MARKETING DAILY - Dec 13 - The campaign, "Be My Gnomie?," was developed and created by advertising agency 3Headed Monster, Dallas. It runs through late January. Interested users are invited to convince the gnome, via Instagram photo or video, that they're the one he needs to bring along on a vacation. The prize is a 10-day Caribbean vacation for two. The effort targets Millennials and the primary media is Tinder, where the gnome has what appears to be his own dating profile page. Display banners are running on other dating sites such as Match.com, OKCupid, PeopleMedia.
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Travelocity Targets Millennials With Tinder Campaign
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Q&A With eHarmony's VP Of Content, Jeannie Assimos
HUFFINGTON POST - Dec 13 -
Q: VP of Content is so inspirational to many of us. Tell us about your career trajectory.
A: Since I was a kid, I've been interested in telling stories and writing. I pursued a degree in cinema. My career began at Entertainment Tonight (ET). Later I quit and the eharmony job landed in my lap three weeks later. Nine years later, I've learned so much about dating and relationships.
Q: What piqued your interest in the dating and relationship industry?
A: Who isn't interested in telling stories about love, breakups, and dating?
Q: How do you think technology has played a role in modern dating?
A: Technology connects us like never before. It is easier than ever to secure a date.
Q: What are some of the challenges eharmony sees?
A: Getting people to look beyond 2-3 photos and read what a potential match has to say on their profile continues to present itself as a challenge.
Q: How 2nd wave apps are playing a role in modern dating?
A: I welcome all of them. When swiping fatigue sets in, I would hope these people would come and try eHarmony.
Q: What are some of the top dating concerns your users report?
A: 18 to 24 year olds were most worried about not getting responses to the messages. In contrast, 50 to 64 year olds were afraid of being catfished.
Q: What can we do to avoid these things?
A: Know what you are looking for in a partner. If you do find someone online who looks promising, move it to a real-life interaction as soon as possible. Meet someone in a public place, let a few friends know where you are going, and get yourself there.
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Ashley Madison Threatens To Sue 'Tinder For One Night Stands' - CasualX
METRO.CO.UK - Dec 14 - The infidelity app Ashley Madison has threatened to sue a rival sex app after accusing it of copying its trademarks. It has ordered a hook-up app called CasualX to immediately change its branding and slogan or face legal action. CasualX, which markets itself as 'the Tinder for casual sex', advertises its services with the words 'Life is boring. Desire a fling?' Ashley Madison feels this is too similar to its own slogan: 'Life is short. Have an affair.' It also called on CasualX to stop using a picture showing a masked woman pressing a finger to her lips, which is allegedly similar to an image used by Ashley Madison.
by Jasper Hamill
See full article at Metro.co.uk
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The Inner Circle: "Fine Dating - Fine People"
THETIMES.CO.UK - Dec 13 - Way back in 2000s David Vermeulen was just another ambitious young business school graduate. He was looking for a serious, grown-up relationship. He tried a couple of dating sites, but he wasn't impressed with the calibre of prospective mates. "There were just a lot of women and it was hard to filter through them. So, I thought, 'Why not make a platform with better quality people on it?'" Vermeulen, 41, is now the CEO of The Inner Circle, which he launched in Amsterdam in 2013 with Michael Krayenhoff. It's the fastest-expanding "curated dating" platform in Europe and it's rolling out in the US too. The Inner Circle claims 650K active users. New members can't sign up, they have to apply, or be invited by another member. The Inner Circle team looks at education, profession and connections on social media. Users also get to take part in real-life Inner Circle social events - polo matches, wine tastings and frequently holiday together. There are other elite dating platforms such as Luxy, Raya, Beautiful People or The League.
by Richard Godwin
See full article at TheTimes.co.uk
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OkCupid App Developer Talks About New Messaging System
DAILY VOICE - Dec 16 - Glen Rock's Joe Acosta is an app developer at OkCupid. He played an integral part in rolling out the company's new, experimental open messaging system. "Our old system was a completely open messaging system," said Acosta. "Anyone could send multiple messages to anyone and the messages would go straight to the recipient's Messages Screen." With the new OkCupid messaging system, users will only see messages if they choose to go to the sender's profile, after noticing that the person has messaged them. If the receiver decides that they're not interested in that person, they can pass on reading the message. The change came after many OkCupid users reported that they were so inundated with messages that sifting through them became an unimaginably stressful task.
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LinkedIn's Career Advice App Vs. Bumble Bizz
BUSINESS INSIDER - Dec 16 - Shana Lebowitz from Business Insider has recently tried out two new, digital approaches to networking: LinkedIn Career Advice and Bumble Bizz. She had a hard time connecting with fellow journalists and starting conversations on both. Bumble Bizz proved to facilitate a more enjoyable, seamless experience - although not that effective in actually meeting people. LinkedIn has just recently launched its Career Advice feature. It allows users to find potential mentors and mentees and chat online or offline. Bumble Bizz is connecting women and men with similar professional interests.
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Everyth1ng Y0u Kn0w Ab0ut P@ssw0rds 1s Wr0ng
KOUNT BLOG - Sep 12 - The long-accepted norm that strong passwords require a mix of letters, numbers, and special characters has been challenged by Bill Burr, a 72-year-old former manager at the National Institute of Standards and Technology. He and other researchers now suggest to use the longest word or phrase you can remember, even if it’s understandable or comprehensible. The reason is that the advances in computing power have made it easier for hackers to try millions of combinations in very little time. Thus, shorter words or phrases provide fewer combinations for these bot attacks to run through before "cracking the code." The phrase "CorrectHorseBatteryStaple" would take 550 years for a computer to compromise. On the other hand, a unique spelling of the word "troubadour" with a couple of unique characters appended at the end (i.e., Tr0ub4dor&3) would require only 3 days to crack due to its shorter length. Also having word phrases that are more easily remembered makes it much easier for consumers to use a different password for every account, which at the end of the day, is the most critical aspect of password security.
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Our Body After Breakup - Infographic By HeyCrush.com
HEYCRUSH - Dec 14 - Here is an interesting infographic about what our body is going through after a breakup. The infographic, titled "What happens to your body after a breakup?", details the latest scientific breakthroughs and explains the neuroscience of breakups.
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Alex Harrington, CEO Of Snap Interactive, Talks About Blockchain
SNN – Dec 14 – Snap Interactive, the publicly traded company, is bringing in some Blockchain-enabled technology. Alex Harrington, the CEO talked about Snap's Blockchain initiatives at the LD Micro "Main Event" 2017 in Bel Air, CA. "We are developing a new app called Backchannel that is a secure video-enabled app. One of the powerful things about Blockchain is that you can sign in with an app without showing your real identity. You do it with a CryptoID. It enhances the security and privacy."
All Snap's apps have freemium model. "We have free users through which we collect the advertising revenue and then we have paid users that upgrade to a subscription. Both free and paid users buy virtual gifts. So virtual gifts is a significant part of our transactional revenue. Overall transactional revenue makes up about 90-91% of our total revenue. BackChannel will also be a freemium model but there will be tokens so most of the payments will be different."
"The Blockchain initiative is a really big driver of growth because it extends the capability of what we can deliver to customers, and really improve the back end capability – content delivery, storage and payments."
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Dating Sites Must Do More To Protect Users From 'Catfishing'
HUFFINGTON POST - Dec 14 - Ann Coffey, a British labor party politician, is campaigning for a new law to make it illegal to create a false identify online and pretend to be someone else to form a romantic relationships – known as 'catfishing'. Dating sites and social media companies should also be doing more to protect people from 'catfish'. She is proposing to introduce a new name and shame league table of dating sites to expose those stuffed with fake profiles.
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Q & A With Dating Industry Expert, Mark Brooks
TOP10BEST DATING SITES - Dec 12 -
Q: How did you become an expert in the dating industry?
A: I started an adventure club in Silicon Valley in 1996. It was a singles club that wouldn't admit to being a singles club. I learned a lot about how people felt about early dating sites. I worked for some dating sites from 2000 - 2005 and was coerced into speaking at the Internet Dating Conference in 2005. Ed Baig from USA Today interviewed and quoted me. I'd been working in the iDating business since 2000, in earnest, and he put me on the map as bonafied dating industry expert.
Q: So you're an expert in the industry, but have you ever used a dating site?
A: My goal is to help create dating apps that I'd actually want to use. In 2000 I used Hypermatch, a site I worked on. It worked quite well for me, and was a precursor to eharmony really.
Q: What did you learn from your personal online dating experience?
A: I dated a girl seriously from the site. We were very compatible in many ways, but one. Our senses of humor were just off.
Q: What are the greatest benefits of online dating?
A: Dating apps services are generally brilliant at one thing. Helping people get the tough questions out of the way right up front. i.e. got kids? want kids? married? want to get married one day?
Q: Where do you see room for improvement?
A: Helping people facilitate highly-compatible connections. The secret is to observe people's behavior, and match against behavior. In the future, to fulfill its potential, the dating industry will need to connect with more academics, do a lot more experiments, and learn how to correlate observed behaviors and preferences with character traits and compatibility.
Q: What can you tell us about online dating users today versus online dating users 10 years ago?
A: In the past there was a major stigma around Internet dating. Now, I think pretty much everyone knows someone who has been successful with online dating.
Q: What do you expect will be the big changes in the dating industry in 2018?
A: Tinder will continue to rule the roost. VC money will burn out. Dating apps will charge more, which will fuel a resurgence in innovation and new app development. I sense the beginnings of a hunger for change and renewal. We'll see more fracturing of the market in 2018-2020 as niche dating apps start to take root.
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Whitney Wolfe Herd Lands On Forbes' 30 Under 30 For 2017
CALIFORNIA BLOG - Dec 14 - Forbes' annual 30 Under 30 issue highlights 30 people who are not only wildly successful but who also happen to be under the age of 30. Ms. Wolfe' dating app Bumble has ~22M registered users and is experiencing a YOY growth of 70%. Tinder has ~46M users and 10% growth. Monetization of the app started in August 2016. For 2017, Bumble is expected to exceed $100M in sales - and that figure is expected to double in 2018.
by Haley Rothwell
See full article at California Blog
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Plenty Of Fish Adds New Conversation Features To Differentiate Itself From Tinder
TECH CRUNCH - Dec 14 - POF was founded in 2003, then sold to Match Group in 2015 for $575M. It has since remained fairly quiet. That is now changing. POF is set to launch a collection of new modern features, called "Conversation Powers". It includes voice messaging, video calling, and the ability to share photos in chats. In the near future, it will also include the ability to share GIFs in conversations and add illustrations to photos, like doodles and stickers. POF will trigger the "Conversation Powers" after users have chatted with a match for a period of time. POF aims to differentiate itself from Tinder and others going forward by doubling down on conversations – something that's already a key focus for the company. POF claims 150M registered users worldwide. The company also says it was seeing $80M in revenue at the time of its acquisition, and has been growing that in the double-digits since.
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Tinder Is Testing A Feed Of Real-time Updates From Users' Matches
TECH CRUNCH - Dec 12 - Tinder is testing a new feature called "Feed" in Australia, New Zealand and Canada. The Feed, which will appear as a tab on the Messages screen, will include real-time updates from those users have already matched with, including things like recently added Tinder photos, plus Instagram posts and their Top Artists and Anthems from Spotify. This is data Tinder users could already see, had their matches connected these external accounts to their profile. The idea is to present this information in a new format.
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Grindr's Online Magazine "Into" Boasts Strong Q1 Numbers
PUBLISHERS DAILY - Dec 12 - After its launch in August, INTO, Grindr Media's online lifestyle publication, shows strong readership numbers as it taps veteran Trish Bandix to serve as the site's managing editor. Bandix, previously the editor in chief of AfterEllen.com and GO magazine, whose writing has appeared in outlets like Vogue, Broadly, and BuzzFeed, will help INTO cultivate content for queer women and grow a larger audience an the site. INTO has recorded 24.3M unique viewers since launching, beating established LGBTQ outlets like Out.com and Advocate.com.
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