POF (Plenty of Fish)

The Meet Group’s revenue and profits soared past original milestones for Q2 of this year, thanks in part to so many singles turning to dating apps during coronavirus lockdowns.

The company beat Wall Street estimates, with net income at $10.3 million, up from $2.2 million in the same period last year. This was a huge jump – resulting in a 373% increase in profits for the company. According to Philadelphia Business Journal, The Meet Group did not conduct an earnings call with investors over Q2 results, nor did they speak to the publication about the increase, and what part of its business was generating the most income.

Match Group announced that it had exceeded Wall Street revenue expectations for Q2 despite concern over drops in paying subscribers and a la carte services in April, as coronavirus began to spread through the U.S. The company also saw its stock tick up in value immediately following this news.

Match Group reported second quarter earnings that grew 15% year over year, and an 18% increase in subscribers year over year. Their earnings report also shows an increase in subscribers and downloads over pre-pandemic levels, and according to Business Insider, paid subscriptions are also back to the same level as before. 

Dating app Plenty of Fish has added a new game called Blind Date to POF Live!, a streaming platform for its users.

Blind Date is a twist on the traditional real-life experience, according to the company’s blog post. Instead of seeing your date for the first time when you meet, your virtual “blind dates” are blurred out so you can’t see who you’re chatting with – so personality and conversational skills are front and center. Each virtual date is timed, and as you chat longer, your date becomes less blurred. At the end of the timed chat or when you choose to message them, your blind date’s image is revealed.

In order to play Blind Date, you can join Live! via the POF home screen on the app. When you’re in Live! select DATE, which will take you to NextDate so you can scroll through users who are playing Blind Date. These users who are actively playing are highlighted, so you can join their stream and play, too.

The app industry saw revenue spike to $50.1 billion for the first two quarters of 2020, in part due to people isolating at home to prevent the spread of coronavirus. Dating app Tinder topped the list of non-game app revenue earners.

This marks a 23.4% increase from the first half of 2019 according to Tech Crunch, compared with a 20% increase for the same time period between 2018 and 2019. The data seems to also point to a growing new user base. First time app installs were up 26.1% in the first half of 2020 compared to the same time period in 2019, and reached a total of 71.5 billion downloads.

Topping the non-game app list was dating app Tinder, followed by YouTube, and popular social apps TikTok and Tencent. Netflix was the fifth-highest earner.

Image: POF App

Back in September of 2019 POF received it’s first major facelift since the Match Group purchased the dating service back in 2015. This update kept most of the features the same but mainly was a branding and user interface refreshing.

The next big update happened in March when POF launched their Live Stream feature in partnership with The Meet Group (who also offers the same feature with a number of their apps). With this update and with those in the weeks that followed, it looks like POF made a few other tweaks to established features as well.

CEO of POF, Malgosia Green

Image: POF

Plenty of Fish (POF) has had a reputation as a hookup app among dating app users, but under the direction of CEO Malgosia Green the last two years, the company is pivoting to create a more engaging and authentic experience for users.

In a recent interview with Green posted on the company’s blog, she discusses her primary goal to create a more authentic online dating experience at POF. The company’s research found that 84% of singles said they wanted more authenticity in dating and think all face filters should be banned. As a result, POF was the first to implement a face filter ban and committed to auditing 70 million images and removing face-filtered images.