United States

Dating app Bumble had a rough third quarter, with total paying users down 2 percent from the second quarter. It was the first time the company saw a decline in its user base since going public in February of this year.

According to Reuters, total paying users fell to 2.9 million as the pandemic surge prompted new lockdowns in hard-hit countries. The company says the pandemic surge caused an overall drop in consumer spending on dating apps and in-app purchases. This news spooked investors and sent Bumble’s stock tumbling 9 percent, a 32 percent total decline since its IPO.

The company owns popular dating app Badoo which was hit especially hard due to its popularity in markets affected by the Covid surges. Badoo accounts for about a quarter of the company’s total revenue according to Barron’s.

The emails at the heart of the case against Match Group and IAC have been revealed, just prior to the trial which is set to begin in November. Former Tinder CEO Greg Blatt was accused by former Tinder employees, including founder Sean Rad, of undervaluing Tinder’s worth to cheat them out of billions of dollars in stock options. 

According to The Daily Mail, emails revealed that Blatt valued the dating app at nearly $12 billion in 2016, more than a year before Match Group valued Tinder at only $3 billion as Sean Rad and other employees were forced to exit the company. Rad and the other plaintiffs who filed the lawsuit claim Blatt purposefully devalued the stock in their negotiations, citing the emails as evidence. 

Match Group owns dating app Tinder, and they along with IAC are the defendants in the lawsuit.

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.

Dating app Hinge teamed up with US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy to talk about safe dating practices during a pandemic, specifically as we gear up for “cuffing season.” Murthy stresses that dating and interpersonal connection are important, so it’s good to have some tools for doing it safely.

The six-minute video captures Murthy behind an official podium as he offers specific tips for daters meeting face to face. He advises daters to get vaccinated before meeting others, which is the “single most important thing we can do” to prevent serious side effects or even death from Covid-19. Then he advises singles to ask their dates if they have been vaccinated too, so that the risk of meeting is low for both parties.

Murthy also asks people to plan an outdoor date if at all possible to reduce risk of transmission, and also to do rapid (same day) testing to ensure neither one of you is positive and to prevent the spread of the disease further. 

Scammers stole more than $1.4 million from users of popular dating apps like Tinder, Grindr and Bumble, among others. Dubbed “CryptoRom” by cybersecurity research firm Sophos, the attackers feigned romantic interest with victims to build trust, and then lured them into downloading fake cryptocurrency apps.

According to reports, these scammers used Apple’s Enterprise Development platform to push the fake cryptocurrency apps, which gave the victims a sense that they were legitimate, but in reality, this allowed scammers to bypass the normal app review process. 

The CryptoRom attackers set up fake profiles on dating apps and strike up conversations with users, later moving them to messaging apps. After a time, the subject of cryptocurrency is introduced into the conversation, and the scammer asks the victim to install the fake crypto trading app to make an investment. At first, the victim makes money and is allowed to withdraw from their account, providing a false sense of security. Soon after, they are asked to make a more substantial contribution, and if they do, the scammers not only refuse their withdrawal requests, but blackmail them to invest more and take the money they already paid if they refuse.

Woman Tearing Down OkCupid Ad

Image: Twitter

Dating app OkCupid has responded to a viral video showing a woman tearing down posters of its new LGBTQ+ ad campaign “Every Single Person” from a subway train in New York. Two other passengers joined her in the effort, and one filmed and posted the rant.

The notably unmasked woman was reacting to the campaign’s bold images, featuring queer people, pansexuality, and people who identify as non-binary. As she tore down the signs, she claimed to be concerned about children seeing the images, saying that the ads were “affecting the next generation” and calling them “propaganda.”

She also called the images “disgusting” and said that it’s “not about equality, you guys…it’s about communism” with no additional context.