ARABIAN BUSINESS - London-founded Muzmatch has its eye on regional daters, says founder Shahzad Younas. At last count, the app had 5M users globally. Founded in 2014, the app has specific features that support the Muslim faith, such as 'chaperone' options, private viewing functions and a zero-tolerance policy for harassment or lewd comments. Users can also select matches based on sect, ethnicity and religious practices. Backed with $9M seed and Series A investment from a range of Silicon Valley and global investors, with a 35-strong team, Muzmatch aims to transform how Muslims meet and marry. In the Gulf, the app's average user age is 30 years, for both men and women - while 45% of its users are Arab and 28% South Asian. The majority of its regional users are based in Saudi Arabia, followed by the UAE. Across the region, 20% of members are female, compared to the global average of 33%, and nearly half of all Muzmatch calls are initiated by women.
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Muzmatch, World's Largest Muslim Dating App, Woos the Gulf
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Match Group Fails to Toss Investor Suit on Fake Dating Profiles
BLOOMBERG LAW - Match Group must face a shareholder suit alleging it made misleading statements about fake dating profiles and user retention after a federal judge in Texas declined to dismiss the investors' amended complaint.
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HBO Max Planned Date Nights for 180 Couples Over Four Days
BIZBASH - To celebrate season two of Love Life starring William Jackson Harper, the brand teamed up with dating app BLK and Black Restaurant Week to host a series of date nights around the country. For the season one premiere of its original series Love Life, HBO Max created an at-home date kit which included a three-course meal, a make-your-own Manhattan cocktail kit, branded wine glasses, candles and a themed game. But for season two HBO Max brought the date nights back to restaurants, hosting a four-day series of romantic evenings at eight Black-owned eateries throughout the country. Taking place from Oct. 26-29, the events popped up at restaurants in New York, Los Angeles, Detroit and Atlanta. Fans could either sign up via a dedicated Black Restaurant Week website or from the BLK dating app. Overall, ~180 reservations were made over the course of the campaign.
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Tinder Launches Safety Campaign
MANNING RIVER TIMES - Tinder has launched a safety campaign amid concerns that "sexual assaults linked to online apps are becoming more frequent". Queensland Police and Tinder launched the joint campaign on Friday, which will see messages appear while users are swiping for potential matches within the app. "Report sexual assault for yourselves and others," one of the messages read. "We're all here for different things. Hook up. Doggos. Friendship. Relationship. Nothing is set in stone," another read.
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Podcast With Able Joseph, CEO of Aisle
SPOTIFY - On this episode, Able Joseph, Founder & CEO of Aisle talks about why he started 'Aisle', how it was built, its success story and the tech they use on the platform. He further talks about why venture capitalists were not ready to fuel their investments, innovations being the key in making the product more popular, and tons more.
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Bloom - a New Sex-Positive Dating App
PRIDE - Launched earlier this year by founder Luna Ray, Bloom dating app is entering the dating space to support sex positive, queer, kink, and alternative communities in finding connections. The app includes ~100 gender identity, more than any other dating/social app. Through Bloom, members can easily transition online connections to real-world ones at events listed in the app.
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Match Introduces Human Matchmaking
WALL STREET JOURNAL - For $4.99 a week Match dating experts will go through a user's answers to four questions and pair them. A 50-member team, trained as dating coaches, will select two profiles for participating members each week, drawing from the same algorithm-generated pool Match provides. Questions include, what a person would change about their dating life, and what sort of person a user gravitates toward. "The company created the feature because, for some singles, the pandemic has added a degree of urgency to finding a long-term relationship," said Amarnath Thombre, CEO of Match Group Americas. "People have had enough time to reflect," "Traditional matchmaking services are costly, starting in the thousands of dollars for just a few months. But these services are worth it to customers who don't have the time to sort through candidates on apps," said Tammy Shaklee, founder/matchmaker of H4M, an LGBTQ matchmaking service.
by Ann-Marie Alcántara
See full article at Wall Street Journal
Mark Brooks (owner of matchmaker.com): Fascinating stuff, but I think calling this matchmaking is an offense to the matchmaking industry. $5 a week may well be a scalable price-point, but I don't think this service does justice to the humanity of the service matchmakers provide. The whole point of (quality) matchmaking is to get deep into the person, council and coach them, and provide custom advice to the individuals, with occasional appropriately sugar-coated but tough feedback. Match's service appears to be a commitment vehicle. I don't quite see how this service quite passes muster as matchmaking, even as a minimum effective dose. Let's see. Looks like the opposite end of the spectrum to the matchmaking service eHarmony introduced and experimented with years ago.
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Match Made the List of Top 100 Companies to Work for
DALLAS NEWS - Match's perks include a casual work environment, company-paid maternity and paternity leave, on-site massage, an Employee Wellness & Relaxation Room, on-site foosball and pool tables, discounted gym memberships, pet insurance, company-provided DART passes, and free gourmet coffee & drinks.
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The Untold Story of Muzmatch
YOUTUBE - Did you know that the original designs for muzmatch were made in Microsoft Word by its CEO in his bedroom? CEO and founder, Shahzad Younas, gives us all the juicy details about how muzmatch came about in this podcast.
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Digital Rights Nonprofit Alleges Grindr Violated User Privacy Laws
JURIST.ORG - The European Center for Digital Rights (Noyb) has filed a complaint against Grindr, alleging that the dating app violated the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). New users must confirm their identity. Grindr requires these users "to hold up a piece of paper with their email address, as well as their passport - all while balancing their phone to take a selfie." Noyb asserts that this additional requirement "is violation of the GDPR." Last year Grindr faced similar allegations when the Norwegian Consumer Council (NCC) accused Grindr of violating the GDPR after an NCC research report found that Grindr shared location and device information with other companies.
by Heidi Johnson
See full article at Jurist.org
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S'More Is Using AWS Rekognition
GRITDAILY - S'More, the anti-superficial dating app founded by former Magic Labs executive Adam Cohen-Aslatei, is using advanced Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud services to build a safe and secure dating app. S'More is among the first U.S. dating apps to use Amazon Rekognition, a deep learning-based image and video analysis service, to protect daters from fake profiles and remove banned content. S'More has ~300K users only 18 months out of beta. Its interface hides a user's profile image, only to slowly reveal it after steady back-and-forth conversation between both parties. S'More also has raised ~$3M in funding.
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Pure, the Dating App 'Where Anything Goes'
NEW YORK POST - Pure started up in Portugal and has spread throughout Europe. Launched in 2013, the app has only just started marketing the app in the US as a site for "shameless dating," an online ad board where users can explicitly say what they're looking for right now. The brainchild of Ukrainian entrepreneurs Roman Sidorenko and Alexander Kukhtenko, the app currently boasts a half-million active, international users, mostly in cities like London, Paris, Berlin and Moscow. In the New York City area, Pure has 20K prospective daters. In April 2020, Olga Petrunina, who previously founded several IT companies in the travel and crypto industries, became the CEO of Pure. According to the company, "As a woman, Olga's main goal is to improve the female experience with online dating." The site is mostly a go-to for heterosexuals searching for casual sex.
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Tinder and Match Asking Users to Urge Senators to Pass Violence Against Women Act
THE HILL - Match, Tinder, OkCupid, BLK, Chispa and Plenty of Fish, all of which are part of Match Group, have prompted their users to send an email to their senators "with one click," urging them to support the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act. The Violence Against Women Act, originally enacted in 1994, lapsed in 2019 and has not been reauthorized since. The bill would provide grants to state and local governments for programs addressing domestic abuse, sexual assault, dating violence and stalking, in addition to further narrowing the so-called boyfriend loophole to prohibit dating partners convicted of domestic violence or abuse from buying or owning guns. Current law only restricts gun purchases for spouses or formerly married partners who were convicted of abuse or are under a restraining order.
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Barry Diller Denies Media Empire Cheated Tinder Founders out of $2B
FINANCIAL TIMES - Barry Diller has denied accusations his media empire had a pattern of cheating entrepreneurs as he took to the stand to defend claims that IAC fleeced the founders of Tinder out of $2B. "The only thing we want is valuations to be fair. If we are out of faith with our employees we wo't have any," said Diller, a longtime Hollywood executive who became an internet investor backing such companies as Expedia and TripAdvisor. Diller admitted he had little day-to-day oversight over Tinder, testifying he recalled only meeting Rad in person once and that he did not know the intricacies of the contract the Tinder founders had struck with IAC over their equity.
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Spark Networks Q3 Results
PR NEWSWIRE - Q3 revenue was $53.3M, compared to $60.8M in the Q3 of 2020. Net Loss was $2.7M, compared to $0.1M last year's Q3. Four of Spark's top five brands, representing ~50% of total revenue, collectively grew revenue and subscribers YOY during the quarter, their fifth consecutive quarter of growth. Zoosk Live! users doubled since its Q2 launch. Spark expects to launch Zoosk Great Dates in Q4 to drive increased user engagement and subscribers. Spark reiterates full year 2021 revenue guidance of $219M to $223M. The company's portfolio include Zoosk, EliteSingles, SilverSingles, Christian Mingle, Jdate, and JSwipe, among others.
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