Online Dating

The online dating wars just got uglier. Match Group and its owner, IAC/InterActiveCorp, have filed a lawsuit accusing Tinder co-founder and former CEO Sean Rad of stealing company files and other proprietary information. The lawsuit claims at least $250 million in damages.

The last few years have been tumultuous for Rad and Tinder. After Whitney Wolfe Herd, a fellow co-founder of Tinder, filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against the company in 2014, Rad stepped down as CEO. Herd went on to found Bumble. Rad returned as CEO of Tinder six months after vacating the position. He stepped aside as CEO for good to become Tinder's chairman in 2016.

In August 2018, a group of current and former Tinder employees, including Rad, filed a lawsuit against IAC. The suit alleges that IAC intentionally undervalued Tinder to reduce the value of stock options held by early employees and founders. “Through deception, bullying, and outright lies, IAC/Match stole billions of dollars from the Tinder employees,” the lawsuit reads. “IAC/Match cooked the books to manufacture a fake lowball valuation of Tinder.” The plaintiffs are seeking at least $2 billion in damages.

INTO, the online LGBTQ publication owned and operated by Grindr, is no more. The company ended the digital magazine’s 14-month run by terminating its editorial staff on January 15 and announcing a pivot to video.

Grindr launched INTO in August 2017. The website featured news articles, op-eds, lifestyle content and advice columns for a modern LGBTQ audience. The launch was part of a larger effort to reframe Grindr as a lifestyle brand, not “just” a dating app, but the outlet’s journalism was praised and went on to win awards from The Association of LGBTQ Journalists and the Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund.

In a statement shared with NBC News, a Grindr spokesperson called the decision to dismiss INTO's staff a "strategic shift in focus."

Bumble confirmed that a new ad featuring its latest celebrity partner Serena Williams will debut during the first half of the SuperBowl.

According to AdWeek, Bumble teased a new campaign with the tennis star, admitting that it would coordinate with the SuperBowl, though it wasn’t clear if they were planning to air an ad during the game, one of the most-watched annual events in the U.S. (and one of the most expensive ad buys). Bumble has now confirmed their first SuperBowl ad will feature Serena Williams and their new campaign “The Ball is in Her Court.”

Bumble, a female-friendly dating app, is serious about its female-empowerment mission. Over the past few years, the brand has debuted offerings that appeal specifically to women, such as partnering with Moxy Hotels to offer BumbleSpot – verified locations where Bumble users can meet for dates, career networking, or potential new friendships - in an effort to create safe spaces for women.

Tech Crunch broke the news that popular dating app Tinder is teaming up with Spotify to test a new feature that allows users to share songs with each other.

The website reported that users could select songs from their own Spotify playlists to be shared via the in-app messenger, to engage users and get people to connect. Last year, the company unveiled another new feature allowing users to share Bitmoji and GIFs over the app’s messenger service, a move to increase engagement among social media savvy members.

The Spotify testing is currently taking place in different cities around the globe, but only with Spotify and no other streaming music service, according to Tech Crunch. The new feature was originally spotted by the blog MSPoweruser.

Black Mirror, the twisted British sci-fi anthology series turned Netflix smash hit, is one of the last things you’d want to inspire a real-life business. The show is notoriously dark, dystopian and disturbing to watch, with an outlook on human behavior and technological advancement that’s designed to leave viewers devastated. Despite its bleakness, Black Mirror is consistently praised by critics and has become a cult favorite for fans - and now, against all odds, it has inspired an enterprising Reddit user to launch a dating app based on a popular episode from season four.

Twenty-four year old programmer and entrepreneur Julian Alexander introduced his fellow redditors to Juliet, an AI matchmaker, in a post to the popular AMA subreddit.

For the first half of February in celebration of Valentine's Day eHarmony is offering 15% off of membership subscriptions when you use a coupon code. It starts Tuesday, January 30^th and runs to Friday, February 15^th.

The discount will be automatically applied when you use the code below. Depending on the term of the subscription you select, you can save over $35.

Promotional code: VALENTINESDAY

This deal is available to new and existing eHarmony users. If you are a new user you can create a free account and fill in your profile. The whole process takes about 30 or so minutes since eHarmony does require to know a bit about what you like and dislike. eHarmony uses a matchmaking system to determine your highest quality matches and delivers these to you every day. They have spent years researching what makes couples compatible and take great pride in the number of marriages that have been the result of them matching people together. With your free account you can also view your matches at no cost but if you wish to message them you will be required to subscribe. Depending on the term length subscriptions can be purchased for less than $20 a month.

For more on this online dating service which can be accessed from their website or dating apps, you read our eHarmony review.