General News

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.

Update 2020-01-23: It looks like by July 2019, Seeking reverted back to the original name Seeking Arrangement. The domain to access the dating service still remains Seeking.com

Seeking Arrangement (SeekingArrangement.com) in June of 2018 quietly changed their name to Seeking and started redirecting all traffic to Seeking.com. The Android app was also updated with the new name.

Nothing else has appeared to change for the dating service. In fact if you visit the website you will still find many mentions of the original name Seeking Arrangement including on the "About Us" page.

Chinese dating scammers are in hot water this summer. More than a thousand members of fraud rings have been arrested in the country over the last two months, potentially saving thousands of singles from falling victim to their deceit.

In June, police in the southern province of Guangdong cracked down on 13 gangs who posed as attractive women in order to con men into purchasing pricey products like tea and wine. Authorities apprehended a total of 1,310 suspects, each of whom could approach up to 1,500 victims per month.

“These scam gangs [succeed] because they capture the psychology of many men: When facing beautiful women, men lose their judgement, and feel too shy to refuse,” a Guangdong police officer said at a briefing about the arrests.

Chinese Tinder clone Tantan is embracing the future with open arms.

Like several of its colleagues in the United States -- including Match, Happn, and Hinge -- Tantan is experimenting with artificial intelligence as a tool for modern matchmaking. Chief Executive Yu Wang announced earlier this month at RISE Hong Kong that AI is a primary focus for the company in the second half of 2018, and that he hopes it will be a key driver of growth going forward.

The technology will be used to improve the accuracy of user acquisition and advertising, as well as to boost growth in user numbers and revenues more generally.

Dating app OkCupid recently launched a new marketing campaign centered around the popular yet derogatory dating phrase “DTF,” but giving it new meaning in the age of #MeToo. The campaign is also a dig at Tinder, which is known for its hook-up reputation.

Instead of employing DTF with its usual meaning (which is widely seen as demeaning to women and refers to Down to F@#k), OkCupid has turned the term on its head to engage people to try the app. For instance, one campaign poster defines it as “DT Fall Head Over Heels” with a picture of one woman lovingly carrying another who is holding a rose (the symbol of romance). This nod to inclusivity for the LGBTQ community did not go unnoticed, with couples recreating the shot next to OkCupid’s campaign posters and posting them to social media.

Other campaign posters include optional endings as well, such as “DT Feel Fabulous” “DT Forget Our Baggage” or even slightly more irreverent “DT Four Twenty” or “DT Fight About the President.” (Note: OkCupid has seen a 64% increase in political terms being employed in user profiles over the last year.)

“It’s time to play nice.”

With those five words and a cryptic Instagram post, Grindr has hinted at what appears to be a new initiative to curb discrimination amongst daters. Its name, of course, is Kindr.

Grindr has long faced criticism from users who found the app to be an unwelcoming, and sometimes dangerous, place. Many have reported experiencing racism, transphobia, and violent hate crimes on or as a result of the platform. Some have sworn it off completely in response.

With Kindr, Grindr may finally be ready to tackle the issue head on. The Instagram post features an updated logo and a series of intertwining voiceovers describing their experiences with prejudice on the app.