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

Andrey Andreev to Launch Social Network, Stereo

TELEGRAPH.CO.UK - Nov 2 - Andrey Andreev, the billionaire founder of Badoo, will soon launch a new kind of social network based around audio, called Stereo. He is the founder, CEO and primary backer of the app, which will let users engage in voice-based chats or listen in on conversations between friends or celebrities. The app is in beta mode with a team made up of former Badoo staff in the UK and Silicon Valley.

by Matthew Field
See full article at Telegraph.co.uk

See the top news on Badoo  

This post also appears on Very Social Network

Top Grossing Dating Apps for August 2020

SENSOR TOWER - Sep 29 - The top grossing dating app worldwide for August 2020 was Tinder with~$83.5M in user spending, which represented 7.8% growth from August 2019. ~43 percent of Tinder's revenue was from the US, followed by 6% from the UK and 6% from Germany. Bumble was #2 with ~$22.7M in gross revenue, up16.8% YOY. The next top grossing app was Pairs, followed by Badoo and MeetMe.

by Julia Chan
See full article at SensorTower

HotOrNot Shaped the Social Web as We Know It

MASHABLE - Sep 28 - Created in 2000, HOTorNOT became an overnight viral hit by letting people upload pictures of themselves so total strangers could rate their attractiveness on a scale of 1 to 10. Twenty years later, HOTorNOT's DNA is embedded into almost every major platform that defines how we interact online today. "Everything about HOTorNOT was about finding ways to connect people. We really saw ourselves as trying to build the ultimate people router," said one of HOTorNOT's two co-founders, James Hong. "It was a different internet at the time," said Evan Williams, co-founder of Twitter. A good friend of Hong, he called him one of the smartest people he knows in Silicon Valley. "Most people hear HOTorNOT and think of the ranking feature, which is crude and sort of questionable in today's light," he said. "But there was always a deep caring and humaneness in how they did things." HOTorNOT made ~$4M by 2003 (with ~88% of revenue coming from auto-renewing subscriptions). The site's downfall began with the arrival of Web 2.0, when web platforms with "venture money started pouring back into startups again. HOTorNOT couldn't compete with services that were free and relying on cash from investors to pay their bills," Young said. He also cited the loss of their talented and ambitious employees who left to start their own companies, like Crunchyroll. HOTorNOT was sold to Avid Life Media for ~$20M in 2008. In 2012, it was sold to Badoo. Badoo only revived HOTorNOT to turn it into another Tinder app clone launching in 2014.

by Jess Joho
See full article at Mashable

See the top news on HotorNot

MeetMe's Live Video Dating: Dating Online With an Audience

BBC - Sep 2 - On dating app MeetMe, users broadcast live from their phones and then interact with people who tune in. This live vlogging format includes a series of live dating game shows. Livestreamers are paired up to see if there is any chemistry between them. Viewers comment on a "stream" underneath, in real time. MeetMe is part of a suite of dating apps run by The Meet Group. Others include Skout, Tagged (for African-American audience) and Lovoo (an app developed in Germany, which MeetMe bought). Between them they have ~15M users, and on average 180K dating games are played each day, with ~1M people watching the live dates unfold. CEO Geoff Cook describes the platforms as "a public version of speed dating". Plenty of Fish is also currently offering live dating experiences. Badoo has recently experimented with the idea as well. 

Watch the video.

by Dougal Shaw
See full article at BBC

Mark Brooks: Geoff Cook, CEO of The Meet Group, made a couple of impactful statements in the BBC video interview.  Geoff said, "I certainly believe daters no longer have the risk appetite for meeting many different people in person based on something as shallow as a right swipe." This risk, of course, is heightened right now because of covid.  However, there's always been additional risks when daters meet in-person for the first time. Especially the risk of disappointment when people have misrepresented themselves in their dating profile and photos. The best thing about video is, video doesn't lie, so when people meet in-person, they're less likely to be disappointed, or catfished. Geoff also stated "...Live-streaming video helps...by really emphasizing personalities" which I think is why this new video dating norm will be here to stay. It's so tough for dating apps to really help people get a sense of chemistry.  But with video, users can actually get their first sense of chemistry. That's huge! (Full Disclosure: The Meet Group are a client of Courtland Brooks)

See the top news on The Meet Group

Top Grossing Dating Apps Worldwide for July 2020

SENSORTOWER - Aug 24 - The top grossing dating app worldwide for July 2020 was Tinder with ~$68.5M in user spending. 40% of Tinder's revenue was from the United States, followed by 6% from Japan and 5% from Great Britain. Bumble was #2 with ~$16.8M in gross revenue. #3 was Pairs, followed by MeetMe and Badoo.

by Julia Chan
See full article at SensorTower

Bumble Hits 100 Million Users

FAST COMPANY - July 16 - Bumble is also announcing a major reorganization and rebranding that will make the company the new overseer of its sibling dating app, Badoo. Until now, the two apps had been under the umbrella of the holding company MagicLab. But that company is being renamed Bumble. Bumble is bringing on a new president, Tariq Shaukat, previously president of industry products and solutions at Google Cloud. Bumble also announced a new board of directors. Led by chairwoman Ann Mather, the former CFO of Pixar Studios, the Bumble board also includes Pamela Thomas-Graham, the author and former CEO of CNBC; Elisa Steele, the chairwoman of Cornerstone; and Matthew Bromberg, COO of Zynga. Bumble and Badoo have a base of 600M users. CEO Wolfe Herd now oversees ~750 employees in Austin, London, and Moscow.

by Nicole Laporte
See full article at Fast Company

See the top news on Badoo  
See the top news on Bumble

Badoo Launches New AI Tool That Detects Explicit Photos

DAILYMAIL.CO.UK - June 30 - Badoo has launched a new safety feature that uses AI to detect unsolicited nudes that get sent through the app. Badoo says its 'private detector' has a 98% accuracy rate when covering up intimate photos. The AI identifies potentially offending photos, automatically blurs them and gives users a warning that they could contain 'inappropriate content'. The feature was introduced to the 'feminist dating app' Bumble last year, which is owned by the same holding company as Badoo.

by Jonathan Chadwick
See full article at DailyMail.co.uk

See the top news on Badoo  
See the top news on Bumble

Dating Apps in Balkan

BALKAN INSIGHT - June 29 - Like the rest of the world, the Balkans has seen a rise in the use of dating apps during the pandemic, with data showing the length of daily conversations is increasing. While Tinder is the most popular dating app across Europe, in Romania and Bulgaria it is Badoo that is used the most. Created in 2006 by Russian entrepreneur Andrey Andreev, Badoo now has ~450M users globally, with daily messages sent between users exceeding 350M. "Our data shows that more conversations are happening now, with increases of up to 35%," said Tristan Pineiro, Badoo's global head of communications. In other Balkan countries, dating apps are used more sparingly. One such place is North Macedonia, where the use of dating apps like Tinder are still frowned upon. For some, Instagram functions as a dating app instead.

by Bojan Stojkovski
See full article at Balkan Insight

See the top news on Badoo
See the top news on Tinder

Badoo Swipes Right on Inaugural Global Agency Partner

PRWEEK - Apr 23 - Badoo has appointed Grayling as its first strategic global communications agency. Grayling will work with Badoo's communications and marketing teams to create campaigns that support its brand mission of 'Date honestly'.

by Arvind Hickman
See full article at PRWeek

See the top news on Badoo

The Top Dating Industry News for Feb 4th

OPW - Feb 4 - Match Group's new CEO, Andrey Andreev moves on, US Inquiry Over Underage Use, Tinder & GDPR, Grindr hit with a class-action lawsuit.

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 , Stitcher , Overcast , Radio Public or Apple Podcasts .

MagicLab Billionaire Andreev to Launch New Mobile App Business

FINANCIAL TIMES - Jan 31 - Blackstone's all-cash acquisition of Mr Andreev's stake in MagicLab (Badoo, Bumble) closed this week, valuing the group at around $3bn. Mr Andreev (45) said. "It's given me ability, time and money . . . I don't want to retire." He said that one idea is focused on charity and donations - something he wants to make "more accessible . . . the same as what I did with dating". MagicLab is now led by Whitney Wolfe Herd. Andreev founded Badoo (now 425m+ users) in 2006 as a hybrid of social networking and dating and pioneered the "freemium" business model. A non-compete agreement with Magic Lab means that Mr Andreev will no longer be in the dating business. Twenty former Magic Lab staff have joined him in a new venture, based in Mayfair, that will retain Mr Andreev's longstanding focus on mobile apps and social networking. He plans to hire more soon.

by Tim Bradshaw
See full article at Financial Times

See all posts on Badoo  
See all posts on Bumble

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".

by Jeremy Kahn
See full article at Fortune

See all posts on Badoo  
See all posts on Bumble

Video Calling - the Next Big Thing in 2020

MIRROR.CO.UK - Jan 7 - Badoo was the first dating app to test video feature in 2016, which can only be activated once both parties have matched and exchanged one message. The call happens through the app so there's no need to share any personal details like a phone number. Tristan Pineiro, head of communications, claims that the chances of a real life date being a success are higher if you've had a video call before.

by Paige Holland
See full article at Mirror.co.uk

See all posts on Badoo  

Top Grossing Dating Apps Worldwide for November 2019

SENSOR TOWER - Dec 16 - The top grossing dating app worldwide for Nov 2019 was Tinder with ~$82M in user spending, which is up 12% YOY. 41% of Tinder's revenue was from the US, followed by 8% from UK and 4% from Germany. Bumble was #2 with ~$18M in gross revenue, up 29% YOY. 77% of Bumble's revenue was from the U.S., followed by 9% from UK. The next top grossing app was Badoo, followed by Pairs and Tantan.

by Julia Chan
See full article at Sensor Tower

Top Grossing Dating Apps Worldwide for October 2019

SENSORTOWER - Nov 13 - The top grossing dating app worldwide for Oct 2019 was Tinder with ~$88.7M in user spending, which represented 18% growth from Oct 2018. ~43% of Tinder's revenue was from the U.S., followed by 7% from UK and 5% from Australia. Bumble was #2 with ~$20M in gross revenue, which represented 44% growth YOY. 77% of Bumble's revenue was from the U.S., followed by 9% from UK. The next top grossing app was Tantan, followed by Pairs and Badoo.

by Julia Chan
See full article at SensorTower