POF (Plenty of Fish)

A committee from the U.S. House of Representatives is investigating popular dating apps such as Tinder, Bumble and OkCupid following a report that found underage users and sex offenders were using the apps.

According to a report from AP, the House Oversight and Reform subcommittee on economic and consumer policy sent separate letters on Thursday January 30th to Bumble, Grindr, The Meet Group, and Match Group (which owns Tinder and OkCupid among others). The letters asked for information on “users’ ages, procedures for verifying ages, and any complaints about assaults, rape or the use of the services by minors,” according to AP.

The subcommittee is also seeking additional information on privacy policies for each of the apps, and what users see when they are asked to review or accept such policies. Recently, dating apps have also come under fire for third-party sharing of personal data, where user information wouldn’t be protected by the dating app’s own privacy policy.

Recipient of Gold
Tinder

Recipient of Silver
POF

Recipient of Bronze
Match

The 2020 Dating Sites Reviews Single's Choice Award poll went online October 1^st, 2019. It ran for 3 months and then closed for voting on December 31^st, 2019. 513 visitors took time and cast their vote in the poll. The poll asked the following question:

Which dating app or site would you recommend for the Dating Sites Reviews Single's Choice Award?

Voters get to choose 1 dating service from a selection of 10 of the top dating services in 2019. These services are selected by the Editors of DatingSitesReviews.com. For this award the dating service which received the most votes gets the Gold, second place gets Silver, and the third, Bronze.

It was a really close race this year. The top 3 results differed by only 2% in votes (usually this number is much greater). The votes for all the dating services were much more evenly spread out with the lowest and highest only having just less than a 10% difference (this number in previous years could be higher than 30%). What this tells us is that the dating services have matured and user experiences and successes have evened out more across the competition.

The recipient of the 2020 Single's Choice Gold Award is Tinder. Tinder received almost 15% of the vote which works out to 76 votes. Tinder was the winner of Gold as well last year but had 17% of the vote.

The recipient of the 2020 Single's Choice Silver Award is POF (Plenty of Fish). Once again POF comes in second place with 13.65% of the vote (70 votes in total). This is an improvement for them over last year when comparing votes by about half a percent.

The recipient of the 2020 Single's Choice Bronze Award is Match.com. Match received 12.67% of the votes (65 votes) and almost was able to achieve second place. In fact Match missed out on this award last year and it is the first time a paid only dating service has won when competing against free dating services (in previous years we had separated free and paid services in the poll). So this is quite an accomplishment.

Match Group announced its investment in and partnership with safety platform Noonlight to roll out a series of safety tools across its apps, including a “panic” button for emergencies.

According to Tech Crunch, the new feature will allow users to discreetly summon emergency services through the app if they are feeling uneasy or need assistance while on a date. The user can input information about their dates, including when and where they are going and with whom. They can then share their location so the app tracks them during the date, and hit a panic button if they feel unsafe. The panic button connects the user with Noonlight’s dispatchers, and if needed, Noonlight will alert emergency responders to their location. 

Recipient
Plenty of Fish

This years Editor's Top Pick - Free award recipient is once again Plenty of Fish (POF). This dating service continues to be one of the top destinations for singles looking to date. POF is most popular with single adults aged 30 and up, including Millennials, Gen-X, Boomers and seniors (over 4 million active users every day).

For a dating service to be considered for this award they must offer the features for free needed to successfully find and communicate with other members. A member has to be able to use the dating service at no cost and be able to successfully arrange dates. All of the popular free dating services offer a paid subscription option, what makes POF different is the amount of features they allow free members to use. When you compare this along with just how popular the service is, then you understand why they are the winner of this award.

A new study called "Pressure Points Study 2019" by popular dating app Plenty of Fish revealed that modern dating has become a source of pressure and anxiety for many people. They also found that while daters crave authenticity, they also embellish their own profiles to attract more dates.

In a survey of about 2,000 singles, Plenty of Fish set out to find what singles wanted from their dating apps.

First date jitters are a big concern among daters, especially women, with only 22 percent saying they weren’t concerned, but the vast majority saying they worried about how they come across to their dates. Forty percent of all singles were worried if they were interesting enough, 16 percent were concerned about whether they talked enough, and 12 percent worried if they were considered “fun.”

A revealing report published by ProPublica found that Match Group did not conduct background checks on users of their popular free platforms, including Tinder, Plenty of Fish, and OkCupid, leaving their members vulnerable to sexual assault.

Columbia Journalism Investigations analyzed more than 150 incidents of sexual assault among people who met through dating apps over the last decade, ProPublica reported. Most met their matches through Match Group apps. The researchers discovered that registered sex offenders were using Match Group apps like Tinder and went on dates with women who had no idea, because while Match Group conducts background checks for paid apps like Match, they don’t for their free apps.