Dating Services

Bumble made its first acquisition by purchasing fast-growing French dating app Fruitz. 

Fruitz is particularly popular with younger Gen Z daters in France, and Bumble will be adding it to its suite of apps including Badoo, which is popular across Europe. Fruitz caught Bumble’s eye because of its growth among this demographic in Western Europe – including Belgium, Switzerland, Spain, Netherlands in addition to France. Fruitz is also gaining ground in French-speaking Canada.

Bumble will not be rebranding Fruitz, according to Tech Crunch. It will provide the resources for Fruitz to expand and operate however, including AI technology, safety features, and marketing. Currently Fruitz is available free for download but users can purchase additional features for a cost.

The infamous “Tinder Swindler” has been banned from several dating apps. Match Group, which owns several popular dating apps including Tinder, Hinge, OkCupid and PlentyofFish, announced that he was no longer welcome on their platforms.

According to Match Group, Shimon Hayut (who also went by Simon Leviev) violated their terms of service, which includes impersonation and asking for money. He created fake profiles on the app using other names in order to keep his con going, according to The Washington Post.

Match Group also said that ahead of the documentary’s release, the company published new guidelines for users to better protect from scammers and exploitation on its apps.

Popular gay dating app Grindr has disappeared from China’s app stores, including the Apple Store, as government officials tighten control over online behavior. 

Chinese officials said there were compliance issues with Grindr regarding China’s Personal Information Protection Law, according to Bloomberg. The law requires that data stored in applications that is transferred to other locations be approved by government officials, and it limits the amount of personal data stored in apps.

In addition, China’s Internet authority began a month-long campaign to identify and eliminate any illegal and sensitive online content, according to the Bangkok Post. This move comes at an interesting time, coinciding with the celebration of the Beijing Olympic Games and the Lunar New Year.

China-based dating app Yumi has started beta testing experiences in its new metaverse, called Meta Town, hoping to attract young Gen Z daters who are interested in immersive experiences.

Users can create avatars based on their photos, explore the metaverse to find other virtual daters, and have real-time audio conversations with “artificial intelligence-powered translation,” according to the South China Morning Post, making it easier for daters who don’t speak the same language to connect.

The metaverse is a platform where people can interact via avatars in real time and in different virtual spaces, often with the ability to exchange virtual goods and services. 

Tinder is adding more features to ramp up safety for its users, including background checks and educating staff on how to handle reports of abuse.

The dating app company announced the new measures in a blog post, noting that all customer service team members are now being trained on “how survivors might respond to sexual violence and describe those experiences, how to recognize serious reports that may use vague language, and how to respond in a trauma-informed manner to these types of reports,” according to the company’s blog post.

Last year, Tinder’s parent company Match Group invested in the safety nonprofit Garbo, which will be providing the background checks for users. Garbo can check a wide variety of public records on a potential match, and notify a user if the match has a history of violence, as well as any other potential issues like DUIs or vehicular manslaughter. The company doesn’t include drug possession charges or minor traffic violations in its reporting. 

Recipient of Gold
Tinder

Recipient of Silver
POF

Recipient of Bronze
eHarmony

Once again thanks in part to the pandemic online dating users continue to increase in numbers. In the previous year we saw a lot of dating services add in video chatting to help singles meet at least virtual. This year we didn't get nearly as many new features. Instead most online dating companies have seen their services mature to the point of new features not really affecting how many new users join. Instead these companies are now concentrating on markets outside of North America and Europe to increase revenue. China and India with their huge populations are where the money is at. While the profit per user is lower in these countries, the larger market more than makes up for it.

The 2022 Dating Sites Reviews Single's Choice Award poll went online October 1^st, 2021 and closed for voting on December 31^st, 2021. In 3 months, 338 visitors took time and cast their vote in the poll. This is on par when compared to last year but down by over 20% when compared to the last 5. It is much harder for new dating services to make a dent in the market now thanks to the established brands and their recognition. The only time people consider trying a new dating service is when they have already tried the popular brands and are not seeing the results they like.

For 2022, the poll asked the following question: