Online Dating

Match Group, the parent company of popular dating app Tinder, has launched a new app called Crown which offers a game-like format for online dating.

It works like this: every day at noon, users are presented with sixteen total profiles, shown two at a time, and must choose only one “winner” from each group of two. Users go through a process of elimination, until you end up with the final four matches, at which point you choose one final winner to be “crowned.” That winner is then alerted he/she has won, but that doesn’t mean you start chatting right away - it’s up to the winner to choose whether or not he/she wants to message you.

The game element is an interesting choice by Match Group. By turning it into a process where there is a possibility to “win,” the idea is that more users would feel invested in the process, and therefore be more likely to reach out. On the other hand, some argue, users might feel more acute rejection if their “winners” choose not to interact.

eHarmony is offering 50% off all of their memberships this weekend in the United States. This long weekend sale starts Friday June 29^th and ends in the evening on Sunday July 1^st, 2018. A coupon code is required when you purchase a membership and you could see a savings of over $100 depending on the subscription length you choose.

To obtain the 50% discount use the code: JOIN

This sale is for new and existing eHarmony members. New members will need to create an account, a profile, and take the personality questionnaire (not required but recommended for quality matches). This takes under 30 minutes to complete and after you will be sent your first batch of matches. You should then take a look at the profiles to see if there are any persons you would like to contact. If there is, you would then need to at this point purchase a subscription (and enter the coupon code) to contact the members. This sale by far makes it the cheapest on a per month basis for a eHarmony subscription.

For more information about this popular matchmaking service, please read our eHarmony review.

MillionaireMatch.com has been online for almost 20 years. Over that time the service has added a lot of features which has shaped their dating niche and help make them the standout dating service for singles interested in experiencing a wealthy lifestyle.

MillionaireMatch recent statistics show that over 60 percent of people in the United States that are between the ages of 18 and 29 have used online dating. The transfer of members from using dating websites to mobile dating apps has increased as well. Currently over 60 percent of MillionaireMatch members access the service via their mobile phones.

Forbes recently talked with MillionaireMatch's Technical Manager Carl Feng about a new feature which is available now called "Recall".

This week, Match Group announced it has acquired dating app Hinge. According to the press release, the deal gives Match Group a 51 percent stake in the company. Match first started buying shares in Sept of 2017 and has the option to buy remaining shares of Hinge within the next year.

Hinge has spent the last few years revamping its image and features, creating an app that countered Tinder’s hook-up reputation, and aimed to create a space for more serious daters. This included dumping its initial Tinder-like swiping feature and allowing clients to build profiles more like traditional online dating sites. Interestingly, Match Group (which owns Tinder) initially invested in Hinge in the fall of 2017, soon after it debuted its new design.

Hinge is most popular among “urban, educated millennial women looking for relationships,” according to Match Group CEO Mandy Ginsberg. It has also grown its user base to “five times what it was a year ago,” according to an article in The Wall Street Journal, making it an attractive purchase for Match Group.

Image: OkCupid

Dating experts have long cautioned against discussing controversial subjects like politics on the first date, but a new partnership between OkCupid and the American Civil Liberties Union puts politics front and center in honor of Pride Month.

The dating service is introducing an ACLU #RightToLove profile badge to help users meet other members who support the non-profit. The badge will be displayed on the profile of every OkCupid user who publicly responds “yes” to the question “Do you support the ACLU?” For every user who receives the badge, OkCupid will donate $1 towards the ACLU (up to $50,000).

According to an OkCupid blog post, ninety percent of users who answered the question said yes — one of the highest agreement percentages across all of OkCupid’s iconic questions.

Following a successful launch on Facebook Messenger last year, Match is bringing its dating chatbot Lara to Google Assistant.

The AI matchmaker uses contextual understanding and speech recognition to provide advice and guidance for dating in the digital age. Lara first launched in France in 2016, then rolled out to users in the UK in 2017.

Match's vice-president of Northern Europe, Abbie Oguntade, spoke to The Drum earlier this year about the bot’s success and future trajectory. Lara has driven a 30% increase in visitors to Match’s landing page in Europe, she said, and subscriptions have “heavily improved” as a result. A team of around 15 engineers and tech experts are working out of Match’s innovation hub to improve the assistant’s AI features.