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

Dating Apps Tend To Connect Neighbors And Friends Of Friends

BUSINESS INSIDER - June 1 - Dating apps are increasingly connecting people who live or work close by, have the same commute, or went to college together. Match.com data reveals that 69% of active users set their default distance - i.e. how far away a match can live - to five miles. Meanwhile, dating app Clover found that, in New York City, most matches happen between people from the same borough. Still, Hinge reports that less than half of users set a maximum distance, and of those who do, the average maximum distance is 25 miles.

by Shana Lebowitz
See full article at Business Insider

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Mobile Dating App Clover Raised $7M

PR WEB - Jan 17 - Mobile dating app Clover has closed a $7M equity and convertible debenture financing. The round was led by Atlanta based Jackson Investment Group LLC, a private investment firm with ~$1.5 billion of assets under management. Clover is one of the highest rated, top-grossing dating apps in the U.S. The company will use the funds to expand the team, launch new features and accelerate user acquisition. Clover claims 4M mobile users; 80% are in the largest U.S. markets; 75% in the 18-34 age group. With features like on-demand dating and mixers, Clover uniquely focuses on shortening the time between first contact and a real live date.

See full article at PR Web

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Clover Dating App Is Launching Mixers

BUSTLE.COM - Dec 19 - Dating app Clover sends out various ideas, like "Snowboarding" or "Game of Thrones Night!" and then users respond if they're in or out. With Clover's Mixer idea, it's a group chat that looks like a Meetup RSVP, and is based on mutual interests. Mixers can be used to host offline singles event. Mixers will be available in the beginning of 2016, in the upcoming version 5.0 of the Clover app.

by Natalia Lusinski
See full article at Bustle.com

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Is On-Demand Dating A Tinder Killer

MASHABLE - Aug 18 - Clover, Whim, Pure and HowAboutWe's Tonight app offer on-demand functions which cut to the chase so users can aggressively get on each others' calendars. Clover just closed $2M in funding (bringing total investment to $4M). Close behind Clover is upstart Whim, which launched in LA in 2014. Markedly different from Whim and Clover is the unabashedly more hookup-focused Pure, which is so radical and in-the-moment in its "demand" nature, that there are actually no profiles or Facebook integration. Having raised 10 times less investment capital than Clover ($400K versus $4M), Pure is already cash-positive.

by Mandy Stadtmiller
See full article at Mashable

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Clover Raises $2M In Funding To Expand On-Demand Dating Business

PR WEB - July 23 - Clover, the mobile on-demand dating service, has closed $2Mn in funding. The investment was led by New York based Social Starts with participation from a group of private investors. This brings the total investment in Clover to $4M. The company will use the funds for further expansion. Clover finds users a nearby date and suggests hotspots where the two can meet.

See full article at PR Web

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New Apple Watch Dating Apps

MACWORLD - May 20 - Tinder, OkCupid and Match.com were quickly to introduce a Watch app, but a few other lesser-known dating sites introduced Apple watch apps this month. Clover cuts to the chase with its "on-demand" dating. With two taps, the Clover Watch app finds users a nearby date and suggests hotspots where the two can meet. WatchMe88 works like a radar that detects singles nearby. Apple Watch faces start to glow if two compatible users are close to each other. Another app in development is "Close Encounter". The app ditches the profile photos and focuses on personality. Users get notified whenever there's a match nearby. Jack'd claims to have created the first Apple Watch app for gay guys.

by Oscar Raymundo
See full article at Macworld

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Led By Tinder, The Mobile Dating Game Surges

NY TIMES - Feb 4 - Many app makers are trying to capitalize on the Tinder method of simple, smartphone-based dating. They add a twist to the swipe. Hinge sifts only through Facebook connections for friends of friends. Clover offers Tinder-like features but with an added bonus called “On-Demand Dating.” Users pick a location and a date, and Clover sends someone to meet them. Tinder processes ~1B swipes a day and matches ~12M people a day. Amarnath Thombre, president of Match.com in North America, said that in the last year it had registered a 35% increase in the people who use Match app, and a 109% increase in the number of people who use only the app to reach Match every month.

by Molly Wood
See full article at NY Times

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Whim Dating App Sets Up Dates Quickly

LA TIMES - Jan 28 - Eve Peters, the former product lead at OKCupid Labs, launched Whim, a dating app that takes people offline as soon as possible. If two people are interested in each other (both swipe right), they're going on a date. They tell the app when they're available, and it'll tell them when and where they're meeting. Whim will launch as a subscription service priced from $12 to $30 a month. Clover, another dating app, recently added On-Demand Dating, similar to what Whim has planned.

by Tracey Lien
See full article at LA Times

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The Latest Trend: Skipping The Chat And Going On A Date

VENTURE BEAT - Nov 16 - A couple of new and upcoming dating apps, including Whim and Clover, are cutting out the chit-chat and taking users straight to the dates. Whim was founded by an Okcupid Labs alumna, Eve Peters. The app hasn’t launched yet (beta-tested in LA in the summer). It will serve up potential dates based on mutual availability, location, and a few other preferences that users can reject or accept. Once a date is mutually set, Whim tells both users when and where the date will take place. Clover launched in the spring and is now adding “on-demand dating", a feature similar to Whim.

by Kia Kokalitcheva
See full article at Venture Beat

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Clover Lets Users Order A Date

TECH CRUNCH - Nov 15 - New dating app Clover is a sort of OKCupid meets Tinder but with the focus on getting offline as soon as possible. Clover's users add in the calendar where and when they’d like to meet up with someone. The app then suggests a potential prospect to join them and they decide if they’d like to spend their time with them. Clover is free to use but offers premium service for $9.99 as well as some pay-to-play features, i.e name change for 99c.

by Sarah Buhr
See full article at Tech Crunch

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