Industry

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has brought a lawsuit against dating app eHarmony, alleging the company misled consumers through false advertising. It also alleges that the company deceived its customers about pricing and renewing their subscriptions.

According to The Guardian, the lawsuit filed in Australian federal court alleges the company of “entrapping singles” by showing them only blurred photos of their matches and not allowing them to send messages without paying for a subscription. The lawsuit also accuses the company of luring customers to sign up by falsely advertising “free dating” on the platform, as well as short-term membership offers and early cancellation opportunities.

In reality, users opting for the “free service” completed an 80-question profile survey before they had access to look at potential matches. However, when users completed the questions, they were served blurry profile photos of other members, and were only able to send one message as a reply to a premium member. If they wanted to continue messaging, they were required to pay for the service.

Muzz dating app, formerly MuzzMatch, has had a hard time growing an active userbase in India, despite the country having the third largest Muslim population in the world. Also, nearly 50% of India’s population is under 25 years, making the country the second-largest market for dating apps (after the United States).

Muzz is marketed as a matchmaking app rather than a dating app for Muslim singles, because as founder Shahzad Younas told Rest of World: ““We don’t date. We get people married.” The app however, is encountering safety problems concerning fake accounts and bots, a problem for all dating apps. But there are more issues to consider for a marriage-minded app in India, because dating app users have had their photos taken and used for other purposes.

One such high-profile incident happened in 2022, where a group worked to scrape photos of prominent Indian Muslim women and uploaded them to a dating app “listing them at ‘auction’ with an attempt to humiliate them,” according to Rest of World. This kind of behavior could become more common without specific protocols and safety measures in place.

Nearly half of Grindr employees quit the company after they were given an ultimatum to return to work in the office.

Company executives announced the new workplace policy on an all-employee call in early August, and gave employees two weeks to decide whether they would agree to work in the office or hand in their resignation. Executives demanded employees relocate to one of the Grindr offices in Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, Chicago, or Washington D.C.

According to CNN, 80 of Grindr’s 178 workers who had turned down the in-office mandate were forced to quit by the end of August. Most of these employees were remote workers, and many said that this would put an undue burden on them, including finding housing and schools for their children to attend in a new city.

Employees have also been vocal about Grindr executives using the new policy as a retaliatory tactic against employees, who only weeks before voted to organize a union, demanding fair wages and equal treatment for all employees. Grindr employees worked in partnership with the CWA (Communication Workers of America) to initiate.

Popular dating apps like Tinder, Bumble, Hinge and Grindr are trying new subscription pricing to continue to grow revenue, including premium pricing as well as discounts and short-term subscriptions for young Gen Z daters.

Dating app revenue has stalled in recent quarters, and to increase revenue and paying subscribers these companies are looking at out-of-the-box pricing. Match Group is especially motivated, as it has seen revenue drop the past few months while Bumble and Grindr are still seeing gains. Many are starting to offer premium services to highly motivated and more affluent daters, who are willing to spend $500 a month on a dating app if it means better, more curated matches.

On the other end of the spectrum, these same apps want to attract younger daters, specifically the Gen Z market. Match Group is starting to offer short-term weekly subscriptions for those singles who don’t want to commit, as well as discounted pricing to encourage young daters to pay for subscriptions, instead of just opting for the free service and paying for certain in-app features as needed.

Match Group has hired a new Vice President of Innovation, a role that will direct the use of AI over its suite of apps.

Mark Kantor comes from his previous role as head of growth at Zynga, and co-founded startups like Yellowbrick and Grafitti, according to Tech Crunch. He will lead a team of engineers and product designers in harnessing AI technology for new features. According to an internal memo received by Tech Crunch, the new team is called ASL, which stands for Art x Science Lab, but is also a reference to an online pickup line (“age, sex, location”).

AI has been a tool that dating apps have incorporated in various ways, including in algorithms to better understand user preferences when delivering potential matches. Now with tools like ChatGPT, daters are using AI for profile-writing and messages, so dating app companies like Match Group are seeing opportunity.

Match Group and its partner Garbo, a nonprofit provider of background checks, have parted ways, according to a story that broke in The Wall Street Journal.

Garbo announced in a blog post that it will be shutting down its consumer-facing business as a result of the split. While details were not shared about exactly what happened, Garbo blamed Match Group for both the difference in priorities and the execution of the service on its platform.

Garbo’s service was integrated into Match Group’s Tinder platform and allowed users run background checks on potential dates using just a name and phone number. Garbo would give them a report stating if the person had any public reports issued against them for past violence, arrests, convictions and restraining orders.