Types (Niche)

Atraf Dating App Message to Users about Hack

A group of hackers called Black Shadow threatened to expose the personal information of more than a million users of Israel’s leading gay dating app unless they were paid a million U.S. dollars within a 48-hour period. 

The dating site Atraf became a target after Black Shadow hacked an Israeli internet service provider CyberServe, according to Agence-France Press (AFP). The hackers dropped tens of thousands of personal data records online as proof of making good on the threat, which were stolen from various websites that included public transportation firms, museums, and a travel company in addition to Atraf. About 1,000 user profiles were exposed from Atraf, according to the report, with the hackers saying more exposures were to come if they did not get paid.

These exposed records included HIV status, sexual orientation, and even some passwords. According to AFP, cyber security officials link the hackers to Iran.

Shares for Bumble Inc, which owns the popular dating apps Bumble and Badoo, fell more than twenty percent after the company’s third quarter earnings call in November. 

The dating app went public earlier this year, with shares taking off out of the gate. In recent weeks however, investors have cooled on the stock, and Bumble has pointed to pandemic lockdowns in strong markets like Japan which have cut into the company’s overall revenue. The latest dip after the earnings call was the stock’s lowest point yet. 

According to Forbes, for the first time since its IPO, Bumble posted a decline in overall user growth, with total paying users dropping to 2.87 million through September, down from 2.93 million in the second quarter.

Bumble announced that it is exploring how to employ the metaverse and Web 3.0 into a relaunch of its Bumble BFF platform. It also added language badges as a new feature to help users connect. 

The move towards interactive experiences seems to be where dating apps are headed, driven by younger Gen Z daters who prefer game-like experiences to swiping. Tinder recently announced that it was testing an avatar-based virtual experience called Single Town where users could meet each other in real time on different online spaces, like “bars” before agreeing to meet in person.

The rising popularity of cryptocurrency is also a factor, as Bumble has indicated it intends to create a crypto goods economy to monetize the new platform, as has Tinder.

Match Group is taking the dating app experience to the next level by testing a new “metaverse” where users can create avatars that interact with each other over the app.

According to Tech Crunch, news of these plans came during the company’s third quarter earnings call, where despite performing below expectations, executives were upbeat and looking toward the long-term future of its dating apps by harnessing this technology.

Match Group CEO Shar Dubey noted in the call that Hyperconnect, a social discovery platform the company purchased earlier this year, was testing the avatar-based dating experience dubbed “Single Town,” where users interact in real time as they meet in virtual spaces (like a bar) and have live audio conversations. If two users express interest in each other (via their avatars), they can choose to continue their conversations through messaging. Eventually, the company plans to leverage the technology across their dating apps.

Audio-focused dating app Heart to Heart, created by former TikTok product and operations lead Joshua Ogundu, raised $750,000 in seed money towards its launch goal.

The funding was initiated by Charles Hudson at Precursor Ventures, according to dot.LA. The seed money will go toward research and development of the app, which is expected to launch in beta form for iOS users by the end of the year.

Ogundu first came up with the idea because of audio-based social media platform Clubhouse’s popular speed dating rooms. Seeing an opportunity for audio connection in a dating app, he took to Twitter to find engineers to make Heart to Heart possible. Twitter now offers live audio group chats along with Clubhouse, and demand is still growing. Podcasts have persisted in being widely popular, paving the way for other audio applications.

Hinge announced that it will be adding audio features to its dating app, including audio messages and audio clips for profiles. In addition, the company is creating more flexibility in searches for LGBTQ daters.

The audio messages feature will allow users to record and send audio clips to their matches, another way of getting to know someone outside of sending photos or text messages. Users will also be able to record audio to add to their profiles, so prospective matches can get a more complete picture of who they are.

At the same time, Hinge announced the addition of more features for LGBTQ users, including an update to its algorithm to add a non-binary gender category for users to search and find dates. Many dating apps offer profile features for non-binary users to identify themselves, but users haven’t had the ability to search for matches outside of self-identified “men” or “women.”