The OPW/iDate Weekly News Summary.

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- Video : http://youtu.be/ooyjN2lQCUQ
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:~ TOP ONLINE PERSONALS WATCH NEWS ITEMS ~:


Tinder Partners With Healthvana, Adds STD Testing Locator

IBTIMES - Jan 22 - Tinder has added a health safety section with a link to health startup Healthvana, making it easier for people to find STD testing locations. The section provides guidance on proper protection. Back in Sep, the AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) posted billboards in LA that had silhouettes of people's heads with the words "Tinder, Chlamydia, Grindr and Gonorrhea." Tinder issued a cease and desist letter to the AHF. AHF will take down all the ads mentioning Tinder as part of a settlement.

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


Major Spark Shareholder Buying More Shares

ANALYST RATINGS - Jan 22 - Lloyd I. Miller, bought shares of LOV for $292.3k. Over the last month, Miller has reported 5 buy trades for a total of $1.12M and has increased his holding by 3.16%. LOV's market cap is $82.98M and the company has a P/E ratio of 21.2%. The company has a one year high of $5.10 and a one year low of $2.76. In the last 30 days, insiders have sold $1.36M worth of shares and purchased $1.41M.

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

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Happn Reaches 10M Users, Adds Voice

TECHCRUNCH - Jan 19 - The French-based app is growing fast and the startup says it is on track to reach 30M users by the end of the year. Happn is also introducing a new voice feature, where users can send audio recordings to potential mates. The clips can be up to one minute long and are supposed to make it easier to showcase personality before meeting up.

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


Friends Reunited To Close After 15 Years

WIRED - Jan 18 - The website has had a turbulent history. Pankhurst launched the website in 2000, by 2003 it had 3M members, and was seen as an established rival to MySpace and, later, Facebook. By 2005 it was sold to ITV, for more than L125 million, in 2009 the website was sold to DC Thomson for just L25 million. Then, in 2012, Friends Reunited was rebooted as "memory box". In 2014 DC Thompson offered the website's ownership back to Pankhurst. Pankhurst now says he is creating a new social network, called Liife, that will be a way for people to store memories - but he said it will "no way [be] a replacement for Friends Reunited."

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

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Match Parent Company Announces New Corporate Structure And Ticker

FOREXTV - Jan 21 - IAC will begin trading under: IAC. The five segments will include Match Group Inc., HomeAdvisor, video, publishing, and apps. Shares of IAC were inactive in premarket trade, but they have fallen 25% over the last three months, versus an 8% decline for the S&P 500. Match's shares have fallen 19% since their IPO.

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


ElitePartner Dismisses Employees

GRUENDERSZENE - Jan 15 - The Hamburger dating service was sold more than six months ago and has reportedly dismissed a total of 15 employees. Before the layoffs, the company founded in 2004, employed 90 people. The Internet Group Tomorrow Focus sold the dating portal for 22 million euros to the British private equity firm Oakley Capital.

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

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Grindr's Sale To Chinese To Signal A Boon For Gay Dating Apps?

SBS - Jan 20 - Despite homosexuality only being decriminalised as recently as 1997 and the scene still largely underground due to social stigma, Grindr is actually not even the most popular gay dating app in China. Blued claims more than three million daily users and is expected to soon become a publicly-listed company. Grindr claims to have a presence in 196 countries around the world and is used in countries where homosexuality is illegal or considered taboo. In the second half of the 2014-15 financial year, Grindr said its users in India grew by nearly 50% from the same period the year prior.

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


Small Design Tweak Encourages Millions More Users For Dating Apps

BUSINESS INSIDER - Jan 22 - A handful of major companies including Google, Facebook, Twitter, and Amazon encourage developers to let new users to co-opt their existing account information instead of creating a new identity. Facebook recently made a small design tweak that hugely boosted its number of new logins. "We found by using the words 'Continue as [first name]' on the Login opening screen we increased new logins by millions per month," Deb Liu, VP of Platform said. Happn says that once it added Facebook login, it increased its conversion rates by nearly 90%.

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

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:~ UPCOMING INTERNET DATING & DATING INDUSTRY CONFERENCES ~:

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July 21-22, 2016 : Cyprus

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:~ TWITTER ~:

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Conference Organizer, Marc Lesnick, info@idate2015.com, 212-722-1744

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

Editor: Mark Brooks, mark@onlinepersonalswatch.com, 212-444-1636The OPW/iDate Weekly News Summary.