Match Group

Recipient
OkCupid

The 2018 Editor's award for Top Pick - Innovative goes to OkCupid. OkCupid is a dating service that really wants to match you with the right person. With OkCupids Match Questions feature it allows users to post questions for other members to anwser. You can even sepecify to have 1 or more questions to be answered before they can send you an actually message. Privacy is very important OkCupid. Members don't know if you have ever visited their profiles unless you like them or send them a message.

Speaking of messages, OkCupid revamped their member communication system recently. Gone is the traditional dating messaging system where you can message any member you want. With the new Conversations feature members can only message and/or read messages from someone else if they have either sent them a message first or expressed interest. This feature has increased matches on OkCupid by over 30% while decreasing unwanted messages by almost 70%.

Any company needs to evolve in order to stay relevant, and given the especially speedy pace at which the world of online dating advances, it’s even more important for companies in the industry to regularly innovate.

OkCupid has remained a leading name in the market since its launch 13 years ago. But that also makes it one of the older names, facing stiff competition from younger upstarts like Tinder and Bumble.

To ensure it remains a go-to for singles in an increasingly saturated industry, OkCupid has announced a major update to its messaging system. Open messaging - which allows any user to contact any other user without restrictions - will be eliminated a favor of a system more akin to those of Bumble and Tinder, in which only users who have indicated interest in each other can easily access each other's conversations.

Add dating to your list of New Year resolutions, because chances are, you’ll meet someone in January.

Online dating has a high season, and it seems the spirit of the holidays all the way through Valentine’s Day puts people in the mood for finding love.

A study by dating site Match revealed that more than any other time of year, people flock to dating sites between December 26^th and February 14^th. The numbers are telling – 50 million messages sent and 1 million dates happen during this time, and Sunday January 7^th is apparently the busiest day (and the best time to join – specifically 8:55pm EST).

Recipient
OurTime

OurTime in 2018 is the recipient of the Editor's Top Pick - Senior Award. OurTime is accessible not only by their website at OurTime.com but also on iOS and Android phones from their dating app. The service is designed for older singles who are 50 or more.

At OurTime the basic membership is free and can be completed in a few minutes. You can then decide either to search for members that are compatible with you and spark an interest or, continue on and complete your full profile. As a free member you can search, view profiles and pictures but your communications options are limited unless you purchase a subscription. Paid memberships can cost as little as $15 per month depending on length of term, etc.

Whitney Wolfe Herd, founder and CEO of female-friendly dating app Bumble, was just named to Forbes’ “30 Under 30” list, and is featured on its December 2017 cover. This is no small feat – her dating app has amassed a large following with 70% year-on-year growth, according to the article, and has 22 million registered users. In comparison Tinder has 46 million registered users and last year saw growth at 10%.

The company is also being eyed by Match Group, owner of dating app rival Tinder, and is said to be in talks for over a billion dollars as an asking price. Herd turned down the company’s original offer of $450 million, according to recent reports.

With the end of the year rapidly approaching, dating services have released a flood of updates and new features to close 2017 on a high note.

Coffee Meets Bagel Updates

Coffee Meets Bagel took a cue from Snapchat and introduced ephemeral video in the form of a ‘question of the day’. Users may record up to eight seconds of video answering the question, which then appears in the video section for other users to browse. The section is wiped clean every 24 hours to make room for a new question.

“We learned that people don’t really feel a connection to each other until they meet, which makes any dating app feel like a lot of work,” said cofounder and COO Dawoon Kang. “We wanted to figure out a way for users to make a genuine connection from right within the app, and so we decided on video.”