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

Announcing LTR Edition 19 With Geoff Cook (CEO of The Meet Group), and Carmelia Ray (celebrity matchmaker)

OPW - Edition 19 of the LTR (Love, Tech, Relationships) online experience will be on Wed 1st February at 12 noon EST (New York time). In this edition, we will hear from Geoff Cook, CEO/Co-Founder of The Meet Group & co-CEO of ParshipMeet Group, on the topic of "Stepping Stones to Innovation", followed by Carmelia Ray, a celebrity matchmaker, on "The future of content marketing, social selling, and brand recognition through TV and media."

We have a half-hour of networking on virtual tables, followed by 50 mins of presentations, and then another short networking session. 1.5 hours all-in.

If you hold a full-time leadership role at an Internet dating company then you are welcome to join IDEA for free and welcome to join LTR events for free.

See the LTR Edition 19 speakers and invite page here

Email mark@courtlandbrooks.com to RSVP.

This LTR is kindly sponsored by technology providers Livebox by The Meet Group, RealGifts, Courtland Brooks and Matchmaker.com

Grindr: Stock Price Implodes but the App Is Growing Fast

SEEKING ALPHA - Grindr went public with an overvaluation of $2.1B through a SPAC deal, leaving only 500K shares available for the public to trade. While the stock has imploded, we should not disregard that Grindr has a scalable business model with large profit margins and the ability to generate serious cash. It is the largest LGBTQ social and networking app, with ~11M users exchanging ~12B messages per day. It is growing faster than direct online dating peers, with 32% YOY revenue growth and 42% YOY paid user growth.

See full article at Seeking Alpha

See the top news on Grindr

First-Dating-App Led Research Study of Hispanics in College

PR NEWSWIRE - Part of the Match Group, Chispa has, for the first time, taken a deep look at the Latin Gen Z population, with a specific emphasis on college-aged singles. Top research findings include: 72% of Hispanic Gen Z college students have met someone online, while Hispanic Gen Z female college students are more than three times more likely to meet a partner online than at church. 74% of Hispanic Gen Z students believe that marriage should not be exclusively between a man and a woman. Chispa is the largest dating app made for US Latinos.

See full article at PR Newswire

See the top news on Chispa

Bill Promoting Online Dating Safety Passes Through Utah House of Representatives Committee

UPR - House Bill 18, a bill aiming to keep people safe on dating apps, has passed in the House Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Standing Committee. Dating apps must disclose if they've done background checks on users, sending emails to all users if an account is suspected of catfishing. After passing the committee on Friday afternoon, the bill will head to the House floor and, if passed, will go to the Senate.

by Jared Gereau
See full article at UPR

Netflix Teams up With Bumble so Users Can Bond Over TV Shows

TECH CRUNCH - Bumble is launching a weekly in-app Netflix-themed question game called "Netflix Nights In" that asks users questions about a popular Netflix show. Users can play against their match to see who can answer all the questions correctly. According to a recent Bumble survey, 78% of users think it's easier to talk to matches when they have similar TV and movie tastes. 72% of the survey respondents said they've talked about TV shows and movies on a date. "Netflix Nights In" will start on January 30 and ends on March 13. The question game is available to Bumble users in the US, Canada, and the UK.

by Lauren Forristal
See full article at Tech Crunch

See the top news on Bumble

Bharat Matrimony - Online Matrimony Trends Report 2022

NEWSPATROLLING - This annual report is based on users' activities on Bharat Matrimony, India's biggest matchmaking platform. 2022 saw 280M member logins from singles across India and abroad. A total of 432,520 members confirmed meeting their life partner on Bharat Matrimony last year. Singles between 25 and 29 years were the most active users on Bharat Matrimony - with Sundays being the most active time when online sessions peaked.

See full article at NewsPatrolling

See the top news on BharatMatrimony

Calls to Ban Violent Offenders From Dating Apps in Australia

1NEWS - The prolific number of sexual assaults stemming from dating apps will be spotlighted in Australia this week, with advocates and the government coming together to work on reform. Australia's Communications Minister Michelle Rowland said the government would work with states and territories to take necessary action. Asked whether dating apps were doing enough to stamp out criminal behavior, the minister said while some had their own pre-requisites, they weren't consistent across platforms. Three-quarters of Australian Institute of Criminology survey respondents had been victims of some form of online sexual violence in the past five years. One-third experienced in-person abuse from someone they met on an app, with 27% reporting incidents of sexual assault or coercion, such as drink spiking.

See full article at 1News

Apps Like Tinder Are Changing From Dating Tools to Party Places

ACN NEWSWIRE - According to a study by Bumble, 53% of respondents said it is OK to be single. People are more cautious about dating and building a relationship. Despite this, humans' desire for social connection will never wane. Dating apps like Tinder are actively incorporating interactive and immersive features to attract users to congregate. In Sep 2021, Tinder launched "Explore" to diversify social networking experiences, including Hot Takes, Vibes, and Swipe Night. With these new features, Tinder has become more of an entertaining and companionable app. According to Tinder's "Year in Swipe" report, Tinder saw a 49% increase in members adding the phrase "situationship" to their bios in 2022.

See full article at MarketScreener

See the top news on Tinder
See the top news on Bumble

Gleeden: of 10M, 20% of Users Are Indians

TRUESCOOP - Gleeden, a France-based extramarital dating app, claims that out of 10M users, around 20% of the entire user base is from India. The company has said that most people in this category belong to urban households and are from Tier 1 cities, followed by Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities, respectively.

by Tushar Singh
See full article at TrueScoop

See the top news on Gleeden

Podcast: How Dating App Filteroff Deals With Scammers

ITWORLD CANADA - Filteroff is a dating app that schedules users for a 90-second video chat with each other. Filteroff's Scammer Detection System kicks into full gear when a user signs up. When a scammer is detected, the app snags them from the normal dating pool and places them in a separate dark dating pool full of other scammers and bots.

by Jim Love
Listen to the podcast at ITWorld Canada

See the top news on FilterOff

Match Shares Rise 5.5% on Hinge's Pricier Membership Testing

MARKETWATCH - Match Group shares edged up 5.5% to $50.48 following news that a higher priced ($50-$60) membership tier for its Hinge dating app is being tested. However, Match's stock price is down 57% over the last 12 months.

by Denny Jacob
See full article at Marketwatch

See the top news on Match Group
See the top news on Hinge

New Study Explains Success of Online Dating

ASU NEWS - "If you met your partner online, you were a little happier and a little less likely to break up or dissolve the marriage," said Liesel Sharabi, professor at Arizona State University. Sharabi wanted to know why. Her findings are outlined in a new study titled "The Enduring Effect of Internet Dating: Meeting Online and the Road to Marriage" in the journal Communication Research. Sharabi is director of ASU's Relationships and Technology Lab. Her research presents a view of online dating through 4 stages and 13 subcategories. Online dating allows participants to get the backstory before moving forward. "You don't have to worry that you're going to be 6 months into a relationship and just then learn something that is a deal breaker," said Sharabi, who also writes an online dating blog called Dating in the Digital Age for Psychology Today. Some relationships formed online took more time to develop, Sharabi said, with emotional intimacy preceding physical intimacy. It turns out this created a better foundation for a future union. Compatibility is key, and the more specific the search, the greater the chance of meeting someone with shared interests.

See full article at ASU News

Mark Brooks: I think academics really love the business of love. It's fascinating, and fallow ground for making impactful scientific findings that can really help humanity. Please see the IDEA Academic Program.

OPW Weekly News Highlights, Featuring Hinge, Tinder, Hawaya, Muzz and Spark Networks

How The Meet Group Employs Data to Better Understand Its Competitors

DATA.AI - Live video streaming is creating a new economy - providing opportunities for live entertainment and direct creator compensation. The market's top 25 live video streaming apps supported a $3.8B economy in 2021. The Meet Group is a leading player. Its Livebox connects brands with ~1M creators and a potential audience network of ~30M global users every month. The company says it produces more minutes of video per day than Netflix has in its entire catalog. The Meet Group is active in both the B2C and B2B app spaces. The Meet Group relies heavily on in-app and industry-wide data insights to stay on top of its strategy in such fast-moving markets. The company works closely with data.ai. "Understanding how we compare in terms of retention, visibility, downloads, active users, ratings, and creativity is the best way to grow, innovate and meet emerging customer needs," says Catherine Connelly, co-founder and SVP of Marketing at The Meet Group.

See full article at Data.ai

See the top news on The Meet Group

Epic and Match's Antitrust Case Against Google Heads to Jury Trial

TECH CRUNCH - A date has been set for a trial by jury in a significant antitrust case against Google involving its alleged abuses of power in the Android app market. Fortnite maker Epic Games and Match Group have accused Google of unfairly leveraging its market dominance and harming competition through its Google Play Store terms and practices. The case will now proceed to a jury trial on Nov 6, 2023. Epic Games sued Apple and Google in 2020 when it introduced a direct payment option in Fortnite to its iOS and Android apps, prompting Apple and Google to boot the mobile game from their app stores. Match Group had also sued Google over its Play Store practices, accusing Google of charging developers "exorbitant fees." Google shot back, saying Match just wants to get out of paying for the services it provides the company as part of its platform.

by Sarah Perez
See full article at Tech Crunch

See the top news on Match Group