The OPW/iDate Weekly News Summary.
- Attend iDate. http://www.internetdatingconference.com - Sep 16-17 in Cologne
- iDate Awards. http://idateawards.com - Nominations accepted until Oct 31
- Stay informed. http://www.onlinepersonalswatch.com

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:~ TOP ONLINE PERSONALS WATCH NEWS ITEMS, AND INTERVIEW ~:

eDarling - Lukas Brosseder
http://www.onlinepersonalswatch.com/new ... -gmbh.html

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Hinge Brings Its Romance Graph To More Cities

TECH CRUNCH - Aug 8 - The problem with Tinder is women don’t trust strangers, so matches don’t turn into meet-ups. Hinge uses the same hot-or-not style but only shows you trustable friends of friends based on its “romance graph”. That’s led to insane retention in D.C., upcoming funding, and now an expansion to New York City with plans for Boston and Philadelphia. The app is focused on young professionals and grad students. It’s got 30K total users with an average age of 27, and has made 200K matches. 85% of those who download it are still active a week later, and 75% are still active a month later. You can only join if you already have friends on the app. Hinge will look to monetize through premium subscriptions that give you more insight into who is checking you out, or put you in front of more potential dates.

http://www.onlinepersonalswatch.com/new ... ities.html


Government Matchmaking Events In South Korea

NY TIMES - Aug 6 - In South Korea, the Ministry of Health and Welfare began promoting the idea of dating parties in 2010. Under the enthusiastic leadership of its minister at the time, Cheon Jae-hee, it held four parties that year that brought together its workers and employees at local corporations. Since then, sponsorship of the parties has shifted mainly to ministry affiliates and local governments, which can win financial rewards for activities that promote marriage and childbirth. One government-financed agency, the Planned Population Federation of Korea, claims a different kind of victory: by hosting parties, it is working to undo its past success when it encouraged vasectomies as a booming South Korea feared being held back by population growth. Corporations, fearing critical shortages of workers in an aging society, have begun ending informal bans against office romances, with some now paying for dating services for their workers. In 2011, the average age of a first marriage for South Korean women hit 29.14, up from 24.8 in 1990; for men it jumped to 31.8 from 27.9 in 1990. The birthrate sunk to 1.15 children per woman, the lowest among the world’s most developed countries.

http://www.onlinepersonalswatch.com/new ... korea.html

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Dating sites make millions each year from running their casually oriented dating traffic to Fling. Email greg@globalpersonalsmedia.com for special treatment.
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Vacation Dating Makes Debut In Miami

MYPRGENIE - Aug 5 - VacationDating is a new concept to help singles meet new friends and find love while on vacation. The first 3-day event is being held at Alexander Ocean Suite Resort in South Beach (9/20/13 to 9/22/13). It is a specially coordinated weekend designed to cater to single professionals and includes speed dating, party bus, beauty services for women and VIP treatment in the night clubs. The three day singles event costs $2750.

http://www.onlinepersonalswatch.com/new ... miami.html


A Year Of Spam: The Twoo Experience

TECH CRUNCH - Aug 3 - Twoo's users have been complaining that they get unsolicited emails from the app, that the app messages all of their contacts without their understanding, and that it’s unclear how to delete their accounts. Twoo uses confusing tactics, from auto-selecting every address in your contacts book to making a “next” button that looks like it skips the email connect step but actually is just another “connect” button, to grow its user base. According to the site, Twoo has 15M active users.

http://www.onlinepersonalswatch.com/new ... ience.html

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Dating sites need to offer voice services to remain connected with their users...rather than disinheriting them when they want to speak on the phone - Mark Brooks

Spikko helps dating sites provide secure virtual phone numbers to their members and make money from the phone calls. Please email haim@spikko.com for more info.
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1Mind Launches Question-based Matchmaking Platform

THE NEXT WEB - Aug 2 - 1Mind is a newly launched social discovery startup. The company uses an algorithm to help users find new friends based on answers they’ve provided in a series of questions. 1Mind offers two modes: vote or discover. With vote, users can offer their opinion about certain questions. With the other mode, it will display users based on their likeness score. 1Mind says that likeness score is a combination of user's personality type, votes he/she made in the app, and Facebook profile data.

http://www.onlinepersonalswatch.com/new ... form-.html


Tinder App Sparks New Way To Seek Romance

USA TODAY - Aug 2 - Founded by University of South California graduates Sean Rad and Justin Mateen, Tinder focuses on the power of first impressions. The main thrill is the lack of rejection. As they swipe through profiles, users never know whether they've been rejected or just haven't come across another user's recommended feed yet, and none of the activity is ever posted to their Facebook account. Since its launch in Sep 2012, Mateen says Tinder has seen 100M matches and 7.5 billion profile ratings. "At first around 80% of our users were 18-24, now 67% are 18-24 and we are seeing more in the 25-34 range joining," Mateen said. Match.com has only 25% of users under 30.

http://www.onlinepersonalswatch.com/new ... mance.html

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Quickly set up and run your own dating site using Dating Factory white label solution available in 18 languages. For more information visit www.datingfactory.com.
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The Moral Obligation Of (Internet Dating) Companies To Make Money

HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL - RESEARCH & IDEAS - Aug 4 - Most of us tend not to think of capitalism as a moral system...it's one step removed from the law of the jungle. Self-interest explicitly delivers on certain moral goods for society. The social responsibility of business…is to increase its profits. Capitalism tends to be self-correcting. When the free market fails, the market itself steps in to correct the problem. If enough CEOs and lobbyists get together and say there is something not quite right about what we are doing, then we may be able to start changing norms.

http://www.onlinepersonalswatch.com/new ... money.html


Singles Searching For Love In Unexpected Places

OASIS DATING NETWORK - July 30 - 60% of people browse for dates while in bed, 25% search for dates on their lunch break, and 21% search for dates while on the toilet or in the bathroom, according to results of a national survey by the Oasis Dating Network, which runs leading Australian dating site Oasisactive.com.

http://www.onlinepersonalswatch.com/new ... laces.html

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The OPW/iDate Dating Business Insider is first and the largest weekly news summary in the dating industry. Since 2004.

Get the app: http://idate2013.com/idate-industry-app.php
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:~ UPCOMING INTERNET DATING & DATING INDUSTRY CONFERENCES ~:

September 16-17, 2013 : Cologne, Germany
http://internetdatingconference.com/reg ... e-2013.php

January 14-16, 2014 : Las Vegas
http://internetdatingconference.com/reg ... s-2014.php

Highlights from iDate LA (Video): http://idate2013.com/eventvideo-la-2013.php
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:~ TWITTER ~:

Online Personals Watch newsfeed: http://twitter.com/internet_dating
iDate events and updates: http://twitter.com/idateconference

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The business conference for the dating industry @ InternetDatingConference.com

Industry Message Boards @ mb.InternetDatingConference.com

Conference Organiser, Marc Lesnick, info@idate2010.com, 212-722-1744

Online Personals Watch, www.onlinepersonalswatch.com or opw1.com

Editor: Mark Brooks, mark@onlinepersonalswatch.com, 212-444-1636