THE MEET GROUP - Jan 30 - Many well-respected tech companies came together to form a consortium called Project Artemis, a multi-year, multi-company effort for a multi-faceted text-based analysis system designed to detect child grooming. Teenagers sometimes masquerade as adults. Artemis is an A.I. system that relies on a database of common textual patterns derived from confirmed child predator conversations. The flexible design allows companies to incorporate their custom detection methods into it so multiple industries can use it. The database of common textual patterns employed by child predators was compiled using data from multiple companies and platforms. The modular architecture of Artemis permits adaptation and expansion based on the needs of different platforms, which allows platforms like The Meet Group to add features and functionality to it. The Meet Group added real-time processing functionality and support for profile metadata as well as two NLP algorithms. These additions improve Artemis for all companies who use it. The Meet Group believe Artemis is an essential component of any social-oriented company's predator detection toolkit and commend Microsoft on its openness in broadly sharing this capability across the industry to protect children everywhere.
« December 2019 | Main | February 2020 »
What You Should Know About Project Artemis
| |
The League to Launch in Singapore
E27.CO - Jan 30 - San Francisco-based dating app, The League, is set for an official launch in Singapore on February 2. Prior to this launch, The League has already been available in 59 cities in the US. Founded in 2014, the dating app was created to connect high-achieving individuals with one another, using a selective admissions-based model.
| |
MagicLab Told to Implement Workplace Reforms After Sexism Allegations
FORTUNE - Jan 30 - MagicLab, the parent company of Bumble and Badoo, should reform its workplace policies following allegations of sexual harassment, a U.K. law firm has found. MagicLab hired Doyle Clayton, a British firm specializing in employment law, to investigate allegations of a misogynistic and hostile work environment for women raised in a July Forbes story. In its statement, Doyle Clayton said there was "a lack of credible evidence in relation to most" of 24 specific allegations Forbes raised in its story, including "the more serious ones." It did, however, find there was evidence to support three allegations, which it described as "minor".
| |
POF Study: 1 in 5 Singles Wish Valentine's Day Was Canceled
PR NEWSWIRE - Jan 29 - The Pressures of Valentine's Day & Dating study from Plenty of Fish reveals that 43% of singles consider Valentine's Day to be the most pressure-filled holiday, with 1 in 5 wishing the holiday was canceled altogether. The pressure tied to Valentine's Day is stronger among younger singles, with 60% of Gen Z and 52% of Millennials feeling the heat.
| |
Annual Dating Domains Sale
OPW - Jan 30 - Do you have dating domains to sell? Let me know the domains, and set them up to sell on Flippa, or similar, and we'll list them for free for you on OPW.news and via our channel on GDI.news. We'll run a list of the domains. They must be aggressively priced for quick sale (by Valentines day) to make the cut. Ideally, please list them as no-reserve auctions, if you're feeling lucky. Please email [email protected].
In the meantime, here's a goodie. Singl.es is for sale here without reserve and will conclude 5:30pm EST today!
| |
Former eHarmony CEO Grant Langston Joins Innovative Startup Warehouse Exchange
PR NEWSWIRE - Jan 28 - With nearly two decades at eHarmony, Langston joins The Warehouse Exchange as its CEO and a member of its Board. "When approached to lead the team at Warehouse Exchange, I found the similarities between the eHarmony business model and Warehouse Exchange striking," Langston said. Warehouse Exchange is the digital marketplace for businesses needing short-term incremental commercial warehouse space.
| |
Match Group CEO Mandy Ginsberg Steps Down
WALL STREET JOURNAL - Jan 28 - Match Group CEO Mandy Ginsberg (50) is stepping down. President Shar Dubey will be CEO starting March 1. Mandy served at Match Group for 14 years and was CEO since 2017. Match's stock quadrupled during her tenure.
"When I started in 2006, we were just launching the second brand at Match and only 3% of relationships were from dating apps (that number is a whopping 50% today in North America and Western Europe and growing every day across the globe!)."
In October, a tornado left her Dallas home unlivable, and she also has experienced what she called "health hiccups." She opted for a preventive double mastectomy due to high risk of breast cancer. The implants she received are linked to cancer, and so last Friday she underwent another surgery due to a recall of the implants. "I need to take care of myself and so will take some time off this year to do just that."
| |
OPW Podcast - The Top Dating Industry News for Jan 28th
OPW - Jan 28 - Match Group's new safety features, Grindr's new potential owner, Grant moves on, IDEA SUMMIT.
For the top weekly dating industry news in ~2 minutes subscribe to OPW's Two Minute Tuesdays (TMT) podcast on Breaker , Google Podcasts
, Spotify
, Anchor
, Overcast
, Radio Public
or Apple Podcasts
.
| |
Q&A With S'More CEO and Founder Adam Cohen-Aslatei
ALLEYWATCH - Jan 27 - S'More dating app is trying to make online dating less superficial. The app is prioritizing conversation over appearances. The profile photos of two matched individuals are progressively unblurred based on the engagement in conversation.
Q: Tell us about what Something More offers.
A: S'More (a.k.a. Something More) provides daters with a totally interactive way of getting to learn more about a person before evaluating them on the basis of appearance. While most dating apps focus on an image first, S'More focuses on the whole person.
Q: What market does S'More target and how big is it?
A: S'More is designed to transition Millenials from casual dating apps into relationships. There are 24M millennials in the US that have used dating apps and are still single. That's our primary target.
Q: What is the business model?
A: S'More is a free app that also offers a subscription service to unlocks additional premium features.
Q: What inspired the start of S'More?
A: After spending over 10 years in the dating and ad tech space, I felt like there had not been a major innovation since Tinder invented the swipe.
Q: What are the milestones that you plan to achieve within six months?
A: We plan to launch out of beta by the end of the year. We will launch S'More by city starting in Boston and Washington DC.
Q: What is the one piece of startup advice that you never got?
A: No one ever told me just how important it is to step back from time to time to refocus on the "big picture." It's important to prioritize and invest your time where it will have the biggest impact.
| |
Fraudsters Used Grindr to Spoof Ads on Roku Apps and Devices
BUZZFEEDNEWS - Jan 27 - In just the past three weeks, Grindr has been slammed by the Norwegian Consumer Council for exposing users' personal information, suspended from Twitter's ad network as a result of that investigation, and alleged to have been the way a Michigan hairstylist met the man who brutally murdered him. Adding to those concerns is new research showing that Grindr's Android app was exploited by ad fraudsters in a scheme that stole money from advertisers. Amin Bandeali, CTO of Pixalate, the Palo Alto ad fraud detection firm that identified the scam, said Grindr was likely targeted because of its large user base. Here's how the scam worked: A normal banner ad was bought on Grindr's Android app. The fraudsters then attached code that disguised the Grindr banner ad to look like a Roku video ad slot. This fake ad space was sold on programmatic advertising exchanges, the online marketplaces where digital ads are bought and sold. So cheap banner ads were used to resell more expensive video ads.
| |
OkCupid Launches a Politically-driven Ad Campaign
AMNY.COM - Jan 27 - OkCupid began their "Ask Yourself" campaign by displaying ads on the MTA. The campaign is based on real daters' answers to prompt questions that OkCupid offers its users to help find someone compatible.
Some of the phrases displayed are:
- Could you date someone who couldn't be bothered to vote?
- Bigger turn-on: Intelligence or looks?
- It's OK to not date a man who won't vote for a woman
- It's OK for your pronouns to mean more than your profile
- It's OK to only match with someone you can march with
- It's OK to choose Mr. Right based on how far left he leans
by Emily Davenport
See full article at AmNY
| |
Tinder Is Giving Out Blue Ticks to Verified Users
METRO.CO.UK - Jan 27 - Tinder has come up with a photo verification method whereby selected users will be asked to take a selfie that matches a pose shown by a model in a sample image. Tinder advises doing this twice before requesting verification. The photos are then sent to Tinder's community team, which determines whether the account is legitimate or not. If all is as it should be, a blue checkmark will be assigned to the account. Tinder is also working on a tool to weed out potentially offensive messages. The new moves come after a partnership with safety app Noonlight which give daters an easy way to call emergency services.
| |
Motley Fool's Podcast: Online Dating
NASDAQ - Jan 24 - Nick Sciple talks with Dan McMurtrie and Alex Draime of Tyro Partners about the bull case paper they recently wrote on online dating. Some topics discussed:
- How online dating has affected dating style, marriage and divorce rates, cohabitation, and more.
- How gender dynamics affect online dating, and how different apps work around that.
- Why Match is so dominant in the industry.
- Where Facebook's dating offering fits into the competitive landscape.
- How online dating companies are monetizing their offerings, and how they might expand those ad offerings farther.
- How matchmaker companies compete with online dating.
by Nick Sciple
See full article at Nasdaq
| |
Tinder to Use AI to Stop Bullying
NEWSDIO - Jan 27 - Tinder will use machine learning to automatically detect potentially offensive messages. If a message is marked on the system, Tinder will ask its recipient: "Does this bother you?" If the answer is yes, Tinder will direct them to the report form. The new feature is currently available in 11 countries and nine languages, with plans to eventually expand to all languages and countries where the application is used.
| |
B2B Videoconferencing Startup Went Crazy for Online Dating
TECH CRUNCH - Jan 24 - Founder Andreas Kröpfl has spent almost a decade building a videoconferencing business. His Austria-based startup's current web-based videoconferencing system, eyeson, which launched in 2018, has had some nice traction since launch, garnering a few million customers. Last summer the team decided to branch out by building their own video dating app. The app, called Ahoi, is now generating 100k video calls and 250k swipes per day, says Kröpfl. They picked India for the test launch because it has a lot of people on the same timezone, a large active mobile user-base and cheap marketing is still "easily possible".
| |