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

The Meet Group Launches NextDate, a Livestreaming Dating Game

BUSINESSWIRE - Oct 29 - NextDate allows users to star in their own dating game. It works like speed dating, except that there's an audience and the contestant gets to choose the specific people they'd like to connect with. In NextDate a streamer has 90s to tap "Next," which ends the current pairing and skips to the next contestant in the queue, or "Date," which enables the two users to connect by 1:1 video chat in the future. NextDate is now available on MeetMe and Skout.

See full article at Businesswire

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The Meet Group Grows Impressively

SEEKING ALPHA - Oct 13 - The Meet Group is performing quite well with rampant video revenue growth and good cash flow generation. Some investors who are familiar with Chinese live streaming companies like YY and Momo might not be aware that there is a market in the US as well. The Meet Group business model is quite similar to Momo, with streaming and dating as its core business. Revenue streams come from ads, subscriptions and video gifting. The growth is coming from new users, live video, new products, acquisition and increased usage. The new products are: One-to-one video, Dating game (expected to be launched on MeetMe this month) and Video platform as a service. The upcoming dating game allows users to be the star in their own dating show. It contains one-on-one video, and it is monetized through gift giving. The management expects a 20% increase in vDAU in the first few months after launching, and it expects that it will go viral at least to some extent.

See full article at Seeking Alpha

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Top Dating Apps Worldwide for September

REPUBLIC WORLD - Oct 6 - Tinder was the most downloaded app in the online dating category during September 2019, according to research firm Sensor Tower. Tinder had close to 5.5M installs in September, resulting in a total of 4% increase from the same period last year. Badoo was the second most installed dating app worldwide. Tantan, MeetMe, and Happn rounded out the top five most installed dating apps worldwide for the month. Here is the full list of top 10 dating apps.

1. Tinder
2. Badoo
3. Tantan
4. MeetMe
5. Happn
6. Hily
7. Bumble
8. SKOUT
9. Grindr
10. Plenty of Fish

See full article at Republic World

Top Dating News - Grindr, Tinder, Meetme

OPW - July 23 - Here's the top dating news in ~2 minutes. Subscribe to Two Minute Tuesdays (TMT) on Youtube (and turn on notifications) or listen on Anchor as a podcast.

MeetMe Launches One-on-One Video Chat Feature

BUSINESSWIRE - July 17 - The Meet Group, a leading provider of interactive livestreaming solutions, is launching one-on-one video chat on its MeetMe app. This new feature lets users get to know each other safely without exchanging phone numbers. By tapping the video chat icon on the MeetMe app, members can initiate video chat requests to those with whom they have previously exchanged messages. Members can only receive video chat requests from people they have already communicated with.

See full article at The Meet Group website

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The Meet Group Updates Its Flagship App With Industry-First Safety Practices

BUSINESSWIRE - July 11 - "Today we unveiled a number of safety-related features on MeetMe," said CEO Geoff Cook, "including the Report Abuse button we have seen in any major livestreaming app. When a user taps this button, a screengrab will be sent to our 200+ person moderation team for rapid review of both the screengrab and the active livestream."

See full article at The Meet Group website

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Growlr: What the New Owners Have in Store for the App?

GAYSTAR NEWS - June 21 - Gay entrepreneur Coley Cummiskey launched men's dating app Growlr in 2010 in Columbus, Ohio. In March, it was revealed he'd sold it in a $12M deal to tech company, The Meet Group. The app says it has 10M members and ~200K daily users. Growlr is aimed very much at the 'bears' market – men who are bigger, hairer and heftier, plus their admirers. TMG is a publicly owned business headquartered in New Hope, Pennsylvania. TMG was founded in 2005 as MyYearbook, but has grown and changed its name in the intervening years. It was founded by current CEO, Geoff Cook with his siblings, Catherine and Dave Cook, and specializes in dating apps. Its other brands include MeetMe, LOVOO, Skout and Tagged. They launched live streaming on MeetMe in April 2017, and have now embedded it into LOVOO, Tagged and Skout. "What we saw with Growlr was a very active, and a pretty sizeable community sending many millions of messages every single day. We saw the potential to roll out live streaming video into that community," said Mr Cook. One thing that won't change is the app's focus. The team realize that's its strength. Growlr does have a very distinct sense of community. Its users are very loyal and very engaged.

by David Hudson
See full article at Gaystar News

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The Meet Group: Momo of the West

MEDIUM.COM - Apr 18 - The Western live streaming industry is still in its early stages yet surprisingly, only The Meet Group has adopted the Momo playbook successfully at scale outside of China. The Meet Group has experienced a similar growth trajectory as Momo. 25% of Momo users were using video within six quarters of launch; it took MeetMe five quarters to achieve that same penetration. In about 11 months after starting monetization, 750k users were viewing video, generating a $42M annualized video run-rate; The Meet Group sees $70+ average revenue per paying user. Live streaming can be extremely engaging and interactive, and loyal viewers often form a tight bond with their favorite streamers, thinking of them as close friends. Live is the opposite of loneliness.

by Lauren Hallanan
See full article at Medium.com

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Why The Meet Group Has Strong Growth Potential

GURU FOCUS - Apr 5 - Even though the The Meet Group's stock price has surged 170% higher in the last year, further growth could be ahead. The company is focused on improving user experience through the introduction of innovative new products that may improve its monetization potential. It is also expected to expand into new territories and niches, while further acquisitions could enhance its overall performance. The launch of Battles could drive monetization, as well as attract new users and enhance the user experience. Battles bring together two live streamers in a competition, with users being able to give gifts to support their favorite streamer. The streamer with the most votes is named the winner. Battles were recently launched on the company's Meet Me, Skout and Tagged. The Meet Group is also set to launch a new product called Levels. This adds a gamification element to live streaming through establishing aspirational ranks for users to achieve, as well as exclusive benefits for them to unlock.

by Robert Stephens
See full article at Guru Focus

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Mobile Growth Summit: Catherine Cook Connelly, Co-Founder & VP Brand Strategy, The Meet Group

OPW - Mar 21 - The Meet Group grew its live-streaming product - Live - to a $48M business in less than a year. Live, which monetizes through in-app purchases, is one of the most engaging features the company ever launched. Users spend ~25M minutes in Live each day. In her presentation, Catherine Cook Connelly talks about how they built Live, why it monetizes so well, and how it enables meaningful connections for their users on MeetMe, Skout, Tagged, and LOVOO.

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Q&A With Catherine Cook Connelly, Co-Founder and VP Brand Strategy, The Meet Group

MARKETING TECHNOLOGY INSIGHTS - Feb 15 - Catherine Cook Connelly, the co-Founder and VP Brand Strategy at The Meet Group spoke at the Mobile Growth Summit 2019 this week. Her session is about how they built Live, their live streaming video feature and why it works so well for their portfolio of apps. "It is the most successful product we have ever launched in the company's history, reaching a $71M annualized revenue run rate in just 15 months of being active," she said.

Q: What was behind your decision to build Live?
A: From watching MOMO and other popular Chinese dating apps, we began to see how live streaming can fill a core product gap in dating apps. We've always thought of our apps as the neighborhood bar, and video is the live entertainment meant to keep people engaged and give them something more to talk about. Our apps  -  LOVOO, MeetMe, Tagged, and Skout -  have ~25M minutes of live video every day, and we have not experienced cannibalization of our core text-based chat. Instead, live video fills the product gaps.

Q: Did you have a monetization model in mind prior to its launch?
A: Yes, we used the monetization model popularized in Eastern live streaming apps that rely on viewers to send gifts to the broadcaster. The model has taken off with our users because streamers have an incentive to make interesting streams. We're introducing new products such as Battles, which brings an exciting competitive dynamic to Live. The feature brings together two live streamers for a live competition, whether it be for best dancer, musician or comedian. Each battle lasts just a few minutes, and the winner is the streamer who earns more diamonds from the audience. On a larger scale, we expect to bring Levels to the platform this year. Levels adds a gamification element to Live by establishing aspirational ranks for users and exclusive benefits to unlock.

Q: It seems like being a "live streamer" is now a formal occupation that can be quite lucrative… can you discuss this phenomenon as you are seeing it unfold firsthand?
A: A few of our streamers have said they plan to quit their jobs or have taken a step back from their previous job to build themselves up as streamers. 20% of our streamers consider themselves full-time live streamers.

by Sudipto Ghosh
See full article at Marketing Technology Insights

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The Meet Group Begins to Rollout Battles

PRESS RELEASE - Dec 18 - The Meet Group has begun the rollout of its new Battles feature on its MeetMe and Skout apps. Battles brings together two livestreamers and their audiences for a live competition, whether it be for best dancer, musician or comedian, among other categories. Each battle lasts just a few minutes, and the winner is the streamer who earns more diamonds by receiving gifts from viewers during the battle period.

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The Meet Group to Raise $10K for Action Against Hunger

PRESS RELEASE - Nov 15 - The Meet Group's members (MeetMe, Skout and Tagged) have been successful in raising $10K for Alex's Lemonade Stand in September and $10K for Ryan's Well Foundation in August. This month, the Meet Group is partnering with Action Against Hunger. The campaign is set to launch today (Nov 15) to raise an additional $10K to fight global hunger. The company will offer a limited edition virtual gift in its MeetMe, Skout, and Tagged mobile apps. For every gift sent to broadcasters, The Meet Group will donate $0.25. Action Against Hunger has led the global fight against hunger for ~40 years. The organization is committed to doubling the number of children who receive urgent hunger care, from 3M to 6M by 2020.

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Fascinating Interview With Geoff Cook, CEO Of Meet Group

OPW INTERVIEW - Sep 3 - Meet Group has acquired Skout, Tagged and Lovoo, and has added video, in similar fashion to Momo, in the last year. Fascinating! I asked Geoff how the integrations are coming together, and monetizing.

Meet Group is ahead of schedule for enabling video, and are finding that audiences across their various geographic markets are very similar in terms of their behavior around video. Livestreaming really fits the dating context well, and actually helps solves a particular core problem with Internet dating. Many males and females are left out with Internet dating apps. They come to a dating platform to feel less lonely, and end up feeling more lonely. However, on Meet Group dating services, "livestreaming video enables them to replace feelings of loneliness with feelings of entertainment where they can actually engage with the broadcaster." But its not all about entertainment. 56% of video users report that they meet in real life.

"Video monetizes extraordinarily well." Meet Group went from zero revenue from 'gifts' to video broadcasters to a $37 million run-rate business from video gifts by July 2018. This is mainly from MeetMe and Skout. Meanwhile, Lovoo has been experimenting with bitcoin, but this is very fledgling and not a huge contributor to revenues yet.

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The Meet Group Launches Quick One-on-One Livestreaming

BUSINESSWIRE - Aug 21 - The Meet Group has launched Quick, its new one-on-one live video chat feature, to users of its MeetMe mobile app in the US. The Meet Group's video monetization now exceeds $42M a year. With Quick, users can either choose to match with another user for free or choose to be matched with users of a specific gender for a fee. In addition, similar to one-to-many livestreaming, users can give virtual gifts in Quick, which they may do to show interest to the broadcaster, break the ice or start a conversation.

See full article at Businesswire

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