Match Group

Tinder plans to launch a new, scaled-down version of the app called Tinder Lite.

According to Tech Crunch, the new app is catering to markets where bandwidth, data usage and storage space have all been challenging, which means customers to pay a premium for access to mobile data. Some of the regions Tinder is targeting include India and Southeast Asia, where parent company Match Group has appointed three new executives and dedicated more resources to growing its brands.

Tinder Lite was initially mentioned in an investor call according to Tech Crunch. However, Match Group CEO Mandy Ginsberg shared few details about the launch or the app. There was no specific date mentioned, and no details about what features would be removed, but likely the trademark swiping and matching would remain as key elements of the Tinder Lite experience.

Match Group recently paid $9 million in stock awards to Tinder employees, thanks to the stellar growth of its most valuable dating app. But this good news could sour for the online dating giant if it helps former Tinder execs win their lawsuit, led by Tinder’s co-founder Sean Rad.

Rad and other former Tinder employees filed a lawsuit against Match Group last year, claiming it devalued Tinder stock options to avoid paying them billions in stock. The new hefty $9.4 million payout to current Tinder employees, based on the popular dating app’s performance over the last year, could be an indication that Match Group might have undervalued Tinder, as Rad argues in the lawsuit.

Longtime denizens of the online dating world are marking the loss of an institution. With neither fanfare nor explanation, Plenty of Fish has announced that it has shuttered its forums. Visitors to the forum page are now greeted with a terse message announcing the shutdown:

“To focus on better serving our members, we've decided to shut down the POF forums. While regular posting is now disabled, you can continue to view all threads until the end of June 2019. Event Hosts can still create and promote events while we work on a new and improved event creation service for you.”

The POF forums were an active destination for digital daters for 15 years. Users created more than 10 million posts before the closure, covering a broad spectrum of topics including dating, love, relationships, marriage, parenting and breakups. The forums proved equally popular for general discussions that ran the gamut from cooking and creative writing, to sports and science, to travel and humor, to music and philosophy.

Tinder has added another buzzy feature to attract younger singles to its platform. “Festival Mode” is a badge that users can add to their profiles when they plan to attend a specific music festival, so that they can connect with other attendees.

When people are swiping quickly through the app, the badge will be easier to spot, according to Tech Crunch. The idea is that festival-goers increase their chances of matching with someone who will be there along with them, and hopefully make more in-person connections. The badges will be available beginning three weeks before each event.

The butcher, the baker, the candlestick maker - who would fare best on a dating app? A recent study conducted by The Inner Circle analyzed the occupations of 5,000 popular users based in Los Angeles, New York, London, Amsterdam, Paris, Sydney, and Toronto to discover which jobs are most likely to attract potential mates. The findings suggest men and women don’t always seek the same qualities in a match, and that including certain job titles in your profile could significantly boost your desirability.

Women in finance and medicine scored major points across continents. In London, New York and Toronto, female members working in the financial sector received the most right swipes. Women in the medical profession came out on top in Amsterdam in Los Angeles. Ladies in Paris and Sydney proved to be outliers. France’s notoriously stylish capital preferred women working in the fashion industry, while Sydney singles favored women in marketing roles. Other popular industries for women included entertainment, travel, hospitality, law and consulting.

U.S. Presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg is making history as the first candidate to have met his spouse on a dating app. The young millennial mayor of South Bend, Indiana and rising star in the sea of Democratic hopefuls disclosed that he and his husband met on Hinge.

In a profile in The New York Times in 2018, Buttegieg’s husband Chasten Glezman said he downloaded Hinge because he “wanted a platform where you’re not necessarily inundated with hookup culture and sex.” Hinge has marketed itself as a dating app for more serious daters since its inception, and has recently doubled down on this effort with a redesign aimed at helping users find relationships so they can delete the app.