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

Tinder Turns 10: What Have We Learned From a Decade of Dating Apps?

THE GUARDIAN - A decade ago, online dating existed through sites such as match and OKCupid tended to attract older users, and had a stigma. Apps like Grindr (launched 2009), and Tinder (2012) radically changed online dating. Emily Witt, the author of Future Sex, a book that examines sex in the internet age, tells Nosheen Iqbal about the origin story of Tinder, meeting the founders, and why it was such an instant success. Dating apps have grown in response to a culture where people are single longer and a changing sexual morality that's open to different kinds of relationships.

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by Nosheen Iqbal
See full article at The Guardian

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Dating Apps Prosper in an Evolving Market

LA BUSINESS JOURNAL - Dating apps made $5.6B in revenue last year, with ~$3B being made by Match Group. Since the start of the pandemic, more people have turned to dating apps. In a publication titled "The Future of Dating is Fluid," Tinder pointed out that 2020 was an outstanding year. 60% of members came to Tinder because they felt lonely. 50% of Tinder's Gen Z users participated in a video chat, and 30% were playing online video games together. Those who tried virtual dating saw it as a low-pressure way to get a sense of someone and their personality. Hannah Shimko from the Online Dating Association said the pandemic made people more comfortable with being online. She added that new companies are trying to be innovative about bringing back in-person dating. One example is FROME, a dating app that encourages offline dates. When users sign on, they can choose "available today"or "available this week" to set up a date. When a user is interested in someone, they will send an invitation with a day, time and place. Once the other user confirms, they are locked to each other for the day and cannot connect with anyone else.

by Destiny Torres
See full article at LA Business Journal

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Can Safety Features Help Dating Stocks Attract Investors?

OPTO - The Tinder Swindler story highlighted the urgent need for greater transparency in order to protect users. In 2020, romance scams accounted for a total loss of ~$304M, up 50% from 2019. A month after the documentary's release, Match Group announced plans to launch background checks on Tinder in partnership with the National Domestic Violence Hotline and Garbo. The news was received well: the group's stock climbed 12.8% on the day of the announcement. While investors have fallen out of love with subscription-based tech stocks, with Match Group down 42% year-to-date, a rising trend in introducing safeguarding features to protect users has taken off. Bumble announced that it is working with trauma support website Bloom to provide free support for women who report physical or emotional abuse. Bumble makes clear that developing a secure environment is front of mind.

See full article at OPTO

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Looking for Love in the Metaverse

FORBES - VR dating is on the rise, but Match Group/Tinder pulled the plug on it's (10 month) attempt to build a metaverse dating space, and scrapped the creation of an in-app currency - as revenue growth slackened. Match previously acquired Hyperconnect, an AI & AR company that was developing a virtual romance destination called "Single Town." Now they will iterate but not invest heavily in metaverse. Meanwhile, Nevermet, Flirtual and Planet Theta are showing the different ways in which metaverse dating apps might work.

Nevermet connects VR enthusiasts, who build profiles including in-depth personal bios and avatars. Once two people match they leave Neremet to connect in a virtual world of their choosing. Flirtual sends users to VRChat after they've connected on the Flirtual app. Planet Theta launches November, and will connect matches via virtual speed dating. 1-min chats lead to 3-min coffee dates in a Planet Theta-designed cafe. After virtual coffee users see their dates' photos and can connect in Planet Theta's metaverse world, virtually sipping drinks at a bar or feeding squirrels in the enchanted forest.

by David Westenhaver
See full article at Forbes

Mark Brooks: The mind boggles. What's your thoughts on VR / AR and AI enabled Internet dating? I'd love to hear your thoughts on this Swell.

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Match Hopes to Re-Spark Tinder With a New CMO

MEDIA POST - Bernard Kim, who joined the company as chief executive officer a few months ago, announced that Renate Nyborg is out as Tinder CEO. Melissa Hobley, CMO of Match's OkCupid unit, will move to Tinder CMO. Tinder's revenue growth and new product have been disappointing. "We need to do more to excite our user base to drive top of funnel growth," Kim says. The company is bailing out of the metaverse, at least for now, "given uncertainty about the ultimate contours of the metaverse, as well as the more challenging operating environment." In Q2, Match Group's revenue rose 12% to $795M, and it posted a loss of $10M. "Western markets will settle into slow growth for the next few years," says Mark Brooks, a consultant in the internet dating industry, "until real innovation and shifts into new media are both realizable and can be monetized." When that happens, he says, "internet dating becomes a new game." While he agrees with Kim's decision to back off from the metaverse now, it will have advantages as Web 3.0 gets closer to reality. "It will be important to have a trusted brand because users may have to relinquish more of their privacy in a VR - and especially an AR-driven world." Brooks believes AR has the potential to disrupt dating in ways few can yet imagine, even on par with the way smartphones ushered in a mobile revolution. "AR will bring a different and new level of experience and value in dating."

by Sarah Mahoney
See full article at Media Post

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Tinder to Kill Virtual Currency, Management Changes

TECH CRUNCH - Match Group announced a series of changes to Tinder's management team alongside the announcement of disappointing Q2 earnings. Notably, Tinder CEO Renate Nyborg will be departing the company after less than a year in the top job. Match Group is also killing Tinder's plans to adopt new technology, like virtual currencies and metaverse-based dating. Alongside the departure of Nyborg, Tinder will have a reorganized management team that also includes:

• Faye Iosotaluno, formerly Match Group's chief strategy officer, as Tinder's COO
• Mark van Ryswyk, as Tinder's chief product officer.
• Melissa Hobley, formerly OkCupid's CMO, as Tinder's CMO.
• Tom Jacques, as Tinder's chief technology officer.
• Advisor Amarnath Thombre. The current CEO of Match Group Americas and 15-year Match Group veteran will advise the Tinder management team on product roadmap and growth.

by Sarah Perez
See full article a Tech Crunch

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Match Q2 Results

MATCH GROUP - Total Revenue grew 12% YOY to $795M. Operating loss was $10M driven by a $217M impairment of intangibles relating to the Hyperconnect acquisition. Operating income was $286M, up 9% YOY. Payers increased 10% to 16.4M, up from 15M in the prior year quarter. Tinder direct revenue grew 13% YOY. All other brands collectively grew direct revenue 12% YOY.

See full article at Match Group website

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Tinder Is Bringing Back Desk Mode

CNET - Tinder said it surveyed 1K US online daters between the ages of 18 and 30, and 30% said they'd swiped during a meeting, and 47% said they'd rather match and chat on company time. Tinder said with the rise of hybrid work and a return to the office, Desk Mode could ease the transition.

by Erin Carson
See full article at CNet

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Russian Court Fines Tinder for Data Law Violation

REUTERS - A Russian court fined Match Group 2M roubles ($33K) for an alleged failure to store user data within Russian territory. The fine follows similar steps against WhatsApp and Snapchat.

See full article at Reuters

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Tinder: Women's Safety Now at the Heart of the App

BBC - Tinder is launching a partnership with campaign group No More, aiming to end domestic violence. "Our safety work is never done," says Tinder's CEO. But charity End Violence Against Women says it is only a "small step" in addressing the disproportionate amount of abuse women experienced online. Ms Nyborg says one of the ways she is addressing those concerns is hiring more women. "There is a difference between knowing something is important and feeling it," she says. Tinder's partnership with No More will educate Tinder members and also the staff.

by Shiona McCallum
See full article at BBC

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Online Dating Is Great for Investors, Complicated for Customers

WALL STREET JOURNAL - Together, Wall Street expects Match and Bumble to generate ~$4B this year. Online dating provides more specific results from a wider net. Tinder has ~10M people paying to meet someone on the app. But pitfalls abound. People use dating apps because everyone else seems to be using them. A recent study by the Marriage Foundation found couples who met online were six times more likely to get divorced in the first three years of their marriage than those who met in college or through family or friends. Romantic love may need to adapt to technology rather than the other way around.

by Laura Forman
See full article at Wall Street Journal

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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. ;-)

Australia Sharing Competition Intel as Tinder Takes on Apple to Cut App Fees

BRISBANE TIMES - Australian and European regulators are sharing information about the market power of big tech companies ahead of a pivotal court ruling. The test case in the Netherlands will decide if Apple must overhaul its App Store across Europe to comply with competition laws. Martijn Snoep, chairman of the Authority for Consumers and Markets in The Hague, imposed sanctions on Apple last year after Match Group lodged a formal complaint over the 30% fee on all in-app purchases. Snoep said the problem was global and required regulators to share information so they could protect consumers. Apple outlined some changes to its payments on June 11, but is fighting the Dutch regulator through the courts because of the sweeping impact on its revenue if it loses, which means the case could go to the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg. South Korea has also acted against Apple over its payment services and the United Kingdom's Competition and Markets Authority said in June it would investigate Apple and Google over cloud gaming restrictions and app store payment practices.

by David Crowe
See full article at Brisbane Times

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Tinder Is Opening Belgian Outpost in Ghent

THE BRUSSELS TIMES - Tinder is opening an outpost in Ghent where 33 Belgian IT professionals will work to develop the app, making Ghent the first European city to enhance it. Tinder is available in over 190 countries and is used in 40 languages. The five countries with the most Tinder accounts are the US, UK, Brazil, Canada, and France. Tinder has 66M active monthly users.

by Liv Klingert
See full article at The Brussels Times

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Tinder CEO Announces Brand New Features That Will Transform the App

LADBIBLE - Tinder has a whole bunch of new features on the way: Swipe Party (a setting that lets singles consult their friends on matches), Festival Mode (connecting users with festival-goers before the event), Free Tonight, a feature used by people seeking immediacy, and Tinder Games (users can start a game with someone).

by Aisha Nozari
See full article at LADbible

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