The OPW/iDate Weekly News Summary.

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:~ TOP ONLINE PERSONALS WATCH NEWS ~:


PAG Buys Controlling Stake In Zhenai.com

SCMP - Nov 21 - PAG Asia Capital, one of Asia's largest investment firms, has closed a deal to acquire a controlling stake in Zhenai.com, China's largest online matchmaking and dating service provider. The transaction size was not disclosed. Founded in 2005 by Li Song, a former Morgan Stanley executive director, Zhenai.com now boasts ~140M registered users. It is expected to generate revenues of ~1.6B yuan and a net profit of ~200M yuan ($30M) in 2017, according to the company. This compared to the 51.4M yuan ($7.7M) in 2015 net profit of Jiayuan.com, a major rival of Zhenai. Jiayuan was bought by Baihe.com, another matchmaking website last year, resulting in the country's matchmaking business being mainly split among the three companies.

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


Japanese Dating App Developer, Mrk & Co, Raised $1.3M

DEALSTREETASIA - Nov 20 - Tokyo-based Mrk & Co, which is behind mobile dating app Dine, has closed a venture investment of JPY 150M ($1.3M) from Tokyo-listed marriage agency Partner Agent and Venture United, and a loan from the Japan Finance Corporation. This follows a JPY 40M ($356,800) investment from CyberAgent Ventures and iSGS Investment Works in March 2016. Established in 2015 by CEO Keisuke Kamijo and CTO Takashi Morioka, it will officially launch its mobile app in Japan. It monetizes through a subscription model of JPY 6500 ($57) per month or JPy 4800 ($42) if users pay for the first three months upfront. The app is live in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston, Philadelphia, Washington DC, and Vancouver.

http://www.onlinepersonalswatch.com/new ... d-13m.html

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Dating App Lovoo Now Allows Users To Pay By Bitcoins

HORIZONT.NET - Nov 20 - German dating app Lovoo now allows Bitcoins as one of its payment methods. Lovoo claims 70M registered users and 2M daily active users in Germany. The app was acquired by The Meet Group for $70M in September. Although digital currencies have not yet reached the mass market, that could change very soon. According to rumors, Amazon will soon allow Bitcoins. Amazon has not denied the rumors. Meanwhile, Lovoo is already thinking about enabling advertisers to pay with Bitcoins.

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


Grindr Updates Its App To Be More Inclusive Of Transgender And Non-binary Users

TECH CRUNCH - Nov 21 - Grindr said changes will include new profile fields for gender identity and the use of gender-neutral language throughout its app and website. Grindr's new identity section lets users fill out their own gender identity or pick from a list that includes "trans man," "woman," "cis man," "non-binary," "non-conforming" and "queer." Users can also select or write in what pronouns they prefer to use.

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

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Tinder And Bumble Have Respectability Problem In Australia

ITWIRE - Nov 22 - A third (35%) of Aussies have used Internet and online dating apps, with the number using the apps rising to half among millennials. The latest research by data and analytics company YouGov reveals that 53% of Aussies know at least one couple who met online. And this rises to 62% among millennials, and falls to 43% among baby boomers. According to the research, Tinder and Bumble are seen as the least respectable online dating services.

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


Match Group Announces Pricing Of Senior Notes Offering

PR NEWSWIRE - Nov 17 - Match Group has agreed to sell $450M aggregate principal amount of 5.000% senior notes due 2027 in a private offering. The Offering is expected to close on Dec 4, 2017, with gross proceeds from the Offering of ~$445.6M. Match Group intends to use the proceeds to redeem its existing senior notes due 2022, and to pay accrued interest and expenses associated with the redemption.

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

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Brands Losing Nearly 27% Of Paid-Search Clicks To Affiliates

SEARCH MARKETING DAILY - Nov 23 - Affiliate sites have had a love-hate relationship with advertisers for decades, but recently these marketers are becoming more aggressive in capturing and directing the search traffic through their sites. AdGooroo analyzed paid-search clicks on 164 non-branded online dating keywords running through desktop campaigns, including "dating sites," "online dating" and "best dating site" from Sep 1 through Nov 12, 2017. The average cost per click for the online dating keyword group during the month came in at $3.67, but the affiliate sites averaged a far higher CPC at $6.36, according to AdGooroo data. In theory, advertisers believe affiliates who send traffic to the brand's site drive up their cost of acquisition, said Jim Leichenko, director of marketing at AdGooroo. AdGooroo points to three sites in particular. Capturing a combined 26.7% of all clicks on the dating keywords, Top10BestDatingSites.com ranked No. 1 with a 10.5% click share.
Consumer-Rankings.com came in at No. 3 with 8.3% click share. TheTop10Sites.com at No. 4 came in with a 7.9% click share, beating all other advertisers except for Match.com, which ranked at No. 2 with an 8.9% click share.

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


FTC Earns An Award For AshleyMadison.com Data Breach Investigation

FTC - Nov 22 - The Federal Trade Commission, along with privacy law enforcement agencies in Australia and Canada, has received a global data protection award for its cross-border investigation of the AshleyMadison.com data breach in July 2015, which affected consumers in nearly 50 countries. In 2016, a court settlement required the defendants to implement a comprehensive data-security program and pay $1.6M to settle FTC and state actions. The Grand Award for Innovation was presented on Tuesday in Hong Kong by the International Conference of Data Protection and Privacy Commissioners (ICDPPC), the premier global forum for privacy authorities, representing 119 data protection entities. The three agencies also received the top award for "Dispute Resolution, Compliance and Enforcement." The Federal Trade Commission works to promote competition, and protect and educate consumers.

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

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