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NC BUSINESS NEWS WIRE - Aug 30 - RealBlackLove raised $15,400 by selling stock in a private equity offering. The Charlotte-based company raised the money from 33 investors. RealBlackLove seeks an additional $184,600 to meet its goal of $200K. RealBlackLove was launched in 2013 as a platform for relationship-focused black singles to connect.
by Lily Skopp
See full article at Wral TechWire
See all posts on RealBlackLove
This post also appears on InternetDatingInvestments.
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BBC - Aug 29 - Gay dating app Grindr is going to list its shares on international stock exchanges, under a plan submitted by its Chinese parent company Kunlun Group. Kunlun Group's board said that going public would "strengthen" Grindr's competitiveness and help the business continue to develop. The Chinese tech firm originally bought a 61.5% stake in 2016 from the company's US founders. It then took full control in January.
This post also appears on InternetDatingInvestments.
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PR NEWSWIRE - Aug 30 - For the six months ended June 30, 2018, total revenue was €53M, an increase of ~26% YOY. The growth was attributable to the 34% increase in the number of average paying subscribers. Spark contributed 91.3% of the YOY revenue increase through the addition of Jdate, JSwipe and Christian Mingle following the close of the Affinitas / Spark Merger in Nov 2017. "Our growth strategy remains focused on EliteSingles, Jdate, JSwipe and Christian Mingle, and the recently launched SilverSingles brand," said Jeronimo Folgueira, CEO of Spark Networks SE. Net Loss was €(1.1)M, a €557K reduction compared to the H1 2017.
See full article at PR Newswire
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BROADWAY WORLD - Aug 30 - In the new documentary, New York Times bestselling author Nancy Jo Sales, investigates the online dating industry's impact on gender issues, examining how it has changed the way people date, mate and think about the apps on their phones, and explores how the act of swiping affects the ability to find true and lasting connections. Directed and written by Sales, the film debuts on Sep 10, exclusively on HBO. The film features interviews with, among others: Jonathan Badeen, co-founder and CSO of Tinder; Whitney Wolfe Herd, founder and CEO of Bumble; Justin McLeod, founder and CEO of Hinge; and Mandy Ginsberg, CEO of Match Group.
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MARKETING INTERACTIVE - Aug 28 - Paktor's GaiGai has partnered with Mediacorp's Channel 5 to launch a brand new 12-episode series is set to premiere on 27 August 2018, titled Hungry for Love. The reality dating show will see three bachelors and three bachelorettes find their compatible match. Paktor is the largest dating agency in Singapore.
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FORBES - Aug 28 - Ghosting is where one person completely ceases communication with the other without any explanation. According to a survey of Plenty of Fish users, 78% admitted to being ghosted at least once. Some people swipe on dating apps purely for the instant dopamine-hit of getting a match yet rarely (if at all) convert these matches to conversations. In the dating industry, these users are known as 'collectors' - with some users racking up thousands of matches. Ghosting is having a material impact on users' experience and ultimately their perception of online dating, both of which make it a threat to the industry.
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OPW - Aug 28 - The Internet Dating Conference agenda is out and is looking great. I hope you'll join me at iDate Europe. This is where the growth conference where the dating industry convenes, and gets inspired and smarter. See the agenda here.
Post by Mark Brooks, CEO IDEA
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THE VERGE - Aug 27 - Tinder co-founder Sean Rad, along with nine other plaintiffs, sued IAC / Match Group earlier this month over alleged devaluation. The case centers on stock options and how much the original team deserved to be compensated for their work on Tinder. A source close to Tinder suggested that although Rad claims Tinder was undervalued in July 2017 at $3B, he still exercised his options and ended up receiving ~$94M and ~816K from IAC stock. This source took these actions as evidence that Rad didn't believe in Tinder's future success. Rad says he was forced to exercise his options in August 2017, before he was fired from Tinder in September. He had to exercise them, he says, because they would expire after his dismissal from the company.
by Ashley Carman
See full article at The Verge
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METROPOLIS JAPAN - Aug 27 - While Tinder is still one of the most used dating apps in Japan (ranking 3rd in popularity), it doesn't address different cultural dating nuances. As an effect, it's generally used casually and without care. Dating in Japan is full of intricacies and unspoken rules that are difficult for a foreigner to wrap their head around. One of Japan's highest ranking apps, Pairs, reflects Japanese dating customs. Developed by Japanese startup Eureka, the app aims to slow the process down, contrary to Western apps. They encourage users to take their time and make informed decisions about potential dates. When creating a profile on Pairs, users are expected to answer a bombardment of what may seem like invasive questions, but are considered key factors in matchmaking in Japan - including their blood type or income.
by Alexandra Ziminski
See full article at Metropolis Japan
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CELEBRITY NET WORTH - Aug 27 - Russian entrepreneur Andrey Andreev is the king of dating apps. He's the man behind five successful online dating apps - Badoo, Chappy, Huggle, Mamba and Bumble. He was born Andrey Ogandzhantyants in Moscow but changed his name to his mother's maiden name because it was easier to spell. He's always been passionate about technology. He briefly attended the University of Moscow but dropped out at age 18 to move to Spain. In 1995, he founded Virus, an e-commerce site that sold computers and accessories to internet users in Russia. In 1997, he sold it for a few hundred thousand dollars. In 1999, he founded SpyLog, which was software that tracked visitors to websites. It was basically Google Analytics before that lunched in 2005. Andreev left SpyLog in December 2001. In 2002, he built Begun, a contextual ads company. Google almost bought Begun in 2008 for $140M but the deal never went through. Begun still exists, but Andreev left in early 2004. Andreev founded Badoo in Spain in 2006 and launched it in 2009. The company's headquarters are in London and there is a Moscow office. Badoo employs 300 people. Andreev will not disclose Badoo's revenue but said that Match Group is a good comparison for Badoo.
by Amy Lamare
See full article at Celebrity Net Worth
See all posts on Mamba See all posts on Huggle
See all posts on Badoo See all posts on Chappy
See all posts on Bumble
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ADEXCHANGER - Aug 27 - When the gay dating app, which now has ~12M users, first came on the scene in 2010, its monetization strategy could pretty much be summed up in one word: AdMob. But in January, the Grindr competitor decided to remove all its banner ad slots and stop selling its inventory programmatically. Today, subscriptions and in-app purchases make up ~80% of its revenue, and a direct ad sales team is responsible for rustling up the remainder. Some brands shy away from dating traffic, citing brand safety concerns, which makes it tricky for Scruff to monetize with advertising.
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NEWSWISE - Aug 27 - A study published in the Journal of Consumer Research discovered that if something looks to the right, people are more likely to swipe right and vice-versa. Students from Ghent University (Belgium) were shown images of toys, pictograms, shoes and gadgets to verify findings. "We have the tendency to always swipe in the direction of the image because it is active in our minds and this study shows there is spillover to the motor neurons in our brain," says Mario Pandelaere, a Virginia Tech associate professor.
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BUSINESSWIRE - Aug 25 - The law firm of Kahn Swick & Foti has commenced an investigation into Match Group. KSF's investigation is focusing on whether Match Group breached their fiduciary duties to Match's shareholders or otherwise violated state or federal laws. On August 14, 2018, founders and current and former employees of Tinder filed a lawsuit against IAC and Match Group, alleging that they created false financial information, delayed new products and used other tactics to deliberately undervalue Tinder in order to prevent select Tinder shareholders from exercising their rights to cash in stock options worth billions of dollars.
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PHILLY.COM - Aug 25 - Meet Group is like China's Momo, with its live streaming video chat. Live streaming on its Quick app now attracts ~850K of its 4M paid and premium-feature free users daily. Those subscription and "gift" payments account for a quarter of Meet Group's revenues. By the end of the year, Meet Group plans to offer a new video product, Battle, that will enable two or more competing performers to register paid gifts as signs of favor from viewers, a kind of interactive mobile America's Got Talent. Last year, Meet Group bought Germany-based Lovoo, a five-year-old, mostly European dating app funded by subscriptions, purchases and ads, for $70M in cash, plus up to $5M in sales bonuses. That purchase boosted Meet Group sales by $32M. In 2016, Meet acquired IfWe for $60M and Skout for $52M. In 2011 it merged with Quepasa, a Latin America-focused, publicly traded social-media company.
by Joseph N. DiStefano
See full article at Philly.com
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MEDIAPOST - Aug 25 - Many are nervous about our robotic future, judging by Artificial Intelligence And the Very Real, Real-World Anxiety It Causes, a study by Elicit. 59% feel that while AI may provide benefits, there are inherent risks. Only 15% think it is a benevolent force for good, while 8% are undecided. And 18% say it will pose a threat to humanity. The study shows that 73% think some firms will go too far with AI. And 64% worry that they will use AI and "the information they have about me to engage with me." While 58% would be happy if a dating site suggested a potential soul mate based on questions they answered, 73% would be nervous if the site suggested a date in an establishment that both parties frequent.
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