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

Swiping Right On AI

FORBES - Jennifer Flashman, Tinder's director of analytics, explained that in leveraging AI to build better user experiences, the future of dating will increasingly occur over texts and DMs rather than blind dates and phone calls. AI apps are only as good as the data behind them. AI can help recommend the perfect TV show, and it can even help us find a life partner. Hinge has a "Most Compatible" feature, which analyzes a user's preferences and sends recommendations of matches that it thinks will be a particularly good fit. Coffee Meets Bagel shares a selection of curated profiles for users to look at each day at noon via their "smart algorithm". AI could even help combat catfishing and creepy messages. Tinder's "Are You Sure?" algorithm scans messages and compares them against text that's been reported for inappropriate language in the past.

by James Freeze
See full article at Forbes

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Tinder's CEO Met Her Husband on the App

FORTUNE - Renate Nyborg, CEO of Tinder, is the ultimate testament to Tinder's ability to create healthy, long-term relationships. She met her husband on the app six years ago, and still describes herself as a "happy customer." She's also a female CEO - the first in Tinder's history - who made it her first order of business to dig into the experiences women and LGBTQ people were having on the app.

by Emma Hinchliffe
See full article at Fortune

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Tinder Brought Its "Festival Mode" Feature to Life

BIZBASH - Tinder's new "Festival Mode" facilitates connections at music events. Created in partnership with Live Nation, Festival Moda allows users to select which live music events and festivals they'll be attending, and connect with others who plan to attend the same event. The feature currently lets users choose between 20 festivals from around the world.

by Claire Hoffman
See full article at BizBash

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Tinder Invites Dog Lovers to Enjoy First Date on May 14 and 15

WALES ONLINE - Tinder is launching its own pop-up pub experience to celebrate dogs being the ultimate aid to charm a potential partner. A study has confirmed members who feature their dogs in profiles get 5% more matches. 29% of people admit that they've added a picture with a dog to their profile to improve chances of success. 91% have revealed it's a deal-breaker if their dog doesn't like someone, so Tinder is opening The Bark & Spark pop-up venue to host first dates. It is inviting dog lovers to enjoy a first date on Tinder on May 14 and 15 at participating venues. They will cater to all dogs' needs whilst pet owners enjoy their date.

by Brett Gibbons
See full article at Wales Online

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Why People Behave Badly on Dating Apps

BBC - Cheating, ghosting and swiping - online dating brings out the worst in many people. "The screen mediates our courage, so we will do and say things online that we would never do in real life," says Dr Joanne Orlando, an Australia-based researcher and author who focuses on digital wellness. Dana Weiser, an associate professor at Texas Tech University, began collecting data from 550 undergraduate students about infidelity on Tinder, which was published in a 2018 study. 64% reported seeing someone on Tinder whom they knew to be in an exclusive relationship, 17% of the study's participants themselves admitted to messaging someone on Tinder while in a relationship, and 7% said they'd had a sexual experience with someone they met on Tinder while dating someone else. A 2016 survey by Plenty of Fish showed 80% of respondents between 18 and 33 years old reported having at least one relationship end via ghosting. 35% of respondents to the 2020 Pew Research Center study reported someone had sent them an "explicit message or image they didn't ask for" on a dating app, and that number rose to 57% among female users aged 18 to 34.

by Jessica Klein
See full article at BBC

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Match Group Q1 Results - Revenue up 20%, New CEO

MATCH GROUP - Total Revenue grew 20% YOY to $799M. Operating income was $208M, an increase of 10% YOY. Payers increased 13% to 16.3M, up from 14.4M in the prior year quarter. Tinder Direct Revenue grew 18% YOY, driven by 17% payers growth to 10.7M. All Other Brands collectively grew revenue by 22% YOY driven by 14% RPP growth and 7% payers growth to 5.6M.

Key points from Match Group's letter to shareholders:

• Match Group CEO Shar Dubey is stepping down. She will remain as a director and advisor to the company, and Bernard Kim will resume his role as CEO.
• Match Group has published its 2nd annual Impact Report to share its progress on social, environmental, and governance initiatives.
• In Japan, Tinder launched a co-marketing campaign with Netflix for the dating reality TV show Love is Blind: Japan.
• Tinder Coins, its in-app virtual currency, is on track to launch globally this summer.
• Hinge is on track to launch in its first non-English speaking market, Germany, in Q2.
• Hinge is on pace to more than 10x revenue from 2019 to 2022.
• Match, Meetic, Pairs, and POF all successfully leverage tech features from Hyperconnect into their products.

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Dating Apps and Environmental Advocacy

DW - Dating apps like OkCupid, Bumble and Tinder have noticed more and more of their users mentioning climate issues on their profiles - and have integrated features to help them connect with each other. On Bumble, users can add badges to their bios as as a way of aligning with different causes. Tinder says that "climate protection" was one of the most mentioned phrases on German Gen Z members' bios last year. OkCupid has reinstated its climate change advocate badge, which was first rolled out in 2021 and is only available for April, Earth Month. When it was introduced last year ~400K people used the badge.

See full article at DW

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People Use Tinder to Sell Insurance and Looking for Love on LinkedIn

INSIDER - There are a number of reports online of similar instances where people have said that they used dating apps for purposes other than dates. According to Tinder's community guidelines, promotion or solicitation is prohibited. "It's fine to invite your matches to something that you're doing, but if the purpose of your profile is to advertise your event or business, non-profit, political campaign, contest, or to conduct research, we may delete your account," the rules read. But it appears that there's little regulation of the rule. On the flip side, some people have boldly turned to social media platforms outside of dating sites in their quest for love. Some people have openly blogged about finding their significant other via LinkedIn.

by Waiyee Yip
See full article at Insider

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Tinder Adds a 'Festival Mode' for Making Connections Ahead of Concerts and Events

TECH CRUNCH - Festival Mode is designed to help users connect ahead of their plans to attend concerts or larger music festivals. The feature was designed in partnership with live entertainment company Live Nation as well as event producers AEG Presents and Superstruct Entertainment, whose upcoming events will now be included in the new Festival Mode feature found within Tinder Explore.

by Sarah Perez
See full article at Tech Crunch

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Tinder Tests Profile Verification With 'Liveness' Facial Recognition

GRATISDATINGTIPS - Tinder has started testing a new form of profile verification using a video called "Selfie Verification." The feature is rolling out in selected test markets. To verify that users are who they say they are, Tinder introduced photo verification in 2020. This feature allows users to authenticate themselves through a series of real-time posed selfies (photos), which are compared to existing profile photos using human-assisted AI technology. The video verification is done with technology from FaceTec, a company that specializes in facial authentication, according to code from the Tinder (Android) app. Although the partnership has not yet been officially announced, FaceTec itself confirms that Tinder uses the technology on its website. The advantage of FaceTec technology over current photo verification is that it is not based on 2D photos but on 3D images. The technology also tests whether the user is physically present by matching them with their photo ID or 3D FaceMap created from the profile photos. FaceTec's AI would also be able to create a 3D age estimate for each verified user, allowing potential minors to be flagged by the app. The code in the Tinder app also reveals that Tinder will offer the possibility to scan a passport - both with the camera and with NFC.

by Michael Slender
See full article at GratisDatingTips

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Tinder Crushes the Dating App Scene, but Its Rivals Are Winning Hearts

EMARKETER - Bumble and Hinge attracted more downloads worldwide in 2021 than the previous two years. Meanwhile, Tinder outpaced them both by at ~54M downloads. As of January 2022, the monthly active user base across all three dating apps had grown 17% over the same month in 2019. Hinge posted the fastest growth during this period, at 344%, while Bumble registered a 96% increase. Tinder's already massive user base, however, stayed roughly the same size.

by Sara Lebow
See full article at eMarketer

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Irish Department of Justice Spent €30k on Tinder Ads

IRISH EXAMINER - The department made use of Tinder as part of its No Excuses national awareness campaign on sexual harassment and sexual violence. The campaign was rolled out in tandem with the enacting of Coco's Law in February 2021, which created two new offences that criminalise the non-consensual distribution of intimate images. The department also ran advertisement campaigns across Facebook, Snapchat, Spotify, TikTok, Twitter, and YouTube last year. Under Coco's Law, a person found guilty of the distribution or publication of intimate images without consent and with intent to cause harm can face seven years' imprisonment and/or an unlimited fine. Anyone convicted of the distribution or publication of intimate images without consent now faces a €5K fine and/or 12 months imprisonment.

by Elaine Loughlin
See full article at Irish Examiner

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Dating in the Metaverse

VICE - Metaverse is not just one virtual world, but lots of smaller free-roaming worlds made by different developers with different concepts. Google, Facebook, Amazon, Apple and Microsoft all have investments in some form or another in the metaverse. Still, we're very much in Nokia 3210 era just now. In December, Tinder CEO Renate Nyborg told Reuters that the company has "been talking about a Tinderverse internally, which is more about blurring the boundaries between offline and online". Ross Buchanan from Vice has recently tested Metaverse to see if he could find a date. He joined Planet Theta's Saturday night beta test. Planted Theta the world's first ever VR dating app. There will be four different types of places users will be able to visit: the micro-date, the coffee date, social areas (like a nightclub) and the dating areas (think: virtual apartments or "enchanted walks").

by Ross Buchanan
See full article at Vice

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Which Dating Apps Got the Most Press Coverage Last Year?

OPW - Last year, we mentioned 281 internet dating industry brands in 1,066 posts. Although Match Group and its brands are clearly dominating this list, Bumble takes first place this time, even though only by one post. Here is the full list of companies with the most press coverage for last year.

1. Bumble (131 posts)
2. Tinder (130 posts)
3. Match Group (96 posts)
4. OkCupid (43 posts)
5. Hinge (42 posts)
6. Match.com (35 posts - shared)
7. Grindr (35 posts - shared)
8. The Meet Group (31 posts)
9. Blued (23 posts)
10. Spark Networks (22 posts)

See the full post at Courtland Brooks Blog

Tinder Adds Background Checks

WALL STREET JOURNAL - Tinder is introducing a tool to let users run background checks on prospective dates, as the company continues to address concerns about the safety of dating apps. Match Group said it has been developing the tool since last March, when it announced an investment in Garbo Technology, a nonprofit background check organization. While some Tinder users may benefit from learning potentially important information about a date, false positives or lack of data in some results are also likely to make some people fearful, said Naomi F. Sugie, associate professor of criminology, law and society at the University of California. Garbo said it has tried to address the pitfalls of background checks by adding its confidence indicators and limiting the information it provides.

by Ann-Marie Alcántara
See full article at Wall Street Journal

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