BLOOMBERG - Jan 17 - Wolfe Herd founded and runs Bumble, the dating and networking app that says it offers women a safe way to meet people online. Bumble had already banned users from posting nude pictures and was working on software that could detect them when sent in a message. Yet about a third of Bumble women had received lewd photos from men, whether through text or other social media. "This is bullshit, ” Wolfe Herd said. "There should be a law against flashing people online." Wolfe Herd didn't have many political connections, but her husband did. Michael Herd is a family friend of Gaylord Hughey, an oil and gas attorney who's one of Texas' top Republican fundraisers. Hughey called a lobbyist, the lobbyist got Democrats and Republicans to sponsor a bill, and in August, Governor Greg Abbott signed it into law. Now, anyone sending photos of "intimate parts" to someone in Texas without consent could be fined $500. This kind of attitude has distinguished Bumble from its rivals. It's also part of the company's focus on women. Today, Bumble is the second-most popular dating app in the U.S., behind Tinder. It has 81M users in 150 countries. Bumble doesn't share its financial information, but the company has been profitable since 2017, and was reportedly pulling in ~$10M a month in revenue. Based on interviews with people who've worked for Bumble or its parent company, it seems to have no system in place to verify that its app is safer. The only internal research on safety that Bumble could provide was Carbino's 2018 SurveyMonkey poll. In Carbino's poll, she surveyed 4,500 people. She found that 80% of women said Bumble users were more "respectful," and 77% said they felt safer meeting someone on Bumble than on another app. "While this does not directly establish that Bumble is safer than other dating apps, it does go directly to the user's perception of Bumble as being safer, which is what I tested for," Carbino said. Bumble didn't provide any specific information about how its individual policies had affected user behavior.
327 posts categorized "Bumble"
Whitney Wolfe Herd Set out to Build a Safer Dating App for Women, But It's Not Clear That She's Made a Measurable Difference
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Two Bumble Users Are Getting Paid to Go on Dates Around the World
USA TODAY - Jan 13 - Brigette Muller and Juliana Broste will be Bumble's first "global connector bees." In addition to going on dates around the world, they'll be in search of friendship and business connections – all the while documenting the experiences for Bumble through videos, blog posts and social media. In addition to free travel, they will also receive a salary. The positions opened to Bumble users in summer 2019, and thousands of people applied before the June 14 deadline. Muller, 32, of New York was most recently a social media specialist at Etsy. Broste, 36, is a video journalist who's worked with the Travel Channel, Lonely Planet and more, and has 4K followers on Instagram.
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Sharon Stone Blocked From Bumble
THE GUARDIAN - Dec 30 - Writing on Twitter, the actor complained to the dating app Bumble that she had been blocked from the service after her account was deemed to be fake. Bumble's editorial director Clare O'Connor replied to Stone, unblocking her account and apologizing for the error.
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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.
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Whitney Wolfe Herd: the CEO of a $3 Billion Dating Empire
CNN - Dec 13 - Whitney Wolfe Herd launched Bumble, the female-focused dating app, in 2014. Wolfe Herd's vision - that the app would empower women to make their own choices, rather than burden them with it - caught on. Last year, she made a strategic decision to push Bumble into India. "The most traditional, the most misogynistic mindsets globally - those markets for us are completely wide-open prairies," she said. Now, Wolfe Herd is preparing for one of her biggest challenges yet: Taking over the CEO seat of Bumble's parent company MagicLab four months after former owner Andrey Andreev was accused of racism and sexism, allegations that he has denied. Investment firm Blackstone bought the company from the Russian billionaire last month, in a deal that valued it at $3B. On top of growing Bumble and shifting cultural norms, Wolfe Herd is set on changing laws in 2020. Earlier this year, she and Bumble successfully advocated for a new Texas law outlawing digital sexual harassment. The company is now working with Senator Ling Ling Chang in California to get a similar law passed in that state. Wolfe Herd said the hope is to get a federal law passed, something the company is "fiercely committed to."
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Beauty Brands Are Partnering With Bumble
GLOSSY - Dec 4 - Bumble is offering its users daily, weekly and monthly giveaways from beauty, lifestyle and fashion brands. Six companies participated including Becca, Erno Lazslo, True Botanicals, Love Wellness, Ouai and Ipsy. While brands did not have to pay to participate, they did commit to gifting four products for the giveaways, and promoting the partnership through their own Instagram and email.
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Chappy Breaks Into the World of Gay Male Dating
AUSTIN MONTHLY - Dec 2 - Created in the same spirit as its sister company Bumble, Chappy is cultivating a welcoming atmosphere that challenges deeply entrenched negative norms between gay men. Similar to Bumble, the app's branding and marketing revolve around empowerment, accountability, acceptance, and kindness. Chappy limits matches to people who are mutually interested in one another, and users need to verify their identities.
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OPW Podcast - The Top Dating Industry News for Nov 26th
OPW - Nov 27 - Bumble: No more nudes please, Instagram dating!, Dating.com Buys Dil Mil, Qingliao, The Meet Group: fast growth.
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
.
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Tinder or Bumble - The Clichés of 'Big Dating'
USA TODAY - Nov 21 - Swiping to find a date came into the cultural lexicon when Tinder launched in 2012 and revolutionized the online dating scene. "It's a game, it's fire and it's fun," said online dating consultant Mark Brooks about Tinder. Brooks said the app can skew toward audiences looking for a "casual" encounter, whereas other apps, like Hinge, tend to build more "meaningful" relationships. "Since Match Group bought Hinge, they positioned Hinge as 'long-term' and Tinder as 'casual'," Brooks says. "I always regret going on a date from Tinder," said 28-year-old Justyna Kedra, a frequent user of Hinge, Bumble and, sometimes, Tinder. "I feel that people are very transactional. There's no depth." Hinge's approach tends to focus more on getting to know someone based on their politics and religion. According to Hinge's global head of communications Jean-Marie McGrath, 99% of the app's users are college-educated. The app gained recognition when 2020 presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg publicly said that he met his partner on Hinge.
by Coral Murphy
See full article at USA Today
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CA Lawmaker Partners With Bumble to Outlaw Unwanted Nudes
NEWSWEEK - Nov 22 - State Senator Ling Ling Chang of Diamond Bar, California announced Thursday that she plans to introduce a proposed law in January that would make it a misdemeanor to send explicit photos in texts or online to people who did not ask for them. Lawmakers in TX partnered with Bumble to pass a similar bill which took effect in September.
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Tiffany Haddish Partners With Bumble To Offer Dating Tips and Advice
ESSENCE - Nov 18 - Comedic actress and TV host Tiffany Haddish has teamed up with the Bumble to give singles tips to beef up their dating success. Bumble users in "date" mode can match with Tiffany's in-app card to see her top dating tips and advice. Additionally, users who connect with Haddish's card will get the chance to have a one-on-one profile makeover from the Girl's Trip star via Bumble's video chat feature.
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Q&A With Priti Joshi, VP of Strategy at Bumble
YOURSTORY - Nov 18 - Bumble's VP of Strategy, Priti Joshi, talks about her journey with the company, and how it is trying to put women first when it comes to making important moves in life. Priti is a second-generation Indian American based in Austin, Texas. Born in Mesquite, Texas, she grew up in Dallas, and as a child participated in Indian dance competitions, completed her undergraduate degree in Business Honors and Finance from the University of Texas in 2009, and a Master's in Business Administration from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania in 2014. She worked for over seven years at McKinsey. At Bumble Priti looks after strategy and expanding Bumble's presence in international markets.
Q: What does your role at Bumble entail? How big is the India team?
A: I focus heavily on expanding Bumble's presence internationally. Our team on the ground in India is small but mighty, and our global teams - specifically at our HQ - also dedicate a lot of time and resources to supporting our efforts in India.
Q: What does Bumble offer the modern Indian woman that is different from other networking and dating apps?
A: We developed a feature specific to India where only the first initial of a woman's name would show on her Bumble Date profile. We make it easy to 'Block and Report' anyone you don't want to see on the app and we have 'Photo Verification' and 'Request Photo Verification' to help ensure that the person you're connecting with is who they say they are.
Q: How has Bumble been received in India?
A: Women in India have made the first move over three million times, and are sending 2x as many messages as women in the rest of the world. Furthermore, 60% of women in India use two or more modes within Bumble.
Q: What kind of market does India present in terms of size, geography, and culture?
A: In urban India, the percentage of women mobile Internet users stands at 40% and men stands at 60%. We've also seen that from a user behaviour perspective, these smartphone savvy women above the age of 19 have the highest propensity for social networking, browsing and text chatting.
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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.
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OPW Podcast - The Top Dating Industry News for Nov 12th
OPW - Nov 12 - Match Results, Magic Lab Acquisition, The Meet Group, Facebook & Tinder whitelisting.
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 or Stitcher.
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Andrey Andreev Sells Stake of Bumble's Parent Company MagicLab to Blackstone
TECH CRUNCH - Nov 9 - Andrey Andreev, the founder of Badoo, is selling his entire stake in MagicLab, the company that owned both Bumble and Badoo (and other dating apps), to Blackstone, which is one of the world's leading investment firms. He will step away from the business in the process, and Wolfe Herd, Bumble's founder, becomes the CEO of the whole company, retaining much of her stake in the business. That stake is at ~19%. The deal values MagicLab at $3B. Blackstone also will be making an investment in the company as part of the deal.
by Ingrid Lunden
See full article at Tech Crunch
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This post also appears on InternetDatingInvestments.com
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Mark Zuckerberg Let Tinder Get Special Access to Users' Data
FORBES - Nov 8 - Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg considered entering the online dating business as far back as 2014, but he put the idea on the back burner, instead giving Tinder special access to its users' data, leaked emails between top executives show. The leaked correspondence is part of an ongoing lawsuit between Facebook and Six4Three, a now-defunct app developer that sued Facebook in 2015 for restricting user data access, alleging the actions were uncompetitive. The correspondence shows how perilously close Tinder came to losing key access to Facebook user information that helped Tinder grow rapidly in its early years, when members often used their Facebook logins to access the app. When Facebook further restricted the kind of information third-party apps could access after the Cambridge Analytica scandal broke in March 2018, Tinder's app crashed. Tinder was on Facebook's radar in 2013. Zuckerberg wrote in January 2014 to two executives: "Tinder's growth is especially alarming to me because their product is built completely on Facebook data, and it's much better than anything we've built for recommendations using the same corpus." In 2014, Facebook announced it would start preventing third-party app developers from having access to data on users' friends, including birth dates, photos and pages they liked. The company gave a May 2015 deadline for developers to comply with its new set of access rules. However, Zuckerberg made some companies and apps an exception. Tinder was one. Facebook agreed to give Tinder a special data-sharing agreement, internally known as "whitelists," if the dating app shared trademark rights on "MOMENTS." which was the planned name for a photo app that Facebook wanted to launch, an email exchange in March 2015 showed. When asked about this agreement in 2018, a spokeswoman for Tinder said: "Tinder never received special treatment, data or access related to this dispute or its resolution." Other dating apps that had whitelist agreements with Facebook include Bumble, Badoo, Coffee Meets Bagel, Hinge and jSwipe.
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Match Group Q3 Earnings, Shares Plummet Following a Weak Q4 Forecast
WSJ - Nov 6 - In Q3, Match Group's profit rose to $151.5M, from $130M in Q3 '18. The revenue rose 22% YOY to $541.5M, topping analysts' expectations of $540.7M. Yet total operating costs and expenses jumped 20% in the quarter as selling and marketing, product development, amortization and general operating expenses nudged higher. Overall average subscribers rose to 9.6M in the latest quarter, up from 8.1M in the year-ago period. Shares of Match Group dropped 16% after the company's financial targets for the current quarter came in below analysts' estimates. Match Group said it expects total revenue for the Q4 to be $545M - $555M, falling below analysts' estimates of $559M in revenue. Match also projected adjusted EBITDA in the range of $205M to $210M, behind analysts'target of $228M, and also said it expects to spend ~$25M in long-term investments and incremental legal costs in the Q4. Match Group is involved in several legal tussles, most recently with the Federal Trade Commission over claims that it induced nonpaying users to subscribe to its Match.com app based on "fake profiles." Match is also involved in an intellectual-property battle with Bumble, as well as multiple suits against a Tinder co-founder.
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Bumble to Host an Astrology-themed Singles Dinner
METRO.CO.UK - Nov 4 - Bumble is hosting an astrology-themed singles dinner on 12 November with its in-house astrologer, Michele Knight, to teach people how the stars influence personality traits and could be key to finding a compatible lover. The event will be held at Chez Moi in Notting Hill during a full moon.
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Top Female Entrepreneurs Share Their Lessons at Bumble Bizz Summit
SG TATLER - Nov 1 - Enterprising women leaders from around the region discussed the ups and downs of running their own brand, and what they learned in between at the region's first Bumble Bizz Summit in Sydney. Bumble is all about women empowerment and to further drive that notion, it organised its very first Bumble Bizz Summit in Sydney, Australia this month. There were two goals. First, to promote awareness about the platform's overall mission to "empower women to make the first move in dating, friendship and professional networking"; and secondly, to also fuel the entrepreneurial spirit in its users. The summit programme included panel discussions on topics such as breaking the mould, failure and creating a sustainable business.
Here are four key takeaways from the talks.
- Be open to making mistakes.
- Work with smarter people than you.
- Build an authentic brand.
- Respect is the cornerstone of success
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Bumble Has Re-launched Its Anti-Ghosting Campaign
BUSTLE - Oct 29 - For the second year in a row Bumble is celebrating Halloween by launching an anti-ghosting campaign. Bumble has teamed up with their in-house ghosting expert Kate Leaver to empower Bumble users to have the confidence to strike up difficult conversations about ending relationships in a nice way. Bumble found that 69% of Bumble users admit they would use text to let down someone after a first date if they didn't intend on seeing them again. However, 62% said they would welcome advice on how to break it off with someone and 89% of people would prefer to know why someone didn't intend on seeing them again after a date.
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