Bumble

Washington D.C. has increased its National Guard presence since the riots at the Capitol on January 6th, and these troops are turning to Tinder to find love while they work.

According to Newsweek, there have been reports on TikTok that Tinder has been flooded with photos of men in uniform, which is highly unusual for the Washington D.C. area. While these officers are sharing photos in their fatigues, they are also sharing interests like traveling and video games, according to Newsweek.

People are taking to social media to point out this trend, noting how many more military people are showing up as potential matches. In fact, some users in the DC area said the majority of profiles they see are members of the National Guard. Even a reporter for Sports Illustrated noticed the increase in these profiles.

Earlier today we posted about Lumen shutting down even though the Lumen FAQ mentioned they had a lot of subscriptions which is an indication that the dating service was catching on. In the same article we also mention that ever since Whitney Wolfe Herd became CEO of Magic Lab, the company has been going through a lot of changes.

These changes have them consolidating their brands and re-branding Magic Lab, the holding company for their dating brands, which include Badoo and Bumble, to just "Bumble" (we think...). It is not clear what the name may actually be. Some articles from major media outlets have suggested the name is Bumble Group but the only place that name is mention on the Bumble website is in their Terms and Conditions.

In a not a so surprising move Lumen's parent company Bumble (which was called Magic Lab at one point) has decided to close Lumen down and move all users to Bumble. Lumen was a dating service designed for singles 50 years and older. On November 23rd November 2020 Lumen was fully shut down and access to the service was cut off for all users.

The reason this was not a surprise is that early in 2020 Chappy a dating app for gay singles was also shut down by Bumble. Ever since Bumble's founder Whitney Wolfe Herd took over as CEO of Magic Lab she has been reshaping the holding company and their brands.

Some female Bumble app users are purposely matching with Trump supporters to identify participants in the attack on the U.S. Capitol, and then promptly turning them into the FBI.

One Twitter user posted that she had seen dozens of rioters using dating apps in the DC area and wondered whether it would be useful to law enforcement to gather evidence from these platforms. Immigration Attorney Allison Norris responded, saying her friend was already collecting evidence against them: "She's matching with MAGA bros and they’re bragging and sending her pics and videos of them in the Capitol," she tweeted. “She's sending them to the FBI." 

Dating app Bumble is looking to make its stock market debut in February, likely in time for Valentine’s Day, according to a report from Bloomberg who broke the news.

The female-forward dating app was rumored to be planning its IPO for 2021, but there was no date or even timeframe specified. The company is backed by investment firm Blackstone Group, and according to Bloomberg, has already confidentially filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission to go public. In 2019, Blackstone acquired a majority stake in what was known as MagicLab, now rebranded as Bumble, which owns the Bumble apps and Badoo among other dating apps. At the time of the purchase, MagicLab was valued at about $3 billion.

Dating app usage has increased significantly this year, in part due to the global pandemic. But as we go into cuffing season and usage continues to skyrocket, privacy experts from the Brookings Institute are cautioning dating app users to be careful with sharing their personal information.

The research firm notes that online dating has been increasing rapidly in the last decade, especially since the debut of dating app Tinder in 2012. Thirty percent of American adults had tried online dating in 2019, compared to just 13% in 2013.

This year however, there has been an explosion of new online daters. Match Group (which controls 60% of the dating app market with apps like Tinder, OkCupid, and Hinge), reported a fifteen percent increase in new subscribers in the second quarter of 2020, and a record-breaking 3 billion swipes on Tinder in one day in March when lockdowns began. From March to May of 2020, OkCupid saw a 700% increase in dates and Bumble had a 70% increase in video calls, Brookings points out.