This is a summary of the awards and their recipients for the 16^th annual Dating Sites Reviews Choice Awards. These awards honor the best dating apps and sites of 2023 in 11 different categories and were handed out starting this new year in January and continued through to February 14^th (Valentines Day). The dating services listed below are the ones worth checking out in 2023 for those interesting in participating in online dating to find a partner.

Our top award is the Single's Choice Award which is decided by our readers. To participate all you had to do was cast a vote in our poll which ran from October 1^st 2022 until December 31^st 2022. The poll asks you to recommend your choice for the top dating service (app and/or site) from a selection of the ten leading dating services on the internet which we have an editorial review for. The top three dating services who receives the most votes will be the recipient of a Gold, Silver, and Bronze award. This year the poll saw 280 votes cast and with all dating services except 1, receive between 20 (7%) and 39 (14%) votes making it a really race when compared to previous years.

Single's Choice Award

Recipient POF

The Gold Single's Choice Award recipient for 2023 is Plenty of Fish. With almost 14 percent of the vote, POF still remains at the top of peoples minds for dating, especially those 35 years and older. With unique marketing campaigns and a brand refresh along with a website and app redesign this past year, keeps the dating service relevant and current among its users. This year, POF also picked up the Top Pick Overall and Top Pick Paid Awards.

Recipient Tinder

The recipient of the 2023 Silver Single's Choice Award is Tinder. With just under 13% of the vote, Tinder moves to second place when compared to last year. This app is most popular with young adults and still remains current due to the constant updates to features it receives. With the strong showing during the pandemic, Tinder has experienced flat market growth this year due to dating app fatigue which has been reported in studies of their primary target audience.

Recipient Bumble

The recipient of the 2023 Bronze Single's Choice Award is Bumble. With 12 percent of the vote, Bumble only received 3 less votes than the Silver Award making it a very close race. This 2023 Top Pick Innovative Award winner continued to push for woman's rights on many topics and continues to give them control over dating and communication which continues to strike a chord with it users. Bumble now has over 40 million active monthly users.

Image: Tinder

Tinder announced the launch of its latest safety feature to address abuse over the app, dubbed “House Rules.”

Tinder users must agree to the list of house rules outlined in a 20-page safety guide before they can download the service. The guide highlights the app’s safety features, including photo verification, how to report and block abusive users, according to News.com Australia.

The guide also provides tips for dating in person, including advice to Tinder users to schedule a video call beforehand to “get a vibe for the other person” according to Global Dating Insights. It also provides tips like sharing details and location of the date with friends or family beforehand, and keeping track of drinks to avoid spiking.

Match Group is expected to lay off up to 200 employees, or about 8 percent of its workforce (currently around 2400 employees before the cut) after sharing a disappointing outlook for the first half of 2023 in its latest earnings call.

According to Reuters, the company blamed “significant” poor product execution at Tinder, in addition to dealing with a tough economy and a strong dollar. CEO Bernard Kim brought in a new management team and is in the process of rebranding Match Group’s star app.

The layoffs were primarily in recruiting, with CFO Gary Swidler noting that the company is restricting its hiring to Hinge and other growth businesses, with notable cuts to Tinder staff.

Representatives from dating app companies alongside ministers, victim-survivors, government officials and technology companies attended a roundtable in Sydney to discuss safety measures needed for dating apps. They discussed adding background checks and ID verification requirements, as well as increasing transparency and sharing of data between dating app companies.

According to The Guardian, Australian eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant said that “there’s no one law that’s going to fix this issue,” placing the burden of responsibility on dating app companies.

The talks were led by federal communications minister, Michelle Rowland and included representatives for popular dating apps such as Bumble and Tinder. She noted the talks were an “important first step,” according to The Guardian. The roundtable was convened after a report from the Australian Institute of Criminology found that three quarters of survey respondents had been subjected to sexual violence on dating apps in the last five years.

Image: Bumble & Netflix

Dating app Bumble has teamed up with leading streaming service Netflix to launch a game that is themed around some of its most popular shows, including Emily in Paris, Squid Game, Selling Sunset, and Stranger Things, among others.

According to Netflix’s blog post, the new game called Netflix Nights In will challenge matches to find out how deep their knowledge goes about their favorite shows by answering questions like: “How much was Davina’s infamous listing in Selling Sunset?” In a twist, the game requires matches to answer the question before responses are revealed, and both will be able to see their compatibility based on their answers.

Stars from fan favorites like Ashley Park from Emily in Paris or Jonathan Daviss from Outer Banks will present new questions each week in the app, according to Netflix.

Match Group has named new key executives, including its first CTO and a new President and CFO, as well as a new focus on four key businesses – Tinder, Hinge, Asia and Evergreen & Emerging.

According to the company’s press release, Gary Swindler was named to the top position of Match Group as President and CFO, and Will Wu joins as chief technology officer, a newly created position, to oversee product innovation across all apps. Swindler was promoted from his position as CFO and COO and Wu joins from Snap Inc., where he oversaw the commercialization of Snap’s developer platforms and spearheaded the creation of its most famous features like “Discover” and the “Chat” messaging feature, as well as Snap’s social gaming feature. 

Match Group is betting big on Wu, who brings an impressive background with developing one of the earliest revenue streams for Snap, as well as developing Snap’s primary social engagement driver.