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

Match Group Financial Results Out

MATCH GROUP - Aug 4 - Total revenue grew 27% YOY to $708M. Operating income was $210M, up 7% YOY. Adjusted EBITDA was $263M, up 15% YOY. Payers increased 15% to 15M, up from 13M last year. Tinder Direct Revenue grew 26% YOY, driven by 17% Payers growth to 9.6M. All Other Brands collectively grew Direct Revenue 28% YOY. In Q2 Match Group closed the acquisition of Hyperconnect, which brings two new brands into its portfolio - Azar and Hakuna. Combined, these two brands have ~570K Payers with RPP approaching $35 and ~90% of their revenue coming from à la carte. Azar, launched in 2014, enables users to video chat with people around the world, powered by real-time language translations. The user base is predominantly in Asia and growing in Europe. Hakuna, launched in 2019, is an interactive, social live streaming app that enables group video and audio broadcast. For Q3, Match Group expects total revenue of $790M to $805M, representing 23%-26% YOY growth.

See full article at Match Group website

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A Record Number of Americans Used Dating Apps in July

BLOOMBERG - Aug 4 - The lifting of health restrictions in many parts of the U.S. this summer created a big moment for online dating. Engagement on dating apps in the U.S. reached a record high in July. Daily active users on the most popular dating apps, including Tinder and Bumble topped 15M users, according to Apptopia, which began collecting data in 2015. But renewed concerns about Covid-19, driven by the spread of the delta variant, could pose another setback to people's dating lives -- and the businesses that profit from them. Investors will get a peek inside that dynamic when Match reports quarterly results after the close of trading Tuesday. Bumble reports next week.

by Akayla Gardner
See full article at Bloomberg

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Tinder Reports 2020 Was Its Busiest Year

KTLA - Aug 4 - Despite the social distancing of the past 18 months, the use of dating apps in general has surged. Tinder reported that 2020 was its busiest year yet; this year, its users have already set two records for usage between January and March. Hinge tripled its revenue from 2019 to 2020, and the company expects it to double from that this year. In response to changing demands, Tinder will allow users to add videos to their profile and chat with others before matching with them. Almost half of Tinder users had a video chat with a match during the pandemic, with 40% of them intending to continue them post-pandemic.

See full article at KTLA

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Tinder Sees 1,850% Increase in Users Passporting Themselves Into Tokyo's Olympic Village

DAILYMAIL.CO.UK - July 29 - People using Tinder have changed their location to the Olympic village in a bid to snag an athlete for a date. Tinder has a passport feature which is available by paying for a premium account and allows users to search for cities and pinpoint an exact location.

by Matt Drake
See full article at DailyMail.co.uk

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Google Searches for 'Dating' Have Reached a 5-Year High

NPR - July 20 - Google tweeted last week that search interest in dating had reached a 5-year high in the U.S. "How to date" was the most searched in Washington, D.C., last week, Google says. According to Dana Balch, a spokesperson for Tinder, the app has seen some of its highest swiping days this year. Searches for "top dating apps 2021" boomed over the past month, jumping 3,400%. According to App Annie, Tinder, Bumble, and Hinge are all currently in the top 50 grossing apps on iPhones.

by Josie Fischels
See full article at NPR

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Dating App Insiders Remain 'Highly Concerned' About User Security, According to Survey

FORBES - July 15 - A Pew Research survey (2020) reported 46% of Americans viewed online dating sites as unsafe. The top problem areas were: People lying and misrepresenting, spam, illicit behavior, and sexually explicit messages.

New research conducted by RealMe, an online reputation platform dedicated to cultivating safety and trust, and Global Dating Insights, suggests industry executives are equally concerned. 63% of dating app insiders believe the risk of scams and fraud in online dating is increasing and half admitted they could be doing more to protect users.

Match announced it was adding more robust background checks to Tinder. The Meet Group added AI-powered face verification badges to profiles and implemented iOS device checks to prevent bad actors from returning.

And, White Label Dating's network of 4,000 dating sites will be integrating RealMe this year, giving millions of daters access to an extensive database of over 275 million reputation profiles containing criminal records, sex offender status, and more.

"This survey confirms the risk of scams, harassment, and harm on dating apps is growing and both industry insiders and consumers are aware of the need for change," says dating expert Charley Lester. "RealMe is able to answer this call for improved safety and security and more by allowing dating app users to verify identities and gain visibility into important background information surrounding the people they meet online. Additionally, RealMe's platform touts several truly progressive enhancements designed to empower more people to take control of their online reputation

by Mark Travers
See full article at Forbes

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Netflix Ropes in Tinder as Official Casting Partner for Indian Dating Reality Show

ECONOMIC TIMES - July 13 - Tinder is partnering with Netflix as the official casting partner for its first ever Indian dating reality show, 'IRL: In Real Love'. Single Tinder users can apply to be the contestants in the show by swiping right in the app.

by Gaurav Laghate
See full article at Economic Times

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Dating-App Investors Should Play the Field

WALL STREET JOURNAL - July 13 - Match Group may always shine bright in online dating, but right now Bumble has some appeal. Match Group is up 62% over the past year, while Bumble has shed 25% since its February IPO. Bumble is now trading at just 9.4 times enterprise value to forward sales, with Match at a significant premium at 14.6 times. There is a reason Match has outperformed. It not only owns Tinder, but seven of the top 10 dating apps by consumer spending in the U.S. as of the Q1, according to Sensor Tower. Despite its mission to empower women to make the first move, a recent survey from Evercore ISI found a higher percentage of women say they are using Tinder than Bumble. It also found that of males and females using both apps, a significantly higher percentage of both groups reported being more satisfied with Tinder. Between the two, Bumble's underperformance this year leaves more room for upside. Both Evercore ISI's survey and a May survey from Morgan Stanley found 87% of respondents plan to maintain or increase their usage of dating apps over the next several months. 53% of those who don't pay currently said they would consider paying for online-dating apps in the future.

by Laura Forman
See full article at Wall Street Journal

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More Younger People Are Looking for Friends on Match, Bumble and Tinder

WALL STREET JOURNAL - July 8 - Dating apps are getting friendlier. More younger people see no problem swiping left or right to find friend matches rather than dates or hookups. Millennials and Generation Z have been comfortable using dating apps to meet platonic friends for a few years now, especially when moving to a new city. During the pandemic, the practice boomed. In a recent survey of 300 members of Generation Z aged 16 to 24 in the U.S., 35% said they have used dating apps to make platonic friends over the past 12 months, according to OnePulse, a consumer insight app and web portal. 27% said they used dating apps to make friends because they were lonely in lockdown. More women than men - 39% vs. 29% - said they used dating apps to make platonic friends.

by Ray A. Smith
See full article at Wall Street Journal

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Netflix Buys 'Tinder Swindler' Documentary

VARIETY - July 7 - Netflix has picked up global rights to the documentary "Tinder Swindler," about a notorious con man who lured women using the popular dating app and tricked them out of millions of dollars. Produced by "Three Identical Strangers" and "Don't F*** With Cats" makers Raw TV, alongside AGC Studios, the doc tells the story of Israeli fraudster Shimon Hayut, who conned Scandinavian women into parting with hundreds of thousands of dollars by pretending to be a Russian oligarch named Simon Leviev on Tinder.

by Manori Ravindran
See full article at Yahoo Sport

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U.S. Lifestyle Apps Installs Hit a Record 151M in Q1 2021

SENSOR TOWER - July 6 - Lifestyle category apps are off to a strong start in 2021, both in terms of adoption and consumer spending in the U.S., according to Sensor Tower's State of Lifestyle Apps 2021 report. U.S. consumer spending on lifestyle apps hit ~$300M in Q1. Excluding Tinder, which introduced direct payments on Android, the Lifestyle category saw a compound annual growth rate of ~50% in U.S. consumer spending since the Q1 of 2018. For the first time ever, Lifestyle category apps saw 151M first-time installs in Q1 2021, up 10% YOY. This growth in adoption was driven especially by Android users; Google Play installs reached 69M last quarter, up 30% Q/Q. This brought Google Play's share of the downloads to 46%, which was the highest it had seen since 1Q18. Match Group maintained a strong presence in the top charts in Q1 '21, taking seven out of the 10 spots in the top dating apps by U.S. consumer spending.

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It's 2021, Why Are Dating App Algorithms Still so Bad?

WIRED - July 1 - There's been a post-pandemic boom in app downloads, but success rates remain depressingly low. Lockdown was boom time for dating apps. Hinge had a 63% spike in downloads since 2019 and tripled revenue in 2020. May 2021 saw 6.5M+ download Tinder. Tinder and Grindr rank in the top 10 of apps most likely to leave users feeling sad. Most dating apps rely on a combination of stated preferences and collaborative filtering i.e. patterns in who users have said yes or no to. A 2016 study of match rates on Tinder (Queen Mary University) revealed low rates of reciprocal interest: the match rate was 10.5% for women and 0.6% for men. "Machines can only work with what you give them," says Samantha Joel of Western University in Canada, who researches romantic decisions. These complex preferences aren't transparent: people might be embarrassed by something they're drawn to, or even entirely unaware that the preference is there, even as it shapes their behaviour. Compatibility and desirability can be poles apart. We don't always know what we like until it's put in front of us.

by Emma Hughes
See full article at Wired

Mark Brooks: The science of compatibility profiling and matchmaking is entirely, still, a virgin science. Until we open up our databases to academics and data scientists to do proper experimentation, we will continue to clutch at straws when it comes to really provide more than marginal improvements to long term matchmaking. However, there's a LOT of value in just getting showstopper questions out of the way right upfront. i.e. sexuality preferences, marriage status, marriage-minded?, want kids?, got kids? etc.

Consumer Spending on Apps Hit Record $64.9B in First Half of 2021

TECH CRUNCH - July 1 - Consumer spending in mobile apps hit a record $64.9B during the H1 of 2021, according to Sensor Tower. This figure represents a 24.8% YOY increase in spending seen across both the App Store and Google Play. Apple's App Store accounted for $41.5B in global consumer spending during the H1 of 2021, or 1.8x the $23.4B seen by Google Play. TikTok remained a top grossing app, followed by YouTube and Tinder.

by Sarah Perez
See full article at Tech Crunch

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Tinder Offers 2 Free Therapy Sessions

EDEX LIVE - June 24 - Tinder has partnered with VisitHealth to provide members free access to emotional wellness content. Starting Thursday and through July, all Indian users of Tinder will have access to mental health resources including up to two free sessions with licensed therapists across eight languages, said Tinder India, adding that there will be "continued support at discounted rates for beyond the first two sessions" till December. These sessions can be over video, chat or call.

See full article at Edex Live

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Singles Return to In-Person Dating

WALL STREET JOURNAL - June 23 - People emerging from romantic hibernation are discovering their flirting skills are out of practice. Bumble says that 90% of its users report they are ready to date in real life again. From April to May, conversations on OkCupid increased 17.5%, while matches rose ~15%, the company says. On Tinder, "swipe activity" rose 15% this February YOY. Bumble says 41% of those ready to date in person again still prefer it to be socially distanced.

by Anne Marie Chakker
See full article at Wall Street Journal

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