OPW INTERVIEW - Sep 3 - Meet Group has acquired Skout, Tagged and Lovoo, and has added video, in similar fashion to Momo, in the last year. Fascinating! I asked Geoff how the integrations are coming together, and monetizing.
Meet Group is ahead of schedule for enabling video, and are finding that audiences across their various geographic markets are very similar in terms of their behavior around video. Livestreaming really fits the dating context well, and actually helps solves a particular core problem with Internet dating. Many males and females are left out with Internet dating apps. They come to a dating platform to feel less lonely, and end up feeling more lonely. However, on Meet Group dating services, "livestreaming video enables them to replace feelings of loneliness with feelings of entertainment where they can actually engage with the broadcaster." But its not all about entertainment. 56% of video users report that they meet in real life.
"Video monetizes extraordinarily well." Meet Group went from zero revenue from 'gifts' to video broadcasters to a $37 million run-rate business from video gifts by July 2018. This is mainly from MeetMe and Skout. Meanwhile, Lovoo has been experimenting with bitcoin, but this is very fledgling and not a huge contributor to revenues yet.
Post by Mark Brooks, CEO IDEA
