Dating Services

Young singles in India are turning to new and unexpected platforms to expand their networks, including LinkedIn for dating and Bumble for finding a job.

According to India Today, a recent survey from DatingNews.com found that 61 percent of respondents aged 35 to 40 said they have found their dates on LinkedIn. And 52 percent aged 20 to 40 said they looked to apps like LinkedIn to find dates.

Traditionally, LinkedIn has been a networking platform for careers, but lately people have been turning away from dating apps and gravitating to other social platforms, and especially to LinkedIn. At first, this trend was being reported in the US, but now it seems to be global.

Cheers, a new matchmaking app founded by former Instagram engineer Sahil Ahuja, has launched in New York.

The new app is focused on building connections by offering a similar format to social platforms like Instagram, where users can add unlimited photos and videos to their profile (similar to social media apps), so other users get a feel for who they are. Cheers uses AI in some of its features as do most dating apps now, including for photo selection and to set up user profiles.

According to Tech Crunch, Cheers is differentiating itself from apps like Tinder and Bumble by offering posting features and friend-matchmaking in addition to romantic connections, leaning heavily into the social media model.

Image: Feeld

Feeld, a dating app created for people interested in threesomes, has now launched a lifestyle magazine to enhance the brand for its app.

AFM stands for both A *censored* Magazine and A Feeld Magazine, which will publish an array of stories about peoples’ sexual experiences in order to build community, according to The Atlantic. It features commissioned articles by controversial and notable writers like Daphne Merkin (author of the 1996 New Yorker essay on spanking which went viral), and Tony Tulathimutte (author of this fall’s critically acclaimed incel novel).

“We’ve always been uniquely resonant with creatives in our community,” Feeld CEO and cofounder Ana Kirova said to Elle Magazine. She goes on to explain that she hopes the publication will help get Feeld users creative about “specifying the sex or connection they are seeking.” She also notes that half the magazine’s content was produced by Feeld users.

The Democrats have launched a new series of ads on dating app Grindr to appeal to young LGBTQ+ daters, in hopes of turning out more votes ahead of election day on November 5th.

According to The Advocate, the targeted ads focus on the Republican party’s Project 2025, emphasizing that the document threatens LGBTQ+ rights. These ads urge people to vote against the extremist agenda. One ad says: “Project 2025 Rips Away Our Rights. Stop Republicans. Make a plan to vote at IWillVote.com.”

The Kamala Harris campaign has spent three figures on the ads, indicating the importance of the LGBTQ+ constituency to her success.

In time for National Coming Out Day on October 11th and Spirit Day on October 17, a new report was released by GLAAD in partnership with eHarmony that explores the way dating apps intersect with how the LGBTQ+ community shares their identities and sexual preferences.

The report details how non-binary, trans and LGB+ daters express (or don’t express) themselves and their preferences over dating apps, and their differences in experiences on these platforms.

Overall, Gen Z daters have been much more likely than previous generations to come out on a dating app. Sixty-six percent of Gen Z daters came out before they were 18 years old, and 93 percent came out by age 22, compared to only 40 percent and 76 percent of Millennials, respectively.

Gay dating app Grindr has been hinting at its development of an AI wingman, but now the company is officially testing an initial model, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The WSJ interview with CEO George Arison included more details on the AI wingman, which will keep track of a user’s matches and make conversational suggestions based on messages they have had with other users. The AI bot will even recommend matches with long-term relationship potential and suggest places where they could meet.

According to Arison, down the line, the AI wingmen of Grindr users will be able to chat with each other so they can offer a “robust view” of a match before the user decides to meet in person. “Bot-to-bot conversation not only saves the humans time, it might also spot dating deal-breakers early on,” he told WSJ.