The M14 Dating Industry Newsletter – 7th July
We are officially into the second half of 2017. Is it me, or have the past 6 months whizzed by?!
From a personal perspective, I can’t believe entries have now opened for the 4th annual UK Dating Awards. Time really does fly when you’re having fun!
In this edition of the newsletter we cover Tinder, Lively and Hinge’s new developments, the summer trend of ‘festival dating’, additional features now available in Facebook Ads, and we chat to award-winning matchmaker Rachel MacLynn about the current state of dating. Oh and most importantly … we define ‘kitten-fishing’, complete with cute photo!
Enjoy!
Charly
The 5 Minute Interview –
Rachel MacLynn, The Vida Consultancy
Every fortnight we interview an inspirational member of the dating industry, this week we are chatting to the Founder of The Vida Consultancy, Rachel Vida MacLynn.
What’s the most exciting thing happening in dating at the moment?
The change in perspective. Dating is not only socially acceptable, it’s now socially desirable. The method and precise brand you use to find your partner has become a statement of who you are, who you are looking for and whether you are seeking a fling or a life partner.
People are becoming more savvy about how to use dating services to find their life partner and we, at Vida, are experiencing an influx in clients in their thirties who are seeking a life partner and have recognised that dating apps are are not conducive to achieving this goal. Single men and women in their 30s have a very different mindset. They are the first of the Facebook generation, having adopted it in their 20s. They get why it’s crazy to simply leave meeting someone to chance. Their whole lives are online. This new generation of customers has paved the way for matchmaking to become modernised and sophisticated.
Everything is pointing towards social media, dating apps and matchmaking coming together to help people find their ultimate match.
To read Rachel’s full interview, head over to the M14 blog.
Entries for the UK Dating Awards 2017 are open!
It’s that time of year again!
Entries for this year’s UKDA opened earlier this week. The event, now in its 4th year, will be held at the HAC in London on Thursday November 23rd.
Three special international categories, open to companies and individuals from all over the world, will be announced later this month.
Head over to ukdatingawards.comfor more details.
Festival Love
New dating app ‘Prelinks‘ is specifically designed to match singles planning on attending the same music festival. Festivals covered this year include T in the Park, Reading, Leeds and Latitude Festival.
Meanwhile, selective dating app Once has been trialing a feature in Belgium and Holland where users can add which festivals they are attending. The app uses this information to match daters with other people attending the same festival.
Tinder Gold
Last week Tinder announced the introduction of Tinder Gold – a new membership which includes all the features of Tinder Plus, but which also offers daters a new ‘Likes You’ feature. Daters in Argentina, Australia, Canada and Mexico, where the membership is being trialed, will be able to see which singles like them before swiping left or right.
In other Tinder news the ‘More Genders’ feature has now been added to the app in France, Spain and Germany, allowing users to type their own self-definition, or choose from a list of 40 options. The feature was first announced in November 2016, and in March Sean Rad commented that over 250,000 matches had been made with transgender users.
Facebook have responded to criticism over Ad metrics by announcing a series of changes and new features. The most exciting being ‘landing page views’ which will show advertisers exactly how many users make it to the mobile landing page after clicking on the ad.
Kitten-fishing!
Hinge has added a new expression for the dating glossary. Kitten-fishing is the less malicious version of its sibling cat-fishing. While a cat-fish knowingly represents him or herself as a different person, a kitten-fish simply misrepresents him or herself by using flattering images which don’t look like them in real life. I think we’ve all encountered a few of these creatures at some point!
If you have a story you think should feature in a future edition of this newsletter please contact Charly at charly@m14.industries