PR NEWSWIRE - Nov 24 - Plaputta will lead technological innovations for Spark Networks' portfolio of premium, complementary brands including Zoosk, EliteSingles, SilverSingles, Christian Mingle, Jdate, JSwipe and eDarling. Since joining as a developer in February 2010, he has been a part of several company milestones, including kickstarting mobile development in 2012, overseeing multiple new country launches of core products and managing company takeovers in France and the US. Most recently Plaputta held a General Manager role.
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Spark Networks Promotes Tobias Plaputta to CTO
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Camgo: Socially Distanced Video Dating Explodes
PR NEWSWIRE - Nov 24 - Free video chat app, Camgo, has facilitated a record-number of connections over the past six months in the USA. The app saw ~35% increase in users from the United States between May and October 2020. Users are spending ~40% longer on each chat and sending 35% more messages.
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Bald.Dating - a Dating Site for Bald People
NEW YORK POST - Nov 24 - Bald.Dating aims to help those who are bald or have thinning hair find partners who "prefer it that way." The site was created by "Niche Dating Man," David Minns, who previously launched a dating site for men with "dinky" penises as well as an "extreme" love-finding app that only pairs users with 20-year age gaps. Membership is free, with a VIP upgrade coming soon.
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Tinder Has Animated a Love Story
AFAQS - Nov 23 - Tinder decided to animate a real-life love story of "how Meera and Priya met on Tinder, worked together on zoom, introduced their pets to each other virtually, kept each other company online, and started something epic!" The film is the love story of a queer couple.
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Bumble Has a New "How to Date" Guide
MASHABLE - Nov 21 - 40% of daters don't know how to date anymore, according to Bumble. Also, 2 out of 3 daters aren't comfortable navigating the dating landscape COVID has left in its wake. This is the reason Bumble created Dating 101 to help boost daters' confidence as the new year rapidly approaches. It includes articles and videos on important topics, like having the "COVID conversation" with a potential date, or how to navigate sex and intimacy during this time.
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Bumble's New Ad - "For Your Eyes Only"
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WooPlus, a Dating App for Curvy People, Reaches 5M Members, and Launches in German
PR.COM - Nov 20 - WooPlus, the dating app for curvy people, is now available in the German Language. Since its launch, WooPlus has grown to 5M members globally. The app is seeing an especially huge organic rise from Germany recently by more than 110% MoM.
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S'More Launches New "Unblur Meter" Feature
LINKEDIN - Nov 19 - S'More, a new relationships app that's about getting to know a person before seeing a profile picture, has launched a new feature which shows users what they need to do in order to view a profile picture. On S'More, all profile pictures are blurred. The more users chat, the more the profile photos unblur.
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Lovoo Nominated in Three Categories at the App Growth Awards
APPPROMOTION SUMMIT - Nov 18 - App Promotion Summit has announced the finalist for the 2020 App Growth Awards, the annual awards for the global app growth. Launched in 2017, the awards recognizes the most successful companies and their apps. There are 20 categories, including App Growth Innovation, App Marketer of The Year, Best Facebook/Instagram Campaign, Fastest Growing App, and many more. Dating app Lovoo has been nominated in three categories - App Marketer of the Year, Growth Team of the Year and Snap Campaign. The winners will be announced on Dec 3rd. Lovoo is a German dating app owned by The Meet Group.
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Match Group Swipes Left on Apple's Claims of Thriving App Store Competition
ZDNET - Nov 19 - Apple, Google, Microsoft, Match Group, and even Huawei have weighed in on the ACCC's (The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission) probe into app marketplaces. Apple believes its decision to open the iPhone to third-party development in 2008 created a "new and unique" mobile technology environment, which then resulted in an "explosion" in software development that "significantly benefited" third-party app developers and consumers alike. Its claims were made in a submission to the ACCC. Apple has argued it needs to "compete aggressively", saying it is in competition with the likes of Samsung, Google, Huawei, TCL, and Oppo. But, as highlighted by Match Group in its submission, there are no significant suppliers of mobile app marketplaces in Australia, or globally, other than Apple and Google.
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Taimi Gets a Makeover
MEDIUM.COM - Nov 19 - Taimi, the LGBTQ+ social network and dating app, just got a rebranding. The company introduced a new logo, brand identity, and an upgraded app interface.
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Dating App Vinylly Matches People According to Their Taste in Music
PHOENIX NEW TIMES - Nov 19 - The recently launched, Phoenix-based dating app doesn't ask users many questions upon signup, nor does it require a phone number, email, or Instagram login. On Vinylly, users sign on with their Spotify account, and their music preferences are the basis for all matches made on the app. Founder and CEO Rachel Van Nortwick says the idea for Vinylly was born out of her love and passion for both music and marketing.
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BlueCity's LESDO Debuts Customizable User Recommendations and New "Catch" Feature
GLOBE NEWSWIRE - Nov 18 - BlueCity, a world-leading LGBTQ community platform, has introduced new interactive features LESDO, a networking app for the lesbian community in China. This rollout includes a customizable User Recommendation System, which allows users to either prioritize distance or how active other users are to optimize match results. In addition, LESDO is debuting the "Catch" feature, a new way of making contacts. If a user wants to "catch" someone, they will answer a question chosen by the user they are interested in. After sending the answer, the user being "caught" will receive a notification that someone is trying to "catch" their attention and can see the other user's answer. From there, the conversation can progress.
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The Meet Group: One of the Fastest-Growing Companies in North America on Deloitte's 2020 Technology Fast 500
BUSINESSWIRE - Nov 19 - The Meet Group, a leading provider of interactive dating solutions, has secured a place on Deloitte's Technology Fast 500™, a ranking of the 500 fastest-growing technology, media, telecommunications, life sciences and energy tech companies in North America. Rankings are based on three-year revenue growth. The Meet Group grew 178% during this period. Geoff Cook, The Meet Group's CEO commented, "We are proud to be recognized as a Fast 500 winner by Deloitte for the eighth time." The Meet Group owns and operates MeetMe, Skout, Tagged, LOVOO and GROWLr.
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Apple Halves Its App Store Fee for Smaller Companies
NEW YORK TIMES - Nov 19 - Apple, facing growing antitrust scrutiny over what it charges companies for access to its App Store, said it would cut in half the fee it takes from smaller app developers. Developers that brought in $1M or less from their apps in the previous year will pay a 15% commission on those app sales starting next year, down from 30%. The change will affect ~98% of the companies that pay Apple a commission, according to estimates from Sensor Tower, an app analytics firm. But those developers accounted for ~5% of App Store revenues last year. Apple said that it had made the change because 2020 was a difficult year for many small companies. The fee cut probably won't calm the waters between Apple and the larger app developers that have long protested the fee most loudly. Epic Games sued Apple in August. A month later, 13 companies, including Spotify and Match Group, formed the nonprofit Coalition for App Fairness to fight the "app tax." And American and European regulators are investigating Apple for anticompetitive behavior, partly because of its commission.
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