PRESSORACLE - Aug 18 - Match Group CEO Amanda Ginsberg sold 106,850 shares of the company's stock on Tuesday, August 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $49.37, for a total transaction of $5,275,184.50. Following the sale, she now owns 62,682 shares in the company, valued at ~ $3M.
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Match Group CEO Sells $5M In Stock
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SeekingArrangement.com Goes After Alleged 'Extortion' Of Exposed Users
LAW.COM - Aug 18 - The suit claims that users of the site have had their photos and identities posted on PredatorExposed.com and PredatorAlerts.com, alongside allegations that they had attempted to pay for sex or made sexual advances to minors. The suit, filed Thursday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, alleges Arman Ali and his Bangladesh-based business D4 Solutions posed as women seeking sugar relationships to get personal information and photographs from men on SeekingArrangement.com. Men's photos, names, addresses and other identifying information were then allegedly sold to and posted on PredatorExposed.com and PredatorAlerts.com, alongside allegations that they had attempted to pay for sex or had made sexual advances to minors. The men were then "referred to the removal sites where they are told that the posting can be removed for a fee, which generally ranges from a few hundred to even thousands of dollars," the complaint states. SeekingArrangement's parent company Reflex Media said PredatorExposed.com and PredatorAlerts.com are "extortion sites" that have "caused harm to Reflex Media and the SA members". Many impacted users ended their subscription to SeekingArrangement.com.
by Caroline Spiezio
See full article at Law.com
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IAC Stock Even More Enticing After Tinder Co-founders' Lawsuit
CNBC - Aug 17 - Jim Cramer, the host of CNBC's Mad Money and a co-founder of TheStreet, recommends buying IAC's stock, especially after a lawsuit from the co-founders of subsidiary Tinder caused shares to dip.
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Political View Is Important In Dating, Survey Finds
INDEPENDENT.CO.UK - Aug 17 - Hinge is one of the first dating apps to integrate politics into its algorithm. If users choose to state their political beliefs, it will feature prominently on their profile under the 'virtues' section, in which users also state their education level and height. There are four options for them to choose from: 'liberal', 'moderate', 'conservative' and the ambiguous-yet-intriguing 'other'. According to Plenty of Fish, the majority of singles (59%) won't start a conversation with someone who's dating profile promotes an opposing political view. The survey also revealed that 44% of singles said they wouldn't date someone who voted for Trump.
by Olivia Petter
See full article at Independent.co.uk
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Chinese Driver Turns Bus Into Free Matchmaking Agency
GBTIMES - Aug 15 - A Chinese bus driver helps his single passengers find that special someone by posting their personal information and contact details on his vehicle.
by Weida Li
See full article at GBTimes
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Scam Victims Warn Fake Accounts Will Ruin Facebook's Dating Site
THE NEXT WEB - Aug 17 - Kathy Kostrub-Waters and Bryan Denny are spending some of their free time finding fake accounts on Facebook. They regularly present Facebook with their findings, and each time are disappointed to find Facebook hasn't changed their approach. Says Denny: "The reality is this isn't my job or Kathy's. So I get really tired of 'Hey, thanks for the work - keep it up.' I'm like no, damnit, it's your job to do this." Denny, a retired member of the Armed Forces, is apparently a popular target for scammers, who steal photos of his attractive mug and use them to construct fake profiles on dating sites and Facebook. He found hundreds of Facebook profiles bearing his photo and those of his son. Now consider Facebook's intention to start a dating site. Various people from groups dedicated to finding and warning others about scam profiles, speaking with Huffington Post, called that idea "madness" and "a train wreck waiting to happen."
by Rachel Kaser
See full article at The Next Web
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Online Dating In South Korea
KOREA HERALD - Aug 17 - The value of the domestic online dating industry in South Korea is now estimated at 70B won ($62M), according to a 2017 study released by Hongik University in Seoul. As of July, ~920K Koreans were seeking to find romantic partners through mobile dating apps, of which 81% were men and 62% were in their 20s or 30s, according to market research firm Nielsen Korea. More recently, Azar has emerged as the dating app preferred by the younger crowd, coming in No. 3 on the app store chart. Even though it is described as a mobile messaging app, it is also considered a dating app for Korean users since its main feature allows for meeting random people via video chat. Tinder made its debut in the Korean market in 2015. While online dating apps are popular, KakaoTalk, the country's most popular mobile messenger with some 40M users, is the prime battlefield of love.
by Catherine Chung
See full article at Korea Herald
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Bumble Launches Influencer-Led Campaign
B&T MAGAZINE - Aug 17 - Bumble has launched a new social campaign featuring sixty Australian digital influencers. Running for thirty days the campaign will see two influencers post each day about why they have chosen to partner with Bumble, focusing on the brand's key values of kindness, empowerment, inclusivity, positivity, accountability and equality. The campaign will utilise the hashtag #imwithbumble.
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A Tinder VP Wrote A Heartfelt Email Before Being Put On Leave For Filing A $2B Lawsuit Against Match Group
BUSINESS INSIDER - Aug 16 - Tinder's marketing and communications chief Rosette Pambakian has reportedly been put on leave. She and three other staff ended up on leave after they sued the dating app's owners for $2B. Pambakian wrote a heartfelt email to staff claiming it was important to "shine a light on the terrible practices I have witnessed from Match." Pambakian said she had remained at Tinder because of her love for the company. IAC said the allegations raised in the lawsuit were "meritless" and it intends to "vigorously defend [itself] against them."
by Jake Kanter
See full article at Business Insider
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Brits Wait Until Date Four To Have Sex With New Partner
FEMALE FIRST - Aug 16 - Plenty of Fish has found that on average, people hold out until the fourth date to have sex with a new partner. Most people will wait until date number two to pucker up but at least a quarter steal a kiss on the first date.
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Matchmaking Agency Ordered To Pay Client £13k After It Failed To Find Her A Match
TELEGRAPH.CO.UK - Aug 16 - Seventy Thirty Ltd, a premium dating agency, has been ordered to refund a client ~£13K after it failed to find the woman the "man of my dreams". Tereza Burki, 47, paid Seventy Thirty Ltd £12,600 after she was assured they only dealt in "creme de la creme" matches, the High Court heard. But Judge Richard Parkes QC today ordered the agency to repay her fee, ruling that she had been "deceived" by Seventy Thirty's then managing director. It was found that whilst the agency boasted of ~7k members, only ~100 of them were men actively looking for love.
by Francesca Marshall
See full article at Telegraph.co.uk
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Momo At A Bargain Before The Tantan Growth Story Unfolds
SEEKING ALPHA - Aug 15 - Momo is an $8B popular Chinese mobile dating and social networking company with a fast and profitable growth, strong track record and a huge addressable market. In February 2018, it acquired China's top dating app Tantan, the "Tinder of China" for $700M. Share price has recently suffered from negative rumors spread by short sellers and is currently offered at a bargain ahead of Q2 earnings: around 30% down from its 52-week high. Momo is likely to be very a volatile investment for the years to come. But it offers a great margin of safety at current price. Momo has been able to take a leading position in the live-streaming space after pivoting from its online dating core business. Credits to CEO Tang Yan who identified key trends ahead of time. Competition is fierce in China, between Momo, Weibo, Huya, Douyu or Panda.tv. Content is king, and many of these companies now work with talent agencies or sign exclusive deals with famous streamers to make sure users don't churn and flock to other platforms. Momo is focusing on retaining users and making its platform a great free experience. They add compelling features such as group chat. Tantan has ~20M MAU and growing. The app is only starting to monetize its audience similarly to Tinder with subscription and a la carte features such as 'superlikes' or 'see who likes me' kinds of products. Tantan might already be at a run-rate of $100M+ yearly revenue. Beyond online dating, Momo is also venturing into mobile gaming.
See full article at Seeking Alpha
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For Online Daters, Women Peak At 18 While Men Peak At 50, Study Finds
NEW YORK TIMES - Aug 15 - A new study about online dating published in the journal Science Advances studied the "desirability" of male and female users, based on how many messages users got over one month on a "popular, free online-dating service". The researchers determined that while men's sexual desirability peaks at age 50, women's starts high at 18 and falls from there. The study results echoed data shared by OkCupid in 2010, in which the service found that men from the ages of 22 to 30 focus almost entirely on women who are younger than them. OkCupid also reported that as a man gets older, he searches for relatively younger and younger women, while his upper acceptable age limit hovers just above his own age.
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Bumble Launches A Fund To Invest In Other Female-Founded Startups
FORBES - Aug 15 - Bumble is launching Bumble Fund, a fund focused on investing in female-founded and female-led businesses. The fund, which Bumble says it has committed ~$1M to so far, will invest checks from $5k to $250k in companies that primarily serve women, with a focus on female founders from diverse backgrounds. Bumble's fund has already made commitments to a handful of businesses on an ad hoc basis. Those include prenatal and postpartum healthcare company Mahmee, beauty startup BeautyCon and swimwear startup Sofia Los Angeles, which was a winner of a pitch competition Bumble put on in the spring. Bumble also has invested in several female-focused investment funds including Female Founders Fund and Cleo Capital.
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Coffee Meets Bagel Now Allows Mobile Phone Number Login
VENTURE BEAT - Aug 15 - Dating app Coffee Meets Bagel is giving users another way to sign in, as some remain wary about connecting to apps with their Facebook following the Cambridge Analytica scandal. They now have the option to sign in by providing a phone number instead. By August 20 all Android and iOS users will be able to choose between the two login options. Coffee Meets Bagel says it saw a 378% increase in the number of requests for alternative login options after the Cambridge Analytica news broke in March.
by Anna Hensel
See full article at Venture Beat
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