Types (Niche)

Online dating companies are thinking outside the box, thanks to the flooded app market and growing consumer base. Popular dating apps Tinder and Hinge are now offering wedding competitions to users who meet through each of their respective dating apps.

Tinder announced that it would offer to pay $100K towards the cost of an LGBTQ wedding for a couple who met through the app. The move was a nod in honor of Pride Month in June.

Tinder launched a new feature last year to include “transgender” as a gender choice, along with almost 40 other options with which users can choose to identify. The company saw an additional 250,000 new matches made as a result of the inclusion, and now, they want to encourage one lucky LGBTQ couple to tie the knot. Tinder also discovered via a recent study that these users are more likely to want a serious relationship, rather than a hook-up. According to an article in Elite Daily, the large majority of gay users (66.4 percent) and lesbian users (62.1 percent) agree that using Tinder will lead to a long-term relationship.

Speed is essential to life in 2017. A quick internet connection is almost as important as heat and running water, and we swipe through potential dates faster than you can say “It’s a match!” Before you know it, we’re chatting, sipping lattes on the first date, and making it Facebook official.

But a new dating app wants users to take things slow - real slow - using the retro strategy of actually talking to each other to seduce matches.

Appetence, which is now available to download for free in the iTunes Store, believes conversation is your sexiest attribute. “True and long-lasting love isn't found through images alone,” reads the website. “On Appetence your details are completely private. Only you decide when to display your full profile and who gets to see it.”

After purchasing 62 percent of the gay dating app Grindr last year for $88 million, Beijing Kunlun Tech is shelling out another $152 million to buy the remaining percentage. The Chinese tech company is now the sole owner of Grindr, which reaches 27 million users in nearly 200 countries.

Unlike Taiwan, which recently legalized same-sex marriage, China affords few legal rights to LGBT citizens. Nevertheless, companies like Kunlun are beginning to realize the enormous potential of LGBT customers. Kunlun hopes to expand Grindr’s reach throughout Asia and take on China’s homegrown gay dating app, Blued.

“It is of strategic importance for us to fully engage in the daily operations of Grindr and make it our development milestone,” Kunlun said in a statement. “[With the deal], we also aim to be a world leading social media company in the future, and to expand our platforms into film, streaming and animation.”

Slack, a popular messaging app used in workplaces to schedule meetings and chat with your co-workers, has entered into new territory. Now, you can date your co-workers over Slack, too.

Dating app Feeld announced its integration onto the Slack platform late April. It works like this: when you download the Feeld app in Slack, you can let the app know who of your colleagues you’re interested in. If Feeld notices your co-worker has admitted to being attracted to you, too, it will let both of you know and you can take it from there (and start your flirtatious messaging over Slack). If your co-worker doesn’t return the affection, he’s never alerted to your interest.

So essentially, you can get confirmation of your crush without him or her knowing.

So you’re considering a foray into the weird and wonderful world of sugar babies, but you’re not sure where to start. You’re in luck - SeekingArrangement, a leading sugar daddy dating site with over 10 million members, is hosting a seminar for anyone interested in exploring “mutually beneficial relationships.”

The Sugar Baby Summit, which will take place in London on May 18, aims to help aspiring sugar babies develop the skills needed to succeed. The event promises experienced sugar baby coaches, as well as a roster of financial, career, and relationship experts. Each course offers practical lessons in sugaring as well as general advice designed to improve your life overall.

Some of the speakers presenting at the Sugar Baby Summit are:

Tinder has a reputation as a hook-up app, but what about people who want to find lasting relationships? Should they look elsewhere, asking friends to set them up or striking up conversation at a bar instead of going online? How does Tinder really compare to people who meet the old-fashioned way – in real life?

A new study (commissioned and released by Tinder) shows that contrary to stereotypes, many people use Tinder with the intent of finding a relationship. And for those who prefer the real life approach, who proclaim it to be more genuine or organic, it seems this is not the reality, either.

Thanks to Tinder, we may now have a glimpse of what daters really want.