Match Group, owner of Tinder, OkCupid, PlentyOfFish and Match.com, has added a new name to its portfolio of dating platforms: Harmonica. The Egyptian online dating startup has been acquired by Match Group for an undisclosed sum.

Harmonica was founded in early 2017 by Sameh Saleh, Tamer Saleh, Shaymaa Aly and Aly Khaled. The app aims to help singles in the Middle East match with potential life partners while respecting the faith, traditions, and culture of the region.

“Two years ago, we founded Harmonica with our sisters, cousins, and friends in mind, with the goal of helping them find a perfect partner. It was critical that what we built was something to protect them and represent the values that our community cares deeply about,” Sameh Saleh said in a statement. “It was also important that our parents would be comfortable with them using our app. We’ve already facilitated hundreds of marriages just in Egypt and believe that with Match Group’s vast experience, there are exciting opportunities ahead.”

Hingie - Hinges new Mascot

Hinge just launched a new international marketing campaign to double down on its new tagline – “designed to be deleted.”

The ads feature a furry and adorable mascot – Hingie – who appears when a young woman logs on to her Hinge account and begins messaging a new guy. Hingie continues to lurk in the vicinity as she goes on dates, enduring all sorts of tortures through their budding relationship until he’s no longer needed – he’s burnt by a candle, bitten by a dog, pummeled with arrows, and crushed by a fan.

When the couple find love and delete the app, Hingie explodes, leaving behind a flurry of little red and pink hearts.

Study on Access to Personal Info by Dating Apps

Image: datingroo

Dating app users often don’t realize how much personal information they are giving away just by signing up. But Datingroo, a U.K.-based online dating research company, has released a new study that shows exactly how little privacy most dating app users have.

Datingroo studied the ten most popular dating apps from Tinder to PlentyofFish to eHarmony, examining 45 personal data access points in 13 categories such as precise location, other accounts on the device, network connections, and modification or deletion of the contents on USB storage, and found some surprising results.

Among all the apps, Badoo and PlentyofFish have access to the most data in user’s devices (92% of all access points studied). Combined, they have more than 522 million users worldwide, which means they have access to an enormous amount of information. Coffee Meets Bagel has the fewest users (7 million), as well as the least data access.

Image: Bumble

Bumble announced its most recent partnership with Gen. G to create the first all-female team of professional Fortnite players.

According to CNBC, the female-friendly dating app will also become the official partner for Kristen Valnicek (a.k.a. KittyPlays), a content creator and Twitch player who is head of new gaming initiatives for Gen. G, a global esports organization that was originally founded in South Korea.

Match Group stock rose considerably after its second quarter earnings report was better than expected, thanks in large part to its star dating app Tinder.

According to Reuters, Match Group revenue for the three months ended June 30 was revealed in a recent earnings call with investors. It rose about 18% to $498 million, about $10 million higher than forecast. The company grew its average subscriber base 40.5% to 5.2 million in the same quarter, more than expected, thanks to its new features and the launch of Tinder Lite. Match now expects to add over 1.6 million average subscribers in 2019, much higher than the 1 million the company had forecast earlier. With all this good news, Match Group stock rose 17 percent.

Tinder Lite provides a version of the app that uses less storage and provides faster service, thanks to a scaled-down version of the famous swiping technology. It launched for Android phones in certain countries in both Southeast Asia and South America, where most people use less expensive Android phones and Internet speed is slower.

Match’s Singles in America survey, now in its ninth year, is the nation's largest and most comprehensive annual scientific study of single men and women across the United States. This year, Match polled over 5,000 singles about their current attitudes around sex and dating, the their response to the #MeToo movement, and how singles of all ages are changing the way they look for love.

"Modern love, sex and romance are thriving in America—from Millennials to seniors. The current fear that the young don’t care about love and commitment is just plain wrong. They are simply having a hard time finding it and feeling burnt out by the search,” says Dr. Helen Fisher, biological anthropologist and Chief Science Advisor to Match. “Moreover, this year’s Singles in America study gives a first-of-its-kind look at the positive impact the #MeToo movement has had on single men — on dates and in the office.”

Singles still want love and they’re optimistic about their chances of finding it. According to the survey: