Matching

Though a dating app may seem like the closest thing tech-obsessed Millennials have to a matchmaker, the ancient art of playing cupid isn’t dead yet.

Wingman, a new mobile matchmaking app, recently conducted its first Wingman Assisted Romance Survey. The study reveals that most Millennials (90%), whether they’re single or in a relationship, say they would enjoy acting as matchmaker for their friends. And what’s more, they’re confident about their skills. Almost 70% said they thought they’d be better at picking matches for their friends than their friends would be at picking their own dates.

“A large majority of the people we spoke to at length felt that they knew their friends well enough to pick people they should meet and many felt they absolutely knew them better than their friends know themselves,” said Wingman founder Tina Wilson. “Millennials tend to be confident and that confidence clearly extends to the widespread belief we found that many millennials are convinced they can be great matchmakers for their friends." 

Modern romance looks more than a little different from love stories of the past. Instead of meeting at religious services or social dances, today’s singles swipe and click their way to dates. Many have embraced it as the new normal, and there’s no shortage of dating services eager for their business.

But other singles are clinging steadfastly to an old-fashioned approach. They’d rather meet in-person or through friends, and remain skeptical of dating apps and websites. For the naysayers, there are services like My Friend’s Friend.

My Friend’s Friend is helping singles in Perth, Australia, find love with a Facebook friend request. Curious daters add My Friend’s Friend as a friend on the social network, then receive a message from a woman who goes by Lucy Date (though the name is fake, she’s a real matchmaker who has spent years playing Cupid for friends and clients).

Online dating companies are thinking outside the box, thanks to the flooded app market and growing consumer base. Popular dating apps Tinder and Hinge are now offering wedding competitions to users who meet through each of their respective dating apps.

Tinder announced that it would offer to pay $100K towards the cost of an LGBTQ wedding for a couple who met through the app. The move was a nod in honor of Pride Month in June.

Tinder launched a new feature last year to include “transgender” as a gender choice, along with almost 40 other options with which users can choose to identify. The company saw an additional 250,000 new matches made as a result of the inclusion, and now, they want to encourage one lucky LGBTQ couple to tie the knot. Tinder also discovered via a recent study that these users are more likely to want a serious relationship, rather than a hook-up. According to an article in Elite Daily, the large majority of gay users (66.4 percent) and lesbian users (62.1 percent) agree that using Tinder will lead to a long-term relationship.

As we close out the first quarter of 2017, Happn has big plans to drive growth during the remainder of the year.

CEO Didier Rappaport told Business Insider that the company is working on a “new business model” that adds subscriptions to the service. Though the subscription model is still being tested, the tentative plan is to remove the ads (which currently fund the company) for users with paid accounts.

Since launching three years ago, Happn has built a user base of 25 million people. However, the company has yet to become profitable, and that’s its chief goal for 2017.

eHarmony CEO Grant Langston Interview

Ask a group of people to describe eHarmony and they would probably paint a similar picture. It’s respected, trusted, and scientific - a service rooted in strong values with a focus on long-term relationships over quickie weekend flings.

In other words, in a sea of swipes, eHarmony is a dating service that takes love seriously. It doesn’t have the built-in emoji of Grindr or the Spotify integration of Tinder, but for the single who’s ready to settle down, it’s a no-nonsense and effective option.

It may come as a surprise, then, to hear that eHarmony’s famously serious service is looking into something decidedly un-serious: humor.

Dating app Bumble has seen tremendous success since its launch over two years ago, with more than 12.5 million registrations to date. Now, the company wants to expand their services to offer connections for friendship and business opportunities, too.

Bumble debuted as a dating app, differentiating itself from Tinder by putting the power of communication in the hands of women, who are required to make the first move. Since then, the company has launched Bumble BFF for people seeking friendships rather than romantic relationships, and it is about to release Bumble Biz to connect people for business networking.