General News

Has anything been more inevitable than this? Following the explosive success of Pokémon GO, an intrepid entrepreneur has taken the next logical step: launching a Pokémon GO dating service.

Your partner in love and pocket monster fandom may be waiting on PokéDates, a brand new site that hopes to capitalize on the popularity of the world’s current mobile obsession. “Gotta catch 'em all, together” is the slogan and the mission is simple: match singles based on their questionnaire preferences and a mutual desire to play Pokémon GO. The folks from Project Fixup, a popular offline dating startup that launched in Chicago in 2012, are the brains behind it all.

It's the end of an era. Los Angeles-based dating site eHarmony has announced that Neil Clark Warren - co-founder and star of the company's television ads – will retire as chief executive officer. He will remain as chairman, and longtime Vice President Grant Langston will take over as CEO.

Langston joined eHarmony in 2000 in preparation for the launch of the original site. Prior to that, he spent ten years in advertising and music marketing. In his role with eHarmony, Langston focused on the company's marketing efforts, customer care, content creation, social media, and product launches.

eHarmony board Director Jamie McJunkin said Langston “is a natural choice to succeed Dr. Warren as CEO as he has been at his side since the inception of the company. His level of experience in the field of online dating is unparalleled and we are pleased to elevate him to this position.”

While Tinder is expanding its market share in the dating industry, Whitney Wolfe, one of Tinder’s ex co-Founders and now CEO of dating app Bumble, wants to take her app in a new direction outside of dating: business networking.

Bumble began as a dating app where women make the first move. Guys aren’t allowed to message or see a woman’s profile unless she allows it first, putting her in control of the interaction. Her app has gotten some buzz (excuse the pun), and has in the past year expanded its search and connection capabilities for friendships as well as romantic hook-ups with its feature BumbleBFF.

And according to recent articles in Gizmodo and The Verge, it seems the app wants to help you in another aspect of your life: your career.

Think that politics and dating don’t mix? In this unprecedented election year where political beliefs and emotions are running high, it turns out that more people than ever aren’t willing to date across party lines.

OkCupid just released a new survey that finds 50% of their users would NOT date someone with opposing political views – an all-time high according to their records.

When they dug a little deeper however, they found that the words people choose in their profiles do indicate political and personal leanings in terms of conservative and liberal mindsets, which might explain this trend.

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The 3 month and 1 month subscription plans are also discounted as well. The Standard 3 month plan which is regularly $19.99 a month is now $14.99 for the sale. The 1 month plan receives $5 off and is only $27.99 for a month during the sale.

For more information on this dating service for singles who's faith will be part of their relationship can read our review of Christian Mingle. If you have missed this sale you can also check out our Christian Mingle Coupon page for other deals.

In June, Facebook announced a small change to its algorithm. The platform will now be promoting your friends’ posts in your Facebook feed over news posts from relevant media, publishers and businesses. While this is great in theory because it can cut down the clutter you might not want, it puts a lot of businesses in a bind.

According to an article in International Business Times, more than 50 million businesses use Facebook Pages — from big brands like McDonald’s and Nike to small local businesses and tech startups. They will be forced to pay advertising dollars to reach people over the social media platform and increase visibility, instead of relying on Facebook’s grassroots appeal.

The biggest losers in the new algorithm changes however, are dating apps, because many don't even have the option to advertise. Back in early 2014, Facebook introduced restrictions on the dating industry that required all companies, no matter the size, to be pre-approved for advertising. It was an effort to crack down on dating services that were abusing their advertising privileges with suggestive images and messaging to potential users, because their content could be interpreted as too explicit or inappropriate.

As a result, all dating apps are paying the price. Even traditional and reputable dating apps that boast large followings like Match are prevented from advertising until they go through an application process to be whitelisted. Some dating services that applied over two years ago are still waiting to hear if they have been approved.

The rules for approval and advertising guidelines were decided by committee - a roundtable Facebook held with some of the largest dating advertisers in the industry, including Match and Zoosk.

The basic process is this: after being accepted to advertise, approved dating services have to adhere to certain standards, such as only targeting people 18 and older who list themselves as single and interested in meeting men or women. Sites that have a sexual emphasis are not permitted, nor are dating sites that use any suggestive or pixelated images.

Dating apps like HER, which markets to the lesbian community but is a platform for forming friendships as well as dating, was affected negatively by the new policies. In fact, 30% of their users are in relationships, but they use the app to find groups of friends with similar interests. HER is not allowed to advertise to these users over Facebook, only the single users.

More dating apps as a result have been turning to Twitter and YouTube for advertising their services. While Twitter doesn’t allow explicit advertising, their platform is less restrictive for dating services overall. And this might change the way dating services appeal and market to potential customers, as they leave Facebook to spend their ad dollars on other platforms.