Features

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.”

Dating app Snack is marketing itself to a new generation of daters and is building excitement with $3.5 million in funding, according to Tech Crunch.

The app is modeled after TikTok and Instagram, placing short form video as the centerpiece rather than profile pictures. Instead of swiping, each user has a feed they can scroll through to see what other users have posted. When you like a video, you are able to comment, and if two users like each other’s videos, then DMs open up for them to message over the app.

Image: Bumble

Female-forward dating app Bumble said it will ban users who engage in body-shaming on the app.

The company said that it’s employing an algorithm that identifies and flags users engaging in derogatory language that is “fatphobic, racist, or homophobic,” according to The Guardian. Once these accounts are flagged, moderators will analyze the conversation to determine whether the user violated the new policy. If they are determined to have used inappropriate language, they will receive a warning, and if they engaged repeatedly in such language or hateful rhetoric, they will be banned.

The numbers of people in India turning to online dating has soared since the start of the pandemic. As they have been forced to stay at home and limit their interactions, many are trying dating apps for the first time to connect and meet new people. 

Dating app QuackQuack has been one of the fastest-growing dating apps in India, though it competes with giants like Hinge, Tinder and Bumble who are pouring resources into marketing efforts in the country. Still, QuackQuack saw a 300 percent increase in sign-ups that took their user base to 11 million in 2020, mostly due to people in smaller cities and towns eager to try the service. 

In fact, over seventy percent of new sign ups on QuackQuack in 2020 were from smaller cities and towns, a change from previous years. Over the past year, they added 3.4 million new users according to India New England News.

Dating app S’More announced that it raised $2.1 million in VC funding, and plans to expand its team and create original content for digital platforms and TV networks.

According to Tech Crunch, the app has seen a boon in subscribers since the pandemic hit. S’More stands for “something more,” advertising that its platform for more serious daters. Studies conducted in the past few months show that COVID-19 has changed attitudes towards online dating, and that singles are now looking for relationships rather than hookups and taking their time by virtual dating before agreeing to meet in person. 

S’More has capitalized on this trend. The company just launched a redesign in January including a virtual chat feature which, similar to its profile photos, blurs the screen for participants until you get to know each other. (The more you talk, the clearer your date’s image becomes.) The app also added real-time conversation prompts and the ability for its users to pay to promote their own profiles.

Dating app Once, which dubs itself the “slow” dating app, has been sold to conglomerate Dating Group for $18 million in cash and stock, according to Tech Crunch.

Dating Group owns Dating.com, Dil Mil, AnastasiaDate and ChinaLove among other online dating platforms, competing directly with Bumble and Match Group’s suite of apps as well as Facebook Dating. It currently has offices in seven countries, and around 73 million users across its portfolio. Once comes with about 9 million users.

Once positioned itself as a more purpose-driven dating app, offering only one match per day to its users, who then have 24 hours to message that match to show interest, or they disappear. This offering was an intentional tactic to compete with the frenetic pace of apps like Tinder where people are inclined to swipe through dozens of profiles each minute rather than spending time really looking at each one. On the other hand, Once forced its users to consider one match at a time.