NEWSWEEK - June 25 - For each person who rides down the "Pride Slide," Tinder will donate $10 toward efforts to pass the Equality Act. Adjacent to Madison Square Park on East 23rd Street, the "Pride Slide" was unveiled to the public on Monday. The 30-foot ride is meant to represent "the 30 U.S. states that still do not protect the LGBTQ community from discrimination.
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Tinder Celebrates World Pride With 30-Foot Rainbow Slide in New York City
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Tech Companies 'Must Take Responsibility' for Dating App Safety
IRISH TIMES - June 25 - Tech companies must take responsibility for the use of their apps by sexual predators and not leave it up to women to take extra measures to keep themselves safe, the National Women's Council of Ireland (NWCI) has said. "Women should be able to use dating apps without fearing for their safety," said NWCI director Orla O'Connor following the jailing of rapist Patrick Nevin. He was jailed on Monday for 12 years for attacking three women in the space of 11 days after meeting them on Tinder. Dublin Senator Catherine Noone called for all sex offenders to be banned from using dating apps for life, saying it was "common sense" to restrict these people from interacting with others online. "People should always take precautions on dating apps but they should also expect some level of security vetting when using these apps. By introducing measures that will ban individuals convicted of a sexual crime, we can begin to provide this level of security."
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Couples Who Meet Online Are More Diverse
PEW RESEARCH - June 24 - According to recent Pew Research Center analysis, couples who meet online are more likely to be diverse. But this can be explained by the fact that online daters tend to be younger than those who meet offline, and younger people are more likely to be in relationships with people who are different from them, regardless of how they meet. In the study (which included 3,394 U.S. adults who are currently married, in a relationship or who have ever previously been in a relationship), the median age of people who met their partners online was 36, compared with 51 among those who met their partners in another way. Three-in-ten of those who say they met their partner online report that their partner is a different race or ethnicity, compared with 19% of those who met their partner offline.
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Mary Meeker's 2019 Internet Trends Report
TECH CRUNCH - June 24 - Bond Capital founder and former Kleiner Perkins general partner Mary Meeker made her presentation onstage at Vox/Recode's Code Conference in Scottsdale, Ariz. on Tuesday. Meeker first crafted a report of this kind, which underlines the most important statistics and technology trends on the Internet, in 1995. This morning, Meeker highlighted slowed growth in e-commerce sales, increased Internet ad spending, data growth, as well as the rise of freemium subscription business models, telemedicine, photo-sharing, interactive gaming, the on-demand economy and more. Here's a look at all 333 slides.
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Nabil Ghaly Is the Engineer Who Says OKCupid Ripped Off His Patent
HEAVY.COM - June 24 - Nabil Ghaly is an engineer, an inventor, and a business owner. He is also the plaintiff in a case which charges that Humor Rainbow, the parent company of OkCupid, illegally used technology that he had patented over 15 years ago. Ghaly says that he sent repeated letters to Humor Rainbow to alert them to the fact that he had already patented the technology. He asked them to sign a licensing agreement but, he says, they declined. That's when Ghaly decided to bring the matter to court. Ghaly's patent infringement case opened on June 20 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. Ghaly filed for a patent for a hand-held matchmaking device in 1999. His system would ask participants multiple choice questions in order to create a profile. The device would store that information and then use it to determine whether participants were compatible with each other. Ghaly charges that back in 1999, this was a brand new idea and that he deserves credit for his prescience. His complaint charges that OkCupid didn't file for a patent for a mobile dating app until 2013 (that patent was granted in 2017). It's not clear whether Ghaly also intends to go after other dating apps for patent violation. Humor Rainbow settled a previous patent violation lawsuit from the parent company of JDate. The patent describes a computerized system for deciding whether two people are interested in each other. Under the system, the two people are notified if they are mutually interested in each other.
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Japanese Sign up for DNA Matchmaking as Country Faces Demographic Crisis
TELEGRAPH.CO.UK - June 22 - One critical new criteria for finding the perfect partner was recently added to Japan’s fast-paced dating world, with the launch of a new service that promises to find love based on DNA compatibility. Created by the dating company Nozze., which operates 21 branches across Japan, DNA Matching works with scientists at a Tokyo laboratory in order to decode the science of attraction and find the perfect match for its clients. Earlier this week, new government figures revealed that almost half of Japanese singles who wished to marry were unable to find a suitable partner, with 60% admitting they were not doing anything to change the situation. Satoru Fujimura, PR manager of Nozze., said: "We believe 50% of a person's attraction to another person is due to DNA. And the other 50% is environment. We believe that people with the most different types of DNA (HLA) make the best couples."
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Tinder's "Festival Mode" Is Now Live in Australia
HAPPYMAG - June 22 - Earlier this year, Tinder announced that a Festival Mode was set to be released for the Byron Bay festival, Splendour in the Grass in Australia. The festival feature is now active which means users will be able to switch on the feature on the app and add a Splendour badge to their Tinder profile. This will allow them to match with other festival goers throughout the event.
by Astari Mudana
See full article at HappyMag
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Prelinker Apoints New CEO to Grow Business Internationally
OPW - June 22 - Mauricio Botero was COO at Global Personals for 14 years. Now he's taken the helm of Prelinker.com, which is a leading European-centric dating affiliate program.
Read the full interview on Internet Dating Affiliates blog
How does the affiliate network stand out from the likes of FriendFinder and other affiliate programs?
Established in 2001, we have a mature team and technology platform with a wide range of offers and sophisticated optimization tools to maximize profitability for our partners. We have an advanced whitelabel platform allowing rapid deployment in every vertical and niche. Smartlink Technology allows our dedicated optimization team to maximize conversions in real-time for our partners.
You spent 14 years at Global Personals. What attracted you to Prelinker?
The people and the TEAM Culture are by far #1. I found a team of dedicated, intelligent and hungry professionals. The company is well positioned for growth, and it is here where I can add the most value.
How big is the company, revenue-wise, approximately?
We are a private company and do not disclose revenue figures, but I can say that, over the past few years, we have experienced tremendous growth. In 2018, we achieved a 30% Year Over Year growth, and so far in 2019, we are almost at 35%. We have put together an aggressive expansion strategy, which will accelerate our growth and will drive exponential growth over the next 3-5 years.
How many employees does the company have?
Nearly 50 team members and growing rapidly.
What are some key Prelinker properties?
Our longest standing brand which we are most known for is EasyFlirt.com, but we power 1,000’s of brands through our whitelabel platform in almost every niche and vertical in online dating.
For example, we power one of the most popular brands in France, Jacquie & Michel, with Jacquieetmichel-contact.com. We also have brands across multiple niches, like: CheekyFlirt.com, SoCougar.com, Rencontre.com and Chat.co.uk; as well as strong gay brands, like: Gay.be, Gay.fr and Gay.co.uk.
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Growlr: What the New Owners Have in Store for the App?
GAYSTAR NEWS - June 21 - Gay entrepreneur Coley Cummiskey launched men's dating app Growlr in 2010 in Columbus, Ohio. In March, it was revealed he'd sold it in a $12M deal to tech company, The Meet Group. The app says it has 10M members and ~200K daily users. Growlr is aimed very much at the 'bears' market – men who are bigger, hairer and heftier, plus their admirers. TMG is a publicly owned business headquartered in New Hope, Pennsylvania. TMG was founded in 2005 as MyYearbook, but has grown and changed its name in the intervening years. It was founded by current CEO, Geoff Cook with his siblings, Catherine and Dave Cook, and specializes in dating apps. Its other brands include MeetMe, LOVOO, Skout and Tagged. They launched live streaming on MeetMe in April 2017, and have now embedded it into LOVOO, Tagged and Skout. "What we saw with Growlr was a very active, and a pretty sizeable community sending many millions of messages every single day. We saw the potential to roll out live streaming video into that community," said Mr Cook. One thing that won't change is the app's focus. The team realize that's its strength. Growlr does have a very distinct sense of community. Its users are very loyal and very engaged.
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Match.com & Tinder's Privacy Red Flags
THREATPOST - June 21 - Analysts at ProPrivacy.com say the dating apps collect everything from chat content to financial data on their users - and then they share it. Match.com reserves the right to collect much more information than just the typical demographic breakdown of gender, age and relationship status. This is ostensibly to be able to build a thorough online profile to help find "matches"; but as a result, users will share highly personal and emotional data with the platform. Tinder highlights that it collects chat data. "Of course we also process your chats with other users as well as the content you publish, as part of the operation of the services," Tinder's privacy policy states. Match.com said in its policy that it shares basic demographic as well as "personal information" with "third parties that assist us with various tasks, including data hosting and maintenance, analytics, customer care, marketing, advertising, payment processing and security operations."
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Woman Scammed on MillionaireMatch.com Sues VC Principals
THINK ADVISOR - June 20 - Allegations of trolling a millionaire dating site MillionaireMatch.com to defraud wealthy women has landed a venture capital company and its officers and directors in the center of a lawsuit alleging securities fraud in California. The firm of Sanford Heisler Sharp filed the suit in the Superior Court of California, alleging the principals of a venture capital operation, VentureMoney Management, defrauded a woman of $600K on the dating site MillionaireMatch.com. The firm seeks the return of her money, interest, costs and attorneys' fees. The plaintiff had filed individually against VentureMoney Management CEO Mark Bernier, who allegedly targeted her and her money on the dating site with a solicitation to invest her money in a fraudulent scheme. Bernier presented himself on the dating site as a licensed investment professional to gain the trust of the woman in order to make a sale. All the while he would "falsely" promise to return her money, according to the complaint. In addition to Bernier and VentureMoney Management, the companies VMC Holdings, Casco Bay Capital and individuals Paul Turino, Alan Maiss, James Jalil, John Zoraian, Greg Zoraian, Greg Doyle, Paul Roben, Roger Rappoport, Nishal Mohan and Mario Diez are named as defendants.
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Dating App Once Tells Users How Hot They Are
NY POST - June 20 - Dating app Once wants its users to know precisely how dateable they are. It uses a new transparent and perhaps harsh algorithm-driven system. "Ranking algorithms" are the unspoken secrets of the dating industry," said Once CEO Jean Meyer. "We know we're doing it, we know our competition is doing it, so why not be transparent?" Meyer says knowing one's rank in the dating world can help users target more realistic matches. To understand its ranking algorithm, it helps to picture a game: If a poor player suddenly beats a skilled one, their rating rises. So if someone with a low rating suddenly matches with a total hottie, they inch closer to a 5. 4s and 5s have a lot of power, he adds: "The higher you rank, the more weight your likes have." OkCupid denied ranking users, and Bumble would not speak of its algorithm.
by Hannah Frishberg
See full article at NY Post
See all posts on Once
See all posts on OkCupid
See all posts on Bumble
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Gay Dating App Chappy Launches New Friend Finder Mode
GAYTIMES - June 21 - Chappy has launched a new feature called Friend Mode for users to meet friends, to mentor or be mentored. Just like in Date Mode, users must both swipe right on each other to initiate a conversation.
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Tinder Criticized for Not Enforcing Its 18+ Age Requirement
FOX NEWS - June 21 - Tinder, the most popular dating app in the world, has banned teens under the age of 18 but it's not stopping them from signing up.
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Queer Dating Apps Are Unsafe by Design
NEW YORK TIMES - June 20 - In 2016, the Pew Research Center found that use of online dating apps among young adults had tripled in three years. The rates are higher among queer people. The frequency with which queer people using social media and mobile dating apps amplifies the privacy concerns we face compared with the general population. 15% of gay and bisexual men who use geosocial dating apps report that someone has shared their intimate images without their consent. Catfishing and revenge porn are common on queer dating platforms. The problem isn't sharing intimate selfies. The problem is the law permits the development of apps that are unsafe by design. Tort law, the regime we use to seek damages from harassers, has been ineffectual because many courts look at gay people sharing selfies and conclude that they gave up their privacy the moment they clicked "send." We've only just introduced a federal revenge porn bill. Communications Decency Act Section 230 immunizes digital platforms from most legal liability associated with the bad behavior of their users.
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