Types (Niche)

Once upon a time, we dated by meeting someone at a bar or through friends. Then we graduated to speed dating. Then online dating. Then mobile dating.

It's been a long, strange road – filled with stigma and scandals and, yes, success stories too – and it's about to get even stranger. Now that online dating is old news, and dating apps have been tried by pretty much everyone with a smartphone, we're ready to tackle a new frontier.

That new frontier is “wearables.” For those unfamiliar with the buzzword-y term, wearables are miniature electronic devices that are, as the name states, wearable. Think smartwatches and fitness trackers. These devices integrate with the user until they practically become a prosthetic, and can be used an extension of the wearer's mind and/or body.

Welcome to the future. It sounds like a gadget from a sci-fi flick, but it's happening now. Towards the end of last year, Match.com launched its first wearable app to be used with Android smartwatches. The app is designed to make it even easier for singles to date on the go by focusing on quick, easy to view features. The list includes:

• Messaging: Notifications for all winks and messages are sent straight to your Android wearable. To reply, simply swipe to read an incoming message and respond using the app's voice command feature.
• Daily Matches: Daily Matches appear first thing each morning. Swipe to view their full profile, then rate each match Yes or No.
• Location Functionality: Since mobility is the point, the app locates singles in the area to find matches nearby. When one appears, it's easy to tap, speak, and send a message.

Match.com isn't the only one exploring the brave new world of wearables. Lunar, a San Francisco-based design studio, created jewelry-like devices to help wearers overcome dating anxiety. One is a pendant that gathers information from your social networks, Netflix habits, iTunes playlists and more, then vibrates when there is a compatible partner in the vicinity.

And let's not forget about Google Glass. Similar wearables are bound to follow, and no doubt they too will change the way we go about meeting and mating.

Newsweek has speculated about what else we might have to look forward to on the wearables front, and it's a fascinating mix of cool and crazy. They predict a biological approach to dating, in which your body's signals are used to register responses to your dates.

“There will be contact lenses and ear inserts,” Newsweek writes, “all capable of measuring our pulses, our body temperature and other physiological reactions to determine whether or not we are attracted to someone. Those signals will be fed into the dating sites, with their databases and algorithms, all the better to help us find true love.”

And after that? Well, microchips, naturally, and the transition “from humans to cyborgs” will be complete.

For more information on the dating service please read our Match.com review.

A recent article in The New York Times highlighted the increased popularity of dating apps, and how one in particular – Tinder – has changed the online dating game.

The proof is in the numbers. According to the most recent Pew study, 11% of American adults have used an online dating site or app. Back in 2005 when dating sites were becoming more popular, 44% of Americans felt this was a good way to meet people. But in 2013, thanks to dating apps like Tinder, 59% agree that online dating is a good way to meet.

Tinder claims it matches more than 12 million people per day, and processes more than a billion matches daily as well. This has sparked a surge of dating apps to flood the market, some of which have succeeded in growing a steady user base based on differentiating themselves from the so-called "hook-up app" (although utilizing the same Facebook profile-validation system). Hinge and Coffee Meets Bagel limit the number of matches per day, forcing users to consider a match rather than mindlessly swiping left and right. The League markets its clientele – upscale and educated – to attract new users. And apps like LuLu and Bumble are female-centric, allowing the women to call the shots on which guys can message them – as well as how their dates rate according to other female daters.

The New York Times article suggests that Tinder's success might have caused some traditionally successful online dating sites such as Match.com to put more research and development into their mobile apps. But essentially, it was only a matter of time before smartphones – which are now used to access everything from email to Facebook to TV shows at any time, from anywhere – would be a good way to meet potential dates. After all, our phones are so much more accessible than our laptops. (Plus, Tinder’s game-like interface is much more fun, compared to slogging through endless questions and profile descriptions on an online dating site.)

Amarnath Thombre, president of Match.com in North America, says there has been a 35 percent increase in the people who use the Match app each month, and a 109 percent increase in the number of people who use only the app to log in to their Match account every month.

For now, daters seem to be choosing convenience over everything else – which might not be a bad idea. Dating apps help people get to the meetings and messages with their matches a lot more quickly than the algorithm process touted by traditional dating sites. But are daters wasting more time because filters aren’t in place?

One thing is for sure: dating apps are here to stay, until something more convenient comes along.

If you’re a woman looking for a date, you might have better luck on dating apps than the guys. According to a new report from GlobalWebIndex, there are nearly 91 million people around the world using dating apps, but two-thirds of these users are men. The market skews younger, too – 70% of users are between 16 and 34.

While dating apps are certainly hot right now, they are only making a dent in terms of overall popularity in the online market. The report also states that 6% of Internet users use a location-based dating app, which puts the category behind niches like augmented reality (108 million monthly users), as well as games and social networking with 655 million and 582 million respectively.

Tinder might be the most popular dating app among Westerners with $1 billion valuation this year according to the report, but Chinese dating app Momo seems to be doing three times better with a $3 billion valuation as of 2015. Momo claims that they have 60 million active monthly users compared to Tinder, who projects 40 million users by April of this year. Of those 60 million Momo users, 25 million are in China, but the rest are across the globe in places like the United Arab Emirates, Phillippines, Thailand and India.

But what about the valuations? Considering most of these apps are free to download and use, how is it that they can be worth so much?

The report notes this discrepancy, too. Despite the large pool of dating app users, only one fifth of users have opted to pay for premium services. This research comes as Tinder is rolling out its new paid premium service, Tinder Plus. The initial roll-out of Tinder Plus in the U.K. was not received well, and in fact caused people with the free version of the app to downgrade its overall score in the app market to 1.5 stars. (In rolling out the new features, Tinder had also curbed some of the existing features of its free app – including limiting the number of matches a user could get per day.) Momo has only signed up two million for its paid service.

While other competitors aim to find their place in the market – offering more features, options and quality to the large and growing pool of dating app users - it seems that making money could still be elusive. Most apps draw users in by offering a free product, and then rolling out a paid “premium” service, but the people aren’t really responding. At least not as much as they need to for sustainable growth. The report points out that generating ad-based revenue is still a viable alternative, even if it means in-app advertising to maintain a free service.

We’ll see what the major dating app companies do next.

Call me crazy, but part of me says this is just basic common sense. If a company gives you a device, it's for work. It's not for surfing BuzzFeed, uploading pictures of your cat to Instagram, or looking for Saturday night plans on a dating app.

But let's get real. That's an idealized world we don't live in. If someone gives us a device, we're going to do whatever we want on it (but maybe in Incognito mode). That goes for the listicles, the cat snaps, and the dating apps.

You may think it's no big deal, as long as your boss isn't looking over your shoulder, but a new study by IBM may change your mind. The study found that employees who use dating apps on their company’s smartphone or tablet risk exposing themselves to major security threats. We're talking hacking, spying, data theft – all kinds of big scary things you don't want to have to explain to your supervisor.

Researchers analyzed 41 dating applications and found that 60% were potentially vulnerable to cyberattacks that put personal or corporate data at risk. Many apps have access to additional features on mobile devices, such as the camera, microphone, storage, GPS location and mobile wallet billing information. IBM also found that nearly 50% of the organizations they reviewed had at least one popular dating app installed on mobile devices used to access business information.

Hello, hacker jackpot.

The potential vulnerabilities include:

• Downloading malware onto your device through your dating app
• GPS location information being used to track your movements
• Your credit card numbers being stolen through the app
• Remote control of your phone's camera or microphone
• Hijacking the content or images of your dating profile

Using your personal phone for work purposes (known as “bring your own device” or BYOD) can also pose a problem. “The trouble with BYOD is that, if not managed properly, the organizations might be leaking sensitive corporate data via employee-owned devices,” the report said.

To protect yourself against dating app hacks, avoid divulging too much info in public on your profile. Be sure to check an app's permissions before you download it, so you know what it has access to. Use unique passwords for every account you have, and only connect trusted Wi-Fi networks.

Finally, always apply the latest updates to your apps and device when they become available. This will fix any bugs that have been identified in your device and applications, resulting in a more secure experience.

With each new dating app that joins the crowded market comes new promises to revolutionize dating. Every app swears it solves the problems of its predecessors, but one by one they all fall short.

We're patiently (or not so) waiting for the real developers to invent the perfect app, but in the meantime, Mic has taken a stab at solving one of the 21^st century's biggest problems. They've invented a Super App – one app to rule them all.

According to Mic, if one app could solve all the worst parts of online dating, it would need to:

1. Filter out lame opening messages. The Super App would have a built in communications rater so you never have to see another one-word message again. Bristlr, a new social network for bearded men, is currently testing a similar feature. Users can rate the quality of the messages they receive and those who are consistently rated highly get a badge on their profile.
2. Block copy-pasted messages. Everyone has either received a copy-pasted message or been guilty of sending one. Either way, it's not cool. Bristlr is also trying to solve this problem, by automatically sending a notification when a message you've received has been sent verbatim to other people.
3. Prevent men from overwhelming women with unwanted advances. Who hasn't, at least once, thought “I could really use a stalker blocker?” A lot of women are turned off by online dating because they feel overwhelmed by the number of unwanted (and sometimes downright creepy) messages they receive. Tinder changed the game when it limited messaging to people who had mutually indicated interest in each other. It doesn't eliminate the issue completely, but it's certainly a step in the right direction.
4. Make sure there's something else you're judged on besides looks. Deep down, we know we're all guilty of making snap judgments based on appearance. Enter dating app Talk or Not, which lets users slowly reveal pieces of their profile photo as their conversation with someone progresses. Looks factor into the process eventually, but not before charm, intelligence, and humor.
5. Weed out the creepers trolling for sex. It's not that there's anything wrong with casual sex between consenting adults, it's just that it gets frustrating to only be approached for sex if you're looking for something more. Mic suggests “A feature that would prominently note that the user in question is looking for a relationship versus strictly hoping to score,” in order to “prevent misunderstandings early on.”
6. Send you matches directly so you don't waste hours swiping though terrible profiles. Because no one wants carpal tunnel. The Super App would take the Coffee Meets Bagel approach and send matches so you don't have to waste time searching and swiping.
7. Keep your profile hidden from people you don't want seeing it. Family, exes, co-workers – none of those people need to know what you're up to online. The League allows users to sync LinkedIn with the app so that you never have to worry about someone unwanted peeping your profile.

Let us know what you'd like to see in the perfect dating app, and for more of Mic's suggestions see the original post.

Coffee Meets Bagel has been overshadowed by its more aggressive competitors (like Tinder), but lately has emerged as a serious, lasting contender in the dating app space. The company is showing its app has real growth potential by securing $7.8 million in a Series A financing round led by existing investor DCM Ventures. Quest Ventures and Azure Capital also participated in the round.

This round of financing is followed by the steadily growing success of an app whose founders like to take things slowly, testing what works in each market (starting with its launch in 2012 to New York and Boston markets) before moving on to the next. Recently, the company expanded from an iPhone-only app to include an Android app as well, opening markets further.

Coffee Meets Bagel sets itself apart by making the dating app experience feel more personal. People are connected through their social networks – through mutual friends on Facebook, for instance – so there is a level of assurance that you can avoid the scammers and fake profiles. Also, CMB users receive only one match per day, avoiding the whole Tinder hook-up potential. Each day, users have 24 hours to message their match, and then a week to set up a date before they vanish into the ethers. The point is to keep the conversation going, instead of just letting messages and matches accumulate while users see who else is out there.

While the design is game-like (you can get “coffee beans” by providing information or referring friends to the service, which in turn can be used to access additional features, like the ability to see who your mutual friends are, or to rekindle the flame with a match you neglected to message in time.) The company also teamed up in certain cities with local businesses to offer discounts to places you could go for a first date, although the growth of the app nation-wide has prevented them from doing this in more than a few major cities.

The additional funding will pay for engineers and developers to help build the core business so it can handle the projected growth in users. While the company hasn’t publicly shared their subscriber figures lately, the interest from investors is telling.

CMB has been compared to dating app Hinge and Are You Interested, which also focus on matches based on mutual social media connections.

The additional financing follows the company’s earlier participation in the TV series “Shark Tank,” where the founders proposed their business plans to celebrity investors in the hopes of gaining additional funding. While they didn’t get it from the TV show’s panel of judges, they have been successful in raising the funds elsewhere.