Dating Services

Dating app Snack is marketing itself to a new generation of daters and is building excitement with $3.5 million in funding, according to Tech Crunch.

The app is modeled after TikTok and Instagram, placing short form video as the centerpiece rather than profile pictures. Instead of swiping, each user has a feed they can scroll through to see what other users have posted. When you like a video, you are able to comment, and if two users like each other’s videos, then DMs open up for them to message over the app.

Match Group shared its fourth quarter earnings this week, offering investors some cautious optimism on what to expect in 2021. 

Last year the company saw record highs in new users and activity, but faced with economic recessions and a global pandemic, revenue growth remained uncertain. The company delivered slightly better than expected results for the last quarter of 2020, with revenue of $651.4 million for the quarter, up from $547.2 million. Analysts had been projecting $649 million according to Market Watch. Match Group also reported net income of $140.6 million, up from $94.7 million this time last year. 

Image: Bumble

Female-forward dating app Bumble said it will ban users who engage in body-shaming on the app.

The company said that it’s employing an algorithm that identifies and flags users engaging in derogatory language that is “fatphobic, racist, or homophobic,” according to The Guardian. Once these accounts are flagged, moderators will analyze the conversation to determine whether the user violated the new policy. If they are determined to have used inappropriate language, they will receive a warning, and if they engaged repeatedly in such language or hateful rhetoric, they will be banned.

Dating app S’More announced that it raised $2.1 million in VC funding, and plans to expand its team and create original content for digital platforms and TV networks.

According to Tech Crunch, the app has seen a boon in subscribers since the pandemic hit. S’More stands for “something more,” advertising that its platform for more serious daters. Studies conducted in the past few months show that COVID-19 has changed attitudes towards online dating, and that singles are now looking for relationships rather than hookups and taking their time by virtual dating before agreeing to meet in person. 

S’More has capitalized on this trend. The company just launched a redesign in January including a virtual chat feature which, similar to its profile photos, blurs the screen for participants until you get to know each other. (The more you talk, the clearer your date’s image becomes.) The app also added real-time conversation prompts and the ability for its users to pay to promote their own profiles.

Bumble Founder and CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd became a billionaire this week after Bumble made its stock market debut on February 10^th.

The company offered shares initially at $43 a piece (up from its proposed initial amount of $28 to $30 per share), valuing the female-focused dating app conglomerate at over $8 billion. Shares surged immediately, trading at more than $76 each, making the firm worth $13 billion by the end of the day, according to CNN.

Bumble is one of the most high-profile IPOs in the tech industry this year, and its 31 year-old founder is an anomaly among tech CEOs as CNN points out – she doesn’t come from a STEM background, she didn’t raise billions in venture capital, but now she is a young female billionaire.

Recipient of Gold
Tinder

Recipient of Silver
POF

Recipient of Bronze
eHarmony

This past year has been an interesting one from a dating perspective thanks to the pandemic that took hold of the world and the lock downs and social distancing that resulted from it. Most of the popular dating services found an increase in visitors especially during lockdown when people were forced to stay home. Seeing this trend, dating services that did not have a video feature rushed to get one added to their service to ensure daters had a way to interact virtually through live video streaming since meeting in real life was out. The funny thing with this is most services that have been around for the past 5 years probably had implemented video dating at one point, but had removed it by 2020 due to members not using it. While a lot of dating services did see increase numbers of visitors that did not necessarily mean increased revenue since online daters are looking to spend less during these uncertain times.

Right on schedule this year the 2021 Dating Sites Reviews Single's Choice Award poll went online October 1^st, 2020 and closed for voting on December 31^st, 2020. In 3 months, 334 visitors took time and cast their vote in the poll. This is down about 35% when compared to last year. I think part the reason for this was singles had decided to stay with the popular dating options instead of looking for new services thanks to the pandemic. For 2021, the poll asked the following question: