COURTLAND BROOKS INTERNET DATING AGENCY-CONSULTANCY

Calendaring Tools and Strategy

COURTLAND BROOKS - May 14 - A friend just asked me about calendaring tools. Here's my advice to him...

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There's a few options. I've opted for ScheduleOnce.com. I set up three calendars and connected them up to domains that link into specific calendars. Saves me so much time.

1. Use Koltu.com for general appts. This calendar doesn't allow Monday or Friday meetings.
2. I use eTwitter.com for press appts. This calendar allows meetings 5 days a week, and goes later into the day.
3. I use Mivot.com for one hour paid consults.

Saves a couple hours a month of to and fro.

You could also use Calendly.com, which seems to be more common. But, I don't think you can set up a paid consulting session. Not sure. Also, there's x.ai which claims to use AI to go back and forth, but I find it a tad annoying to set up, and for users. So I'd recommend ScheduleOnce.com really.

The trick is to make sure you always keep your calendar up to date. Then you can just let people book on your calendar directly, and save some braincycles for other more important stuff, not to mention your admin. This is the one job my admin always hated doing, so I automated it entirely. Now everyone is happier.

Also, I use the "Magical" chrome plugin to speed up insertion of meeting maker text in emails.

Interview With Mark Brooks

DEAL ARCHITECT - Apr 8 - Burning Platform: Digital Nomads. Fascinating session with @markcbrooks. He defines work from anywhere. He has worked from Shanghai, Bali, Malta, now Dubai. Lots of takeaways for employers and politicians #futureofwork.

In this video, hear about...

• The crosswalk test
• My alternative schooling concept
• The need for a fallback position

See full article at Deal Architect

How Thinking Like a Behavioral Scientist Can Take Your Influencer Marketing to the Next Level

COURTLAND BROOKS - Mar 24 - I studied behavioral science because I wanted to understand why people did things in digital environments, not just what they did. We all do AB testing and multivariate testing, and we see interesting results and variations when we change contexts. We know we must always keep testing and optimizing and try not to make too many assumptions. But why do people do the things they do, and make the (sometimes fast and flawed) decisions they do?

Behavioral science helps digital marketers form a better understanding of decision making, biases and heuristics. These are key to understanding and predicting how people will behave. Behavioral science also lays out a nomenclature that we can use. A set of terms in the forms of biases and heuristics, that help describe behaviors.

How to improve your influencer marketing with some key behavioral science insights? Here's some thoughts from an article in The Drum

• Break down your audience into niche passions.
• Understand the specific human archetype in each influencer. i.e. observe their body language.
• Plot other key differentiators for each piece of influencer content to recognize patterns against effectiveness metrics, e.g. word count.

See article at The Drum

Beyond this, the Courtland Brooks team recommend...

1. Don't pitch on a product. Instead, identify genuine advocates first by asking influencers questions about what they like. i.e. have you used a dating app? did ya like it?
2. Don't bother with the top tier influencers. Recruit second tier up-and-coming influencers and use them consistently. As they grow, you'll grow, and you'll get a far better deal over the long haul.
3. Before you commit, do a deep review of the influencer's material, so there's no surprises, and you can really get mutually creative with their specific program.
4. If you're going with tertiary influencers, use a network. It's just too much to manage otherwise.

AI Figures Out Attraction From Brain Data

DAZED MAGAZINE - Mar 12 - Researchers paired AI and brain activity data to generate personally attractive images. Researchers from the University of Helsinki and the University of Copenhagen taught AI what faces an individual person finds attractive, and how to generate artificial portraits in response. The study, titled “Brain-computer interface for generating personally attractive images”, involved taking 30 volunteers and monitoring the electrical activity in their brain, while they looked at artificial portraits pulled together from thousands of images of real celebrities. The new images matched the subjects’ preferences with an accuracy of 80%.

by Thom Waite
See full article at Dazed Beauty

The Top Internet Dating Reporters in 2020, According to Online Personals Watch

COURTLAND BROOKS - Mar 6 - Each year we take a look at which reporters have received the most coverage on Online Personals Watch. Here's our rankings for 2020.

1. Sarah Perez, Tech Crunch

Sarah takes first place again, for the 3rd year in a row now. We linked out to 15 of her articles on OPW last year. She is a tech writer for Tech Crunch for 10 years now, and previously wrote for Read Write Web. She covered a wide range of topics last year. New apps' features and statistics among them.

2. John Scott Lewinski, freelancer
John is a freelancer who writes for a number of outlets. One of them is Forbes. We summarized 12 of his articles last year.  He was usually introducing new dating apps or their features.

3. Anna Iovine, Mashable
Anna is a culture reporter for Mashable. Last year, we linked to 11 of her articles on OPW.news. She wrote about new dating apps, features, covered statistics, and surveys.

4-5. Natasha Lomas, Tech Crunch
Another long term reporter for Tech Crunch and a name that already appeared multiple times on this list. Last year, we used 5 of her articles, 3 of them covering the big guys - Facebook Dating and Tinder.

4-5. Ashley Carman, The Verge
Ashley is a reporter for The Verge who covers podcasting, dating apps, social networks, and independent hardware startups. She's not new to this list, although we only used 5 of her articles last year, 4 about Tinder, the last one about Hinge. She wrote more, covering important industry news, we should note, we just found a different source for those first.

6-9. Julia Naftulin, Insider
Julia is a health reporter and advice columnist for Insider, her articles also appeared in Business Insider. We used 4 of them in 2020, 2 of them focused on how Covid-19 affected the way people are using dating apps, the other two covering new apps.

6-9. Josh Milton, Pink News
Josh is a news reporter for Pink News and previously Gay Star News. We linked to 4 of his articles last year, two of them on Grindr, one on Chappy shutting down, and the last one on Match.

6-9. Jason Aycock, Seeking Alpha
Jason is senior news editor at Seeking Alpha. We summarised 4 of his articles last year, most of them covering Match Group news.

6-9. Brian Womack, Dallas Business Journal
Brian is a tech reporter for Dallas Business Journal. We used 4 or his articles on OPW last year and he usually writes about Match Group (a Dallas based company).

10. Georgia Wells, Wall Street Journal
Georgia is a tech reporter for Wall Street Journal and writes regularly about the internet dating industry for years now. 17 of her articles were summarised on our blog over the last 5 years, 3 of them last year.

What Dating Apps Get the Most Press Coverage?

COURTLAND BROOKS - Mar 2 - We published 956 posts during last year on OPWS.news, featuring 257 dating industry brands. Here is who got the most press coverage on OPW.news.

1. Tinder (137)
2. Match Group (96)
3. Bumble (93)
4. The Meet Group (58)
5. Grindr (46)
6. Hinge (40)
7. OkCupid (39)
8. PlentyOfFish (28)
9. Match.com (27)
10. Blued (18)

1. TINDER (137 posts in 2020)
Tinder got a new CEO in July. The app launched it's video chat feature globally in October. It maintained the position of the top grossing dating app throughout the last year. As with every year, the app introduced a number of new features, among them Passions and Orientation.  SwipeNight launched globally in September. Global Mode was launched in May. In March, Tinder made it's Passport feature temporarily free. These are just a few of the news on Tinder covered by the press last year.

2. MATCH GROUP (96 posts)
Match Group's biggest news came in July, when the company completed the separation from it's parent IAC. They moved to a new home too. Match also bet on video in current situation.

3. BUMBLE (93 posts)
Bumble's biggest news of the year was the December announcement of an IPO. In July, the app reached 100M users. In June, Bumble and Match Group announced, they settled all litigation between the two companies. In October, Bumble hired a new CFO and Chief Brand Officer. It entered in a number of interesting partnerships, among them with Uber Eats or National Domestic Violence Hotline. A number of interviews with Bumble's CEO appeared in the press again. 

4. THE MEET GROUP (58 posts)
The Meet Group was sold to NuCom (a part of ProsiebenSat1) and along with other dating assets created the ParshipMeetGroup. The company partnered with PlentyofFish for livestreaming, launched video on Growlr and Tagged, face verification, Blind Date and Second Date on Skout, MeetMe, Tagged and POF. It announced partnership with UrSafe in July and launched monetization on it's gay dating app Growlr in June.

5. GRINDR (46 posts)
Grindr also got a lot of press coverage last year, but not always positive news. It was accused of being vulnerable to sexual predators, being too lenient with racist users, security flaws. It was hit by a class action lawsuit for selling user data, blocked in Pakistan, to name just a few. On a positive note, Grindr removed ethnicity filters, launched a desktop version of the app. The biggest news of the year was the sale of Grindr from Kunlun to San Vicente Acquisition, which was finalized in March.

6. HINGE (40 posts)
Hinge grew significantly during 2020 and it was announced that it is now profitable. The app rolled out some new features, in-app video calls and launched Hinge Labs. It partnered with Headspace and Chipotle. A number of interviews with Hinge's CEO appeared in the press and we featured some of them on OPW.news as well.

7. OKCUPID (39 posts)
Besides doing numerous numerous surveys (and publishing their results), OkCupid rolled out a redesign this week that introduced a new matching system in August. The company donated $1M worth advertising space to civil right organizations. It grew significantly and entered new international markets. On a negative note, OkCupid was accused of sharing user's personal data with advertising and analytics "partners".

8. PLENTYOFFISH (28 posts)
POF partnered with The Meet Group for free livestreaming feature in March and also NextDate virtual events. In October, POF partnered with self-care app Shine. They also contributed to multiple charity causes. In February, POF announced the industry's first Member Advisory Council. This interview with the COO Kate Manolis is also worth reading.

9. MATCH.COM (27 posts)
Match published it's annual Singles in America study in October, launched the "Dates", video dating feature called "Vibe Check", or security feature called "Date Check-in". Match made a $30k donation to the Dinner Bell Foundation in April. We read several interesting interviews with CEO Hessam Hosseini. Match was also recently hit by a lawsuit seeking $10M in penalties for misleading customers.

10. BLUED (18 posts)
Blued's parent company BlueCity filed for IPO in July. Blued also made two acquisitions during last year, lesbian dating app LESDO in August and gay social networking app Finka in November. A "Community" feature was introduced in September. Also the CEO and founder of Blued scored a number of interviews during last year.

Dubai Opens up - "Connecting Minds"

COURTLAND BROOKS - Jan 31 - The tagline for the grand Expo 2020 in Dubai is "Connecting Minds, Creating the Future." So you'd think with that focus it would now, surely, be possible for visitors to the Expo (which has been delayed to 2021) to access their favorite dating apps.

My family can certainly attest to the great changes and advances in U.A.E. My father was an air traffic controller in Dubai airport in 1970-1971. It was very sparse back then, and the transformation here has been quite mind-blowing, from my mother and father's accounts.

So let's see where things stand for the dating, and matrimony industry here in terms of accessibility.

Over the years I've posted news on OPW about the opening up of dating apps.

• In 2008 I posted some news about many dating and social networking sites being blocked, but ~1000 were being unblocked.
• In 2012 I noted that Match, POF, OKCupid, Badoo and leading Chinese dating sites were blocked, while Meetme and Tagged along with matrimony services were available.
• In 2015 I observed that Adopteunmec, ArabLounge, Badoo, Chemistry, CoffeeMeetsBagel, eHarmony, FarmersOnly, Flirt.com, Meetic, Nirvam.it, Oasis, Person.com, POF, SeniorPeopleMeet, Teamo.ru, Twoo, Zoosk were all blocked, while Skout and Tinder were available.
• In 2018 I noted POF, Match, Zoosk, OkCupid, Adam4Adam, OurTime, SPDate, Badoo and Ashley Madison were all blocked. Tinder, again, was open and available.

Dubai is opening up more now, and certainly with the 'Connecting Minds' tagline you would expect that visitors in 2020-2021 would be able to access their favorite dating services. How's it looking now?

Here I reference all the blocked sites mentioned above, and their current availability.

Previously blocked...

• Adopteunmec - available
• ArabLounge - available
• Badoo - available
• Chemistry - available
• CoffeeMeetsBagel - available
• eHarmony - available
• FarmersOnly - available
• Flirt.com - blocked
• Jiayuan - available
• Match - available
• Meetic - available
• Nirvam.it - available
• OKCupid - available
• Person.com - blocked
• POF - available
• Teamo.ru - available
• Zoosk - available
• Zhenai - available

Previously open...

• Jeevansathi - available
• Matrimony - available
• Meetme - available
• Shaadi - available
• Skout - available
• Tagged - available
• Tinder - available

So all but the risque/super-casual products are now open.

The U.A.E. is open for business.

Why Tinder Is Tough to Compete With

CB - Jan 25 - There are quite a few anti-Tinder apps now and even Facebook is getting in on the Internet dating action. So why is Tinder so gosh darned difficult to compete with? This video from Pete's Bits does a nice job of overviewing the psychology of Tinder.

I also ran this on BehavioralEconomist.com's Facebook group.

IDEA - 10 Year Club

IDEA - Dec 22 - The dating industry is filled with amazing leaders, many with extraordinary tenure and commitment. Today we launch a new program for IDEA, to recognize and help you identify the leaders who have been dedicated to the Internet dating industry for 10 years or more. Please see this link, and let me know (mark@courtlandbrooks.com) if anyone that you admire is missing.

New Brands Hinge and BLK to Steal Swipes From Rival Bumble

TIMES SQUARE INVESTMENT JOURNAL - Dec 17 - Acquired by Match Group in 2018, Hinge reported ~88% increase in revenue YOY in the Q3, along with niche apps like BLK and Chispa that match people based on their cultural backgrounds. In comparison, Tinder grew its revenue by 15%. Hinge brands itself as the anti-Tinder by appealing to daters suffering from swiping fatigue. Hinge's user base has grown from ~35K subscriptions before Match acquired it to 400K subscribers this year. It is estimated it will have ~8M subscribers in 2030 and $2.8B in revenue compared to $60M in 2020. Amid Hinge's boom, Tinder's slowdown indicates it has grown as big as it can. Match needs a different strategy to remain competitive. "The only way now that it can grow is by taking a more niche-oriented route," said Mark Brooks, who consults with online-dating companies on marketing strategies through his agency, Courtland Brooks. Bumble's growing popularity is a threat. With ~100M users globally, Bumble is going public next year, seeking a valuation of $6B. "Bumble is brilliant because what they've done is soaked up the most in-demand women," said Brooks. "The in-demand woman on a Match platform is going to get inundated." Match planned to acquire Bumble for $450M in 2017, but Bumble rejected the offer. Match acquired Hinge instead. It also launched niche dating apps including BLK and Chispa for the Black and Latino communities. "Match has always had a hard time with niches," said Brooks. "They like large scalable dating platforms." Besides BLK and Chispa, Match recently launched other community-based apps in the U.S., including Upward for Christians and acquired marriage-minded service Hawaya for Muslims.

by Harini Chakrapani
See full article at Times Square Investment Journal