BUZZFEED - Feb 15 - People with learning disabilities said the OkCupid compatibility question was dehumanizing. The site asked users: "Would the world be a better place if people with low IQs were not allowed to reproduce?" Despite a growing petition calling for the question to be taken off the form, it was only this week that OkCupid CEO Elie Seidman said it would be taken down.
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OkCupid Finally Removed Controversial Question
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eHarmony Succeeds In Opposing Registration Of "Matchedharmony"
LEXOLOGY - Feb 13 - The UK IPO refused an application of Robert Magill to register the mark "matchedharmony" in relation to "online dating via a website; dating services". The opposition was filed by A.A. Thornton & Co. on behalf of eHarmony. The opposition was based on eHarmony's registered rights in the mark eHarmony as well as their common law rights.
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Hotline Dating App Forces Users To Talk On The Phone
MASHABLE - Feb 13 - Hotline is a new dating app that requires users to connect on an actual phone call. The site charges $9 a month, and right now it's only for iOS in New York. After users have matched, they won't be able to message each other until after they have a call that lasts for longer than five minutes. The calls are placed (and timed) by the app, so their phone numbers are not revealed.
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How To Score Funding
TECHCITYNEWS - Feb 14 - Online dating is a lucrative industry – recent research estimates that dating apps contribute a £1B to the UK economy every year. VCs are eyeing the sector. Matthew Bradley, an investor at early stage London-based VC fund Forward Partners, is just one of many. "It's a very competitive market, though there's a gorilla in the form of Match Group." Well-funded companies in the space include Happn ($22M), Hinge ($12M) and Once ($9.1M), but figuring out what investors really look for in a dating-tech company is not always entirely obvious. "A viable revenue model would be a good start," Bradley said. But monetising dating isn't easy. On top of that, dating apps don't always make good advertising platforms. "For most dating tech companies the only way to pay back investors seems to be to reach a critical scale of users and be acquired by the Match Group. That's a high risk game," Bradley said. "Well tested, well funded propositions run by super-clever people will always make a mark," he added. Dating apps throw off a lot of data with swipes, pictures and interactions. "There's also plenty of social data to get your teeth into. I don't doubt that adding intelligence to data-rich companies will improve products," he explained.
by Yessi Bello Perez
The full article was originally published at TechCityNews, but is no longer available.
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This post also appears on InternetDatingInvestments.
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How eHarmony Uses Machine Learning To Help People Find Love
FORTUNE - Feb 14 - Over the years, eHarmony has added photos and made its clunky interface easier to navigate. That, however, hasn't stopped Tinder and Bumble from stealing users away. "People do end up on those sites looking for relationships, and we see that as our challenge," says eHarmony CEO Grant Langston. Langston says users like the "swipe friendly" dating apps because they are "cheap and easy." But they don't have 16 years worth of rich data. eHarmony collects demographic data, psychographic data (likes, interests and habits), and behavioral data (actions taken on the site). eHarmony's research team also conducts research on couples who met through the site. eHarmony's in-house psychologists and data scientists feed that information into machine learning algorithms that help match compatible users. "That data lets us optimize the site and the process for a number of variables," Langston says.
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Tinder's Sean Rad On How Technology And AI Will Change Dating
FORBES - Feb 14 - Tinder founder and chairman Sean Rad sat down for The Forbes Interview podcast to talk about the future of Tinder and how A.I. and A.R. will change dating forever. You can listen here.
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China Drone Maker Wants To Buy Zhenai.com
REUTERS - Feb 15 - DEA General Aviation announced it's intent to acquire the dating site today, in order to expand its business. The company didn't disclose how much it would pay for Zhenai. Zhenai reported 1B yuan ($145,59M) revenue in 2016 and has more than 100M users.
by Brenda Goh
See full article at Reuters
This post also appears on InternetDatingInvestments.
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No Dating App Has More Engagement Than Grindr
YAHOO! FINANCE - Feb 14 - According to a new study from research firm 7Park Data, Grindr users spend an average of 165 minutes, or 2.75 hours, a week inside the app, far surpassing Badoo and Tinder, with users on average spending 68 minutes and 55 minutes a week using those apps, respectively. Still, Tinder remains the overall winner when it comes to user base. Tinder had 50M users when the company last reported user base statistics back in 2014.
by JP Mangalindan
See full article at Yahoo! Finance
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Online Match Making App Aisle Raises Undisclosed Angel Round
TECH CIRCLE - Feb 14 - Indian match making app Aisle has raised an undisclosed amount in an angel round led by the CIO Angel Network. Aisle is a members-only online singles community that aims to tread the middle path between traditional matrimony websites and casual dating apps. The startup, founded in 2014, raised Rs 1.25 crore ($183k then).
by Binu Paul
See full article at Tech Circle
This post also appears on InternetDatingInvestments.
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Canadians Lost $17M To Online Dating Scams In 2016
THE CANADIAN PRESS - Feb 14 - 748 people lost ~$17M to online dating scams last year, according to RCMP, The Royal Canadian Mounted Police. It says scammers create fake online profiles in order to gain someone's trust then ask for money, often claiming to be faced with an emergency.
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VR Technology Used In Online Dating
CNET - Feb 14 - Virtual reality will change the way we use computers, and possibly the way we date. In 2012, Oculus took the industry by storm and two year later Facebook snatched it up for $3B. Since then, companies from Google to Sony to Microsoft and Apple have gotten involved in VR tech in some way. Some developers are imagining how it can be used to go on dates. eHarmony predicts we'll regularly go on full-sensory (including smelling your partner's perfume) VR dates by 2040. And it might happen with apps like vTime, which works on devices ranging from the $599 Oculus Rift to the often-free Google Cardboard, which is powered by the smartphone. vTime it started off with a VR cooking simulator called Hypercook in 2013. Now it's looking into dating.
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eHarmony: Trump Win Has More People Looking For Love
BBC.COM - Feb 14 - Use of online dating site eHarmony spiked by 35% in the US in the days that followed the Republican's victory. Grant Langston, CEO of eHarmony, said that the increase in activity on his site was reminiscent of those seen after the 9/11 attacks. "When times get unpredictable, people just want to be with someone," he said.
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OkCupid Revamps To Be Less Like Tinder
TECH CRUNCH - Feb 14 - OkCupid is introducing a new version of its mobile app today, and plans to roll out its full redesign in March. The prior version featured a section called Quickmatch, which was OKC's own version of Tinder. In the new app out today, Quickmatch has been rebranded as DoubleTake where users can see multiple photos all on one page, as well as various details about the person in question, including their profile text. The idea, the company explains, is to give users a deeper look into someone's personality right from the start. DoubleTake was tested with select members ahead of today's public launch, and was found to have tripled the mutual matches, OkCupid claims.
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Q&A With CoffeeMeetsBagel Co-Founder Dawoon Kang
FORBES - Feb 14 - Dawoon Kang and her two sisters grew up in an entrepreneurial family.
Q: What was the inspiration for starting Coffee Meets Bagel?
A: We noticed that dating was a big pain point for a lot of our friends, especially women. We started paying attention to the dating industry and realized there were no dating services that understood women.
Q: What's the biggest challenge you've faced in your startup journey?
A: This is a job where challenges never end. First was starting a tech company with no tech background. Second was getting someone to join an all-sister, first-time entrepreneur team.
Q: What's it like working with 3 sisters who are all cofounders?
A: I feel so lucky to have partners I can fully trust, respect, and share anything with.
Q: You have raised $11.2M in venture funding. What advice can you offer female founders on raising capital?
A: Be smart and selective about who you pitch to. Be persistent. Don't be disappointed or take it personally just because they don't agree with your thesis - move on and find someone who does. Take their advice with grain of salt and use it as a way to hone your next pitch.
Q: What are the next steps for your business?
A: Serving international markets.
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Why Using Tinder Is So Satisfying
WASHINGTON POST - Feb 14 - According to app analytics website AppAnnie, Tinder has been the most downloaded lifestyle app in America for two years. Tinder's approach to romance is straightforward, yet brutally effective. Matches are made using sparse criteria: Looks, availability and location. Tinder's interface is perfectly constructed to encourage rapid swiping. Since users don't know which swipe will bring the "reward" of a match, Tinder uses a variable ratio reward schedule, which means that potential matches will be randomly dispersed. It's the same reward system used in slot machines. In a study on the brains of drug addicts, researchers found that the expectation of the drug caused more release of the feel-good neurotransmitter dopamine than the actual drug itself. Similarly, for those who may be expecting the next swipe on Tinder to lead to reward, serial swiping can start to look and feel a lot like addiction. So in 2015 Tinder began to limit the amount of daily right swipes to 100 for users who don't buy into their premium service.
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