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

Snap Announces $1M Capital Investment To Accelerate Blockchain Initiative

ACCESSWIRE - Dec 20 - Snap Interactive, a provider of live video social networking apps building on blockchain, has completed a private placement of 200k shares of common stock to Hershey Strategic Capital, LP at a price of $5/per share. Adam Hershey, Managing Member of Hershey Strategic Capital, has agreed to advise the company on capital markets strategy. SNAP intends to use the net proceeds for the blockchain product initiatives.

See full article at Snap Interactive website

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This post also appears on InternetDatingInvestments.

Summarized by the Courtland Brooks team

How Apps Like Tinder And Bumble Are Connecting With Event Guests

BIZBASH - Dec 18 - To help encourage more face-to-face matchmaking, dating sites and apps like OKCupid, Bumble, and Tinder are expanding their presence at events like food and music festivals. OKCupid teamed up with Pitchfork Music Festival. OKCupid was integrated into the festival's app, allowing daters to connect via a geofenced "neighborhood." A badge also appeared on users' profiles to indicate that they had arrived. Bumble created a more polished, over-the-top experience at Coachella in April with its snow-filled "Winter Bumbleland" in the desert, which was produced by marketing agency FlyteVu. Held at Rancho Mirage, the two-day event featured an ice bar, a glacier pool, a snow angel garden, a ski chairlift-theme photo booth, a braid bar, winter tubing, a customized interactive 3-D igloo, and snow-theme cocktails and eats. The app also provided Bumble-branded buses to pick up guests in the area. Tinder has recently partnered with Delta Air Lines. Dubbed the "Delta Dating Wall," the joint activation included a series of painted walls with illustrations of international locations; the backdrops aimed to provide fodder for new profile pictures.

by Michele Laufik
See full article at BizBash

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LoveScout24 New TV Ad Campaigns

W&V - Dec 13 - "Big stories often start with little details," is the campaign motto.

by Daniela Strasser
See full article at W&V

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The Biggest Dating Trends Of 2017 By Zoosk

ASKMEN - Dec 20 - With 2018 just around the corner, dating site Zoosk decided to compile and analyze data from their ~40M+ members to identify the biggest dating trends of 2017.

• Men who use words like "thoughtful", "listener", and "polite" in their profiles are up to 66% more likely to get messages than the average joe.
• It turns out that people who use search filters get 11% fewer responses than those who don't.
• Compared to 2016, people are 9% more likely to engage with someone who's either 10 years older or younger than they are.
• Education is sexy. Folks who have a bachelor's degree or higher are considered more attractive and get up to 17% more replies to their messages.
• People who mention guacamole in their dating profile are likely to get 144% more incoming messages than someone who doesn't.
• Folks who mention vegan in their profile get 62% more incoming messages than the average

by MJ Kelly
See full article at AskMen

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Besedo Webinar: How To Fight Romance Scams

OPW - Dec 21 - Besedo, the content moderation provider, is hosting a one-hour webinar on January 15th, 2018 at 2pm CST with its CEO Patrik Frisk, and former Director of FTC, Steven Baker. In this webinar you will learn:

• Which types of romance scams exist and how they are carried out
• Which dating scams are on the rise
• The future of scams. How technology is enabling new romance scam tactics
• How content moderation and AI can help you combat current and future scams to keep your users safe

Besedo is also attending the iDate conference that is taking place next month - January 24 - 26 in Delray Beach, Florida.

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Dating App Hinge Rolls Out A New Feature To Reduce 'Ghosting'

TECH CRUNCH - Dec 20 - Dating app Hinge is introducing its own take on how conversations on dating apps should be handled with a new feature calling "Your Turn." "Your Turn" lets users decide – regardless of gender – who makes the first move, and then reminds users when it's their turn to respond. Hinge says it tested the feature last week in London and Washington, D.C. and found that it decreased the number of matches that don't lead to a conversation by 25%.

by Sarah Perez
See full article at Tech Crunch

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Peak Dating Season Is Coming, According To Match

USA TODAY - Dec 20 - According to Match, peak dating season begins Dec. 26 and runs through Valentine's Day, with the dating site seeing 50M messages sent and 1M dates taking place during peak season. Online dating's busiest day of the year falls on Sunday, Jan. 7. Match says 8:55PM ET on Jan. 7 is the best time to sign up for online dating, when Match plans to see a 42% spike in new singles looking for love.

by Mary Bowerman
See full article at USA Today

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Dating Site Sentimente.com Launches Personalized Dashboard Using WallY

PR NEWSWIRE - Dec 20 - Sentimente.com, one of the players on the online dating market in South-Eastern Europe, has launched a new version of the platform with the help of Artificial Intelligence. WallY - the new star feature - generates a personalized dashboard for every user based on the user's profile and his/her behavior on the site (people he/she interacts with, likes he/she gives, profiles watched etc.). In this way, Sentimente.com gives its users the chance to start a conversation based on real-time data.

See full article at PR Newswire

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Grindr's Magazine INTO Partners With The Tenth Magazine

LGBT WEEKLY - Dec 20 - The Tenth Magazine, a biannual publication that engages the world's most talented LGBTQ artists and intellectuals has partnered with INTO, Grindr's newly minted queer magazine. As a part of the collaboration, The Tenth will release their latest issue - THE ROMANTICS, Jan. 27, 2018 and host one article from it on INTOmore.com as a preview starting today. The event marks the first time The Tenth, which has purposefully maintained only a print edition, has published content online and is exemplary of how INTO supports the work of other queer artists and publications. The Tenth Magazine and INTO will also host "THE ROMANTICS EXHIBITION," a photography show and cocktail party at New York State's oldest theater, Hudson Opera Hall Feb. 3 from 4-7pm.

by Steve Lee
See full article at LGBT Weekly

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Coffee Meets Bagel Opens Seattle Office

GEEKWIRE - Dec 19 - San Francisco-based startup Coffee Meets Bagel, is opening a new Seattle office. The office is the company's first location outside the Bay Area and will house three employees for the time being. Coffee Meets Bagel sends up to six curated matches to women on the platform each day and up to 21 curated matches to men.

by Clare McGrane
See full article at Geekwire

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Indian Parents Are Setting Up Dating Profiles For Their Single Children

LOVE TV - Dec 20 - Murugavel Janakiraman, the founder and CEO Matrimony.com told Online Personals Watch editor Mark Brooks that parents oftentimes set up profiles for their children and seek out mates on their behalf. In India, a lot has changed over the decades, but arranged marriages remain. Matrimony.com uses behavioral sciences to better match people. While many are looking for marriage and the perfect long term relationship, some have rejected the whole system. One bachelor in India confessed that he's more interested in hook-up apps thank thinking about his future wife.

by Sarah Burris
See full article at Love TV

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Match Group Partners With Univision Communications To Launch Free Dating App For Latino Singles

PR NEWSWIRE - Dec 19 - Match Group and Univision Communications (Leading media company serving Hispanic America) are launching Chispa, a new free dating app to match, chat and meet Latino singles. The Chispa dating app will incorporate an easy-to-use, swipe functionality giving users a simple way to connect with potential matches that peak their interest. The app allows for Facebook and SMS sign on for a simple and easy registration process.

The full article was originally published at Match Group website, but is no longer available.

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The Meet Group Announces Selected Preliminary Q4 And Full Year 2017 Financial Results

BUSINESSWIRE - Dec 19 - Revenue to be at or above the high end of its prior outlook of $36.5M to $38M; and adjusted EBITDA to be near or above the high end of its prior outlook of $7.5M to $9.5M. The full year revenue is expected to be $121.6M. "We are pleased to deliver strong preliminary results for the fourth quarter," said Geoff Cook, CEO of The Meet Group. "While still a small component of total revenue, monetization of our video product has been accelerating. In the past five weeks, average revenue per daily active user for MeetMe Live users in the US doubled to 20 cents, up from 10 cents just five weeks ago. We believe this has been largely driven by the initial success of our new video gifting product on our MeetMe app."

See full article at The Meet Group website

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Courtland Brooks To Discuss The Gay Online Dating Market At iDate In January

WEBWIRE - Dec 19 - Phil Henricks, consultant at Courtland Brooks, will speak about the gay online dating market at the iDate Conference taking place on January 24 - 26, 2018 at the Hyatt Place in Delray Beach, Florida.

See full article at Webwire

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Dating App Bumble Sends Open Letter To Abusive User

KVUE - Dec 14 - Bumble stood up for one of their female users who claimed she was harassed by a man and told that she should put more effort into "looking tip-top." Bumble sent him this open letter Bumble noted that they were alerted to the abuse and obtained screenshots. They explained they did not violate any user's privacy, however, they have taken steps to block users who do not follow Bumbles Terms of Service.

by Brittany Daniel
See full article at KVUE

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Summarized by the Courtland Brooks team