General News

FirstMet has Closed

We first notice that we could not access the FirstMet website at the beginning of September (the last time we accessed FirstMet was on August 31, 2021). Figuring it was just under maintenance we didn't think to much of it. We then checked again a few days later and it was still down. A quick search online did not find any mention of the problem. The FirstMet dating apps where also still available on the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store to be downloaded and installed.

Fast forward 2 weeks and the website is still down and the apps are no where to be found on the phone app stores. Further searches online did not reveal any additional information. The company which currently owns FirstMet, "The Dating Company LLC", does not have a website so we have no way to reach out to someone to find out any more information.

Since it has been over 2 weeks and everything related to FirstMet is inaccessible the only thing we can deduce is that the service has gone out of business and closed for good. Therefore we will update our FirstMet review indicating its closed status.

Tinder CEO Jim Lanzone

Tinder CEO Jim Lanzone said the company is focused on more “immersive” experiences to appeal to a growing, younger Gen Z user base, including creating more original content for its platform. (note: a September 11, 2021 announcement stated as of September 27, Jim Lanzone will be the new CEO at Yahoo!)

Lanzone sat down with entertainment industry magazine Variety to explain why the company invested in its original interactive series Swipe Night, and how the response to it is helping shape the company’s focus moving forward. 

Gen Z users are looking for more “immersive” experiences, as Lanzone told Variety, and not just scrolling and swiping through profiles. He hinted at the company’s shift towards more of an entertainment platform to engage these young daters. 

The Vatican and Catholic Churches in the U.S. are bracing for more of its clergy members to be outed for using gay dating app Grindr.

The Pillar published a report that based on “legally obtained” data there seem to be “at least 16 mobile devices [that] emitted signals from the hookup app Grindr on at least four days between March to October 2018 within the non-public areas of the Vatican City State, while 16 other devices showed use of other location-based hookup or dating apps, both heterosexual and homosexual, on four or more days in the same time period.”

The Pillar maintains that this information was obtained through commercially available app signal data, not through hacking, and that it pulled data from rectories and other clerical housing from 2018 through 2020.

Dating app Bumble is taking another step to address concerns of abuse and harassment on its female-friendly platform: offering trauma services for those who need help.

The company partnered with remote trauma support site Bloom, operated by non-profit Chayn in the U.K., to offer free therapeutic services to users, according to Mashable. Bloom provides online courses on mental health topics for survivors of sexual assault and harassment, such as managing anxiety.

In addition to Bloom’s online courses, Bumble users can receive up to six therapy sessions and can chat online with therapists when they need. Chayn’s therapists are trained in sexual assault and trauma therapy, and some are survivors themselves, according to Mashable. 

Tinder announced that it will roll out its ID verification system worldwide so users can verify their ages. This follows the app’s photo verification feature to address the issue of eliminating fake profiles propagating the app.

ID verification will be prominently displayed on a user’s profile, similar to the blue checkmark currently used for a verified photo, according to Tech Crunch.

Tinder began beta testing ID verification regionally in 2019 and said it will be rolling it out worldwide over the next few quarters. In most countries the service will be voluntary, at least for now, to address the challenge of underage people using the app. However, in places like Japan where it’s against the law for people under 18 to use dating apps, verifying ages will be mandatory. The feature will be free to use.

Tinder released a new study of dating app users in India, finding that their attitudes and behavior are changing, particularly in the last year as people grappled with dating during a pandemic. The company found that users engaged with each other over the app 32 percent longer compared to this time last year, and nearly half had video chatted with a match.

The company’s Future of Dating report also found that individual engagement on its app had increased – with swipes up 11 percent and matches up 42 percent per user over the same period.

The study points out that many of India’s dating app users are younger and aren’t necessarily looking for anything serious, a shift from the traditional marriage-focused dating culture. In fact, 62 percent of respondents said they wanted to “see where things go” when it comes to meeting new people and weren’t comfortable conforming to society’s expectations of dating.