COURTLAND BROOKS INTERNET DATING AGENCY-CONSULTANCY

Global Dating Insights Conference Updates

COURTLAND BROOKS - Mar 29 - The GDI Conference in NYC was a success, with ~60 attendees. Sadly, naturally, because of coronavirus the Singapore (12th May) and Los Angeles (11th June) conferences are postponed. However, Dominic and Simon are confident the London GDI show will still go ahead on 1st October. Google, Spectrum Labs, and Besedo are kindly sponsoring the GDI London show.

IDEA SUMMIT in Singapore and L.A. were in the works for the day before the GDI conferences and are similarly postponed.

In the mean time, we just uploaded these segments from my 'state-of-the-industry' from the last GDI London show. Top Dating Sites (1 min 6), User Growth (1 min 23), Gender Distribution (1 min), The Rise of Match Group (41s), Facebook Dating Threat (2 mins 44), Full Presentation (14 mins).

COURTLAND BROOKS - Mar 29 - The GDI Conference in NYC was a success, with ~60 attendees. Sadly, naturally, because of coronavirus the Singapore (12th May) and Los Angeles (11th June) conferences are postponed. However, Dominic and Simon are confident the London GDI show will still go ahead on 1st October. Google, Spectrum Labs, and Besedo are kindly sponsoring the GDI London show.

IDEA SUMMIT in Singapore and L.A. were in the works for the day before the GDI conferences and are similarly postponed.

In the mean time, we just uploaded these segments from my 'state-of-the-industry' from the last GDI London show. Top Dating Sites (1 min 6), User Growth (1 min 23), Gender Distribution (1 min), The Rise of Match Group (41s), Facebook Dating Threat (2 mins 44), Full Presentation (14 mins).

What Dating Apps Get the Most Press Coverage?

COURTLAND BROOKS - Mar 21 - We took a look at who got the most press coverage (on OPW.news) in 2019. We run the news that we think is most strategically significant for dating executives to know about. Just the top news. So this is a straw poll analysis. Here's what we ran in 2019, and who came up tops.

1. Tinder (178)
2. Bumble (112)
3. Match Group (90)
4. The Meet Group (52)
5. Grindr (42)
6. Badoo (37)
7. Fb Dating (36)
8. Match.com (33)
9. OkCupid (30)
10. Lumen (28)

1. TINDER (158 posts in 2019)
No surprise here - Tinder won again. The app did well last year again, being the top grossing dating app throughout the year.  They launched Swipe Night series, Match Time in Brazil, sued dating app Wild over trademark infringement, and introduced a new feature for dating at events in India.  After being criticized over banning transgender people from the app, Tinder announced they were taking steps to solve this problem. Launched Tinder Lite, Festival Mode, hired a new chief of product (but lost him after less than a year at the beginning of this year), hired a new country manager for Australia, removed Elo score from the app, offered $1M value in-app advertising to non-profits for free, opened the Palo Alto office. Not everything went well for Tinder last year though. Mutual lawsuits between Tinder and it's parent company, Tinder founders and former employees attracted a lot of press which wasn't positive for the company. Tinder was criticized for not enforcing the 18+ age requirement, and for letting sex offenders use the app.

2. BUMBLE (112 posts)
Bumble takes 2nd place again. It also took the 2nd place on the top grossing dating apps list last year. Whitney Wolfe Herd, the CEO of Bumble, took a step back due to her pregnancy last year, but a number of interviews with her were still published and she also became the CEO of Magic Lab, Bumble's parent company, after it was sold to Blackstone. Bumble helped to push the House Bill 2789 in Texas, which criminalizes the sending of unsolicited sexual photos, the app itself is automatically blurring nude pics now and is working with Californian senator to help to pass such a bill in CA too. The app is growing nicely in India, especially amongst women. Bumble also launched Spotlight, Glass Ceiling Awards in cooperation with Marie Claire, Bumble Mag, and a lot more. Their news were positive overall last year.

3. MATCH GROUP (90 posts)
Some news naturally overlaps with Tinder, but here's some more.  It was announced that IAC will spin-off Match Group,. In September, Match Group added Shar Dubey to it's board of directors which was the first step to her promotion to CEO earlier this year. The company acquired Egyptian dating app Harmonica, released the Ship app and marriage app Pairs Engage. In April, the decision to increase the company's headcount in Asia by 40% was announced. In February, Match Group finished the acquisiton of Hinge. On the other hand, Match Group was hit by a number of lawsuits. Those related to Tinder aside, there were infringement lawsuits, a lawsuit in behalf of the company's investors was filed in October, Match was even sued by the FTC.

4. THE MEET GROUP (52 posts)
Besides the regular financial results announcements, the biggest news of last year were: in December, the news that ProsiebenSat1 was eyeing TMG for acquisiton first broke (and this rumour proved to be right earlier this year). TMG was ranked as one of the fastest growing companies in North America by Deloitte in November, worked on improving their apps' security during last year, for example by partnering with Yoti, joined ODA, launching NextDate, releasing Viewer Levels on MeetMe and Skout. TMG also bought gay dating app Growlr in March.

5. GRINDR (42 posts)
Grindr takes a 5th place on our list, but it was not a great year for the app, at least according to the news we intercepted and used on OPW.news. A few examples: in Jan, the app was banned in Lebanon and fired the entire INTO editorial staff, practically burying the publication. It was accused of leaking user data.  In March, the news broke, that the US government was forcing Kunlun to sell Grindr due to security concerns. Similar news appeared in the press over the year and although Kunlun still claimed they were planning for Grindr's IPO in July and again in November, they recently sold the app.

6. BADOO (37 posts)
Badoo also made it to the list of top grossing dating apps last year, taking the 3rd place. The biggest news in 2019 was the sale of MagicLab, Badoo's parent, by Badoo's founder Andrey Andreev to Blackstone and Mr Andreev leaving the company. Badoo also reached 500M members in the middle of the year. On the negative note, the gender pay gap was revealed and the Forbes article from July about Badoo's supposedly questionable corporate culture caused quite a stir.

7. FACEBOOK DATING (36 posts)
Facebook Dating launched in a number of countries last year, amongst them in Mexico and Argentina, Singapore and mainly USA, where it is not doing so well. The app is integrated with Instagram and Facebook Stories now, secured a dating-related patent in August and launched the Secret Crush feature in May. The app raised some questions about data security last year too.

8. MATCH.COM (33 posts)
Another Match Group brand on the list. Match published a number of surveys and studies last year, the biggest of them the annual Singles in America study. It launched AskMatch, the coaching service. And even a frog can find their match on Match :). On the negative side stands the FTC lawsuit.

9. OKCUPID (30 posts)
Yet another Match Group brand. A number of interviews with the CMO of OkCupid Melissa Hobley and CEO Ariel Charytan were published last year. The famous DTF campaign came back in February. Also OkCupid published a number of surveys. In February, OkCupid was under suspicion of being hacked, but the rumours were probably not true.

10. LUMEN (28 posts)
Lumen was also a part of the Magic Lab / Blackstone deal. Again, several interviews with the CEO were published. Lumen's ads are known for attracting a lot of attention. They launched Lumen Social in May, grew to 350k users in March, launched in Australia in February and in Wales in January. And there was basically no negative press coverage for this app.

IDEA SUMMIT Success

COURTLAND BROOKS - Mar 17 - By all accounts, the IDEA SUMMIT on 6th March was a great success. 29 spoke, of which 26 were CEO and/or Co-founders. Ideas were shared and the meeting group of leading dating industry executives were inspired, and enjoyed the incredible surroundings of Harvard Club New York, followed by the IDEA WOW (World Officers Weekend).

The Friday gathering was hosted by Geoff Cook, CEO of The Meet Group, and co-hosted by Mark Brooks, President of IDEA.gp & CEO Courtland Brooks.

Jeff Tinsley, CEO of RealMe was our IDEA vendor-of-interest and kindly sponsored the Thursday dinner.

The Internet Dating Excellence Association exists to help the Internet dating and matchmaking industry grow and achieve its potential. See www.IDEA.gp.

COURTLAND BROOKS - Mar 17 - By all accounts, the IDEA SUMMIT on 6th March was a great success. 29 spoke, of which 26 were CEO and/or Co-founders. Ideas were shared and the meeting group of leading dating industry executives were inspired, and enjoyed the incredible surroundings of Harvard Club New York, followed by the IDEA WOW (World Officers Weekend).

The Friday gathering was hosted by Geoff Cook, CEO of The Meet Group, and co-hosted by Mark Brooks, President of IDEA.gp & CEO Courtland Brooks.

Jeff Tinsley, CEO of RealMe was our IDEA vendor-of-interest and kindly sponsored the Thursday dinner.

The Internet Dating Excellence Association exists to help the Internet dating and matchmaking industry grow and achieve its potential. See www.IDEA.gp.

What Is Project Artemis?

THE MEET GROUP - Jan 30 - Many well-respected tech companies came together to form a consortium called Project Artemis. The culmination of this multi-year, multi-company effort was a multi-faceted text-based analysis system explicitly designed to detect child grooming. Several companies have developed systems to detect predatory behavior but almost no information about them has been shared publicly and so development efforts to combat a global problem have been conducted in isolation.

Teenagers sometimes masquerade as adults. Artemis is an A.I. system that relies on a database of common textual patterns derived from confirmed child predator conversations. It includes a risk detection engine, which is designed to assess the degree of risk a conversation poses based on content. The flexible design allows companies to incorporate their custom detection methods into it so multiple industries can use it.

The database of common textual patterns employed by child predators was compiled using data from multiple companies and platforms. Also, unlike most text processing engines, Artemis is capable of analyzing statements over multiple turns of a conversation. Finally, the modular architecture of Artemis permits adaptation and expansion based on the needs of different platforms, which allows platforms like The Meet Group to add our own features and functionality to it.

The Meet Group added real-time processing functionality and support for profile metadata as well as two NLP algorithms. These additions improve Artemis not only for The Meet Group but for all companies who use it. We also enabled Artemis to determine when a user has lied about his or her age — a technique Meet Group developed prior to Artemis. Given the collaboration behind Artemis, we believe it is an essential component of any social-oriented company's predator detection toolkit. The Meet Group are honored to have participated in this project and commend Microsoft on its openness in broadly sharing this capability across the industry to protect children everywhere.

by Jonah H. Harris
See full article at Medium

The Case for Governments Taking an Interest in Internet Dating

COURTLAND BROOKS - Jan 25 - Could demographic declines lead to Governments taking an interest in Internet dating. If so, what might that look like?

Populations in many developed countries are on the decline as fertility rates plummet, according to an article in Financial Times last week.

According to the UN "27 countries have fewer people now than in 2010 ...and it expects 55 countries, including China, to experience declines by 2050." Falling populations will become the norm. That's very bad for economic output and growth, which could also be bad for living standards.

So, what's a good Government to do?

Here's an interesting precedent. Several years ago the Government of Singapore took an interest in matchmaking and even went so far as to sponsor and host multiple conferences to gather the best minds in matchmaking. Their goal; to prime the pumps in the matchmaking industry in Singapore, to get more people meeting, marrying and making babies. The Government of Singapore even offered grants for fledgling matchmaking companies. Lunch Actually Group benefited from these initiatives, for one.

I see the UAE opening up to dating and matrimony services now, finally. Tinder is now openly available, and Matrimony just opened its first office in Dubai.

Secular government's have always been open to dating. Conservative countries, not so. Stigma still exists. Lowering fertility rates should force the issue for the more conservative countries to seek the means for their populations to connect more...with a view to steadying their falling fertility rates. So we should see more opening up.

However. governments around the world probably don't hold 'Internet dating' companies in especially high esteem but would be more likely to gravitate towards supporting 'online matchmaking' companies. i.e. The apps that vie towards the more meaningful end of the market.

I see a future for the likes of Matrimony to appeal to governments to open up and give them a clearer path to users, and even provide open sponsorship even. eHarmony/Parship/Muzmatch could also be well positioned for advances into more conservative countries? Might we see the day that a government ratifies and offers up a particular matchmaking or matrimony app as the gold standard? Is this conceive-able? Its at least an interesting notion. - Mark Brooks, Host - IDEA.gp, CEO - Courtland Brooks Agency/Consultancy

The End Is Nigh for Cookies, and Larger Dating Companies Will Benefit

COURTLAND BROOKS - Jan 18 - Since 1994 Internet dating companies have been able to cookie users and more recently very effectively chase them around the web. But the Cookie Apocalypse us upon us. Google announced they are phasing out the use of 'invasive net trackers,' according to an article in Financial Times last Wednesday. After 25 years of use, Apple, Microsoft and Mozilla have already banned them, and Google is laying the cookie to rest.

Of course, who is going to benefit from this the most? Google, Facebook and Amazon have already amassed a treasure trove of personalized data. They are effectively, 'sitting pretty.' Also, larger dating apps will become more entrenched as a consequence of this ban. Smaller apps and startups will be mired for a diminished ability to gather data and track, and a reduced ability to personalize their ad approaches and treatments.

Google will phase out cookies over the next two years. They, and others, are working on what might become the successor of the {beloved/maligned} cookie. - Mark Brooks, Host - IDEA.gp, CEO - Courtland Brooks

COURTLAND BROOKS - Jan 18 - Since 1994 Internet dating companies have been able to cookie users and more recently very effectively chase them around the web. But the Cookie Apocalypse us upon us. Google announced they are phasing out the use of 'invasive net trackers,' according to an article in Financial Times last Wednesday. After 25 years of use, Apple, Microsoft and Mozilla have already banned them, and Google is laying the cookie to rest.

Of course, who is going to benefit from this the most? Google, Facebook and Amazon have already amassed a treasure trove of personalized data. They are effectively, 'sitting pretty.' Also, larger dating apps will become more entrenched as a consequence of this ban. Smaller apps and startups will be mired for a diminished ability to gather data and track, and a reduced ability to personalize their ad approaches and treatments.

Google will phase out cookies over the next two years. They, and others, are working on what might become the successor of the {beloved/maligned} cookie. - Mark Brooks, Host - IDEA.gp, CEO - Courtland Brooks

What's on in 2020 - Your Complete Events Calendar

COURTLAND BROOKS - Jan 8 - Here's all the top dating industry events worthy of your attention in 2020.

iDate (InternetDatingConference.com) events are 2 dayers, actually 3 days including the pre-conferences. They've been around for years, and have 50 events under their belt. Led by Marc Lesnick, assisted by Elena Lesnick.

GDI (Global Dating Insights) events are 1 dayers, with speakers speaking for 20 minutes. Now an established industry event. GDI runs daily news rewrites, interviews and GDI events. Led by Simon Corbett, assisted by GDI.news editor Dominic Whitlock.

IDEA (Internet Dating Excellence Association) SUMMIT events (see latest event at IDEASUMMIT.org) are small gatherings just for dating industry leaders to learn and share. These gatherings are usually in the board room of a hosting established dating industry company with 20-25 speaker-attendees who speak for 10 minutes each to share a meaningful idea. At each gathering we also invite one IDEA Alumni, i.e. someone who was senior and left the industry, plus a (promising) startup CEO, plus the CEO of a vendor of interest. Each event is led by the CEO of a leading dating company and co-hosted by Mark Brooks, assisted by OPW.news editor Irena Brooks.

I recommend picking off at least two or three events this year so you can stay connected with industry trends and your peers. Have fun, stay informed, and good luck growing your dating business in 2020. Here's the complete pick list.

Q1
Jan 30th & 31st - iDate Delray Beach, Florida - $645

March 6th - IDEA SUMMIT New York - Free
By invitation only for 25 dating industry leaders
March 7-8-9th - IDEA WOW New York - 3 half days of social events - At-cost

March 10th - GDI New York - $299

Q2
May 9-11th - IDEA SUMMIT + WOW Asia in Kuala Lumpur/Singapore TBD

May 12th - GDI Singapore - $299

May 23rd & 24th - iDate Premium International Dating (PID) in Odessa - 245 EUR

Q3
June 10th - IDEA SUMMIT Los Angeles - Free

June 11th - GDI Los Angeles - $299

Q4
Oct 1st - GDI London

Nov - IDEA SUMMIT + WOW Europe in UK/Germany/Malta TBD

If you're a traditional matchmaker or run a modern/hybrid matchmaking firm you should also take in a Matchmaking Institute Conference. Their Global Love Conferences are right after the GDI New York and Singapore and London conferences. See MatchmakingInstitute.com for tix.

COURTLAND BROOKS - Jan 8 - Here's all the top dating industry events worthy of your attention in 2020.

iDate (InternetDatingConference.com) events are 2 dayers, actually 3 days including the pre-conferences. They've been around for years, and have 50 events under their belt. Led by Marc Lesnick, assisted by Elena Lesnick.

GDI (Global Dating Insights) events are 1 dayers, with speakers speaking for 20 minutes. Now an established industry event. GDI runs daily news rewrites, interviews and GDI events. Led by Simon Corbett, assisted by GDI.news editor Dominic Whitlock.

IDEA (Internet Dating Excellence Association) SUMMIT events (see latest event at IDEASUMMIT.org) are small gatherings just for dating industry leaders to learn and share. These gatherings are usually in the board room of a hosting established dating industry company with 20-25 speaker-attendees who speak for 10 minutes each to share a meaningful idea. At each gathering we also invite one IDEA Alumni, i.e. someone who was senior and left the industry, plus a (promising) startup CEO, plus the CEO of a vendor of interest. Each event is led by the CEO of a leading dating company and co-hosted by Mark Brooks, assisted by OPW.news editor Irena Brooks.

I recommend picking off at least two or three events this year so you can stay connected with industry trends and your peers. Have fun, stay informed, and good luck growing your dating business in 2020. Here's the complete pick list.

Q1
Jan 30th & 31st - iDate Delray Beach, Florida - $645

March 6th - IDEA SUMMIT New York - Free
By invitation only for 25 dating industry leaders
March 7-8-9th - IDEA WOW New York - 3 half days of social events - At-cost

March 10th - GDI New York - $299

Q2
May 9-11th - IDEA SUMMIT + WOW Asia in Kuala Lumpur/Singapore TBD

May 12th - GDI Singapore - $299

May 23rd & 24th - iDate Premium International Dating (PID) in Odessa - 245 EUR

Q3
June 10th - IDEA SUMMIT Los Angeles - Free

June 11th - GDI Los Angeles - $299

Q4
Oct 1st - GDI London

Nov - IDEA SUMMIT + WOW Europe in UK/Germany/Malta TBD

If you're a traditional matchmaker or run a modern/hybrid matchmaking firm you should also take in a Matchmaking Institute Conference. Their Global Love Conferences are right after the GDI New York and Singapore and London conferences. See MatchmakingInstitute.com for tix.

The State of the Dating Industry in 2019

IDEA - Oct 18 - Here's Mark Brooks 14 minute presentation covering the state of the dating industry and our challenges, as at September 2019.

IDEA SUMMIT in Berlin Fills Within 24 Hours

IDEA - Oct 10 - The Internet Dating Excellence Association (IDEA.gp) exists to help the dating industry grow, and to help dating executives learn and share and improve their services for the benefit of their users.

I started IDEA in 2007, and we spent the first 10 years bringing dating industry leaders together socially prior to Internet Dating Conferences. Then we formalized it a couple years ago, and started running distinct gatherings. The first small gathering was IDEA WOW in Malta in November 2018. It went well, but attendees wanted more so we ran an IDEA WOW + IDEA SUMMIT in Chennai India and I co-hosted the gathering with Murugavel Janakiraman, the CEO/Founder of Matrimony, at the Matrimony.com HQ. It was a wonderful experience.

Our first European IDEA SUMMIT event will happen December 4th at the Spark Networks HQ in Berlin. I'll be cohosting with Jeronimo Folgueira, the CEO of Spark Networks. The event was released this Monday, and was full less than 24 hours later! Another small IDEA SUMMIT gathering is in the works for East Coast USA for March in 2020.

The Age of Intent - Courtland Brooks New-Book-of-the-Month

COURTLAND BROOKS - June 20 - Is there a place in the word for an A.I. matchmaker? We think so at Courtland Brooks. This new book (out since May 28th) will give you some insight into the rise of A.I. virtual chatbot technology. Get it at Smile.Amazon.com here.