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

The Pricing Puzzle of Dating Apps

A MEDIUM FOR MEDIA - How companies make money off dating apps that are 'designed to be deleted'. Some elite apps like Raya and Lox Club work on memberships. Market leaders Tinder, Hinge and Bumble operate on a "freemium" model. A paying customer is statistically more likely to find a successful match and, as such, has no need for the product anymore. Freemium pricing hooks customers, then lures them to top-ups and premium features. ARPU for dating apps has been steadily increasing, but paying customers represent less than 10% of the total for Tinder (and are below 5% for Hinge and Bumble). Advertising revenues account for a very small portion of revenue. i.e. 3% of revenue for Bumble. Hinge has done away with advertising altogether. Innovative monetization modes include
a. Offerwalls - Users complete virtual tasks for tokens that act as a proxy to premium services.
b. Data Swaps - Virtual tokens used to unlock features in exchange for permissions to sell data to third-parties.
c. Unlocking individual matches - e.g. shaadi.com users create profiles for free, but Shaadi charge them on successful matches.

by Zarir Marfatia
See full article at A Medium for Media

Mark Brooks: How do you think dating apps should monetize in the future? Please join the conversation on this topic, on this Swell. Your opinion matters. Please voice it here. ;-)

Tired of Swiping Left, Singles Are Turning to New Matchmaking Services for Dates

CNBC - Some singles, sick of swiping, are going back to matchmakers. There's an emerging crop of apps looking to bring matchmaking to a new generation, mixing old methods with modern technology. One newcomer is Lox Club, a members-only dating app founded in 2020 by CEO Austin Kevitch. Lox Club charges $96 for 12 months. The company offers access to matchmakers, who can set users up with one another or give feedback on the person's profile. Another company is Ambyr Club. Ambyr, launched late last year, hosts two to three events a month at trendy locations for a select group of 10 men and 10 women. Ambyr pairs the 20 people based on who they think would be a good fit. All members have gone through an interview and background check. Applicants pay a $60 application fee and $150 for each event, if they're chosen. Ambyr says it has a 15% acceptance rate and ~200 members in its database. In November, Match.com introduced a human matchmaking element to its dating service. For $4.99 per week, Match employees will flag two profiles a week in an effort to narrow down the options.

by Jessica Bursztynsky
See full article at CNBC

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How Dating App Lox Club Found the Perfect Match With TikTok

ADWEEK - The dating startup's TikTok advertising strategy drove 13K app downloads. Co-founder and CEO Austin Kevitch said Lox Club started as a joke - after grudgingly swiping through dating apps following a breakup, Kevitch made a website making fun of them, encouraging users to apply for an exclusive dating experience. To his surprise, thousands of people applied, convincing him to monetize his prank. Today, the Lox Club's tagline is "a members-only dating app for Jews with ridiculously high standards," which makes money via subscriptions. Lox Club has utilized a variety of strategies on TikTok, from organic posts to influencer marketing and paid formats, including traffic and conversion objective campaigns.

by Catherine Perloff
See full article at AdWeek

See the top news on Lox Club

Exclusive Dating App Lox Club Launches in Austin

CULTURE MAP AUSTIN - Lox Club, born during the pandemic, made its Texas debut during South by Southwest after successfully building hubs in New York, Los Angeles and Miami. It calls itself an "app for Jews with ridiculously high standards." Although it doesn't share an acceptance rate, app store reviewers speculate most people are accepted. Rejected applicants go back on a waiting list to be re-reviewed later. From there, members get 10 to 15 swipes per hour, and help from a matchmaker on staff if they ask for it.

by Brianna Caleri
See full article at Culture Map Austin

See the top news on Lox Club

Lox Club Founder Wants to Take the Awkwardness out of Dating Apps

BUSTLE - Austin Kevitch launched Lox Club over the pandemic, after a bad breakup. "I was at the age where my grandma would joke, 'When are you going to bring home a nice Jewish girl?'", said Austin. While the members-only dating app is billed for "Jews with ridiculously high standards," it's really for anyone with a sense of humor. "I don't like dating apps; they're very inorganic and awkward," Kevitch says. "So I wanted to make a more fun, immersive experience where maybe you'll meet people as a byproduct and not take it so seriously."

by Samantha Leach
See full article at Bustle

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LoxClub - a Dating App for Jews With High Standards

JEWISH CHRONICLE - July 22 - Lox Club is taglined as a dating app for "Jews with ridiculously high standards." It was created in late 2020. Lox Club membership doesn't come cheap, costing anywhere between $8 and $12 a month. Users aren't sucked into the vortex of scrolling and swiping - they can only see six to 12 profiles every several hours on the app.

by Sasha Rogelberg
See full article at Jewish Chronicle

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Bhad Bhabie and Lil Yachty Invest $1M in Jewish Dating App

TIMES OF ISRAEL - June 7 - Rappers take a stake in 'Lox Club,' a Jewish dating app for people 'with ridiculously high standards'. The two rappers have made the $1M investment in partnership with Adam Kluger, an agent for musical artists. Kluger was Bhad Bhabie's manager and partners with Lil Yachty on investments. The dating app has an application process and a membership fee, and members work with a matchmaker.

by Ben Sales
See full article at Times of Israel

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This post also appears on InternetDatingInvestments.com

The Lox Club: a Dating App for Picky Jews

CBS MIAMI - May 13 - Lox Club is a new dating app. Its creator calls it an "exclusive dating app for Jews with ridiculously high standards." The app was created by Austin Kevitch, a 29-year-old product designer who was going through his own dating issues. The Lox Club has real-life, modern-day matchmakers. Kevitch said what's also different about the Lox Club from other dating apps is its thorough membership vetting and the curating of the connections. He started it five months ago and membership is booming. "We have ~50K members on our waiting list." The annual membership fee for the Lox Club runs $96. It's $60 for six months.

by Lisa Petrillo
See full article at CBS Miami

See the top news on Lox Club

A Trip Inside the Lox Club, the "Jewish Raya"

VOGUE - Dec 28 - About a year ago, now 29-year-old product designer Austin Kevitch was going through a breakup. He tried getting on dating apps, but found them "superficial and cringe-y." And so, as a joke, he created his own platform, a website called The Lox Club, which he advertised as a "membership-based dating app for Jews with ridiculously high standards." Kevitch estimates that there are ~10K current members, with many more on the waitlist. He says there are no strict criteria for admittance, and Judaism is not a prerequisite. Annual memberships are available for $96, six months for $60, and quarterly for $36. Swipes are limited to between six and twelve every eight hours. The Lox Club's most unique feature is its matchmaker function. Users can ask a matchmaker to curate particular types of profiles for them.

by Jocelyn Silver
See full article at Vogue