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

Internet Dating Conferences in 2019

OPW - Apr 30 - I was just asked about the lineup of dating conferences for 2019. Here's an overview of what I see that looks interesting for you as dating industry leaders...

May 14th - GDI Asian Dating Conference - Singapore - £250
Sendbird, Scamalytics and Dating Group are sponsoring this one day event in Singapore. Leaders from Paktor, Pairs, The Meet Group, Matrimony and Spark Networks will be speaking.

May 15-16th - Global Love Conference - Singapore - $295
This conference will be more matchmaking focused. Leaders from Viola.ai / Lunch Actually, 2 Red Beans, Paktor, and the Matchmaking Institute will be speaking. (Here's a feel good $50 discount code 50OFFSG)

May 23rd-24th - iDate PID - Kiev - €390
PID stands for Premium International Dating. A term I coined to rename the mail-order brides industry to something more modern. This event is for anyone in, or interested in the PID sub-sector of the dating industry.

June 13th - GDI Dating Conference - L.A. - $249.99
Sendbird, Censio and Google are sponsoring this one day event in L.A. Hine, The Meet Group, Chappy, are speaking. Along with Thinknum, DIG (a dating app for dog-lovers) and Righter (for the politically conservative) are speaking.

Nov 15th-18th - Matchmakers Alliance Conference & Retreat - Utah - $300
This is for established matchmakers to compare notes, discuss key issues and grow their businesses and the matchmaking industry reputation. A not-for-profit conference and retreat led by Maria Avgitidis.

Beyond that there are a couple of small by-invitation-only IDEA SUMMIT events that I'll be hosting in August in U.S.A. and November in Europe.

And that's your year of events in the dating industry, so far, as far as I can see. What have I missed? Please email me at [email protected].

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Dating App Tantan Removed From Android App Stores

TECHNODE - Apr 29 - Chinese dating app Tantan has been taken down from major Android app stores. As of Monday morning it was still available on Apple's App Store as well as on smartphone brand Xiaomi's Mi Store. Tantan stated that the takedown was due to "violations," and that the company would work to rectify the issues. In February 2018, Tantan was acquired by its larger competitor Momo in a $600M buyout.

by Bailey Hu
See full article at Technode

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Scammers Use Dating Apps to Fleece Millions From Aussie Women

CANSTAR - Apr 29 - ~118K Aussies were swindled out of $107M in 2018, marking a new record in the amount of financial loss reported to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission's (ACCC) Scamwatch website and phone helpline in one year. It is also an 18% increase over the $90.9M in financial loss Scamwatch reported in 2017. Dating and romance scams were the second most financially damaging with losses of $24.6M. Women reported losing most to dating and romance scams with $19.5M in losses, while men were most affected by investment scams, reporting losses of $29.1M.

by Petrina Berry
See full article at Canstar

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POF Founder Markus Frind Sets His Sights on B.C. Wine Industry

THE GLOBE AND MAIL - Apr 29 - Markus Frind sold POF for $575M in 2015 and is now establishing his Frind Estate Winery in the Okanagan region. With famed winemaker Eric von Krosigk – co-founder of Summerhill Estate Winery and winner of 300 wine medals – overseeing the operation, the business is set to bottle its first product in May. It will start selling in June at its production facility, located on the 13-acre West Kelowna lakeside estate once owned by former premiers W.A.C. Bennett and son Bill Bennett that Mr. Frind purchased for $7.2M in 2017. B.C. has 280 wineries and the provincial industry is dominated by three giants: VMF Estates, Arterra Wines Canada, and publicly traded Andrew Peller. But Mr. Frind maintains his business "will be a serious winery, one of the biggest in B.C." Central to Mr. Frind's plan is turning 300 acres of hilly grazing land in Kelowna into terrain suitable for vineyards. With no water on site and no opportunity under provincial law to subdivide for development, the land sat on the market for years before he bought it for $3.7M in Sep, 2017.

by Sean Silcoff
See full article at The Globe and Mail

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New Tool Shows How Facebook and Google Track You

FOX NEWS - Apr 29 - A new free toll, called vpnMentor, shows how Facebook, Google, Instagram and other apps track you, right down to your device's battery level and email you've sent. The majority of companies tracked users current location at all times when using the app. Major dating sites will share your data with affiliated dating sites, vpnMentor added, noting some also have access to your private messages to potential suitors. There are exceptions, though. Happn states that it does not keep track of users movements. "Instead, it only keeps track of when members are in close proximity and where they were when they crossed paths with another user," vpnMentor added.

by Brooke Crothers
See full article at Fox News

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New Campaign to Use Dating Apps to Get Young People Registering to Vote

THE NEW EUROPEAN - Apr 26 - A new non-partisan campaign (Vote For Your Future) aiming to get young people registering to vote is set to use dating and social networking platforms to boost turnout at the European elections. Using platforms such as Bumble, the campaign hopes to achieve 15-20M views of its content before the EU elections are held on May 23.

by Sabrina Johnson
See full article at The New European

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Mixing Chatroulette With Tinder - the Future of Online Dating?

GIZMODO - Apr 26 - Dating platforms in China are starting to experiment with livestream. China's biggest Internet dating site Jiayuan first started offering video streaming in January. First, a user would start a streaming session with a set topic, then wait for a second user to join. Then if someone wanted to talk to that host, they would request to join. If the request was accepted, then the two could video chat. That conversation would then broadcast live for other users to watch and comment. There were a lot of empty rooms. So the company added third party emcees to serve as matchmaker hosts. It also created a karaoke feature. Since then, two other major dating platforms - Baihehunlian and Zhenai - also added livestream features. Americans have been swiping left and right for more than five years now and are collectively ready for a different online dating experience.

by Jennings Brown
See full article at Gizmondo

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Online Dating Is Safest in New England, Most Dangerous in Alaska

PCMAG - Apr 25 - According to a new report from HighSpeedInternet.com, some states are a lot safer for online dating than others. The results were compiled by looking at 2017 FBI Internet Crime reports, the CDC's "Sexually Transmitted Disease Surveillance 2017" report, and the "Sex and HIV Education" report from the Guttmacher Institute. Vermont emerges as the safest state for online dating. Following Vermont closely are other New England states. Alaska, apparently is most dangerous state when it comes to online dating. Anchorage is one of the most dangerous cities, where anyone—not only daters—has a 1 in 82 chance of being a victim of a violent crime.

by Eric Griffith
See full article at PCMag

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Badoo & Bumble's "Private Detector" Uses AI to Detect Dick Pics

TECH CRUNCH - Apr 25 - "Private Detector" feature will identify inappropriate photos and label them as such in chat, giving users the option to view the photo or report the user. Badoo CEO Andrey Andreev opted to have his team build the tech in-house. The company claims 98% accuracy. This feature fits into something Bumble CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd has been promoting - safe online dating for women with less harassment. Wolfe Herd has started approaching the issue of unsolicited illicit photos from a legislative track as well. She has been working with the Texas state legislature to pass a bill that makes it illegal to send clearly unsolicited lewd photos. The "Private Detector" functionality goes live in June on Bumble as well as on Badoo, Chappy and Lumen.

by Lucas Matney
See full article at Tech Crunch

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Dating App Pickable Promises Anonymity for Women

TECHWORLD - Apr 24 - On a new dating app Pickable, women browse the profiles of men and if they choose to 'like' them then at that point they send a photo. The man then decides whether to accept the request or not. Founder Clémentine Lalande says that this is in the aim of redressing the gender power imbalance in dating apps, and allowing women to wrest back control. Pickable only ask for men's age, location and height, and doesn't store any data for women.

by Laurie Clarke
See full article at Techworld

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Why Grindr Could Be the Next Media Powerhouse

THE DRUM - Apr 24 - With engagement levels that are twice that of the second most popular platform, Instagram, Grindr is a cash cow with 95% brand awareness in the LGBTQ community. It could be the most valuable media acquisition of 2019. It is likely to sell at a discount given the US government's recent ultimatum and the likelihood that Kunlun will sell it at auction. The LGBTQ market has enormous buying power, boasting ~$100B in the US. If the right media company acquires Grindr and repositions it as the leading LGBTQ media company, the brand could conceivably expand into other businesses. While many in the industry believe the company will sell between $250 - $500M, there is no reason why Grindr couldn't evolve to become a $5 – $10B business.

by Adam Cohen-Aslatei
See full article at The Drum

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Bumble Appoints BBDO India Marketing Agency

THE DRUM - Apr 23 - Bumble has appointed BBDO India to its creative account following the launch of its first campaign in the region. In India, Bumble has recently ran a campaign dubbed 'Equal Not Loose' which aimed to fight the stereotypes that women that use the app are 'loose', preventing them from fully pursuing their professional and relationship goals.

by Jennifer Faull
See full article at The Drum

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Trademark Row: Matrimony.com Claims Interim Order

THE NEW INDIAN EXPRESS - Apr 23 - Indian matchmaking company Matrimony.com has obtained an interim injunction from the Madras High Court against Kalyan Matrimony, owned by Kalyan Jewellers, for infringement of its trademarks Tamil Matrimony, Telugu Matrimony, Kerala Matrimony and Kannada Matrimony through the Google Adwords Programme and in SEO. "We are pursuing legal action against those who deceptively use names similar to our trademarks and attempt to ride the goodwill and the reputation of our long-standing brands, on which we have invested heavily over the past two decades," said S. Ravichandran, GM (Legal & Regulatory) at Matrimony.com.

See full article at The New Indian Express

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CEO of Hinge: I Had Heartbreak So I Built My Own Dating App

TELEGRAPH.CO.UK - Apr 23 - Earlier this month, Hinge revealed a redesign, with a more 'sophisticated' look, to encourage less swiping and more meaningful communication. The technology behind most dating apps is, says CEO & Founder, Justin McLeod, "literally designed to be addictive". "They're hacking your biology and your neurochemistry to keep you coming back. The parallels to addiction are really striking." In his twenties, he battled drug and alcohol addictions, which saw him in and out of rehab. He now considers himself adept at spotting addictive tendencies. "The drug of choice is now social media, which is free and just as destructive. Hinge is designed to be deleted, and everyone else is designed to be addictive," he adds.

by Eleanor Steafel
See full article at Telegraph.co.uk

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Geoffrey Cook Likes to Add Video to the Online Dating Mix

TWST.COM - Apr 19 - Geoffrey Cook has been CEO of The Meet Group since March 11, 2013. He co-founded myYearbook, where he served as CEO from 2005 until the merger in 2011. During his tenure at myYearbook, Mr. Cook grew myYearbook to profitability and ~$30M revenue with 100 employees. He previously founded EssayEdge and ResumeEdge while a student at Harvard University in 1997 and sold them to The Thomson Corporation in 2002. In an interview with the Wall Street Transcript, Cook reveals all of the strategy of this young compay. "To grow video DAU, we're working on things like one-on-one chat. We're going to be putting nearby videos in front of them, and if they do find somebody to chat with, we're going to make it very easy to start a video chat with them."

See full article at TWST.com

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