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

Tycoons of Love: The Men Who Run Online Dating

THINKNUM - Feb 16 - The world of dating apps is dominated by four companies - Match Group, The Meet Group, Badoo and Spark. Here are the four men behind these companies.

Match Group - Barry Diller
Born in San Fran in 1942, 77 year-old Barry Diller is Chairman and Senior Executive of IAC and Expedia. Diller married fashion designer Diane von Fürstenberg in 2001 and is now estimated to be worth $3.3B. He also created the Fox Broadcasting Company and USA Broadcasting. On top of creating his own empire in media, Diller's influence has spread to those who he mentored - colloquially called the "Killer Dillers" - which included former Disney Chairman & CEO Michael Eisner and Dawn Leslie Steel, one of the first woman to become the head of a major movie studio.

The Meet Group - Geoff Cook
Geoff isn't The Meet Group's founder. That honor goes to his younger brother and sister, Dave and Catherine Cook. Dave and Catherine created myYearbook in 2005 as a place for ex-classmates to meet up online. Geoff became the company's power player after investing $250K that he made from his EssayEdge and ResumeEdge startups he created in his Harvard dorm room.

Badoo - Andrey Andreev
Born in February 1974 in Moscow, Russia, Andreev founded Badoo, SpyLog, Begun, and Mamba. He also famously convinced ex-Tinder exec Whitney Wolfe Herd to create Bumble, of which Badoo is a 79% owner. Andreev was recently listed by Forbes as one of the world's richest people, estimated to be worth $1.5B.

Spark Networks - Jeronimo Folgueira
Before taking over Spark in 2017, Jeronimo was a Managing Director at Betfair plc (now Paddy Power plc). The Columbia Business School grad took over the reigns of all of Spark Networks SE when JDate and Christian Mingle-focused Spark merged with Affinitas GmbH.

See full article at Thinknum Media

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The Top iDate Awards Results

OPW - Feb 11 - The following awards were made at the iDate Awards:

• Best Dating Site - Badoo
• Best Mobile Dating App - Tinder
• Best Product Design - Ukraine Brides Agency
• Best Dating Software/SAAS - Dating Pro
• Best Marketing Campaign - Bumble

For the full listing of awards, go here.

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36% of Brits Would Go on a First Date to a Gym Class

MIRROR.CO.UK - Jan 17 - Badoo surveyed its users on which alcohol-free dates they'd be willing to go on. The top suggestion (92%) was a coffee date, followed by a winter walk (77%) or an expedition to the cinema (66%). 36% said they go on a first date to a gym class, while 9% would go to the spa.

by Shivali Best
See full article at Mirror.co.uk

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Who Got the Most News Coverage in 2018?

OPW - Jan 13 - Every day we review the news and bubble up what we think are summaries of the most important intell in the most important news items. All year, every day. Then in January we like to do an annual review of the news and let you know who got the most coverage on OPW.news for the prior year. Subscribe here for daily updates.

Here's the rankings for who got the most press coverage on OPW.news in 2018.

1. Tinder, 182 posts on OPW.news
2. Bumble, 116 posts
3. Match Group, 105 posts
4. Facebook Dating, 58 posts
5. Grindr, 40 posts
6. Badoo, 33 posts
7. eharmony, 33 posts
8. Match, 29 posts
9. OKCupid, 28 posts
10. Hinge, 24 posts

Here's our analysis for 2018

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Facebook Also Let Dating Apps Have Further Access to Graph API Back in 2015

ARS TECHNICA - Dec 6 - UK MP releases 250 pages of materials obtained as part of Six4Three debacle. The documents from Facebook show that the company allowed even more companies including dating apps Badoo, HotorNot and Bumble to access the v1.0 Graph API back in 2015. The documents, known as the "Six4Three files," were published by Damian Collins, a member of the UK Parliament. Collins is the chair of the Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport (DCMS) Committee in Parliament, which has been overseeing inquiries into Facebook's practices. "The files show evidence of Facebook taking aggressive positions against apps, with the consequence that denying them access to data led to the failure of that business," Collins concluded. Six4Three is a long-forgotten company that has for years pursued a lawsuit against Facebook alleging that it was shut out from being allowed to access the Graph API, as it was too small. Six4Three made a short-lived app called "Pikinis," which sought bikini photos on Facebook. It was only downloaded ~5,000 times. Lawyers for Six4Three have long argued what Collins concluded: once small apps were shut off, they were driven out of busines.

by Cyrus Farivar
See full article at Ars Technica

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What Dating Apps Can Tell Us About Why We Fall in love

THEWEEK.CO.UK - Nov 21 - How and why people fall in love is still not entirely clear. Scientists are aligned in saying that opposites don't generally attract. Rather, we tend to love people who share our values and outlook on life and who are of similar age and attractiveness. Falling in love is a slow process that can take months, but recognising the potential for love can happen quickly. It takes seven seconds or less to form a first impression of somebody and know whether there is a spark. Humans make unconscious judgements using visual cues. With dating apps however, we have to rely on static photographs and written conversations. Badoo users tend to match with similarly aged people and with those of similar popularity. The attraction happens after the swiping process. But Badoo users tend to message just 50% of their matches so swiping "yes" is therefore not necessarily an indicator of attraction. When the messaging starts, it takes users around two days and 20 messages to decide whether to date someone. This is slower than in person, which is why Badoo encourages its users to go on dates early.

by Claire Stott
See full article at TheWeek.co.uk

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Lumen, the Dating App for 50+ to Launch in Ireland

MARKETING.IE - Nov 20 - Lumen founder and dating expert Charly Lester will be in Dublin this week for the launch. Lumen raised £3.5M from Andrey Andreev, the Founder of Badoo.

See full article at Marketing.ie

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Badoo Finds a Dramatic Increase in Matches During 'Cuffing Season'

CNET - Nov 12 - Cuffing season refers to that "the weather outside is frightful, but the fire is so delightful" period when singles are typically more eager to be "cuffed," or shackled, to a significant other. Badoo found that matches increased by 105% for women and 67% for men in the winter, compared to in the summer. Badoo surveyed 2K of its users, and 71% of respondents admitted they search for a soulmate in the winter because it's the most romantic season to date.

by Joshua Rotter
See full article at CNet

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Dating Apps Turn to AI to Help Users Find Love

AGENCE PRESSE-FRANCE - Nov 9 - The online dating sector is turning to artificial intelligence (AI) to help arrange meetings in real life and act as a dating coach. These new uses for AI - the science of programming computers to reproduce human processes like thinking and decision making - by dating apps were highlighted at Web Summit in Lisbon. eHarmony is developing an AI-enabled feature which would nudge users to suggest meeting in person after they have been chatting in the app for a while. "There is a lot of activity on dating apps but by and large there is not a lot of dates," said eHarmony CEO Grant Langston. "Guys don't know how to ask. It's astounding really how many people need help and we think we can do that in an automated way." British dating app Loveflutter plans to use AI to analyse chats between its users to determine their compatibility and suggest when they should meet. "We will ping a message saying 'You are getting along really well, why don't you go on your first date'," said Loveflutter co-founder Daigo Smith. Tinder founder Sean Rad said AI would "create better user experiences" and predicted iPhone's Siri voice assistant would in the future act as a matchmaker. An entirely voice-operated dating app called AIMM which uses AI to mirror a human matchmaking service is already being tested in Denver where it has ~1K users. Badoo is now using AI and facial recognition technology to let users find a match that looks like anyone at all, including their ex or a celebrity crush.

See full article at The National

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Badoo Is Facing An Investigation By HMRC Over Its Corporate Tax Bill

TELEGRAPH.CO.UK - Nov 7 - Badoo, part of the matchmaking empire controlled by Russian tycoon Andrey Andreev, is under investigation for its tax payments for the years 2013 to 2016. The news comes as Mr Andreev, 44, whose fortune has been estimated at over £1B, talks up plans to take the company public in a New York listing which could value it at several billion dollars. Badoo is structured with more than a dozen subsidiaries as well as other investments. Its parent company is listed as World Vision, a company incorporated in Bermuda, which in turn is controlled by Rimburg International, a company domiciled in the British Virgin Islands. A separate entity, Badoo Limited, also said it was under investigation. The company reported turnover of £144M for the year ending December 2017, up from £107M in the previous 12 months, for a reported loss of £5.6M. Badoo said the loss was "primarily due to the marketing focus of the business".

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

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Why Dating Apps Are Trying To Stop Users Blanking Each Other

THE GUARDIAN - Nov 1 - Bumble and Badoo have announced plans to crack down on ghosting. Bumble has recruited an in-house 'ghosting' expert, Kate Leaver, and Badoo has introduced a series of suggested responses, such as: "Hey, I think you're great, but I don't see us as a match. Take care!" Leaver's role, building on the expertise she developed writing her book The Friendship Cure, is focused on pushing for "a revival of kindness and respect," she says. "People are ghosting everyone all over the place. I think they are too lazy, or too cowardly to have the difficult conversations," Leaver adds. "There has been some extreme psychological damage for people who are living without any explanation as to why they've been ghosted." Google, for instance, recently updated Gmail to introduce a feature called "nudges". The service prompts users to reply to emails that they "might have forgotten to respond to" and to "follow up" on emails they sent that never received a reply. While it can occasionally be useful, the feature is attempting to fight a symptom of information overload by adding more information to the pile. It's not enough to ignore an email. We now have to ignore it twice. Could nudging ghosters in the dating world simply add to the overload of the modern era? After all, as the psychologist Maya Borgueta has written in HuffPost, "ghosting is avoidance and often stems from fear of conflict. Which means that ghosting is about wanting to avoid confrontation, difficult conversations and avoid hurting someone's feelings." If that is the case, Badoo's pushy attempts to restart conversations could have the opposite effect: if you ghost because of a fear of confrontation, then it's not much help when your dating app begins confronting you.

by Alex Hern
See full article at The Guardian

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Badoo To Help Solve Ghosting Problem

COSMPOLITAN - Oct 25 - Dating app Badoo is introducing a new feature to curb ghosting as painlessly as possible. The app will now offer pre-existing responses to users who might've accidentally ghosted on their matches. After three days of not responding, the app will give them a gentle reminder to check back in. With one tap they can let others know they're still interested. If you're no longer interested, there are also a variety of polite responses they can send instead. The feature is currently being tested in Europe and will soon roll out for testing stateside before launching for everyone early next year.

by Carina Hsieh
See full article at Cosmopolitan

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Bumble Owner Targets Nasdaq IPO To Become World's Top Matchmaker

BLOOMBERG - Oct 11 - The group behind Bumble is weighing an IPO in the U.S. as part of its plan to become the world's biggest dating business, according to founder Andrey Andreev. "We're now in very deep discussions with banks," including JPMorgan Chase & Co., Andreev said. Andreev, 44, is the majority shareholder of Bumble owner Rimberg International Corp., a holding company that also controls gay-dating app Chappy and London-based Badoo. Andreev, who founded Badoo in 2006, hopes the IPO will help his firm overtake Match Group. Andreev said revenue may be as much as $400M this year, which is less than a third of Match's $1.33B last year. Bumble would be the "umbrella brand" for any IPO, which won't happen before year-end, he said. Badoo invested $10M to help Wolfe Herd start Bumble, giving Andreev's group a stake of ~75%. Today, Bumble has 41M users, more than double from a year ago. "Bumble is going crazy," Andreev said. "Bumble is already in Germany, and it's growing at 500% a month there."

by Sophie Alexander & Benjamin Stupples
See full article at Bloomberg

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This post also appears on InternetDatingInvestments.

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Gay Dating App Chappy Relaunches With 'Zero Tolerance For Abuse'

GAYSTAR NEWS - Sep 11 - Gay dating and social connection app Chappy has introduced a new design. Previously, users could say whether they were seeking 'Mr Right' or 'Mr Right Now'. 'Cute' and 'Sexy' moods now respectively replace those two options. Ollie Locke (of Made in Chelsea fame), Jack Rogers and Max Cheremkhin originally founded the app. Backing comes from dating app Badoo, with advisory backing from Whitney Wolfe Herd. Last month, Chappy announced Locke and Rogers were stepping down. Succeeding them is Sam Dumas as Global Head of Brand. Chappy says it will now have, 'zero tolerance for abuse or bullying of any kind.' Users reported for violating Chappy's terms and conditions risk a permanent ban from the app.

by David Hudson
See full article at Gaystar News

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Andrey Andreev Has Invested £3.5M In Dating App Lumen

UKTN - Sep 7 - Andrey Andreev, the man behind Badoo, Bumble and Chappy, has invested £3.5M in Lumen, a new dating app specifically for single over 50s. Launching in the UK, Lumen was co-founded by Antoine Argouges and Charly Lester. Lumen will be free, available to download on iOS and Android. All users will be required to upload a selfie and verify their identity.

by Yessi Bello Perez
See full article at UKTN

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This post also appears on InternetDatingInvestments.

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Andrey Andreev Is A Real Life Cupid With Five Dating Apps To His Name

CELEBRITY NET WORTH - Aug 27 - Russian entrepreneur Andrey Andreev is the king of dating apps. He's the man behind five successful online dating apps - Badoo, Chappy, Huggle, Mamba and Bumble. He was born Andrey Ogandzhantyants in Moscow but changed his name to his mother's maiden name because it was easier to spell. He's always been passionate about technology. He briefly attended the University of Moscow but dropped out at age 18 to move to Spain. In 1995, he founded Virus, an e-commerce site that sold computers and accessories to internet users in Russia. In 1997, he sold it for a few hundred thousand dollars. In 1999, he founded SpyLog, which was software that tracked visitors to websites. It was basically Google Analytics before that lunched in 2005. Andreev left SpyLog in December 2001. In 2002, he built Begun, a contextual ads company. Google almost bought Begun in 2008 for $140M but the deal never went through. Begun still exists, but Andreev left in early 2004. Andreev founded Badoo in Spain in 2006 and launched it in 2009. The company's headquarters are in London and there is a Moscow office. Badoo employs 300 people. Andreev will not disclose Badoo's revenue but said that Match Group is a good comparison for Badoo.

by Amy Lamare
See full article at Celebrity Net Worth

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The Most Right-swiped Universities In The UK Revealed By Badoo

BRINKWIRE - Aug 11 - University of the Arts London (UAL) and Leeds came out on top, with Durham and Southampton scraping in at the bottom. Badoo also found that UAL students send and receive the most messages out of all the universities in the UK (~6M) in the past year, with the university of Oxford coming in at 2nd place with ~4M messages and Leeds 3rd with ~3M.

See full article at Brinkwire

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Why Facebook’s Dating Service Will Fail

CTECH - July 13 - Former AOL and dating service Badoo executive Amit Shafrir explains why he believes the recently announced Facebook dating service stands little chance of succeeding.

1. Single app policy
   Facebook has announced that it will incorporate its dating service into its flagship app. A separate app focused on dating would be the correct approach. Here is why:
   - Context
   Everything we do, we do within a certain context. When we browse LinkedIn we are in a work or professional context; when we browse Facebook, we are in a social context; and when we are using a dating app, we are in a fun, entertainment or optimistic context.
   - Demographics
   Millennials and members of Generation Z, who are the prime targets of any dating service do not generally use Facebook. They do use Instagram.
   - Promotion
   It would look somewhat off to have other Facebook assets promote the main Facebook app, and given the different demographics, would probably not be very effective.
   - Virality
   A great dating app should have a natural buzz to it. That is not Facebook. App store Users searching for dating apps on Apple's App Store or Google Play   would not see Facebook among their results.
2. Monetization
   Monetization is simply not in Facebook's DNA.
3. Thinking small
   My sense is that Facebook is not treating this opportunity with the gravitas that its potential merits. It is limiting itself to a small subset of its vast user base of over 2B, and to a subset of potential functionality.

by Amit Shafrir
See full article at CTech

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~65% Of Women Prefer To Pay For The First Date, Study Finds

INDEPENDENT.CO.UK - July 7 - A new study from Badoo has revealed that 65% of women prefer to pay on a first date. Badoo asked 2K 18-30-year-old female Brits. The poll also found that 74% of British women who use the dating app are also making the first move and starting conversations with new matches.

by Sarah Young
See full article at The Independent

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Can Match Fend Off Facebook And Bumble?

FORTUNE - June 27 - Globally, there are 600M singles online - a number that's expected to jump to 700M by 2020 - yet the industry's biggest player by far, Match Group, is estimated to claim just 10% of that. If Match Group wants to stay No. 1, it will need to defend its turf. Those who know Match Group CEO Mandy Ginsberg say she is likely to be up to the task. She knows the industry inside and out, and she takes Match's mission almost as a personal responsibility. The company's biggest competitors include eHarmony, Spark Networks, Badoo and Bumble. Bumble claims 34M total registered users. Of its active users, roughly 10% are paid; last year the company is said to have pulled in $100M in subscription revenue. It has a Goliath-size backer: Wolfe Herd created Bumble with the help of Andrey Andreev, the founder of Badoo. Andreev owns 79%, Wolfe Herd 20% (the remaining 1% is split between two additional employees). For a few years, Tinder and Bumble coexisted but things recently turned testy. In March, Match filed its suit against Bumble, accusing it of patent infringement and stealing trade secrets. Four days later, Bumble fired back with an angry letter. A few days after that, it filed its own suit against Match, claiming Match had fraudulently obtained sensitive information during acquisition talks. But both companies were hit with a much bigger tsunami of news on May 8, when Zuckerberg made his announcement. Match Group is working on new female-friendly features, like a Gentleman's Badge, a designation recently added into its European Meetic brand that men earn through certain behaviors, such as filling out an entire profile or engaging in lengthy email correspondence; men with the badge get 33% more attention from women.

by Leigh Gallagher
See full article at Fortune

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