Dating Services

Tinder is rolling out a new ad campaign inspired by 90s rom-coms, featuring young singles playing out their meet cute moments on the app in real life.

According to AdWeek, the ads continue with “it starts with a swipe,” the tagline from its previous global campaign.

One video starts out with two people meeting in the library, with a young woman stumbling over her words as she falls off a ladder in the stacks and a young man catches her. “Thanks for making my day with your hace,” she says, shaking her head and correcting herself: “Face. Typo.” It then becomes clear that they are voicing their text messages.

A majority of dating platforms have signed on to a new dating safety code in Australia, in an effort to crack down on dating app users who violate policies.

According to News.com, dating app users who “harass, threaten, or share unwanted explicit photos” could have their accounts terminated across multiple platforms at the same time, intended to create a safer space overall for online dating. Seventy-five percent of companies operating in Australia have signed on to the new industry standard, including Match Group (which operates Tinder, Hinge and OkCupid among others), Bumble and Grindr.

A recurring problem with dating apps is user safety, specifically surrounding the growing number of users who receive unsolicited images. If a perpetrator is banned from one platform, they can easily move on to other platforms, so the new safety standard is intended to prevent this from happening.

Dating app Grindr was ordered to pay a $5.7 million fine by a Norwegian Court, after the company was found to have violated EU regulations by sharing personal user data with third parties.

The court found that Grindr violated the GDPR by sharing sensitive data with third party advertisers, according to Agence-France Press. Norway’s data protection agency Datatilsynet found that the company had shared information such as geographical location, age, sexual orientation and health information such as HIV status with advertisers.

Grindr was accused of sharing this data between 2018 and 2020.

Image: Bumble

Dating app Bumble has launched a marketing campaign in India to highlight its new feature Opening Moves, featuring two young Bollywood celebrities.

According to The Times of India, the campaign stars Khushi Kapoor and Vedang Raina in a series of films, where Kushi asks Vedang questions like “what is your guilty pleasure?” and “what is your iconic date idea?” Opening Moves allows women to post a question to potential suitors, so Bumble’s ad is demonstrating the feature in a fun way.

The beloved Bollywood actors share personal anecdotes and talk about the changes Bumble has made, as well as the cultural shift of dating in India, where women are feeling more empowered and more and more people are meeting online.

BLK dating app has launched a new initiative in celebration of Pride which highlights queer event curators in select cities.

The campaign “It’s Giving Space: Celebrating Queer Event Curators” will offer three compelling narratives of LGBTQ+ party collectives, according to Black Enterprise Magazine. One such collective is Party Noire in Chicago, a cultural hub which celebrates Black femmes, Queer Women of Color, and Black womanhood along the gender spectrum with a focus on trans, queer, and genderqueer Black people.

Another collective, Global Warming in Brooklyn, is dedicated to uplifting Black and Brown queer and trans people by providing safe spaces where they can dance, celebrate “and experience joy,” according to Black Enterprise. It was co-created by DJs Adair and Boston Chery.

A new study by Bumble among single LGBTQ+ Filipinos found that a whopping 85 percent said that it’s important to them to find partners who accept them for who they are without pressuring them to change.

According to Adobo Magazine, nearly half (48 percent) of respondents feel that they need to conform to certain physical or personality ideals to be accepted by the LGBTQ+ community. About 28 percent of those surveyed went on to say that they felt pressured to change or conceal their gender expression to fit in or be accepted by the LGBTQ+ community.

The survey was conducted in partnership with Pride PH, the widest national network of Philippine LGBTQ+ organizations. Over 400 people participated in the survey.