Tinder

Garbo is a non-profit provider of Background Checks

Tinder announced that it will offer background checks on potential dates, a new measure that parent company Match Group has taken to improve safety for users of the app. Currently no dating app conducts criminal background checks on users, so this is a huge step forward for safety advocates.

Match Group has partnered with Garbo, a non-profit that provides background checks, and plans to debut an in-app background check feature on Tinder later this year according to The Washington Post. There are no details yet on the cost of the service.

Tracey Breeden, Match’s new head of safety and social advocacy, said in an interview: “This gives [Tinder users] an opportunity and that comfort level. Maybe they want more information before they have a video chat, maybe they want more information before they meet in person.”

If you’ve been vaccinated, you might want to include it in your online profile. Several online dating apps have now reported seeing increased interest around the topic of vaccines.

According to a report from Vice in early March, a Tinder spokesperson told Motherboard that they’d seen a 238 percent increase in vaccine mentions in user bios in January, and noticed the interest surrounding the subject as early as November. Bumble also reported an increase in the number of people using the words “vaccine” or “vaccinated” in their profiles dating back to December. In the same time period, the number of profiles on Scruff with the word “vaccinated” added has doubled.

Utah House Committee

The Judiciary Committee in the Utah House of Representatives just passed a bill that would allow people to search the legal records of anyone they meet online, providing new safety measures for online daters.

The bill would allow Utah residents to have easier access to a service called Xchange, which provides information from Utah’s public court system, according to The Daily Universe, the paper published by Brigham Young University. Right now, broad access is limited, but if the bill is passed, residents can opt to pay a monthly fee to use it and get relevant history and information on potential dates.

Match Group shared its fourth quarter earnings this week, offering investors some cautious optimism on what to expect in 2021. 

Last year the company saw record highs in new users and activity, but faced with economic recessions and a global pandemic, revenue growth remained uncertain. The company delivered slightly better than expected results for the last quarter of 2020, with revenue of $651.4 million for the quarter, up from $547.2 million. Analysts had been projecting $649 million according to Market Watch. Match Group also reported net income of $140.6 million, up from $94.7 million this time last year. 

Recipient of Gold
Tinder

Recipient of Silver
POF

Recipient of Bronze
eHarmony

This past year has been an interesting one from a dating perspective thanks to the pandemic that took hold of the world and the lock downs and social distancing that resulted from it. Most of the popular dating services found an increase in visitors especially during lockdown when people were forced to stay home. Seeing this trend, dating services that did not have a video feature rushed to get one added to their service to ensure daters had a way to interact virtually through live video streaming since meeting in real life was out. The funny thing with this is most services that have been around for the past 5 years probably had implemented video dating at one point, but had removed it by 2020 due to members not using it. While a lot of dating services did see increase numbers of visitors that did not necessarily mean increased revenue since online daters are looking to spend less during these uncertain times.

Right on schedule this year the 2021 Dating Sites Reviews Single's Choice Award poll went online October 1^st, 2020 and closed for voting on December 31^st, 2020. In 3 months, 334 visitors took time and cast their vote in the poll. This is down about 35% when compared to last year. I think part the reason for this was singles had decided to stay with the popular dating options instead of looking for new services thanks to the pandemic. For 2021, the poll asked the following question:

A new investment scam targeting dating app users has been detected by Interpol, according to ZDNet.

The International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) issued a “purple notice” to 194 member countries, describing a new money-making scheme on dating apps, according to ZDNet. Interpol stated that the scam “takes advantage of people’s vulnerabilities as they look for potential matches, and lures them into sophisticated fraud scheme.”

The scammers have set up fake profiles in apps like Tinder, Bumble, and eHarmony, and match with users who don’t know they are scammers. The scammers then message their targets pretending to be interested in them romantically in order to build trust, occasionally giving them investment “tips” to turn the conversation towards money.