Dating Services

Popular dating app Tinder is rolling out a new service to attract a younger crowd. Tinder U is for college students, and gives users the option to match only with others at their school or at nearby campuses.

To use the service, customers must have a .edu email address and must also be geolocated on a college campus, according to website The Verge. Their Tinder U profile page will also include the name of their school, and when users swipe, their school logo will appear at the top of the screen, and their match’s school will appear in the bottom left corner of each profile. The app’s functionality is the same, with students viewing profiles and swiping left or right as they choose. It is important to note that using the Tinder U service will match students in the same area, regardless of whether they attend the same college or university. Members who join Tinder U will also be able to toggle between and use regular Tinder if they wish.

Sean Rad, Co-founder of Tinder

Former and current Tinder employees slapped a lawsuit against parent company Match Group, claiming the popular dating app was purposefully devalued at the time Match Group was valuating stock options. The Tinder employees suing Match Group were placed on administrative leave, according to a report by MSN.

The ten former and current Tinder employees initiating the lawsuit include founder and ex-CEO Sean Rad along with co-founders Justin Mateen and Jonathan Badeen. Tinder’s VP of Communications Rosette Pambakian has also joined the lawsuit, and claims that IAC/ Match Group executive Greg Blatt sexually harassed her at a company party. (IAC changed its name to Match Group, but the company is still owned by media mogul Barry Diller.)

Pambakian wrote an email to Tinder employees explaining her decision, as reported by Fortune Magazine:

Is your partner a doctor? A Libertarian? Obsessed with tattoos? If so, a series of surveys from married dating site Ashley Madison says they may be more likely to cheat.

As the world’s foremost experts in affairs, with more than 39 million users in 53 countries, the folks at Ashley Madison know a thing or two about infidelity. Several studies conducted by the company this year reveal the secrets of America’s cheaters, including who’s most likely to be unfaithful, what they’re attracted to when they do it, and which partners are most likely to forgive an adulterous indiscretion.

One survey determined the professions that are most likely to stray. The most common jobs for cheating women are in the medical field (nurses/doctors). “A combination of long hours of potential stress mixed with a natural reaction to stress just might be the reason these women in the medical profession seek out an affair,” reports Ashley Madison.

Match Group, the parent company of popular dating apps such as Tinder, OkCupid, and PlentyofFish, reported second quarter earnings of $421 million, exceeding industry analyst expectations.

The rise in profits was thanks to its star app Tinder, which gained an additional 300,000 subscribers in Q2 alone, and has seen a record 3.8 million subscribers to date. Match Group expects to earn $1.72 billion this year, with Tinder expected to exceed $800 million in revenue, according to Fortune Magazine. Match Group’s subscribers for all apps total about 7.7 million.

“Retention and conversion were a bit stronger than we thought they would be,” Chief Executive Mandy Ginsberg told website MarketWatch.

Are you more progressive or conservative? Turns out it makes a difference in your love life. OkCupid recently found that among its members, ACLU supporters, who are generally associated with more progressive political views, get more dates.

Talking politics on a date has historically been tricky, especially now with the U.S. so divided. Because politics is front and center in our lives today, online daters like to know where allegiances lie before they decide whether to like or pass on a person. Political beliefs do matter when it comes to dating, which is why OkCupid came up with a way for users to identify someone’s politics up front, offering badges to show what causes the user supports, like the ACLU.

Image: JaneManchunWong

Facebook dominated dating industry news in May when it announced plans to launch a dating product at the company’s annual F8 developer conference. Reactions ran the gamut from blase to snarky to supportive, but specifics about how the feature would look and function were scarce.

Now, after months of speculation, independent app researcher and reverse engineer Jane Manchun Wong reveals that the social media giant has taken major steps towards releasing the feature. Facebook is now testing its dating product internally with employees, and screenshots suggest what the feature may have in store for the public when it officially debuts.

Wong was able to access the signup screen for the new feature. The screen greets users with the message “For Facebook Employees” and goes on to explain that the product is currently for US Facebook employees who have opted-in to “dogfooding” - a tech industry term that refers to testing products internally on a company’s own employees - the upcoming dating feature.