Match Group

As one of the only female CEOs of a publicly-traded tech company, Match Group CEO Mandy Ginsberg was certain to make headlines. But even Ginsberg herself could not have predicted how dramatic her first year in the role would be.

In March, the company filed a patent infringement lawsuit against competitor Bumble in Texas. The suit accused Bumble of stealing trade secrets and infringing on two patents held by Tinder, a Match Group-owned company. Bumble responded with an acerbic full page ad in the New York Times admonishing Match Group for its “scare tactics,” “endless games”, and the “assumption that a baseless lawsuit would intimidate [Bumble].”

The story blew up, quickly becoming the legal scandal heard round the dating world. It was only Ginsberg’s second month as CEO.

Summer: the season of swimsuits, sunscreen, ice cream, state fairs, outdoor movies, park picnics, umbrella drinks, bonfires, BBQ, trashy beach reads, and road trips.

This year, Match.com celebrated summer by teaming up with travel planning platform Roadtrippers for a one-of-a-kind survey on the perks, perils, and pet peeves of road tripping with a romantic partner. Over 1,500 singles shared their insights on making it work (and the turn-offs that guarantee your automotive adventure will be a wreck).

Nearly a third of singles (33%) agree that a road trip is a very significant milestone in a new relationship. But not all singles take it so seriously - an impressive 60% think it’s ok to attempt a road trip after just one month of dating a new partner.

Tinder swiping sessions are more secure than ever and there’s an unlikely hero to thank: 69-year-old U.S. Senator Rob Wyden.

Wyden made news earlier this year when he released a letter demanding that Tinder resolve security issues exposed by a report from Checkmarx, a Tel Aviv-based security firm. Months later, Tinder has responded with good news for both singles and the senator, revealing recent changes to the app’s handling of images and swipe data that make it harder for sensitive information to fall into criminal hands.

Checkmarx noted two “disturbing vulnerabilities” in its original report, dated January 23, 2018:

Dating app Hinge has launched a new feature called “Most Compatible” which uses machine learning to generate better matches for its users.

Most Compatible employs the Nobel prize-winning Gale-Shapley algorithm to find the most likely matches, also known as SMP or “Stable Marriage Problem.” It works like this: groups of people are pooled together, and based on their individual likes and passes (including which parts of profiles they liked or didn’t like), the pool is narrowed down so that each person is matched with one other person from the pool who seems most compatible, until everyone in the pool is matched. According to website The Verge, the AI technology “breaks people down based on who has liked them,” then tries to find patterns in the likes. If one person likes another person, then they might like another based on what the user liked about the first person.

Hinge will then recommend this “most compatible” match (you and your match will both receive the same recommendation of each other on the same day), and you will have 24 hours to message each other before the match expires. This match will appear at the top of your Discover page each day.

The singles cruise is getting a millennial-friendly makeover this August, thanks to a new partnership between up-and-coming cruise operator U by Uniworld and exclusive dating app The League.

"A lot of our users on the app are saying that they're really sick of the first date," said Brianna Haag, The League's head of events and partnerships. "People want different types of experiences. They don't want the interview plus cocktail at a bar."

The League’s answer to bar fatigue is a weeklong adventure that will take place along France's Seine River. The itinerary includes stops at Rouen, Honfleur, Vernon and Paris, with excursions like biking along the Seine and touring the Palace of Versailles. While aboard the ship, guests can experience a spa, silent discos, farm-to-table cuisine, wine tastings and (we assume) plenty of opportunities to live out their sexy sailor fantasies.

Dating app Tinder announced the rollout of a new feature called Tinder Loops, which allows users to create looping GIFs for their profiles.

Tinder users can upload short videos (two seconds in length) to their profiles so they can “show more personality” than with photos alone, according to Tinder. When the company tested the feature earlier this year in Japan, Tech Crunch noted that people who added the Loops feature to their profiles were 10% more likely to receive a right swipe.

The feature also seems to increase the likelihood that people will communicate over the app. Tech Crunch also reported that users testing the feature saw their average conversation length increase by 20%.