Tag: Dating apps

Singapore – Popular dating app Tinder has rolled out a new public awareness campaign to safeguard users in Southeast Asia against romance scams. The in-app campaign is part of Tinder’s commitment to ensure the platform provides a safe space where users can make meaningful connections.

From August 28 to September 10, Tinder users will receive an alert upon launching the Tinder app, where they can get directed to more information on how they can stay cautious of romance scams on the app. The campaign will also be accompanied by in-app inbox messages and push notifications. 

In Singapore, Tinder users will be directed to Scam Alert SG – a resource supported by the National Crime Prevention Council (NCPC) and the Singapore Police Force (SPF). The comprehensive guide will serve to remind Tinder users to be alert and aware as they look to make new connections online. 

Meanwhile, in Thailand, Vietnam, and Indonesia, users can browse tips on Tinder’s Romance Scam resource that details actions they can take to protect themselves from online scams. This includes insights on the frequent methods of a romance scammer, alongside a list of Tinder’s suite of in app safety tools that can help fight fraud, including reporting and verification tools and more. 

Users can also access their local Tinder’s Safety Centre, an evolving in-app section dedicated to keeping daters informed about safety features while providing guides, tools and resources.

Earlier this year, Tinder’s parent company Match Group announced that its companies are continuing making investments to enhance machine learning tools that proactively detect, prevent and remove spam across Match Group’s global portfolio.

Additionally, nearly 5 million bots and spam accounts have been removed between January and March 2023 — before the accounts gained access to the platform or shortly after signup, in an effort to prevent potential harm. 

Papri Dev, vice president for APAC communications at Tinder, said, “Our goal is to make Tinder the safest place to meet new people online. Financial and romance scams can be highly sophisticated, and scammers are constantly working to find new ways to take advantage of others. We are committed to continuously work to evolve our own efforts to help prevent them.”

She added, “While these scams can and do occur on all online platforms, we recognise we can do more to help daters protect themselves from potential scams. Through education and information, we hope to help our users feel more confident in making new connections in more fun and safer ways.”

Singapore – Bumble, the women-first dating app, has launched a suite of new product features in Singapore designed to make dating ‘kinder and more fun’ for Singaporean singles in 2023.

The first new Bumble feature, Speed Dating, brings retro speed dating events to the online dating experience, allowing members to go in ‘blind’ and prioritise personality over physical attraction. This feature requires people to start conversations without seeing any pictures of the other person, with profile photos hidden for the first three minutes of messaging. 

The experience is available in Bumble’s Date Mode and people on Bumble can RSVP directly within the app each week. Speed Dating pairings are based on location, age and gender preferences.

“Bumble’s new Speed Dating experience in the app brings the fun back to dating in 2023! This feature creates intrigue and anticipation in a low-pressure environment, and allows the Bumble community to build connections based on personality and shared interests, which are much truer indicators of compatibility than looks,” said Lucille McCart, Bumble’s APAC communications director.

Bumble’s new features also include Compliments, which gives Bumble members the opportunity to be even more intentional about starting the conversation in a positive way. Compliments is a message before match feature that allows members to stand out by sending a note before connecting. 

To this, McCart commented, “At Bumble we believe in the power of positivity and kindness, and that when a compliment is the foundation of a conversation, you are setting the stage for the connection to begin in the best possible way. Sending a compliment on Bumble can be as simple as sending a kind message when you come across someone’s profile whom you share a common interest with, such as music taste or favourite movie.”

The final feature in the newly announced product bundle is Recommend to a Friend, which allows the Bumble community to play cupid and help find their friends new connections. If you come across a profile on Bumble that’s not right for you but might be for someone you know, you can now directly share a link to their Bumble profile.

“We all know that feeling when you come across a profile that ticks all the boxes of your bestie. Now you can help your friends find dates by sharing the profile of their perfect match with them,” said McCart.

Bumble has also recently released its ‘Breaking Barriers: Getting Real About Dating During CNY With Mum’ campaign which features a heart-to-heart conversation between mother and daughter, tackling their thoughts on dating.

Singapore – Women-first dating app Bumble has released a new campaign that is quite a mash-up celebration of the back-to-back festivity of Chinese New Year and Valentine’s Day. The brand released a short film that features a heartfelt conversation between a mother and daughter inquiring about each other’s opinions on different musings on dating. 

Called ‘Breaking Barriers: Getting Real About Dating During CNY With Mum’, the short shows content creator Chow Jiahui and her mother open up about their thoughts on different reflections such as the convenience of meeting someone in each of their generations as well as their feelings about ringing in the Chinese New Year as a single.

As part of the campaign, from 23 January, Bumble users will be able to claim a complimentary tin of Bumble Love Letters by Kele Confectionery via an in-app link and have it delivered to them personally.

Lucille McCart, APAC communications director of bumble, said “The love letter is synonymous with both Chinese New Year festivities and Valentines’ Day. Much like the modern love letter, the love letter snack was originally used to relay messages of affection. Bumble Love Letters is our contemporary spin on this age-old practice. We want to revive the tradition of initiating a date with treats but also encourage singles to show love to the ultimate date – themselves.”

In addition, a nationwide survey by Bumble revealed that more than 1 in 5 singles (21%) feel pressured to be coupled up during CNY and/or Valentine’s Day, where top reasons include, “I don’t want to deal with family and friends asking why I am still single” (57%), “I feel self-conscious about being single” (47%),” and “I feel pressured by friends and family” (46%). 

McCart added, “Our findings in Singapore indicate that cuffing season occurs around Chinese New Year to Valentine’s Day, owing to social pressures around being coupled up during this period.”

Manila, Philippines – Dating app Bumble, the disruptor in the dating scene founded in 2014, has released its first-ever campaign for the Philippines. The app currently has presence globally in 150 countries, where in Southeast Asia, it’s present in markets such as Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore. The campaign titled ‘Make the First Move’ is the first-ever communications of the brand in the country.

With the emergence of the internet, dating apps, in recent years, have become increasingly popular among young people, embracing it as a go-to opportunity to meet and mingle with other people.

Bumble, the women-first dating and networking app, has just released its first brand campaign for the Philippines, which seeks to empower women to take charge of their dating lives.

Bumble enables women to send the first message to start a conversation with a match, setting the tone for ‘kind’ and more ‘respectful’ communication and relationships.

The new campaign, which was created in collaboration with integrated marketing agency MullenLowe Singapore, aims to showcase Bumble’s mission to challenge traditional gender norms by encouraging women to make the first move.

The ‘Make the First Move’ film highlights how taking charge in dating can be exciting, empowering, and fun for women. Staying true to its mission for women, the production for the campaign was also women-led, shot by a crew with over 70% women representation.

Lucille McCart, Bumble’s director for APAC, believes that equitable relationships are key to a happy and healthy life. 

“This campaign shows that while putting yourself out there to make the first move can be taking yourself out of your comfort zone, it can also lead to feeling more empowered, more confident, and making meaningful connections that can lead to lasting relationships,” said McCart.

Bumble believes the campaign comes at a time when Filipinos are leaning into virtual dating, given the impact of the pandemic and strict lockdowns. According to the platform, about 30% of people on Bumble in the Philippines said they want to date virtually only, while a further 42% said they are open to socially distanced dating, with just 25% still preferring to date in real life. 

The film will run across Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube, as well as TikTok, and local OTT platforms throughout September 2021.

Singapore – Realizing that more consumers are putting more emphasis to their health care in the mid of a pandemic, dating app Bumble has announced its ‘I Am Vaccinated’ badge across its users in Singapore, which shows the users a badge that affirms the user’s participation to their respective vaccination campaigns locally.

The new badge feature starts to roll out in Singapore next week, where users can add the badge to their profile, which will be shown to their potential partners when they use the app.

This feature was added onto the platform as Bumble has seen a steady increase in the number of people who have included the word ‘vaccine’ or ‘vaccinate’ in their profiles after the first COVID-19 vaccines were administered earlier this year.

According to Lucille McCart, director for APAC at Bumble, COVID-19 has significantly changed the way we have formed and strengthened social connections in light of lockdowns and social distancing measures. She added that they know that single individuals are still actively looking to take control of their dating lives as the situation turns for the better.

“Conversations around COVID-related safety remain a priority for our Bumble community, so it is important for us to make it easier for people to feel comfortable and assured while they forge new connections. With the new ‘I’m Vaccinated’ badge and other safety features, people can easily communicate their dating preferences on the Bumble app,” McCart stated.

Bumble has existing COVID-19 related features in their app, which includes the COVID Preferences Center within the app, which allows its community across the globe to indicate what kind of dates they feel comfortable going on — whether purely virtual, socially distanced, or socially distanced with a mask when local restrictions permit.

The pandemic has interrupted face-to-face social interactions, but it did not stop people from wanting to have social connections. Tinder recorded more than 3 billion swipes on March 29, 2020, which sets the highest single-day record in the history of the dating app. For Bumble, video and voice call usage has increased by 21 percent during the pandemic. As people stayed indoors due to state-imposed lockdowns, users are leveraging the messaging and video calling features of online dating apps to meet new people and expand their social circle.

With the increasing internet penetration rate, the Asia Pacific (APAC) market is catching up with other regions in terms of dating app usage. According to market research, APAC will show the highest growth rate by the year 2025. While the opportunities for growth in the online dating industry are significant, companies within the sector must take steps to know what works for mobile marketing in this emerging and highly-competitive market. A strategy that focuses on user acquisition, monetization, and retention will play a vital role in determining the success or failure of a dating app.

Knowing the app users’ behavior is a critical step. Online dating apps should find the right technology and leverage the data that they have to reach their target audience, and provide a user experience that is fun, unique and responsive. Brands that make data-driven decisions are more inclined to see a remarkable difference in parameters such as the number of users, session lengths, and engagement.

Here are some tips for marketers to improve their online dating app’s overall performance:

1. Find the right time to engage with users 

Anonymized user data from mobile measurement company Adjust’s top dating apps for the year 2020 shows that installs and sessions are highest on weekends. Installs begin to pick up on Fridays and are seen to be at the highest on Saturdays. Time spent within the apps is also significantly higher on weekends as shown in the spike of session length on Saturdays compared to other days of the week. Finding the right opportunity to engage with the target audience and users is crucial in improving installs and increasing user retention rates. By looking at data, online dating apps can adapt a marketing plan that can help achieve the desired results.

2. Keep the interest high

Session length spikes early for dating apps, which suggests that users of the app start looking at matches and interact with potential partners upon download. When compared with gaming or news apps, the session lengths increase as the users become more familiar with the game or begin to appreciate the benefits of the news app. However, for online dating apps, the initial buzz can wear off quickly and session length starts to drop off towards day 30. Online dating apps need to consider this difference in usage patterns to improve user engagement. Personalized, impactful, and perfectly-timed push notifications are a tried and tested approach that encourages and motivates users to come back into the app. By leveraging data, online dating apps can effectively segment users and tweak the frequency of the message to achieve optimal results.

3. Understand what brought the users to your app

Subscription is the primary monetization model for online dating apps. Unlike gaming or news, dating app users’ motivations are very different since the goal is to find a partner and leave the app. Investing in event tracking can help online dating apps understand the user’s overall app experience. Brands can measure the entire subscription funnel and leverage this data to build accurate lifetime value models that increase investment returns. It is essential to analyze the entire customer lifecycle – from what brought them into an app when they have activated their trial and the detailed journey behind each subscriber until they cancel and even reactivate.

4. Protect your app users

On forums and social media platforms, users of online dating apps complain about having their experiences ruined by fake accounts. Using bots, fraud actors are generating fake accounts on a big scale to be used for fake likes, views, and comments, and lure users into scams. Fake accounts are also being used to spread spam linked to other sites. Bots can take automatic actions and stay active for extended periods in the platform, which can cause substantial damage by interacting with many users.

To protect users, online dating apps need to ensure that there is a function within the app to report if the users have interacted with a bot. By installing this feature, users are able to help out in cleaning the app’s user base. Behavioral biometrics is the gold standard for bot detection.

Machine learning models that analyze various biometric indicators are so complex that it is almost impossible for fraudsters to spoof. By separating the patterns and behavior of real users from those of bad actors, online dating apps can ensure that users are protected.

With the pandemic drastically changing how people interact and with the growing acceptance of online dating apps, the online dating industry presents numerous growth opportunities. Dating apps aiming to make inroads in a highly competitive market must invest in maintaining a positive user experience, as well as building and sustaining a good reputation.

The article was written by April Tayson, Regional VP INSEA at Adjust.

Adjust is a global mobile marketing solutions firm.

Singapore – The pandemic has been a driving force of the increase of Google searches related to Valentine’s Day gifts, more specifically a 57% increase compared to 2019, according to statistics from e-commerce aggregator iPrice.

iPrice observed certain Asian countries’ Google searches on romantic gifts, such as in Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam, and it was found that among gifts searched during Valentine’s day, ‘Care Packages’ were looked into the most, with a surge of 238%. ‘Care package’ is a term coined during the lockdown, which refers to a personalized bundle of items that could contain any gifts such as food, stationery, or even health-related items, as a gesture of connecting to loved ones and friends.

The top search on the term was followed by ‘scented candles’, which tallied a 236% surge. Interestingly, ‘lingerie gift’ searches have also spiked by 82%.

Which are the most sought after gifts this Valentines - iPrice Group

Common gift items for Valentine’s Day have also seen a greater increase in online searches, including terms ‘roses’ (123%), ‘flowers’ (83%), ‘chocolates’ (50%), and ‘bouquets’ (49%).

Dating apps have also drawn greater attention at a time of lesser physical interactions. The same report has stated that between the period of February 2020 and January 2021, keywords results in relation to each country’s top 5 dating apps have increased. 

The study explains that this means if a person types any of the top dating apps in the app store, like ‘Tinder’ for example, results for apps like Tinder would show. iPrice observed such an increase in suggested dating apps related to dating apps in all Asian countries during the pandemic.

Did the pandemic drive the rise of dating apps in Asia - iPrice Group

Interestingly, Taiwan takes the top spot with a surge of 194% of keyword results of dating apps. The trend is followed by Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam, and Singapore with the most increase in keyword results on dating apps in the App Store.