Spark Networks has announced that its American Depositary Shares expect to begin trading on the OTCQX Best Market under the ticker symbol LOVLY on September 8, 2023. The brand is the parent company of dating apps Zoosk, EliteSingles, Christian Mingle, and more.
Spark Networks announced that these shares will no longer be traded on the NASDAQ as of today.
OTCQX is the top tier of three markets organised by OTC Markets Group Inc. The market specialises in trading over-the-counter securities and is designed for established, investor-focused U.S. and international companies.
Investors can find current market information and real-time quotes for the Company on www.otcmarkets.com
Global Dating Insights reported in May that Spark Networks would be closing its Berlin offices and laying off around 200 full-time employees. In its recent Q2 financial report, the company’s Interim CEO highlighted that it would be looking to outsource a significant portion of its technology and operations.
A survey of 3,100 Americans has revealed new insights about distracted dating. Almost 63% of respondents said that they would not go on a second date with someone who was distracted on their first meeting.
65% of those surveyed said that they have responded to a text message during a date. Furthermore 7% of respondents said that they have even opened a dating app while on a date.
Women are 24.1% less likely than men to give distracted individuals another chance, with women 9% more likely to be annoyed when their date glances at their phone.
The length of the relationship plays a big factor in how respondents feel about dating distractions. 83% of those surveyed said that they’re more likely to be distracted on a date with a long term partner, compared to on a first date.
If a relationship had been going for less than a year, 24.4% of respondents said they would follow the score of their favourite sports team while on a date. However, with relationships of 10+ years, that number rises to 34% of respondents.
On a national scale, Texans are the most inattentive daters, checking their phones on average four times during a date. Meanwhile daters in Maryland will pay the most attention on a date, with 39% saying they would put their phones on ‘do not disturb’.
New dating app RAW is encouraging users to share stories of heartache on TikTok, rewarding posts with access to its Premium version. The platform is on a mission to mend 100 broken hearts every week, one story at a time.
Heartbreak is often romanticized in movies, RAW highlights. In reality, these painful experiences are unpleasant and “unfiltered”. Ultimately though, heartache is part of the truth and journey of romance.
RAW is “constantly encouraging our users to share realistic and unfiltered photos of themselves and their everyday life. Otherwise, we’re all just missing out on truthfulness and immediacy of life, and losing ourselves in the process”, says Marina Anderson, co-founder of RAW.
To help support singles who are experiencing heartache, the platform is encouraging people to share their stories on TikTok. These stories will then be shared, with other singles invited to rate the “broken heart” scale in the comments.
Based on these ratings, RAW will reward singles accordingly with access to its Premium version. The user with the most touching story of heartbreak will receive a dream date experience paid for by the app.
“Our mission is to mend 100 broken hearts every week, one story at a time,” says Anderson. “We believe that by sharing our experiences, supporting one another, and staying true to ourselves, we can transcend the pain of heartbreak and embrace the possibilities of love once again”.
RAW requires users to take a new photo everyday using their device’s two cameras. The time of the posting changes daily, keeping users on their toes and creating spontaneity.
Hello Group, a leading mobile social and entertainment platform in China, has reported increased revenues for Q2 of 2023. Momo, one of its popular dating app platforms, has seen revenue growth despite a decrease to its total paying users.
Across the board, Hello Group’s total net revenues were RMB3,137.7 million (US$432.7 million) in Q2 of 2023, an increase of 0.9% from the same period last year.
For the Momo segment of its earnings, the company shared that revenues rose to RMB2,816.6 million (US$388.4 million) in the second quarter of 2023, up from RMB2,779.5 million in Q2 2022.
This increase came as a result of an “increase in net revenues from live video service and the new standalone apps”, Hello Group highlighted. Revenues rose despite the platform losing 700,000 paying users over the past 12 months, taking the current total to 7.9 million.
Hello Group also operates the dating app Tantan, which saw paying users decrease by 600,000 and monthly active users decrease by 7.5 million, since this period last year.
The company’s current and preliminary views on the market and operational conditions mean that it predicts a total net revenue decrease of 10.3% to 7.2% year over year in Q3 of 2023.
Dutch dating app Breeze harnesses AI to suggest singles to one another. However, the platform realised that its algorithm was putting people with a darker skin colour at a disadvantage. They’ve now taken the first step to putting it right.
Thomas Crul, a matchmaking researcher and data analyst at Breeze, explained the series of events in a recent LinkedIn post.
“At Breeze…I discovered a possible problem within our matchmaking system: in short, we suspect that the learning algorithm reinforces human prejudices, putting users of non-Dutch backgrounds at a disadvantage”, he shared.
“Because of the seriousness and sensitivity of this possible problem”, the platform took this issue to the Netherlands Institute for Human Rights. Breeze wanted to hear the organisation’s perspective on how it should respond.
The situation is complicated as “implementing levelling measures” to reduce discriminatory outcomes could be seen as a “preferential policy” that is not allowed, Crul highlighted.
“Measures that Breeze must take to prevent indirect discrimination are not regarded by the Board as a form of preferential policy. This would not give users a privileged position, but would only compensate them for a threat of subordination. After all, users with a dark skin color or non-Dutch origin would then not be introduced relatively more often, but “only” as often as the other users.”
Now that this first step has been completed, the next question is how can the algorithm be fixed? Both the Institute and Crul highlight that remediating any discrimination would require knowing personal details about the user’s background, opening up a GDPR can of worms.
The situation is no doubt complicated and full of regulatory questions. While we wait to see how Breeze continues to address this issue, it is clear that they have done the right thing by flagging up its own discriminatory algorithms and beginning the journey to more equitable outcomes.
Thomas Crul shares that “if you as a reader have expertise and / or experience on these topics and would like to think along with us about a solution, please contact me!”. You can find his LinkedIn profile here.
SoulMatcher, a new dating app that specialises in psychological-based matchmaking, has launched on the Google Play Store. Now available to Android-powered devices, the brand looks to continue its mission to bring together compatible singles.
Natalia Sergovantseva, Founder of SoulMatcher, shared that the expansion of the platform’s reach will further provide opportunities for “the convergence of innovation and psychology firsthand”.
The platform looks to match users who are mentally compatible with one another, encouraging users to take an in-app psychological test. This can determine levels of empathy or narcissism, for example, which then plays a key role in the viability of relationships.
Another unique aspect of the platform is the ability to evaluate friends and matches, allowing for P2P ratings amongst users. For example, users can conduct a peer assessment where they evaluate the personality traits of others, with the score being aggregated together.
Users on dating app Badoo are now encouraged to share what their texting habits are. The platform looks to promote openness about ‘textpectations’, as a survey showed 59% of UK singles agree it would be helpful to know someone’s messaging style upfront.
The key to lasting relationships is often said to be communication, so understanding how a potential partner prefers to communicate via text can be very important to some. Badoo’s research found 70% of singles agree that mismatched messaging styles can have a negative impact on a potential connection.
To address this issue, Badoo partnered with sex & relationship therapist Charlene Douglas to craft a new prompt for user profiles. Singles will now be able to display their ‘texting love languages’, highlighting how they prefer to interact with others.
These 5 texting love languages are:
Texts of Affirmation – Text me all day: This person loves to message all-day, everyday
Quality Texter – I need all the detail: This person is all about detailed, thought-through messages
Receiving GIFs – Emojis over essays: This person will likely only send an emoji or a reaction, but it doesn’t mean they don’t like you!
Texts of Service – Let’s make plans: This person messages for practical reasons only, for example to arrange a date
Light-touch – I’d rather chat IRL: This person isn’t great with messaging, and prefers to communicate IRL
The research from Badoo found that 60% of respondents have experienced doubts or ended a conversation because they were over analysing the meaning behind someone’s messaging style.
“It’s important to get to know someone’s messaging style before interpreting a delayed reply, lack of response or excited reply as a sign that they’re either not interested in you, or a bit ‘too much’”, explained Charlene Douglas.
“I know it’s easier said than done, so I’d always recommend discussing your ‘textpectations’ with a new connection, and to understand theirs, as you could miss out on forming a relationship with a fantastic person due to a simple misunderstanding. And no one wants that!”
“Badoo’s new profile feature makes this all the more easy, so I’d encourage singles to give it a try and set their “textpectations”, and enjoy the confidence and clarity that it’ll bring to future connections”, she concluded.
Remy Le Fèvre, Senior Director Global Marketing and Communications, at Badoo, added “Mismatched messaging styles shouldn’t put a stop to blossoming connections. Messaging someone is something we do everyday; so in dating, it should feel easy and straightforward”.
“That’s why Badoo members can now add ‘What’s your texting love language?’ question to their profiles, to help people set their “texpectations” and make clear from the off how they like to communicate and be communicated with. At Badoo, we’re committed to building confidence amongst our community , and we’re excited to see how this new feature will support people to create great, meaningful connections from the start”, he shared.
In this episode of The GDI Podcast, we’re delighted to be joined by Lily Primamore and Brian Yurachek, the Co-Founders of SPILT.
They tell Senior Reporter Sean Nolan about how the dating platform helps foster immersive and personalised Virtual Reality spaces, where users can connect and explore their desires.
Lily and Brian share how they plan to acquire users through partnerships with art influencers, as well as releasing innovative merch.
The GDI Podcast is sponsored by RealMe. RealMe can provide users instant access to background information, helping more people make genuine connections online, and off.
To learn how they can integrate seamlessly into your app, log on to therealme.com/dating and request a demo today.
Coffee Meets Bagel is back online after a multi-day outage that affected the entire platform. It has explained that the outage was the work of an outside actor that maliciously deleted company data and files.
In a recent blog post the dating platform’s Co-Founder and Chief Dating Officer, Dawoon Kang, shared new details about the outage.
She said Coffee Meets Bagel “determined that the outage was the result of an outside actor who maliciously deleted company data and files. We quickly re-established a secure environment for our technology team to restore our production services and notified law enforcement about this incident”.
Some users were concerned that their passport details and other sensitive information were leaked during the incident. However Coffee Meets Bagel explained that it doesn’t store this information as third-party vendors are responsible for those areas.
In light of this incident, Kang shared that the organisation is conducting a thorough investigation and is working to further enhance its cybersecurity protections.
To help ease the concerns of users who were impacted by the outage, the platform shared its plans for compensating and supporting its singles.
If any chats were set to expire during the outage period, Coffee Meets Bagel has automatically extended them by 7 days. Furthermore, subscribers will receive a 14 day extension to their subscription period, free of charge.
Users who were active in the 14 days leading up to the outage will receive 1,000 free beans, the platform’s in-app currency.
Schmooze, the meme-based dating app, has launched in India. Backed by the same investors as Hinge and Snapchat, the platform uses humour and authenticity to help form connections.
Started by alumni from Stanford University, the platform uses AI to analyse how users interact with different memes. From there, this algorithm can predict characteristics about users, and consequently who they would be compatible with.
“We harnessed AI to extract what the language of memes says about people’s preferences to help them laugh their way to love. Schmooze isn’t just about matching; it’s about providing a space where humour becomes the bridge to forging meaningful relationships,” said Vidya Madhavan, co-founder of Schmooze.
Since its inception, the platform has overseen 3.5 million matches and 50 million meme swipes. It was previously only available in the U.S, but now expands to India.
