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

Dating Now Dominates The UK's Top Grossing Lifestyle Apps

ELITEBUSINESS MAGAZINE - Oct 21 - "Online dating used to be an absolute mystery, even at times a socially ostracised behaviour," says Robyn Exton, founder and CEO of HER, the app for lesbian, bisexual and queer people. "According to Statistic Brain, one fifth of all current committed relationships began online," Exton says, while calling it "normative." A 2017 study from TSB, the bank, found dating pumped £14.5B into the UK economy and dating apps accounted for ~£11.7B of the sum. As of Oct '18, dating dominates the UK's top grossing lifestyle apps on the App Store, accounting for half of the top ten, according to App Annie. Tinder, Bumble and happn also account for the top three grossing lifestyle apps on Google Play. According to Didier Rappaport, CEO and co-founder of happn, the location-based dating app that crossed the 50M user milestone in June 2018. Despite the various players entering the market, the pay-off is growing alongside it. App Annie revealed on Valentine's Day 2018 that the global consumer spend on dating apps on the App Store and Google Play had risen by 95% YOY between 2016 and 2017.

by Zen Terrelonge
See full article at EliteBusiness Magazine

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Grindr And MOSAIC Release Middle East And North Africa GBTQ Survey Report

GLOBENEWSWIRE - Oct 19 - Grindr in partnership with the MENA Organization for Services, Advocacy, Integration & Capacity (MOSAIC), released the results of a new survey report "The Regional Livelihood of GBTQ Using Grindr," which captures the experiences of gay, bi, trans and queer (GBTQ) Grindr users living in the Middle East and North Africa. 71% reported that their parents and/or relatives do not know at all about their sexual orientation. 13% of respondents said their parents and/or relatives know about their SOGI; however, only 6% said their family is supportive. 64% of respondents said they either did not know or are unsure of what their legal rights are within their own local community. View the full report.

See full article at GlobeNewswire

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New Scammer Research By Barclays

THE FINANCIAL - Oct 18 - According to new research from Barclays, one in three romance scams (37%) results in losses of ~£5K. Almost two-thirds of cases (57%) result in losses of ~£2K. 'Baby-boomers' now represent 55% of all reported instances of romance scams. Almost half of daters (43%) admit they would trust someone after speaking through a dating site for just two weeks. Men are likely to trust a potential partner much sooner, 53% saying that they would trust someone up to two weeks after they start talking, compared to a third of women (33%).

See full article at The Financial

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OkCupid: Millennials Say Personal Politics Can Make Or Break A Relationship

USA TODAY - Oct 17 - New data from OkCupid shows politics is playing an increasingly important role in dating. 85% of millennial men and women said voting was "extremely or very important" to them. Melissa Hobley, CMO at OkCupid, said the data reflects a growing trend among millennial users: voting with your dating app. Hobley said that since President Donald Trump's inauguration, OkCupid has seen a "massive spike" in political terms on user profiles. The data show that politics is the "dealbreaker or dealmaker" for many OkCupid users, Hobley said. In many cases, respondents said they would not date someone who didn't share their political beliefs. 73% of millennial women and 56% of millennial men said they would prefer a partner who votes for the same party they do. 75% of women said they wouldn't date someone who didn't support the #MeToo movement, and 46% wouldn't date a nonvoter. However, 77% of men said they'd date someone who didn't vote.

by Cat Hofacker
See full article at USA Today

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Online Dating Could Be Worth $12 Billion

BUSINESS INSIDER - Oct 13 - Wall Street thinks online dating could be the next hot sector, and the latest estimate sees the market growing to $12 billion by 2020. It all comes down to peoples' increasing willingness to try out online dating, said Mark Kelley, an analyst with Nomura Instinet. "Roughly half of Internet users are single, and we estimate 20% of them will be willing to use online dating products by 2020 (up from 15% in 2015), which equates to ~310M people globally (excluding China)," Kelly said. Match will remain the clear leader. Even Facebook shouldn't be a concern.

by Graham Rapier
See full article at Bussines Insider

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App Store Revenue 93% Higher Than Google Play In Q3: Report

MOBILE SYRUP - Oct 12 - Global consumer spending on Apple's App Store and Google's Play Store totalled $18.2B in Q3 2018, according to a new report from mobile analytics firm Sensor Tower. This is a 22.7% YOY increase. The App Store generated ~93% more revenue than the Google Play Store during Q3 2018. Netflix was the top-earning non-game mobile app for the third consecutive quarter, bringing in an estimated $243.7M across Android and iOS worldwide. Dating app Tinder and China-only streaming app Tencent Video were the second and third highest grossing apps worldwide, respectively. Sensor Tower's full report can be viewed here.

by Bradly Shankar
See full article at Mobile Syrup

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Young People Are Embracing Single Life, Tinder Finds

USA TODAY - Oct 8 - Millennials are "single, not sorry," and they're making the choice to live life solo intentionally, according to a new survey from Tinder. 72% of the surveyed young Millennials "have made a conscious decision" to stay single for a period of time. More than half said single people were more open to new experiences and that they view themselves as more fun due to their single status.

by Ryan W. Miller
See full article at USA Today

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3 Things You Can Learn From Gen Z About Online Dating

MONEYISH - Sep 30 - Dating app Zoosk recently analyzed ~5.7M profiles and surveyed 4K daters on the site, only to reveal that the youngest generation of daters, Gen Zers (those currently between the ages of about 8 and 22), might have a few lessons to teach the rest of us.

• We should be open to meeting people even if they don't check all our boxes. Indeed, Gen Zers are the least picky daters and swipe or say yes to 33% of the potential matches they're presented, which is 15% more than millennials and 20% more than Gen Xers and baby boomers.
• Anyone can make the first move. The majority, 59% of Gen Zers are indifferent about whether a man or woman makes the first move online, which is 2% more than millennials, 8% more than Gen Xers and 7% more than Baby Boomers.
• Approach dating casually like Gen Z does, so you don't put so much pressure on yourself to make the date perfect. Gen Zers are more likely than other generations to opt for simple coffee dates instead of drinks or dinner, the survey found.

by Alisa Wolfson
See full article at Moneyish

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Why Young Single People In Japan Are No Longer Having Sex

NZ HERALD - Sep 28 - For a country with ~127M people, very few are choosing to go on a date, or even get intimate with another person. Japan already has one of the world's lowest birthrates. With a population that has been shrinking for the past decade, Japan is projected to drop a further one-third by 2060. Young people are just "too busy" for a relationship. According to a 2011 survey, 61 % of unmarried men and 49% of unmarried women age of 18-34 were not in any type of relationship. Another study, said 30% of men in their 30s, and the same proportion in their 20s, admitting that they have no experience of dating a woman. Local governments have set up speed-dating services. The practice is known as konkatsu, or "marriage hunting".

See full article at NZ Herald

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Increasing Number Of Jewish Singles Are Choosing To Stay Out Of Relationship

CJN - Sep 26 - According to the last comprehensive study of Canadian Jewish demographics (National Household Survey, 2011), the last 30 years has seen "growing numbers of single adults in the population". The incidence of singlehood among the adult population is not a uniquely Jewish phenomenon. But the study found that Jewish adults aged 18 to 26 had a much lower likelihood of being in a steady relationship, compared to their non-Jewish counterparts. Libby Bear, who just finished her PhD thesis, titled Singlehood by Choice or by Necessity, at Bar-Ilan University in Israel, says there are three main factors: 1. more women participate in higher education today; 2. the economic change made it more difficult for young adults to attain economic stability; 3. other, non-marital relationships are becoming legitimized.

by Alex Rose
See full article at CJN

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Study Finds Link Between Psychopathy And Using Tinder While In A Committed Relationship

PSYPOST - Sep 3 - People who use Tinder despite being in a committed relationship tend to be more psychopathic, according to new research published in the journal Computers in Human Behavior. The researchers surveyed 1,486 Tinder users regarding their motives for using the app and their experiences with it. 22.4% reported using the app despite being in a committed relationship, and more than half of the Tinder users who were in a relationship reported they had used the app to meet someone. Partnered Tinder users reported lower scores on agreeableness and conscientiousness and higher scores on neuroticism and psychopathy compared to people in a committed relationship who did not use a dating app. Interestingly, partnered Tinder users with a higher score on psychopathy were also more likely to use Tinder for casual sex and reported a higher number of one night stands with other dating app users.

by Eric W. Dolan
See full article at PsyPost

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Ghosting - Dating's Billion Dollar Problem

FORBES - Aug 28 - Ghosting is where one person completely ceases communication with the other without any explanation. According to a survey of Plenty of Fish users, 78% admitted to being ghosted at least once. Some people swipe on dating apps purely for the instant dopamine-hit of getting a match yet rarely (if at all) convert these matches to conversations. In the dating industry, these users are known as 'collectors' - with some users racking up thousands of matches. Ghosting is having a material impact on users' experience and ultimately their perception of online dating, both of which make it a threat to the industry.

by Jack Rogers
See full article at Forbes

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How The Internet Has Changed Dating

ECONOMIST - Aug 20 - Personal ads never accounted for more than 1% of marriages in America. Today dating sites and apps account for about a sixth of the first meetings that lead to marriage there. As early as 2010 the Internet had overtaken churches, neighbourhoods, classrooms and offices as a setting in which Americans might meet a partner of the opposite sex. In a 2013 study from Harvard University and the University of Chicago showed that marriages that started online were less likely to end in break-up. The business is worth $4.6B globally, growing fast and highly competitive. Match Group had revenues of $1.3B in 2017. Facebook is getting into the market, too. Many users, while welcoming the broadening of choice that the online world offers, are also becoming aware of its downsides. For those who find popularity on the apps, endless choice can become something of a burden. Others talk of the exhaustion of trawling through endless matches. New services are looking at ways to make their users happier.

See full article at The Economist

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Grocery And Dating Are The Fastest Growing App Categories

EMARKETER - Aug 20 - In the latest episode of eMarketer's "Behind the Numbers" podcast, analyst Rahul Chadha and forecaster Showmik Podder break down some of the key data in eMarketer's new estimates for mobile app usage. Which app categories are growing fastest, and why? Today, 94.2% Americans with a smartphone are using an app. There are two app categories that 4 years ago ~5% of smartphone owners were using - dating & grocery shopping. Currently ~ 25M Americans are using dating apps, that represents ~ 22% of all singles in the USA. Nearly half of 18-25 years old are open to the idea of using a dating app. Half of dating apps' users login daily.

See full article at eMarketer

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Singles Find Being Good With Money Very Attractive

MONEYWISE.CO.UK - Aug 3 - Credit score provider Noddle's poll of ~1,300 singletons found that one in five (18%) single adults in the UK consider a good awareness of personal finances as among the most attractive qualities in a potential partner. Being good with money is more attractive to singletons than being fit and sporty. A quarter (24%) of female singletons rate financial awareness as important – it is the third most attractive characteristic after personality and cleverness, and rates more highly than good job prospects and good looks. In contrast, financial awareness is important to one in 10 (11%) men and came only seventh in their list of most wanted attributes, also behind personality and looks.

by Hannah Nemeth
See full article at Moneywise.co.uk

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China's Marriage Rate Plummets As Women Choose To Stay Single Longer

NPR.ORG - July 31 - Mrs. Wang has come to Shanghai's "marriage market" each weekend for the past three months to try and find a suitable husband for her daughter. Wang blames her 33-year-old daughter's single status on the seven years she spent in the U.K., where Wang says her daughter "became more independent." But there are other reasons – apart from Western influence – why China's marriage rate has plummeted by ~30% in the last five years. Dai Xuan, 30, works as the editor of a luxury magazine in Shanghai and says her own reasons are economic. "Before, in China, you married to survive," she says. "Now I'm living well by myself, so I have higher expectations in marriage."

by Rob Schmitz
See full article at NPR.org

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Music Lovers Hit Right Note With Plenty Of Fish Singles

METRO.US - July 27 - Plenty of Fish analyzed 9M profiles and discovered that 34% of female music lovers and 24% of male music lovers were more likely to find a catch. Men who listed country music as an interest on their dating profile receive 32% more messages. Additionally, men who like country music are 65% more likely to find a match, 52% more likely to want to get married, and 49% less into wanting to just hook up. Women who like classic rock are 68% more likely to find a match. Women who like classical music are 93% more likely to want to get married.

by Nikki M. Mascali
See full article at Metro.us

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Cheaters Are More Likely To Forgive Their Partner's Infidelity

THIS IS INSIDER - July 27 - According to Ashley Madison, people who have been unfaithful themselves are more likely to be forgiving if their partner cheats. This could be because they are more aware of the nuances of cheating, and know it means an opportunity to fix what's broken in the relationship. Out of 3,000 Ashley Madison members, 53% indicated a forgiving mentality when it came to being cheated on. Men were more likely to forgive women, with 59% saying they were more likely to forgive their partner than their partner is to forgive them, compared to 51% of women.

by Lindsay Dodgson
See full article at This Is Insider

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Survey: 2/3 Of US Internet Users Not Likely To Use A Dating App

EMARKETER - July 23 - According to a May 2018 survey by The Economist and YouGov, more than two-thirds of US Internet users said they weren't likely to use a dating app, and close to half said it's not likely at all. Women were particularly averse to dating apps, with just 24% saying they were likely to use one. In contrast, 40% of men said they might tap into a dating app.

by Jennifer King
See full article at eMarketer

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Global App Revenue Surpasses $34B During H1 2018

PHONE ARENA - July 17 - During the first six months of 2018, global app revenues saw a YOY increase of 27.8%, reaching a total of $34.4B. 65% of it came from the App Store, with its total sales reaching $22.6B during the period. For comparison, over the same period in 2017, Apple generated $17.8B in revenue through App purchases, that's up 26.8% so far this year. Google Play Store saw YOY growth of 30% during the period to $11.8B.

by Joshua Swingle
See full articl at Phone Arena

Summarized by the IDEA team