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

Fraud :: The Bane Of The Dating Industry

OPW - Sep 30 - We work so hard to make our dating sites fulfill their promise to users. Then they occasionally get hit by scammers, spammers, the obscene and the obnoxious. It's at least horribly annoying and can be downright life threatening in extreme cases.

Generally speaking we have three lines of defense:

1. Automatic review - think A.I.
2. Manual review - real people in customer service, abuse teams and user-generated content review.
3. User-flagging - but this is really a last line of defense. It's a shame when it gets this far really.

Next week on Wednesday, there's a panel on fraud detection that I'd urge as many of you as possible attend. The line up of panel members is quite stellar, and I'm hoping the audience will contribute some insights as well.

Wayne May from Scam Survivors will represent insights from scam victims. Besedo has served Match Group (for 5 years) and the dating industry and now offers a combination solution of A.I. and manual moderation. They're sending their machine learning implementation manager to talk to us. Professor Monica Whitty brings us the perspective of academia. Scamalytics serves White Label Dating and others and Dave Wiseman will give us some of their observations from their considerable experience in the dating industry.

Let's see if we can raise the collective bar on how we deal with rogue actors on dating sites, in 2017-2018.

(Full Disclosure: Besedo and Kount are current clients of Courtland Brooks and Scamalytics is a former client)

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Post by Mark Brooks @ Courtland Brooks

Matchmaking App Inclov Raises Pre-Series A Funding

VCCIRCLE - Sep 26 - Inclov, the matchmaking agency for disabled people, has raised an undisclosed amount in its pre-Series A funding round from a clutch of investors. The investors who participated in this round include Rajan Anandan, managing director and India head, Google; Jamil Khatri and Ravi Iyer, angel investors; Debjani Ghosh, former MD of Intel South Asia; and existing investor Raghav Bahl, founder of Network 18 and Quintillion Media. The company had previously raised Rs 1 crore (~$149k) in a seed round of funding.

by Disha Sharma
See full article at VCCircle

This post also appears on InternetDatingInvestments.

Summarized by the Courtland Brooks team

Tinder Has A Terrifying Amount Of Data On Its Users

INDEPENDENT.CO.UK - Sep 27 - Judith Duportail, a French journalist, has revealed how she discovered Tinder had 800 pages of personal data about her. Tinder is required under EU data protection rules to hand over any information it holds on any European citizen if they ask for it. The process involves an email to [email protected] with a precise list of all the information users want with the subject line "Subject Access Request".

by Caroline Mortimer
See full article at Independent.co.uk

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Summarized by the Courtland Brooks team

BharatMatrimony Launches Web App

THE HINDU BUSINESS LINE - Sep 26 - BharatMatrimony launched the Progressive Web App (PWA) that offers an app-like experience on smart phones with low bandwidth. The app loads instantly even in patchy networks, offers better user experience and reduced data consumption for users.

See full article at The Hindu Business Line

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Summarized by the Courtland Brooks team

'Sugar Daddy' Site RichMeetBeautiful Faces Legal Fight In Belgium

THE GUARDIAN - Sep 26 - Belgian ministers have said they will take legal action in an attempt to force a website that links young women and rich men to remove huge adverts near the country's universities. Trucks bearing large posters promoting RichMeetBeautiful, which describes itself as a "sugar daddy and sugar baby dating site", have appeared on the outskirts of campuses in Brussels in recent days. The website's CEO, Sigurd Vedal, rejected any link to prostitution, suggesting money matters always play a role in romantic relationships.

by Daniel Boffey
See full article at The Guardian

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Summarized by the Courtland Brooks team

The League Is A Dating App That Doesn't Play Games

FORBES - Sep 26 - Many dating apps treat users like children. Their designs feature bright colors and interactive gimmicks. "Are you trying to play angry birds or are you really trying to meet someone that is going to be your person?" Amanda Bradford asked. She's the Founder and CEO of The League. The app is integrated with LinkedIn because the educational and professional information is more accurate there. Having access to current employers allows The League to block coworkers from seeing each other. When new users sign up, The League adds them to a waitlist. Each user passes through a manual review to maintain a high standard for the community.

by Theo Miller
See full article at Forbes

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Summarized by the Courtland Brooks team

Quick Review Of The iDate European Conference Agenda

OPW - Sep 26 - I took a look over the Internet Dating Conference agenda, which happens next week at Strand Palace Hotel in London. There are three tracks. One for Internet dating, another for matchmakers, and for one day there's a 3rd track on chatbots, which seems to be a hot topic now.

Here's a few sessions that I'll definitely be sitting in on.

Day 1

• Facebook are speaking on People Based Measuerment, which looks intriguing.
• Microsoft are talking about AI and Data. Definitely a subject I'd like to get my head around more.
• Courtland Brooks & Online Personals Watch. I'm doing a session on European Internet dating. We got numbers from ComScore and others ;-).
• Lawyer, Tal Ron will give an overview of discrimination in dating, legal and operational aspects.
• SingleMuslim.com's founder will give an overview of the Muslim market.
• Matchmaking Institute's owners will then give us an overview of lead gen. and collaboration technologies. I hear they've got some new tech to show us.
• Cupid.com's head of brand management will give an overview of the new Cupid and tips for running a portfolio of brands.

Day 2

• Paktor are speaking about the Asian market. This is an absolutely essential session to see. Paktor are doing very well in Asia.
• A Fraud Panel comprising experts from Scam Survivors, Besedo, Scamalytics, and a Professor, will give us tips on how to catch fraudsters more quickly and effectively.
• Fundraising will then be covered by Tanya Larsen who is the former CEO of Dating Factory. I'm intrigued to see what Tanya has been working on.
• Warehouse dating has done well with niche dating and the CEO will give us an overview of their success story.
• Virtual dating assistants have done well in the USA as a niche service. How about Europe? The CEO of Net Dating Assistant will give us the inside track on this fascinating service. Are we leaving money and opportunity on the table by not providing enough service?

And of course, then there's the final panel debate which could go in whatever direction you want, if you're there. Will you be there? Book here. See you there.

Post by Mark Brooks @ Courtland Brooks

CEO Of Gay Dating App DaddyBear Apologizes For His Recent Statement

PRWEB - Sep 22 - In August, a new dating app DaddyBear published a press release to introduce itself as a platform for healthy and HIV negative gay men. Many big gay news sites strongly criticized the app. Justin, the CEO of DaddyBear, realized the real current situation of HIV and started to regret for what he had done and decided to make a sincere apology. "Justin wants to thank all the writers who have criticized his idea and all guys who have written us letters for making him realize that HIV is not so horrible and he highly suggests that all men should face up to it and receive treatment. Sorry, all guys."

See full article at PRWeb

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Summarized by the Courtland Brooks team

JigTalk To Speak At iDate In London On October 3-4, 2017

WEBWIRE - Sep 23 - Max Adamski, Co Founder and Creative Director of JigTalk, will discuss the development of JigTalk and how the company obtained investors during the Internet dating conference (iDate) next week.

See full article at Webwire

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Summarized by the Courtland Brooks team

Why eHarmony Coupled Up With The Bachelorette

ADNEWS - Sep 21 - As 18 single suitors look to find love with Sophie Monk on The Bachelorette, eHarmony is becoming a sponsor of the Channel Ten show. The company's marketer Nicole McInnes says partnering with The Bachelorette differentiates the brand from its growing list of rivals, who she believes cheapen the process of finding love. "We are much more about long-term relationships, which relates to the themes of The Bachelorette and how genuine Sophie Monk is about finding the right person," McInnes says. The brand's sponsorship deal also includes integration, but McInnes remained tight-lipped on the role eHarmony will play through the season.

by Lindsay Bennett
See full article at AdNews

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Summarized by the Courtland Brooks team

ClikD: A New Dating App For Music Lovers

THE 405 - Sep 25 - New London-based app CLiKD is launching a music-based dating app to help music lovers find their soulmate based on musical taste.

by Samantha O'Connor
See full article at The 405

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Summarized by the Courtland Brooks team

Zhenai.com: Money Still Driver In Politically Incorrect Matchmaking World

SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST - Sep 24 - When it comes to dating, Chinese men are most interested in what women look like, while women want to know about a man's income. Primary-school teachers and nurses are in high demand among men, while women favour men in IT or finance. That's according to Dr Song Li, founder of Zhenai.com, one of China's biggest matchmaking sites. Zhenai.com says it has 120M registered users, and ~50K new users join the dating every day. Zhenai.com offers two services: a "self-service dating service" where members pay 400 yuan ($60) a year to browse members' profiles, chat and arrange dates; the other is a more exclusive offline, face-to-face matchmaking service that costs 4K yuan for six months. Zhenai has 50 matchmaking centres in 37 cities across China, and Li says he expects the company to generate 1.5B yuan in revenue and 200M yuan in net profit this year.

by Kate Whitehead
See full article at South China Morning Post

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Summarized by the Courtland Brooks team

Tanya Fathers To Speak On Investments For Dating At iDate, London

WEBWIRE - Sep 20 - Tanya Fathers, Managing Partner at CaerusInCube Private Investment fund, will speak on investments in dating apps and businesses at the European Internet dating conference (Oct 3-4, 2017).

See full article at Webwire

Summarized by the Courtland Brooks team

The Meet Group To Acquire German Dating App Lovoo

BUSINESSWIRE - Sep 20 - The Meet Group is acquiring Lovoo, a social dating app, for $70M in cash, inclusive of a $5M contingent earn-out. Lovoo is a social and mobile technology company based in Germany, #1 dating app in German speaking countries (Germany, Switzerland and Austria) in terms of app store downloads. Lovoo has €27.2M in revenues (based on Subscriptions 48%; In-app Purchases 24%; Ads 28%); 5M monthly active users and 1.9M daily active users; 47k new global registrations per day; and 97 full-time employees spread across Dresden and Berlin. The Company expects that Lovoo will remain a separate brand and standalone mobile app following the closing of the acquisition, and that Lovoo's headquarters will remain in Dresden, Germany. The Meet Group's portfolio includes MeetMe, Skout, Tagged, and Hi5.

See full article at BusinessWire

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Summarized by the Courtland Brooks team

Cupid And LoveAgain To Speak At iDate, London

WEBWIRE - Sep 18 - Roman Kirsanov, head of brand management at NSI Holdings Ltd, will speak on brand and portfolio management for driving growth in online dating. Roman develops dating brands such as Cupid.com, LoveAgain.com, UniformDating.com, SpeedDater.co.uk, and will share insights on activities that engage audiences online.

See full article at Webwire

Summarized by the Courtland Brooks team