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Match Group announced that it has fully acquired dating app Hinge, owning 100 percent of the company along with other high-profile brands like Tinder and OkCupid. This news comes on the heels of Match Group’s announcement that it exceeded revenue expectations in the last quarter of 2018, causing its stock to rise.

Previously, Match Group stock had been downgraded from hold to buy by Deutsch Bank analysts. But with the earnings report, its stock climbed more than 5 percent.

Part of the appeal of Match Group to investors is that it has acquired a host of popular dating apps, including Hinge. The app has been through a rebrand over the last year, focusing on attracting more serious daters.

Image: WongMJane

Details continue to surface about Facebook’s much talked about dating service. The latest news comes courtesy of tech tipster Jane Manchun Wong, who revealed that Facebook Dating will allow users to share information about their dates with friends and family on Messenger. The innovative feature is a precaution designed to keep singles safe as they use the dating platform.

Wong shared a screenshot from Facebook Dating on Twitter. “Share your plans in Messenger,” reads the screen’s headline. “Let your friends and family know when and where you’ll meet your date. Choose whether to share your live location and provide updates in Messenger.”

Meeting a stranger in person after you’ve matched on a dating app is an inherently risky proposition. Though most users are genuinely interested in making connections, the potential dangers shouldn’t be overlooked. Dating platforms have taken an interesting array of measures to increase safety for their users, including verified profiles, anonymous browsing, behavior pledges and strict punishments for terms of service violations.

Recipient of Gold
Tinder

Recipient of Silver
POF

Recipient of Bronze
OkCupid

The 2019 Dating Sites Reviews Single's Choice Award poll was launched in the afternoon of October 1^st, 2018. It ran for 3 months and then closed for voting on December 31^st, 2018. 437 people cast their votes in the poll. The poll asks the following question:

Which dating app or site would you recommend for the Dating Sites Reviews Single's Choice Award?

Voters could choose 1 dating service from a selection of 10 of the top dating services in 2018 as selected by the Editors. For this award the top voted dating service for the above question receives the Gold, second place gets Silver, and for third, Bronze.

In previous years for this award we had split the poll into 2 questions asking which free and then which paid dating service the voter would recommend. This year we decided on one question which the selection includes both free and paid services. We feel this better reflects the current online dating industry. This year also marked a fairly big change in the results. The top 3 results differed by only 5% in votes. The Gold recipient only differed by less than 10% with the service which came in last place (10^th). In previous polls the difference is around 30%. The race for the most recommended dating service was very tight this year.

The recipient of the 2019 Single's Choice Gold Award is Tinder. Tinder received almost 17% of the vote which works out to 73 votes. Last year Tinder came in second of the free services, so this is a step up for them.

The recipient of the 2019 Single's Choice Silver Award is POF (Plenty of Fish). Another free dating service in the top 3. POF drops to second place this year with almost 13% of the vote (56 votes). This is just 4% less than the Gold recipient.

The recipient of the 2019 Single's Choice Bronze Award is OkCupid. It was a tight race between Silver and Bronze this year with only a 1.5% difference in votes. OkCupid got 11.5% of the votes which works out to 50 votes exactly.

Image: Bumble

A good ice breaker can help you make a memorable first impression and turn an online encounter into a real-life relationship. A bad ice breaker can be boring, confusing, awkward or send you viral for deeply embarrassing reasons after the recipient posts a mocking screenshot on Twitter.

So, how do you start a meaningful conversation with a match that avoids uncomfortable silences or public shaming? Bumble is here to help with a new Convo Starters Generator and a Convo Starters messaging feature.

The Convo Starters Generator, now available on Bumble’s The Beehive blog, helps women make the first move by suggesting opening lines based on personality type and interests. Start by choosing which of Bumble’s three modes you want to use - Bumble Date, Bumble BFF, or Bumble Bizz. The generator then updates to reveal sliding scales or check boxes with information relevant to the mode you selected.

With Valentine’s Day around the corner, love is in the air for couples around the world and dating platforms are seeing dollar signs. Tinder and Hinge have both announced collaborations to release branded product lines that celebrate love and singlehood as Cupid’s season kicks off.

Tinder teamed up with Barcelona-based fashion company Stradivarius to release a range of t-shirts in European markets. Each tee features a simple design of the dating app’s logo and a slogan on a black or white base. The three options include “You Looked Taller On Tinder,” “I’m Your Right Swipe,” and the punny “Love Me Tinder.” The shirts are available now on the Stradivarius website and in-store for £15.99 in the UK or €12.99 in mainland Europe.

Along with announcing its first-ever fashion collaboration, Tinder is also entering the world of homewares. The dating platform joined forces with Homesick Candles to take a humorous jab at Valentine's Day culture. The candle, named “Single, Not Sorry,” honors Singles’ Awareness Day, the anti-commercialism antidote to Valentine’s Day that falls on February 15.

Another day, another privacy scandal for Facebook.

A new investigation by TechCrunch reveals that Facebook secretly paid a number of users, including teenagers as young as 13, to install an app that gave the tech giant extensive access to their personal data. Users ages 13 to 35 were paid up to $20 per month plus affiliate fees to install the iOS or Android “Facebook Research” VPN app that tracked their smartphone and web activity, a program referred to in some documentation as “Project Atlas.”