The newsroom for the people building the dating industry.
This Week in Dating Business
The Romance Scam Prevention Act Is Now Law. Dating Apps Have Until October 2027.
Match and Grindr Report Next Week. Here Is What to Watch.
States Challenge Character.AI's Sale Process Ahead of October 30 Hearing
Match Group Partners With India's Cybercrime Centre on Romance Scam Warnings
Three Plead Guilty in $9 Million Romance Fraud Case Built on Fake Dating Profiles
ProductTinder Launches Group Hangouts, Matching Friend Groups With Each OtherTinder's new Group Hangouts lets friend groups match with other groups around a shared activity, starting in the U.S.
PlatformsGoogle Goes on Trial in London Over Play Store CommissionsA £1 billion UK class action over Google's Play Store commissions is now at trial. App store fees are one of a dating app's biggest costs.
FundingClockout Raises $3.5 Million to Get Professionals Meeting in PersonNetworking app Clockout has raised $3.5 million led by 114 Ventures and reports $1.1 million in annual recurring revenue.
The DataThe Week in Dating Business: September 22 to October 1, 2026Match relaunches Upward, Blackstone sells more Bumble at its lowest price yet, Congress passes a romance scam law, and Singapore builds its own dating app.
M&ABlackstone Keeps Selling Bumble, Now at Its Lowest Price YetBlackstone sold about 4.8 million more Bumble shares on September 28 at roughly $2.94, its third quarterly sale this year and the lowest price yet.
PlatformsMatch Is Selling Intent Now. Its Numbers Say It Has To.Match relaunched Upward for marriage-minded singles while telling investors Tinder won't stop shrinking until late 2027.
PolicyAustralia Is Turning Dating Safety Into a Legal Duty. Here Is What It Costs.Dating apps will need annual written risk assessments under Australia's proposed digital duty of care. What it costs operators, and why it won't stay local.
PolicyCongress Passes the Romance Scam Prevention ActDating apps will have to warn users when someone they messaged is banned for fraud. Platforms get a year to comply once it's signed.
FundingEx-Tinder Executive's Rivet Raises $10.5 Million to Put People Back in MatchmakingFormer Tinder executive Taru Kapoor launched Rivet across the U.S. with a $10.5 million seed round and a crowd-sourced matching model.
ProductOnce Stops Being a Dating AppThe app built on one curated match a day now sells chat, charging in-app currency to keep talking, even to paying subscribers.
PolicySingapore's Government Launches Its Own Dating Service for Civil ServantsSingapore's GovTech launched FirstDate, a Singpass-verified dating pilot for public officers aged 21 to 35 that delivers one match per cycle.
ProductPLEEZR Bets Matching on 'Masculine and Feminine Energy'PLEEZR launched this month with a matching algorithm built around a proprietary assessment of users' "masculine and feminine energy ratios," promising fewer matches with deeper compatibility. Founder…
Have a tip, a correction, or a pitch?
We're the people who write and edit this newsroom. Write to us directly, we reply within one business day.
Sources are protected. We reply personally.