Types (Niche)

Dating app Tinder has a hook-up reputation – and because of this, users in more conservative countries in Asia might be hesitant to try the app. In response, Tinder is revamping its image to maintain its growth streak.

Dating app growth overall has slowed in the U.S. as the market becomes saturated, and it is expected to slow even more through 2022. In order to expand its opportunities, Match Group – Tinder’s parent company, has put a lot of resources into the Asian market, including hiring key executives to oversee the region and advertising its suite of apps.

Image: Zoosk

Online dating conglomerate Spark Networks announced its purchase of Zoosk for $258 million USD. The popular dating app was acquired with a combination of cash and stock, and Spark will have full ownership of Zoosk shares.

According to the terms of the deal, Spark will issue 12,980,000 ADSs (American Depository Shares) to former Zoosk shareholders, valued at $152 million based on the closing price of Spark ADSs of $11.78 on June 28, 2019. It also provides for a cash consideration of $150 million, subject to adjustment, according to the company’s press release. Former Zoosk shareholders owned 49 percent of the company.

Hot on the heels of Match’s announcement that its new service, Ask Match, will make dating coaches available for one-on-one phone sessions, Ashley Madison is planning a coaching service of its own. The dating site for affair seekers recently revealed it has been testing a "cheating coaches" feature in Brazil and the United States since March of this year.

Hiring a coach to improve your romantic game is nothing new, but Ashley Madison may be the first to apply the idea to infidelity. The feature will allow users to search for an available coach through the mobile app, then purchase time with them via a credits system. Each credit costs around 50 cents, according to Business Insider. A continuous conversation with a coach will set you back eight credits.

In big news for the dating app industry – Democratic Presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg met his husband on Hinge. And after his public remarks praising the dating app, it seems Hinge has also seen a spike in gay users.

Fortune reported that the app has seen a 30 percent increase in gay memberships since April 1^st, around the time the rising star mayor of South Bend Indiana disclosed he used the app and ended up meeting his husband Chasten on it.

“We’re proud of all of the relationships we’ve helped set up — including Mayor Pete and Chasten,” Hinge CEO Justin McLeod told Fortune. “We’re happy to see that their love story has encouraged even more members of the LGBTQ community to find their person on Hinge.”

Lebanon’s Telecommunications Ministry has blocked access to Grindr on the country’s state-owned internet service provider, sparking concern amongst activists, allies and human rights organizations.

The local Daily Star newspaper was the first outlet to report on the ban. The Telecommunications Ministry reportedly sent a memo to Lebanese internet service providers ordering them to block the app. Within several days, users found they could not access Grindr over the state-run ISP Ogero. Amnesty International obtained confirmation from an official source at the ministry that a ban had indeed been put into effect.

Beijing Kunlun Tech, a Chinese company which owns the popular dating app Grindr, will now be forced to sell it by June 2020, according to a report by CNN.

Beijing Kunlun Tech owns 60% of Grindr, a popular dating app in the LGBTQ community. Last year the company was planning to take the app public but was stopped when the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. (CFIUS) intervened. The U.S. government agency oversees purchases of businesses by foreign entities and expressed concern that the national security of the U.S. would be threatened by the acquisition of the dating app by a Chinese tech company, because of the sensitive user information it had access to.