Safety

A vast majority of daters – 85 percent of women and 87 percent of men - want apps to verify the ages, recency of photos, and locations of potential matches.

According to a new study from TransUnion, over half of those surveyed also said that dating app profiles didn’t accurately reflect the people they met in person. Women were twice as likely to say that people lied about their age, and men were more likely to say they were a victim of a “bait and switch” according to the company’s press release. The study is entitled “The Paradox of Online Dating: Convenience vs. Connection.”

In fact, of those surveyed, more than 75 percent said they were willing to undergo background checks themselves to bring more transparency among dating app users.

Tinder Dating Handbook

Image: Tinder

On International Women’s Day, Tinder announced the launch of Her New Dating Rule Book, a guide to challenging dating norms and traditions for singles in India.

According to Mashable India, the new guide offers new “rules” for dating today, including who should foot the bill on a first date. Traditionally, it’s been the man, but Tinder says that dating dynamics are changing, and young women in India embrace a more progressive, less traditional approach.

One of the first rules of the guidebook states: “Respect Over Outdated Gender Roles, a.k.a. Chivalry 2.0,” to highlight the fact that young singles are looking for mutual respect and dates who keep promises over outdated notions of chivalry, like expecting a man to pay for a meal. And 36 percent surveyed said they value dates who give their full attention and put the phone away on the date.

Match Group's New COO: Hesam Hosseini

Match Group has appointed a new COO and new CEO, shaking up the executive team in hopes of a turnaround after several disappointing quarters.

Spencer Rascoff has taken over from Bernard Kim as CEO, and Hesam Hosseini was promoted to Chief Operating Officer, and will take the reins in April. The company also announced Gary Swidler will step down as President but will remain as an advisor through July.

Hosseini served as CEO of Evergreen & Emerging Brands for Match Group, one of the bright stars in recent months for the company. Some of its smaller, more niche apps under his direction have shown growth while the company’s star app Tinder has continued to decline.

An investigation into Match Group by nonprofit news organization The Markup and Pulitzer Center's AI Accountability Network found that the company had information about users who were reported for sexual assault, but did not ban them from its apps, publicly identify them, or report them to authorities.

This report follows the company’s ouster of CEO Bernard Kim, who was not able to turn around the company’s revenue decline over the past several quarters. He was replaced by Zillow Group Inc. co-founder Spencer Rascoff.

Now, Match Group is facing the fallout from this investigation.

Match Group is refocusing the strategy for its most popular dating app Tinder, the company announced this week. It faces increasing pressure from activist investors to improve its financial forecast.

Match Group said in its recent investor day meeting that it plans to “prioritize improving user experience over monetization,” According to Bloomberg. The idea is if Tinder moves away from its reputation as a hookup app it can reverse the continued decline in paying users.

The company also shared that revenue will be flat or in decline through 2026, but will start to turn around in 2027 with slow, single-digit growth, according to Bloomberg. Shares in Match Group fell during the meeting as these proclamations were made.

Young singles in India are turning to new and unexpected platforms to expand their networks, including LinkedIn for dating and Bumble for finding a job.

According to India Today, a recent survey from DatingNews.com found that 61 percent of respondents aged 35 to 40 said they have found their dates on LinkedIn. And 52 percent aged 20 to 40 said they looked to apps like LinkedIn to find dates.

Traditionally, LinkedIn has been a networking platform for careers, but lately people have been turning away from dating apps and gravitating to other social platforms, and especially to LinkedIn. At first, this trend was being reported in the US, but now it seems to be global.