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

Tinder Is Now the Top Dating App in Thailand

BANGKOKPOST - Aug 19 - In Thailand, Badoo was once the most downloaded dating app, but has been overtaken by Tinder. To Tinder, this is a surprising achievement because Asia was not their target market when the app was introduced in 2012. Seeing the high demand in Asia, Tinder is now working on building a new version of the app called "Tinder Lite". Tinder Lite will be 25% faster while consuming 20% less battery on devices and it will take up 25-times less storage space on Android device. Match Group believes Asia will comprise 25% of Tinder's total revenue by 2023.

by Sopheavuthtey Borin
See full article at Bangkok Post

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Emogi Rebrands to Holler, Integrates With Badoo

MEDIA POST - Aug 8 - Emogi, a tech company that creates visual content for messaging apps, is rebranding to Holler and announcing an integration with dating app Badoo. In a pilot test, Badoo found users were engaging more with one another when they were sending GIFs and stickers.

by Sara Guaglione
See full article at Media Post

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Dating News Update - Bumble, Badoo, Jack'd and Tinder

OPW - July 16 - Ten years ago I tried an experiment doing video news updates from locations like Prague and Venice. They were a lot of work, and and way too long really. I think 2-3 minutes is about all the time you have, so here's a new experiment. Two Minute Tuesday News Updates. Please let me know your thoughts.

Bumble Owner Launches Independent Investigation Into Its Workplace Culture

BUSINESS INSIDER - July 10 - Badoo founder, Andrey Andreev, is launching an independent investigation into his workplace culture after an explosive report by Forbes. Forbes spoke to 13 former employees who described naked cocaine-fueled parties, software updates named after porn stars, and inappropriate remarks made by Andreev. Andreev said he has was "shocked and saddened" by the allegations and has brought in HR firm Peninsula Group to conduct an investigation.

by Isobel Asher Hamilton
See full article at Business Insider

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Bumble CEO Responds to Reports of Misconduct at Parent Company

TECH CRUNCH - July 10 - Following an extensive report in Forbes about Bumble's parent company and its billionaire founder Andrey Andreev, the female-first dating app's founder Whitney Wolfe Herd has issued a statement. She says she was "mortified by the allegations" and "saddened and sickened to hear that anyone, of any gender, would ever be made to feel marginalized or mistreated in any capacity at their workplace." The allegations went beyond portraying a sexist work environment and detailed racist attitudes of the Badoo founder.

by Lucas Matney
See full article at Tech Crunch

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Forbes Investigation Into Badoo's Corporate Culture

FORBES - July 7 - Andrey Andreev's biggest asset is Badoo, a European- and Latin American-focused dating app that, with 60M users, stands as one of the world's largest. His buzziest, however, is Bumble, the dating app focused on empowering women. Andrey launched his first dating company - Mamba - in 2004. It was a bare-bones desktop dating site for Russian users. Finam Holdings invested $20M in Mamba for a 90% stake; Andreev sold the rest to Finam in 2006 for an undisclosed amount. Building off the success of Mamba, Andreev launched Badoo in 2006. In 2010, Badoo launched its iPhone mobile app. The company went from 20M user sign-ups to 100M in four months, mostly in Europe and Latin America, and notched $200M in revenue. (Forbes estimates that last year Badoo had a bit over $300M in revenue.) Simultaneous with this growth, Badoo began earning a reputation for wild parties. More concerning, several former employees say office behavior was hostile and discriminatory toward women. Andreev maintains that he is a collaborator and unifier, not racist or sexist as others allege. Wolfe Herd, who spent Bumble's formative period walking around London with Andreev for days, says she has never witnessed toxic behavior in the Badoo headquarters. And she stands firmly behind Andreev. "What I've seen firsthand from Andrey is creative and motivating behavior. Andrey has never been anything but kind and respectful to me."

by Angel Au-Yeung
See full article at Forbes

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Badoo and Gay Times Partner in Allyship Campaign Targetting Non-LGBTQ+ People

GAY TIMES - July 8 - Badoo and Gay Times have announced a new campaign, which aims to educate the 430M users of the dating app on how to better be an LGBTQ ally. The campaign is aimed at non-LGBTQ users of the app, and has been called The Allyship Partnership. As part of the campaign, Badoo will donate £1 to Amplifund for every 'swipe of support' and will also include educational in-app cards.

by Matt Moore
See full article at Gay Times

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Bumble Now Lets Users Call Their Matches Without Exchanging Numbers

TECH CRUNCH - June 29 - The feature is double opt-in, meaning users won't get a video call from some rando the second that they match with them. Instead, users will see an icon inside their chat that they can tap on to enable the features that move beyond text. Bumble parent company MagicLab plans to bring voice and video calls to its other dating apps (Badoo, Chappy, Lumen) as well.

by Lucas Matney
See full article at Tech Crunch

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Badoo Nears 500M Users, Launches New Campaign

SOCIAL SONGBIRD - June 18 - Badoo, the world's largest dating app and part of the group of dating and social networking companies owned by Andrey Andreev, has launched a new global brand campaign. Badoo's new tagline of 'Date Honestly', replaces 'Bigger than Dating'. Created entirely by Badoo's in-house creatives 'Date Honestly' features real users, with real handwritten bios. Badoo has pledged it will no longer use models or actors in future promotional material.

See full article at Social Songbird

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Bumble Owner, Facing off With Tinder, Boosts Spending

WALL STREET JOURNAL - June 14 - "We're looking for the big, big monsters who can partner with me", said Andrey Andreev, the Russian billionaire behind Bumble. He plans to spend $100M creating an array of new dating apps, part of an expansion and revamp of the privately held holding company that also owns Lumen, a dating app for over 50s, and gay-dating app Chappy. Last year, Match offered to acquire Mr. Andreev's group of companies, but Mr. Andreev declined, according to people familiar with the matter. The deal talks valued the umbrella group at ~$1B.

by Parmy Olson
See full article at Wall Street Journal

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The Most Eligible Online Daters - Big Drinkers Who Live With Parents

MIRROR.CO.UK - June 8 - According to Badoo research honesty is one of the most attractive traits when it comes to online dating. People who live at home with their parents and drink heavily have been revealed to be the most eligible daters online. Analysing 5K users, the dating site found people who reveal niche information, about themselves such as whether they want children someday, were more popular than those who didn't. Female users who claimed to have or want children someday were the most right-swiped, whereas male users who claimed to not want children were top of the list.

by Jack Peat
See full article at Mirror.co.uk

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Russian Authorities Ask Tinder to Hand Over User Data

INDEPENDENT.CO.UK - June 3 - On Monday, authorities confirmed that Tinder had been reclassified as an "information provider". Under Russia's controversial anti-terrorism legislation, that means that the tech company will now be required to store and hand over user data: encryption passwords, geolocation details, photo and video content. While Tinder currently encrypts messages, the company's own terms state that user data can be handed over on request from security services. Russia's security services want to make that process automatic. Tinder has yet to comment on the change, but may be blocked if it does not comply with the request. Two of the country's most popular sites – Mamba and Wamba – were added to the state information register in 2014. Badoo followed three years later.

by Oliver Carroll
See full article at Independent.co.uk

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China's Tinder - Tantan - Is Rising in India

QUARTZ - May 9 - Tantan, China's favourite dating app, is now the fifth-most popular in India by combined monthly active users on iOS and Android phones, according to App Annie. In May 2018, Tantan did not feature among the top 10, but zoomed to the 4th position by July. It has since slid one spot following the launch of Bumble in December.

Top dating apps in India
(as on May 2018)    (as on March 2019)
1. Tinder                 1. Tinder
2. Happn                 2. Happn
3. Azar                    3. Azar
4. Badoo                 4. Bumble
5. OkCupid              5. Tantan

Tantan translates in Mandarin to "talk." Launched in 2014, the app bears a high resemblance to Tinder, and was acquired by the Chinese social network Momo in February 2018. Tantan has ~90M registered users in China. The dating app has been advertising aggressively on TikTok.

by Kuwar Singh
See full article at Quartz

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Bumble's Louise Troen on Censoring Dick Pics Using AI

THE NEXT WEB - May 9 - Bumble has recently introduced AI to automatically censor unsolicited dick pics to make online dating for women a safer and friendlier space. Starting in June, users of dating apps including Bumble, Badoo, Chappy, and Lumen will have access to the AI-based tool "Private Detector." The tool, which allegedly has a 98% accuracy in spotting nudes, will warn users of an image it deems as "lewd" or offensive. "Putting women's safety first is out top priority," says Louise Troen, Bumble's VP of Internal Marketing and Communications in the UK. "We have 1000s of moderators, all around the world, looking for it. AI is built into Bumble that can monitor and find images like this."

by Cara Curtis
See full article at The Next Web

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Badoo Is Looking For a Co-Founder Of Its New Live-streaming Product

LINKEDIN - May 6 - Badoo is looking for an individual with experience content sourcing, live-streaming and launching a commercially successful product.

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Badoo & Bumble's "Private Detector" Uses AI to Detect Dick Pics

TECH CRUNCH - Apr 25 - "Private Detector" feature will identify inappropriate photos and label them as such in chat, giving users the option to view the photo or report the user. Badoo CEO Andrey Andreev opted to have his team build the tech in-house. The company claims 98% accuracy. This feature fits into something Bumble CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd has been promoting - safe online dating for women with less harassment. Wolfe Herd has started approaching the issue of unsolicited illicit photos from a legislative track as well. She has been working with the Texas state legislature to pass a bill that makes it illegal to send clearly unsolicited lewd photos. The "Private Detector" functionality goes live in June on Bumble as well as on Badoo, Chappy and Lumen.

by Lucas Matney
See full article at Tech Crunch

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Walt Disney and Badoo Join Companies Pledging Money to Rebuild Notre-Dame

TECH CRUNCH - Apr 17 - Walt Disney and dating app Badoo are the latest companies to pledge funds for the rebuilding of Notre-Dame after the historic cathedral sustained severe damage in a fire earlier this week. Disney is giving $5M, while Badoo will donate all of its April profits from its 22M users in France. In total, ~$1B in total has been pledged from individuals and companies. President Emmanuel Macron has set an ambitious five-year plan to restore Notre-Dame, though restoration experts say it may take as many as 15 years.

by Catherine Shu
See full article at Tech Crunch

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50% of Dutch Online Daters Downloaded Tinder

DUTCH TECH MAGAZINE - Apr 7 - In the Netherlands, Tinder is downloaded on average 46,854 times a month. Last year there were more than half a million Tinder downloads (566,946). The number of singles in the Netherlands is growing steadily with an average increase of 1.7% over the past five years. Last year there were ~3M singles in the Netherlands. 50% of the Dutch daters have downloaded Tinder. Badoo comes second with a 25% share. Lexa.nl (18%), Happn (15%) and Relatieplanet (11%) fill the top five most popular dating apps.

See full article at Dutch Tech Magazine

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Badoo, Owner of Bumble, Pays Women 33% Less Than Men

BLOOMBERG - Apr 4 - One year after U.K.-based businesses were forced to report their gender pay gap, there has been some change from tech companies, but not all of it in the right direction. Facebook is now paying female staff less on average, but has hired more women in senior positions. Amazon.com, which still employs about the same number of men and women in top jobs, has improved the gap in average pay, while Uber and WeWork both revealed a sizable pay gaps. Dating app maker Badoo, which also operates the female-focused Bumble service, pays women 33% less than men, and women occupy 14% of top jobs at the company.

by Nate Lanxon
See full article at Bloomberg

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Quirky Dating Apps Set to Rival Tinder and Bumble

DAILYMAIL.CO.UK - Mar 15 - Growlr, Smell Dating and Unveil are generating successful matches in unique ways - including asking users to talk to each other before seeing their photos and matching people based on celebrities they like.

• Unveil - This app presents potential partners via a blurred photo screen and the only way to 'unlock' their image is to talk to them on the phone.
• Badoo - A new Badoo's feature allows users to name a celebrity they'd ideally like to date and the app will find matches who look just like them.
• Smell Dating - This company will send a shirt to its members that they have to wear for three days without deodorant, and then mail it back only to be sent shirt options from other people who did the same thing. The scent they like the most will then be revealed and contact details exchanged on the app.

by Matilda Rudd
See full article at DailyMail.co.uk

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