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

Jigsaw - a Dating App Aimed at Ending Superficial Swipes

ASKMEN - Nov 30 - Jigsaw is one of the latest dating apps calling itself the "anti-superficial dating app". Users on the app are anonymized because their faces are covered in "16-piece digital jigsaw puzzle." The more users talk, the more the jigsaw puzzle disappears, revealing the person beneath. Users are able to send a direct message to someone they're curious about, without matching in advance. Jigsaw has already launched in the UK and New York City, and will be available throughout America before the end of 2020.

by Jack Dawes
See full article at AskMen

Dating App JigTalk Has Banned Photo Filters

GLAMOUR MAGAZINE - Nov 20 - According to JigTalk, 79% of people using dating apps say they have been catfished and 83% of men have been on a date with a woman who did not look like her photo. It's for this exact reason that JigTalk, which prides itself on being the non-superficial dating app, has banned Instagram and Snapchat filters. Any user uploading profile pictures which have been digitally altered, will have the photo rejected.

by Lottie Winter
See full article at Glamour Magazine

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Psychiatrist Warns 'Gamification' of Dating Apps Is Harmful

DAILYMAIL - Mar 9 - The 'gamification' of dating apps is damaging singleton's chances of spotting the right match for them, a psychiatrist has warned. The practice has become so addictive that more than one in 10 users swipe for over 14 hours a week, a survey has revealed. Men were found to be more promiscuous with dating apps than women, with 40% using three or more apps at a time. One in ten men admitted to using more than five dating apps at the same time. A quarter of women revealed they hadn't been on a single date in the past six months. The survey was commissioned by Alex Durrant, CEO of JigTalk, a dating app that aims to put 'personality' rather than 'looks' at the forefront of online dating.

by Yuan Ren
See full article at DailyMail

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Dating App JigTalk Raises $1M

BQ - Jan 14 - JigTalk, the dating app that encourages online daters to talk more, has officially closed its seed round of $1M. The round was led by Apadmi Ventures and includes significant backing from high profile London, New York and Manchester-based angel investors. In addition to growing its team to 10 full-time staff, the company has also welcomed a new Chairman, Christopher Edmonds. Edmonds is the ex-global MD of technology for JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley. Over the course of the last 2 years, JigTalk has beta tested the app in the north of England and built a team ready to launch its app UK-wide, starting in London in Jan 2019.

by Ashleigh Smith
See full article at BQ

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This post also appears on InternetDatingInvestments.com

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JigTalk To Speak At iDate In London On October 3-4, 2017

WEBWIRE - Sep 23 - Max Adamski, Co Founder and Creative Director of JigTalk, will discuss the development of JigTalk and how the company obtained investors during the Internet dating conference (iDate) next week.

See full article at Webwire

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JigTalk Secures Investment From UK's Leading Mobile Tech Group

PROLIFICNORTH - Aug 21 - JigTalk, the dating app that puts personality first, has received investment from Apadmi Ventures, the investment arm of the UK's leading mobile technology group. On JigTalk, sixteen jigsaw pieces initially cover each user's face before popping away as messages are exchanged. The app was soft-launched in February 2017 and already has 10K users after launching in four cities including Manchester. Last month they became the first UK start-up to be accepted into Nasdaq's Entrepreneurial Centre in San Francisco.

by Simon Austin
See full article at ProlificNorth

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This post also appear on InternetDatingInvestments.

Summarized by the Courtland Brooks team

UK Dating Startup Accepted To NASDAQ Accelerator Programme

YORKSHIRE EVENING POST - July 21 - UK-based dating startup JigTalk has become the first UK startup to be accepted onto a San Francisco-based accelerator programme run by the tech stock exchange NASDAQ. Aimed at early-to-mid-stage entrepreneurs, the Milestone Makers programme provides participants with a package of mentoring, coaching, training and support from business leaders that is worth an estimated quarter of a million dollars. JigTalk was set up after co-founder Max Adamski became frustrated with dating apps that solely focus on a user's looks. On JigTalk, photos are initially covered by 16 jigsaw pieces that are removed one by one as an online conversation progresses.

The full article was originally published at Yorkshire Evening Post, but is no longer available.

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Made TV Partners With JigTalk Dating App On New Dating Show

PROLIFICNORTH - Feb 8 - Local TV network Made Television has partnered with dating app JigTalk on a new dating show called 'Getting Jiggy with Josie'. Hosted by reality TV star Josie Gibson the show will be launched across the Made Television network from the spring in Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Leeds, Liverpool and Tyne & Wear. It will feature a "unique mix of blindfolds, awkward tasks and Cilla-esque probing questions" about each contestant.

by David Prior
See full article at ProlificNorth

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JigTalk: Users Have To Talk First To See Profile Photos

TECHRADAR - Jan 23 - Unlike Tinder, dating app JigTalk only begins to reveal its users' profile pictures as they engage in conversation. Sixteen jigsaw pieces initially cover each photo. After answering four simple icebreaker questions, a quarter of the photo is then revealed at a rate of one piece per question. From then on, each message sent removes one jigsaw piece to give a glimpse of the person behind it. The company points to a study conducted by Oxford University that discovered that ~50% of 2M conversations between users of one of the "big dating apps" never went past two introductory messages. After securing £160K investment, the latest version of JigTalk was released onto the Apple App Store and Google Play Store on January 16, 2017.

by Kane Fulton
See full article at TechRadar

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Summarized by the Courtland Brooks team

JigTalk - A Dating App Where Users Have To Talk To See Photos

BQLIVE - Dec 14 - Max Adamski and Alex Durrant raised £130k to launch their "blind" dating app JigTalk. On JigTalk, users' photos are covered by 16 jigsaw pieces. These unveil one by one as more and more messages are exchanged. Max came up with this idea after using Tinder unsuccessfully. The app launched in Beta on Valentine's Day 2016. The company is hoping to complete another investment round of £1M in July/August 2017 to take the app UK wide and into US and Europe.

by Bryce Wilcock
See full article at BQLive

This post also appear on InternetDatingInvestments.

Summarized by the Courtland Brooks team