The newsroom for the people building the dating industry.
FundingKnown's $10M Bet: Charge Per Date and Let the Incumbents WatchKnown charges $15 per confirmed first date. No subscriptions, no premium tiers, no pay-to-be-seen features. The company has raised $10M from Forerunner Ventures, NFX, and Pair VC since launching in Sa…
The DataThe $189 Date Is Pricing Half of America Out of the Dating MarketThe average cost of a US date hit $189 in 2026, up 12.5% from $168 the year before, according to Bank of Montreal's Real Financial Progress Index. 47% of single Americans now say dating is no longer f…
PolicyMeta's Body-Scanning AI Sets the Age-Check Bar. Dating Is Next.Meta deployed AI that analyzes height, bone structure, and physical markers in photos to identify users under 13 on Facebook and Instagram, months after a New Mexico court ordered the company to pay $…
M&AMatch Group's $100M Sniffies Bet Puts Gay Cruising Culture on a TimerMatch Group (MTCH) invested $100M for a minority stake in Sniffies, with an option to acquire the platform outright later. Within hours of the April 27 announcement, Sniffies' Instagram filled with us…
PlatformsHinge's Signals Badge Rewards Behavior, Not OutcomesHinge's new 'Signals' badge marks users who send personalized messages, confirm dates, and sustain platform activity. It cannot be purchased. Match Group (MTCH) reported year-over-year revenue decline…
PlatformsTinder Bets Its Future on a Biometric Partner Two Nations BannedMatch Group (MTCH) has partnered with World, Sam Altman's biometric scanning company, to offer iris-scanning verification on Tinder. World has faced a regulatory suspension in Spain, an outright ban i…
FundingGame of War's Co-Founder Backs an Anti-Screen-Time Dating AppMike Sherrill, co-founder of Machine Zone and architect of Game of War ($2.8B in revenue before AppLovin acquired the company), has invested an undisclosed sum in SPARK, a Singapore dating startup bui…
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