Online Dating

Image: BFA.com/Zach Hilty

Bumble announced the launch of its female-friendly app in India with a celebrity dinner at the Gramercy Hotel in New York.

CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd joined Indian actress Priyanka Chopra, who just partnered with Bumble to bring the app to her home country. They hosted a dinner for women of Indian heritage who are at the top of their respective fields to celebrate the launch.

According to Forbes who reported on the event, attendees included Vanity Fair’s Radhika Jones, Hillary Clinton’s former political staffer Huma Abedin, Teen Vogue’s Samhita Mukhopadhyay, Saks Fifth Avenue’s Roopal Patel, fashion designer Anita Dongre, and Girls Who Code co-founder Reshma Saujani. The Daily Show’s Aasif Mandvi was also in attendance.

MeetMe Live Video Streaming

In the pass year The Meet Group has doubled down and put the focus on live video steaming for their social entertainment apps including MeetMe, Skout, Tagged, and LOVOO. Live video streaming from real members keeps everyone engaged and has increased their mobile daily active users significantly. With the introduction of Live streaming last year and with the final roll out for all apps in August of this year with LOVOO (there most trafficked app), The Meet Group has been able to diversify revenue mix consisting of in-app purchases, subscription, and 3rd party advertising.

Love is in the air for ProSiebenSat.1 and eHarmony. The German broadcaster has purchased the LA-based dating service through its newly formed e-commerce division, NuCom Group. The company plans to merge eHarmony (along with Compatible Partners, an eHarmony owned same sex dating service) with its own online dating platform, Parship. The parties agreed not to disclose the details of the transaction.

“Creating growth and leveraging synergies are key elements of our strategy. This acquisition is an excellent fit. Bringing these two strong brands together will immediately create a world leading online matchmaking company,” ProSiebenSat.1 CEO Max Conze said in a statement.

Parship is one of the most popular dating platforms in the German-speaking and Benelux regions. NuCom Group has developed the company into one of the most successful properties in its portfolio since acquiring a majority stake for €100 million in 2016. Like eHarmony, Parship is focused on long-term relationships and uses a compatibility algorithm based on a comprehensive questionnaire to match users in its database. Parship and sister brand ElitePartner is expected to have 2 million new registrations this year while eHarmony expects 2.8 million.

Badoo announced the launch of a new feature that the dating app company says will curb ghosting.

The feature offers pre-existing responses to users who might have ghosted their matches. For example, if you haven’t responded in three days to a match’s message, you’ll get a gentle nudge with offers of what to say, depending on whether you want to meet the person or just move on. Badoo wants to improve the online dating experience by encouraging users to be more communicative with their matches.

The responses Badoo offers vary. If a user is interested in a date, they can choose: "Hey, sorry for the late reply. When are you free to meet?" If a user is not that into a match, then they can choose, "Hey I think you're great, but I don't see us as a match. Take care!"

There’s no sign of a slowdown in the legal battle between Tinder co-founder Sean Rad and Tinder’s parent company, IAC/Match Group.

In August, Rad and nine other plaintiffs sued IAC over alleged devaluation. Rad claims the company undervalued Tinder in July 2017 at $3 billion to prevent him from accessing the full value of his stock options. The suit alleges that IAC created “a false picture of Tinder’s financial condition and prospects” resulting in “bogus numbers” and that “through deception, bullying, and outright lies, IAC/Match stole billions of dollars from the Tinder employees.”

IAC is now fighting back with a motion to dismiss the lawsuit, filed on October 9, which claims that Rad “fully participated in the valuation process” of Tinder and shares responsibility for the company being undervalued. Though IAC failed to accurately predict Tinder’s success over the past year, the motion argues, Rad also failed.

Dating app Hinge is getting serious with its mission to help people form long-term relationships. This week, it became the first dating app to launch a breakthrough feature called “We Met,” offering its users an opportunity to give feedback on their dates.

“We Met” will allow two matched members to privately confirm if they actually went on a first date and share how the date went. Hinge will then use this information to suggest better matches, with the goal of refining its algorithms to yield better first dates – ones with relationship potential.

The information users share is kept confidential, so no need to worry about whether your date will find out what you said. The main idea is for Hinge to improve the matchmaking process with more real-world data. (Though if your date gets too drunk or stands you up, for instance, Hinge also allows its users report disrespectful behavior.)