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

Exclusive Dating Apps in South Korea

KOREA HERALD - Mar 23 - In order to join dating app Amanda, users need to receive an average score of three or higher out of a possible five points from 20 members of the app. GoldSpoon, which takes its name from the term used in Korea to refer to people from wealthy families, only allows rich men to join the app. They must own an imported car, having a house in the three most expensive districts in Seoul, earning ~70M won ($56K) or having a highly paying professional job. Women applicants must have a professional job or an appearance that passes the test by the members in the app. The acceptable age range is 20 to 40 for both men and women. Educational background is another factor restricting those who can join certain dating apps. SKY People and Diamatch requires applicants to the app to verify having attended or graduated prestigious universities or to be working for a major company.

by Lim Jang-won
See full article at Korea Herald

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Q&A With Bumble's Vice President of Strategy, Priti Joshi

MENAFN - Mar 23 - As India stays home to prevent the spread of COVID-19, online dating is on the rise. Bumble says that the e-dating space in India will see a gendered shift, with more women taking the lead, and an increased desire for meaningful, lasting connections.

Q: What is India's dating scene like? What makes it unique, as compared to other countries?
A: It is highly fragmented. On one side, there are many global apps focused on dating, and on the other, there are local, homegrown players focused on dating or matrimony. Bumble saw an opportunity to play in the middle - to bring to India a social network where women are empowered to make the first move.

Q: Specifically for women, online dating can get a little tricky. What do you think is women users' ask of an online dating platform?
A: We care deeply about bringing people together with a mission to end misogyny. It was important for us to prioritise safety features.

Q: What have been your key observations over the years since you launched?
A: Over this last year, Bumble India's user base has quadrupled to 2M users and one of our fastest growing user segments is Gen Z. We've also seen that women in India are empowered and excited to take control. Furthermore, we've seen that 40% of women in India use more than one mode on Bumble.

by Siddhi Jain
See full article at MenaFN

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Extra-marital App Gleeden's Subscriptions up 70% in India

DAIJIWORLD.COM - Mar 23 - Extra-marital dating app Gleeden has seen subscriptions increased by 70% in India as more people stay home. Gleeden has seen longer threads in chats (2.5 times times longer than usual), an increase in the upload of pictures in both public and especially private albums and in the number of members who are updating their profiles with a new description. Gleeden started its operations in India in 2017 and now claims to have over 8 lakh active Indian users.

See full article at DaijiWorld.com

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Coronavirus Makes Dating a Lot More Complicated

WALL STREET JOURNAL - Mar 23 - Trying to build a relationship while reducing human contact during the coronavirus pandemic is tricky. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio weighed in to give dating advice earlier this month. "If you're sick, don't go on a date. If the date is sick, don't go on the date," he said. As far as kissing at the end of a date, he called it "wise" to abstain. That was then. Now, much of the country has been ordered to stay inside their homes, and most Americans have cut off in-person contact. This leaves little room for romance. But human nature dictates: the longer people are isolated, the more they crave companionship. "People don't want to feel alone, and they've already watched everything on Netflix," said Adam Cohen-Aslatei, CEO of dating app S'More. The average number of daily users of S'More increased 28% the third week of March and the length of conversations has doubled. Say Allo saw a 350% increase in video-date sessions in the early weeks of March.

by Georgia Wells
See full article at Wall Street Journal

See the top news on S'More
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Tinder Users Score Higher on a Measure of Narcissism and Psychopathy

PSYPOST - Mar 22 - New research provides evidence that Tinder users tend to have a "darker" personality compared to those who don't use the dating app. The study, published in the Journal of Individual Differences, examined the so-called "Dark Triad" personality traits of narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy. Previous research conducted by Sevi has found that Tinder users tend to be less disgusted by sexual situations and more likely to engage in risky behaviors related to their health.

by Eric W. Dolan
See full article at PsyPost

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Tinder Offers Tinder Passport for Free

THEVERGE - Mar 20 - Starting next week, Tinder is making its Passport feature free for all users through April 30th. Passport allows people to pay to swipe abroad wherever they want. It usually costs money to access through either Tinder Gold or Tinder Plus.

by Ashley Carman
See full article at The Verge

See the top news on Tinder

OKCupid: "Now Is Not the Time to Go to a Bar"

DAILYMAIL.CO.UK - Mar 20 - Several dating apps have warned users not to meet their dates in person. Most are encouraging some form of virtual dating, either by phone or video chat. Coffee Meets Bagel has even suggested several creative virtual dates Just last week, an OKCupid survey found that 88% of users were still willing to go out on dates - though the situation has been changing rapidly. OKCupid tweeted a message on March 16. "We don't know who needs to hear this, but now is NOT the time to go out with your date to a bar. FaceTime, Skype, call, text, call, message on our app....all very romantic right now," they wrote. Hinge has had a similar message about staying home for its users. "Love in the time of Coronavirus is absolutely possible, and we're here to help you through it," they wrote on Twitter and Instagram.

by Carly Stern
See full article at DailyMail.co.uk

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Tinder U's 'Still in Session' Lets College Students Swipe Everywhere

ELITE DAILY - Mar 20 - Tinder U's "Still In Session" just launched, allowing students to connect with others near or far while they're quarantining. Tinder U, a version of the dating app that's reserved solely for college students, typically allows users to find and match with others at their own schools or on nearby campuses. That means that their swiping pool is limited to people within a short distance range that's set by the app. Obviously, the coronavirus outbreak has changed a lot, with many students moving home for the remainder of the semester. That's where the new "Still in Session" feature comes in: Tinder U has officially removed its distance radius, so students can connect with other students no matter where they live.

by Rebecca Strong
See full article at Elite Daily

See the top news on Tinder

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What Dating Apps Get the Most Press Coverage?

OPW - Mar 21 - We took a look at who got the most press coverage (on OPW.news) in 2019. We run the news that we think is most strategically significant for dating executives to know about. Just the top news. So this is a straw poll analysis. Here's what we ran in 2019, and who came up tops.

1. Tinder (158 posts in 2019)
   No surprise here - Tinder won again.
2. Bumble (112 posts) 
   Bumble takes 2nd place again. It also took the 2nd place on the top grossing dating apps list last year.
3. Match Group (90 posts)
4. The Meet Group (52 posts) 
5. Grindr (42 posts)
6. Badoo (37 posts) 
7. Facebook Dating (36 posts) 
8. Match.com (33 posts) 
9. OkCupid (30 posts) 
10. Lumen (28 posts)

See the full post at Courtland Brooks Blog

Dating.com Group Launches $50 Million Corporate VC Fund

PULSE 2.0 - Mar 20 - The fund will invest in companies and projects in the dating space. Dating.com Group has recently acquired India-based Dil Mil - which is known as the "Tinder for South Asians". Some of the company's other apps include Dating.com, AnastasiaDate.com, Tubit, DateMyAge, AsianDate.com, and AfricanDate.com. The first investment was in S'More - which is a dating app encourages users to learn more about a person before looking at profile photos.

by Amit Chowdhry
See full article at Pulse 2.0

See the top news on Dating.com Group
See the top news on Dil Mil
See the top news on S'More

This post also appears on InternetDatingInvestments.com

Plenty of Fish Partners With The Meet Group for Free Livestreaming

PR NEWSWIRE - Mar 19 - Plenty of Fish today began rolling out a free livestreaming feature, dubbed LIVE!, for members to encourage singles to "date from a distance" as the nation practices social isolation. In partnership with The Meet Group, a leading provider of interactive livestreaming solutions, LIVE! enables Plenty of Fish app-users to livestream with friends and potential matches. Next week, LIVE! will roll out to 80% of the U.S. and will be made available to all global app-users by the end of April. Users can access livestreaming through the LIVE! Icon in the app.

See full article at PR Newswire

See the top news on POF
See the top news on The Meet Group 

Momo Announces Q4 and Fiscal Year 2019 Financial Results

PR NEWSWIRE - Mar 19 - Momo's Q4 net revenues increased by 22% YOY to RMB 4,688M ($673.4M). Q4 Net income attributable to Momo increased to RMB1,055.9M ($151.7M) from RMB660.8M in Q4 2018. Monthly Active Users on Momo app were 114.5M in December 2019, compared to 113.3M in December 2018. Total paying users of live video service and value-added service were 13.8M, compared to 13M in Q4 2018. Full Year 2019 Highlights: Net revenues increased 27% YOY to RMB17,015M ($2,444.1M) for the full year of 2019. Net income attributable to Momo was RMB2,970.9M ($426.7M) for the full year of 2019.

See full article at PR Newswire

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Grindr Has Increased the Number of Viewable Profiles for Free Because of COVID-19

THE TAB - Mar 19 - For a limited time, Grindr has made some premium features free. Acknowledging that many of their users will be working from home or self-isolating under new recommendations from the government to do so, Grindr has made the premium feature of being able to see up to 300 profiles in their area free.

by Kyle Russell Frazer
See full article at The Tab

See the top news on Grindr

How Is Coronavirus Affecting the Mobile Economy

APPANNIE - Mar 19 - The world is now turning to mobile to stay connected. AppAnnie took a look at Business, Education, Games, Social, Entertainment, Ride-Sharing, Food Delivery, Finance and Dating apps to unearth how coronavirus is impacting the way we conduct our lives each day. In China, city lockdowns began in January 2020. Consequently, in February, the daily time spent in mobile in China jumped to 5h per day, an increase of 30% compared to the average for 2019. Business and Education apps saw the biggest surge in downloads among categories of apps. We have seen a softening in active users among the top dating apps in the US in the weeks post-Valentine's Day, but it's important to note that we typically see a peak in usage surrounding Valentine's Day. Within dating apps, users can still be active by matching and messaging without actually meeting up in-person.

by Lexi Sydow
See full article at AppAnnie

How COVID-19 Is Affecting Dating Apps for Singles

NEWSWEEK - Mar 18 - With more and more people practicing social distancing, it's unclear how exactly single people are supposed to date as concerns over COVID-19 become increasingly severe. These are the approaches that dating apps and services are taking. In a statement, Hinge wrote that users' safety was most important. On its website, it provided important tips from WHO, including social distancing, washing hands, avoiding face touching and staying up to date. Tinder is sharing a similar message with a new card that appears for swipers, adding that people should carry hand sanitizer and maintain distance during social events. The ethically-non-monogamous-focused dating app #Open is advising users in a message to not meet new partners in person and to instead make use of video and phone calls. Now is not the time to be making new connections," said #Open co-founder David Epstein.

by James Crowley
See full article at Newsweek

See the top news on Hinge
See the top news on Tinder
See the top news on #Open

Dating Apps Wingman and Ship Let Friends Take Over

ESQUIRE - Mar 18 - Tina Wilson is the founder of Wingman, a 3-year-old app that allows users to recruit friends and family to swipe on their behalf. Like many, she was irritated by the fake profiles and bad matches that come with online dating. "I kind of had that light bulb moment," says Wilson. "Wow, wouldn't it be fun if I could just let my friends do it for me? They have great insights. They're always going to toot my horn, and they love me, but they can also talk about my flaws and help me bypass some of the craziness that goes on." Ship is another friend-swiping app that launched last year. It is not surprising that both Wingman and Ship were founded by women; men, studies have found, often have a harder time than women building and maintaining friendships. In Britain, nearly 1 in 5 men says he has no friends at all. According to a spokesperson for Ship, women tend to have more friends swiping on their behalf than men do.

by Gabrielle Bruney
See full article at Esquire

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The Top Dating Industry News for March 17th

OPW - Mar 17 - IDEA Summit, The Meet Group Acquisition & Financial Results, Grindr Acquisition, OKCupid Covid-19 Survey, Tinder's Swipe Night on Hold.

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 . Listen to the trailer for the channel.

Relationship AI Helps Singles Track Their Activity Across Multiple Apps

GDI - Mar 17 - The average online dating user has upwards of three apps on their phone at any point, and with hundreds of matches on each platform, it is harder than ever for them to keep on top of their love lives. That's where Relationship AI comes in. It stores users' online dating activity in one place and helps them make smarter decisions by tracking all of their interactions, rating their matches and letting them ask friends for advice. Founder Karinna Karsten created the product after she saw no such tool on the market. In this podcast Karinna discusses how Relationship AI was created, how it can help people at any stage of a relationship, and what the online dating industry will look like in the future.

by Dominic Whitlock
See full article at GDI

See the top news on Relationship AI

Truth and Transparency Offered by RealMe

PR NEWSWIRE - Mar 17 - With over 50M people in the U.S. currently using online dating apps or sites, chances are they've swiped right on a fake or disingenuous profile. In a new FTI Consulting report supported by RealMe, researchers found online dating has given way to new forms of falsehood and deceit. The study calls this societal phenomenon "Generation L," or "Generation Liar," which refers to people who believe it is important to look their best online, even if it means distorting reality. RealMe is a turnkey, no-cost technology solution to protect dating app users. The company's tool, Check, is a platform integration that empowers online daters with trustworthy in-app identity scans and ~325M personal background profiles powered by MyLife. In addition, the company has teamed up with Spectrum Labs, a contextual AI platform that looks beyond keywords to identify larger patterns of toxic behavior.

See full article at PR Newswire