best New Technology:
Smart Match App
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CNET - Jan 26 - Match is using geolocation technology to help users find the guy or girl next door. Now the dating site is about to launch Missed Connections, a feature that shows users where they've crossed paths with other Match users (who have also opted in) within a block.
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OPW - Jan 26 - 6 months ago, Google announced it would expand text ads. Just expanded ads will be available from January 31, 2017. You can keep your existing ads but you will no longer be able to edit them without upgrading them to the new longer format.
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