Tinder owner to pay founders $441 million to settle valuation lawsuit

NEW YORK, United States - The company that owns Tinder will pay $441 million to the popular dating app's founders to settle a dispute over the valuation of stock options, documents showed Wednesday.

The suit filed in New York in 2018 contended that Tinder owner Match Group, and its then-parent firm InterActiveCorp, schemed to dramatically drive down the value of stock options and then eliminate them altogether.

Co-creators Sean Rad, Justin Mateen and Jonathan Badeen alleged Match and IAC relied on bogus figures to arrive at a valuation of $3 billion in 2017 -- when Tinder was actually worth more than four times that. 

Created in 2012, Tinder now has more than 10 million paying users who can quickly scroll through possible romantic matches, and then swipe left or right to signal interest.

With options on about 20 percent of Tinder's stock, the founders and their early employees felt they had been shortchanged by several billion dollars. 

Match will pay $441 million to the 10 Tinder alumni, including the three co-founders, in exchange for them agreeing to end all legal actions, according to a document filed Wednesday with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. 

Listed on the stock exchange in 2015, Match Group was completely spun off from IAC in 2020 and also owns dating platforms like Hinge, Meetic and OkCupid.

Agence France-Presse

Love during lockdown: Singles in US reinvent dating

How do you find love when you're stuck at home? The coronavirus pandemic has made that challenging, to say the least. But millions of single Americans are finding ways.

Some have attempted socially distanced outings, others have turned to steamy video chats, while still others have tried international online dating as people adapt the art of seduction to the virus era -- and dating apps are finding ways to adjust.

In normal times, Kate Earle, a 30-year-old teacher in Washington, finds it fairly easy to connect in person with men she finds attractive at first glance on Tinder.

"But because that's not an option, the conversations are going on much longer," she said.

Earle said those conversations also seem to veer more often toward "online sexual interaction," but she added that she has never considered breaking lockdown rules for an in-person date.

"I think everybody is a little bit sexually frustrated, and I am as well," she said.

"And there's definitely been temptation to meet up with somebody... but I think it's not so much that I would actually do it."

- Masks off -

The Great Lockdown has driven single people around the world to online dating apps in record numbers.

Tinder saw an all-time high in usage on March 29, with more than three billion "swipes," and the number of messages exchanged on rival app Bumble increased 26 percent over a two-week period in March in the United States.

The lockdown order came at the worst possible time for Beatrice, who was newly separated from her husband and living in the US capital.

A 30-something Frenchwoman, she registered with several online dating apps in mid-March.

Since then, she has found herself bending some of the confinement rules to improvise outings with her new acquaintances.

"I was a bit nervous," she told AFP. "It's hard walking with a mask on your face when you're meeting someone for the first time. So you end up taking off the mask after five minutes."

After a few disappointing outings during which she observed physical separation rules, she met someone she liked -- "and we ended up not respecting social distancing," she admitted.

- 'The cherry on top' -

In the new normal created by the virus crisis, video dating is fast becoming the norm. While Tinder lacks this option, both Hinge and Bumble offer virtual dating.

Zach Schleien launched his Filter Off app for video speed-dating just before the pandemic struck, and at first only a few thousand users signed up. But that changed quickly.

"It's like a 7,000 percent increase in less than a month," said the 29-year-old New Yorker, who believes online dating is the best way to assess possible romantic interest before meeting in person. "It's been nuts."

So, can a romantic candlelight dinner with a stranger -- on a laptop screen -- really work?

Dating coach Bela Gandhi cited the example of one client, a woman in her 60s, "who has fallen in love with somebody in the last six weeks, and they've only met via Skype."

Gandhi, who founded the Smart Dating Academy website, says video can make it easy to develop "emotional intimacy."

"And then it's just the cherry on top of the sundae once you meet in person."

But Alexandra Solomon, a clinical psychologist on the faculty of Northwestern University outside Chicago, doesn't see it quite that way.

"Thank goodness we have video dating for now," she said, but added: "When we come out of this, I really want people to go back to meeting across the table over a glass of wine or a cup of tea and having that old-fashioned organic experience of each other."

Meanwhile, for those interested in exploring possible matches abroad, Tinder is keeping its Passport feature free until Monday.

After that, "matches will remain, so no one has to say goodbye to anyone new they've met," said a Tinder spokesman.

Agence France-Presse

Facebook launches new Dating feature

MANILA, Philippines — When one says Facebook, what does this mean? Chatting with friends? Playing games? Sharing of photos?

This may begin to change as Facebook entered another social territory with the launching of Facebook Dating to 19 countries — including the Philippines — on Wednesday.


According to Charmaine Hung, Facebook Dating product manager, the feature is available within the Facebook application, which would allow people to match with other Facebook Dating users based on their preferences and interests.

“People in the Philippines already use the platform to connect and celebrate relationships, and we are excited to offer them new ways of doing so,” Hung said in a pre-launch press briefing.

How it works

Hung said Facebook users have to ensure that they have the updated version of the application to access the feature.

Within the Facebook app, users have to look for the Facebook Dating button and create an account separate from their own Facebook account.


Once the account has been set up, Facebook will look for possible matches depending on preferences and interests of the user.

The user will then have an option of expressing interest or passing on the possible match.

Users can also send a message to another user they are interested in even if they have yet to match. The user, however, can only send one message until the other party responds.

Facebook Dating has a separate messaging platform from Facebook Messenger where users can message each other.

Users also have the option include their preferences such as location, distance, gender, and age range for better matches.

Other information users can provide include religious views, height, job, educational background, and whether or not they want to have children in the future.

Similar to Facebook, users can also block and report other users who are being inappropriate in the application.

Hung, however, clarified that users have to be at least 18 years old and that Facebook friends could not match with each other.

Separating factors

Asked about the separating factor of Facebook Dating over other dating applications, Hung said they have the “Secret Crush” feature which allows users to anonymously let their “Facebook friend” know that they are interested in them.

“If you choose to use Secret Crush, you can select up to nine of your Facebook friends who you want to express interest in. If your crush has opted into Facebook Dating, they will get a notification saying that someone has a crush on them,” Hung said.

The “crush” will only be informed of the identity of the user once he or she has also expressed interest to the other party.

“If your crush adds you to their Secret Crush list, it’s a match. If there isn’t a match, then no one will know that you’ve entered a friend’s name,” Hung said.

Users can also retrieve other users who they have previously passed on through the “second look” feature. Other dating applications offer the same service by paying a certain amount. 



“Everything that you see [in Facebook Dating] are completely free so we are really proud to say that all of these things are free. We won’t be charging for any features even if they are considered premium somewhere else,” Hung said.

Hung said can also check possible matches in events, for instance, who is attending an event that the user will also be attending.

/atm

source: technology.inquirer.net