For lesbians, TikTok is ‘the next Tinder’

On Feb. 3, Lauren Vlach received $8 on Venmo, spread across four $2 payments, from a girl she had never met. Each payment included a block of text; read together, they formed what Cas Stephens, who sent the payments, titled her “girlfriend application” to Vlach.

Name: Cas Stephens

Location: Minnesota

One of the pros of dating her: “Can do a back flip on a snowboard.”

One of the cons: “Have not seen any Disney movies.”

Though she pursued her on Venmo, Stephens, 20, found Vlach, 22, on TikTok, where her videos were racking up thousands of views. Stephens, on the other hand, didn’t have a profile picture yet. She figured it would be easier to get Vlach’s attention elsewhere and seized on the Venmo handle listed in her bio.

Her application was accepted, and they went on their first date that night, to watch the sun rise at the Minnesota state Capitol in St. Paul. They have been documenting their relationship on TikTok ever since.

“Proves TikTok is the best lesbian dating app,” Vlach wrote in the caption of their first video together.

This is a common sentiment on Lesbian TikTok, a corner of the app dominated by funky earrings and references to indie musician Girl in Red. Like other niches, Lesbian TikTok has its own influencers, cliques, memes and drama. But it is also a hub of community, where those discovering, questioning and embracing their attraction to other women can find friends, solidarity and even love.

Like other social media, TikTok connects LGBTQ people around the world. And the impulse to convene online has only gotten stronger during quarantine. According to data from market research firm Sensor Tower, approximately 338 million first-time users downloaded TikTok from the App Store and Google Play from March 1 to May 31.

“A lot of my straight friends will be like, ‘Why don’t you just meet people in real life?’ But it’s hard to know if someone’s gay sometimes, and it can be kind of anxiety-inducing to bring that up with people,” said Rachael Thompson, 20, who lives in Arlington, Texas, and recently met up with a TikTok friend from New Orleans.

According to documents obtained by Ad Age in October 2019, 69 percent of TikTok users are between ages 16 and 24, meaning many users are too young to sign up for certain dating apps (where prospects are location-dependent), much less go to bars (few of which, increasingly, are designated for lesbians). Plus, many teenagers are still in the closet or figuring out their sexuality. TikTok is a place where they can do so safely.

Such a companionable environment can engender impressive thirstiness. On practically any video of a pretty girl, there will be multiple comments asking, “Do you listen to Girl in Red?” — Gen Z’s female-specific version of “Are you a friend of Dorothy?”

That boldness has its downsides, though.

“Nobody should be forced to come out, ever,” said Olivia Boardman, 20, who met her girlfriend on TikTok during quarantine. She said publicly asking if someone is gay “puts people in an uncomfortable position.”

Boardman, who was outed when she was 14, said many teenage girls have sought her guidance after seeing her on TikTok. (Her bio: “CEO of giving advice to gays.”)

Unlike on Twitter or Instagram, TikTok users scroll through a main feed, or “For You” page, of algorithm-generated videos from users they may not follow. This makes for a contained user experience: Someone can join TikTok, and if they search for, interact with or create lesbian videos, their For You page will mainly contain lesbian videos. Straight influencers like Charli D’Amelio may have droves of followers, but a member of Lesbian TikTok (or other niche communities, like Alt TikTok, WitchTok or Frog TikTok) could feasibly never see them.

Avery Blanchard, 20, who is known online as Avery Cyrus, said she thought Lesbian TikTok was “the only TikTok” when she first joined the app.

“I just didn’t even know that there was a regular side of TikTok,” she said.

If Lesbian TikTok were its own world, it could be broken down into many countries with their own national anthems — songs played over and over in users’ videos. There are the cottagecore girls (anthem: Mitski’s “Strawberry Blonde” or anything by Hozier), the couples (anthem: Girl in Red’s “We Fell in Love in October”) and the aesthetes (anthem: Vivaldi’s “Summer,” from “Portrait of a Lady on Fire”), among others.

“It reminds me a lot of if AOL chat rooms could come to life,” said Shelli Nicole, a writer who has covered Lesbian TikTok for queer women’s website Autostraddle.

Influencers like Blanchard would occupy the largest territory in Lesbian TikTok World. She joined the app in October on a dare; now she has 1.6 million followers.

Blanchard met another TikTok influencer, Soph Mosca, 21, at popular creator convention Playlist Live in February. They hit it off and are now involved. Blanchard said she didn’t expect TikTok to become a matchmaking site when she first joined. “I didn’t know it had the potential to, like, be the next Tinder,” she said.

“I never thought I would date someone from TikTok,” echoed Rachael Espie, 18, who met her girlfriend, Sarah Pye, 20, when she happened upon one of Pye’s videos in her feed. Their relationship is intercontinental: Espie lives in Glasgow, Scotland, and Pye lives in California.

Lesbian TikTok has had a huge impact on Espie’s life beyond finding her a girlfriend. She said the app inspired her to come out as a lesbian in December 2019.

Vlach had a similar story: Having only dated men, she said she joined TikTok because she heard there was “this whole lesbian community” on the app.

“I can’t wait til I experience a love like this,” an 18-year-old user commented on one of Vlach’s videos with Stephens.

“I hope you find it one day,” Vlach replied.

-Lena Wilson, The New York Times-

Will Facebook Dating swipe online lovebirds out of digital nest?

PARIS — All's fair in electronic love and dating - or is it? The battle for hearts and minds of couples seeking their perfect match online has taken a new turn.

If you're a flirty mobile warrior Tindering on the brink or Bumbling from one swipe to the next be aware there's another game in town as Facebook muscles in to place its own tanks on the lawn.

As online dating becomes the virtual norm -- some experts suggest half of British couples will meet that way come the end of the decade -- Facebook's gradual arrival on the dating scene -- launched progressively in the Americas and Southeast Asia -- looks set to shake up the market.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg said last month he saw the company as moving towards the forefront of online dating having promised at the outset a service "for building real long-term relationships -- not just hook-ups." 

But rivals are not quaking in their boots just yet, despite the size of the social media giant's global footprint with more than 2 billion monthly active users some of whose data it now could leverage for romantic purposes. 

"Facebook (Dating) has been going in certain countries for more than a year now and, for the moment, we've seen nothing change in terms of market share," said Didier Rappaport, founder and managing director of popular French dating app Happn -- motto, 'crushes don't fall from the sky'.

Contacted by AFP, Facebook was not able to say exactly when it would launch its dating variant in Europe. Early 2020 had been the mooted target but on the eve of Valentine's Day, this Friday, its rivals were still waiting with bated breath to see what effect such a storied -- and free -- competitor may have.

"From social networks to dating sites is just a step which does not require enormous technological investment," observed Julien Pillot, a researcher and lecturer at leading French business school Inseec. 

Pillot said Facebook has "copied everything which worked well on other applications and added two or three functionalities. What interests them is getting users to link in the sharing of private content."

Rappaport said a fundamental issue is whether social networks are a good fit for dating.

"Are social networks and meeting up a match? In my view, no, as what marks out a social network is the sharing of information -- whereas dating moves into the intimate sphere," he said.

A December opinion poll of 21,000 Americans by Piplsay showed only 23 percent of responders would happily let Facebook securely store their personal data on its dating platform.

Clementine Lalande, co-founder of French dating app Once, which only allows a user to select one profile a day, notes that "the big problem with generalist applications is you end up with a mass of users who don't share the same interest communities."

TINDER SURE OF ITS CHARMS 

If Facebook's challengers are not yet professing too much concern at the Californian colossus's arrival that is because they are too busy being wary of Match Group, the US internet firm which has split off from parent and controlling shareholder IAC and which owns dating brands such as Hinge, OKCupid, Match.com, Meetic and, not least, Tinder.

Tinder ranked top for user monetization in a study across a range of non-game apps last year by specialist data provider AppAnnie, raking in $1.2 billion across the year in a global marked valued at some $2.2 billion.

Jean-Baptiste Bourgeois and Kevin Pasquier, strategic planners with We Are Social digital agency, told AFP that "Tinder has redefined the whole user dating path."

In its basic form, "it is a fairly cunning mechanism which after several swipes limits the user, frustrates him and generates fear of missing a rare pearl" who might be out there.

A way of capturing that pearl or at least reduce one's chances of missing out is to take out a subscription offering wider functionality.

The model has found favor with most rivals as they seek to portray themselves as being above the superficiality of simply chasing an image.

Match Group head Amanda W. Ginsberg says her firm "will not underestimate" Facebook's potential to corner the market, not least given the numbers already on its platform and ease of access. 

"But for now we don't see any consequence for any of our brands."

A Tinder spokesman told AFP meanwhile it sees its rivals as general apps popular with young web surfers such as Tik Tok, Snapchat, Netflix and YouTube rather than dedicated dating apps.

Agence France-Presse 

Tinder unveils 'panic button' for emergency response

WASHINGTON - Tinder announced Thursday that US users would soon have a "panic button" to alert authorities to potentially dangerous situations as part of a stepped up safety initiative by the popular dating app.

A new feature unveiled by Tinder will allow users to opt into the personal safety app Noonlight, which connects users to personal emergency services.

A Tinder spokesperson said the feature would roll out in the coming days in the United States and connect users to "trained dispatchers who contact authorities on behalf of the user."

The new safety feature "acts as a silent bodyguard in situations when you're alone or meeting someone for the first time," said Brittany LeComte, co-founder of Noonlight.

Tinder is also adding photo verification, to compare using artificial intelligence a posed photo taken in real-time to profile photos.

Members with authenticated pictures will get a "badge" that verifies their images are authentic. The photo feature is being tested "in select markets" and will be widely available later this year.

Tinder, known for giving users the option to "swipe" right or left to accept or reject a date, is the largest of the apps in Match Group, operating in 190 countries, claiming to facilitate one million dates per week.

To help allay concerns on personal risks, Tinder said it is launching a safety center within the app to keep users informed of its resources.

This feature is being launched in the United States, Britain, France and Germany and will be "localized" for additional markets throughout the year.

Tinder and its online dating siblings including PlentyOfFish, OkCupid and Hinge, which make up the Match Group, will be spun off as an independent company this year, according to parent firm IAC.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Grindr, Tinder spread personal details, study says

Popular dating services like Grindr, OkCupid and Tinder are spreading user information like dating choices and precise location to advertising and marketing companies in ways that may violate privacy laws, according to a new report that examined some of the world’s most downloaded Android apps.

Grindr, the world’s most popular gay dating app, transmitted user-tracking codes and the app’s name to more than a dozen companies, essentially tagging individuals with their sexual orientation, according to the report, which was released Tuesday by the Norwegian Consumer Council, a government-funded nonprofit organization in Oslo.

Grindr also sent a user’s location to multiple companies, which may then share that data with many other businesses, the report said. When The New York Times tested Grindr’s Android app, it shared precise latitude and longitude information with 5 companies.

The researchers also reported that the OkCupid app sent a user’s ethnicity and answers to personal profile questions — like “Have you used psychedelic drugs?" — to a firm that helps companies tailor marketing messages to users. The Times found that the OkCupid site had recently posted a list of more than 300 advertising and analytics “partners” with which it may share users’ information.

“Any consumer with an average number of apps on their phone — anywhere between 40 and 80 apps — will have their data shared with hundreds or perhaps thousands of actors online,” said Finn Myrstad, the digital policy director for the Norwegian Consumer Council, who oversaw the report.

The report, “Out of Control: How Consumers Are Exploited by the Online Advertising Industry,” adds to a growing body of research exposing a vast ecosystem of companies that freely track hundreds of millions of people and peddle their personal information. This surveillance system enables scores of businesses, whose names are unknown to many consumers, to quietly profile individuals, target them with ads and try to sway their behavior.

The report appears just two weeks after California put into effect a broad new consumer privacy law. Among other things, the law requires many companies that trade consumers’ personal details for money or other compensation to allow people to easily stop the spread of their information.

In addition, regulators in the European Union are stepping up enforcement of their own data protection law, which prohibits companies from collecting personal information on religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, sex life and other sensitive subjects without a person’s explicit consent.

The Norwegian group said it planned to file complaints Tuesday asking regulators in Oslo to investigate Grindr and 5 ad tech companies for possible violations of the European data protection law. A coalition of consumer groups in the US said it was also sending letters to American regulators, including the attorney general of California, urging them to investigate whether the companies’ practices violated federal and state laws.

In a statement, the Match Group, which owns OkCupid and Tinder, said it worked with outside companies to assist with providing services and shared only specific user data deemed necessary for those services. Match added that it complied with privacy laws and had strict contracts with vendors to ensure the security of users’ personal data.

In a statement, Grindr said it had not received a copy of the report and could not comment specifically on the content. Grindr added that it valued users’ privacy, had put safeguards in place to protect their personal information and described its data practices — and users’ privacy options — in its privacy policy

The report examines how developers embed software from ad tech companies into their apps to track users’ app use and real-life locations, a common practice. To help developers place ads in their apps, ad tech companies may spread users’ information to advertisers, personalized marketing services, location data brokers and ad platforms.

The personal data that ad software extracts from apps is typically tied to a user-tracking code that is unique for each mobile device. Companies use the tracking codes to build rich profiles of people over time across multiple apps and sites. But even without their real names, individuals in such data sets may be identified and located in real life.

For the report, the Norwegian Consumer Council hired Mnemonic, a cybersecurity firm in Oslo, to examine how ad tech software extracted user data from 10 popular Android apps. The findings suggest that some companies treat intimate information, like sexual orientation or drug habits, no differently from more innocuous information, like favorite foods.

Among other things, the researchers found that Tinder sent a user’s gender and the gender the user was looking to date to two marketing firms.

The researchers did not test iPhone apps. Settings on both Android phones and iPhones enable users to limit ad tracking.

The group’s findings illustrate how challenging it would be for even the most intrepid consumers to track and hinder the spread of their personal information.

Grindr’s app, for instance, includes software from MoPub, Twitter’s ad service, which can collect the app’s name and a user’s precise device location, the report said. MoPub in turn says it may share user data with more than 180 partner companies. One of those partners is an ad tech company owned by AT&T, which may share data with more than 1,000 “third-party providers.”

In a statement, Twitter said: “We are currently investigating this issue to understand the sufficiency of Grindr’s consent mechanism. In the meantime, we have disabled Grindr’s MoPub account.”

AT&T did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The spread of users’ location and other sensitive information could present particular risks to people who use Grindr in countries, like Qatar and Pakistan, where consensual same-sex sexual acts are illegal.

This is not the first time that Grindr has faced criticism for spreading its users’ information. In 2018, another Norwegian nonprofit group found that the app had been broadcasting users’ HIV status to 2 mobile app service companies. Grindr subsequently announced that it had stopped the practice.

The report’s findings also raise questions about the extent to which businesses are complying with the new California privacy law. The law requires many companies that benefit from trading consumers’ personal details to prominently post a “Do Not Sell My Data” option, allowing people to stop the spread of their information.

But Grindr’s stance challenges that idea. By agreeing to its policy, its site says, users “are directing us to disclose” their personal information “and, therefore, Grindr does not sell your personal data.”

Myrstad said many consumers were comfortable sharing their data with apps they trusted. “But this study clearly shows that many apps abuse that trust,” he said. “Authorities need to enforce the rules we have, and if they are not good enough, we have to make better rules.”


2020 The New York Times Company

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Tinder Gold offers smarter swiping at a price

“Tinder’s definitely not a game,” said Elie Seidman, the company’s chief executive, in a recent interview. “At the core, it’s about human connection.”

If you squint, though, the app doesn’t look so different from the countless mobile games on the market. Tinder has a clear objective and explicit rules. At any time of day, there are tens of millions of people playing, er, swiping, on the dating app. And, like the games with which it competes for screen time, Tinder charges users who want a leg up.

For example, in Clash of Clans, a mobile game in which you build and defend a village, you can use real money to buy “gems,” the basic currency of that game. On Tinder, you can buy extra “super likes” (which alert others that you are enamored of them) and “boosts” (which make your profile more visible to people in the area).

Or, to really increase your chances, you might subscribe to Tinder Gold for about $30 a month. (The price depends on multiple factors, including where you live and how many years you have walked the Earth searching for a partner.)

Tinder Gold grants users access to a feature called “Likes You,” which gives them a list of people who have swiped right on them. Suddenly, there’s no futile swiping whatsoever. Instead, you’ve got a (hopefully long) list of strangers with whom you’re guaranteed to match. It’s something like god mode, for a dating app.

“The structure of those in-app purchases are highly similar to the structure of in-app purchases for games, in that you have those special abilities,” said Randy Nelson, the head of mobile insights at Sensor Tower, an analytics firm. “A direct line can be drawn from the boosts and power-ups in a game to the boosts and power-ups in Tinder.”

Tinder has leveraged these to great effect since introducing Tinder Gold in 2017. It has become, according to Sensor Tower and App Annie, another analytics firm, the top-grossing nongaming app in the world.

And it’s only getting bigger: Tinder announced on Tuesday that it had added more than 500,000 subscribers worldwide in the last quarter, for a total of more than 5 million people paying for Tinder Gold or the less expensive Tinder Plus.

Back in 2015, according to Sensor Tower, the App Store’s top 10 grossing apps for the second quarter were all games. But in 2016, a subscription app, Spotify, entered the mix. In the second quarter of 2019, four nongaming apps — Tinder, Netflix, YouTube and Tencent Video — are in the top 10, along with games like Honor of Kings and Candy Crush Saga.

Tinder’s pricing structure splits the difference between those games and something like YouTube, whose premium package removes irritating advertisements and allows access to otherwise unavailable content.

Tinder is run by Match Group, the behemoth that owns most of the dating apps one might use, with the exception of Bumble. Another Match Group company, OkCupid, introduced Likes You as an option for paying customers starting in 2012. But Tinder’s founders were reluctant to incorporate it.

Gary Swidler, the chief financial officer of Match Group, said that “there was concern about breaking that core foundational principle of the double opt-in.”

The app’s current chief has no such qualms.

“They were mistaken,” Seidman said. (Several of the app’s founders, including Sean Rad, a former chief executive, are in a legal dispute with Match and its parent company, IAC.)

Most people think of Tinder as a free app, and it is free to most of its millions of users. Brent Thill, an analyst who covers the company for Jefferies Technology Group, said that Match Group overall had more than 80 million users. (The company does not release specific numbers for each app.)

Swidler said that roughly 70% of Tinder’s revenue comes from subscriptions; the other 30 percent comes from à la carte features, along with a small amount from advertising.

Some experts who had expressed doubt in Match Group have recently shifted gears. Goldman Sachs had advised investors to sell its stock in February, citing the likelihood of Tinder Gold subscribers ending their subscriptions and Facebook’s gearing up in the dating space. But in May, Goldman analysts adjusted their estimate, calling their previous view “myopic” in light of Match’s consistent subscriber growth.

That growth comes as Match Group continues to expand into new markets, building up its user base around the world.

“You get a huge advantage by getting a lot of free users,” Swidler said, explaining the company’s “product first, then monetization” strategy. Essentially, the larger the pool of people using Tinder, the more who might eventually pay for certain benefits. If they get frustrated enough.


2019 New York Times News Service

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Russia requires Tinder to share users' data with security services

MOSCOW -- Popular dating app Tinder is now required to share users' data with Russian security services after being placed on an official register, the country's telecoms watchdog said Monday.

Tinder has over 50 million users swiping right to select dating profiles and find a match. It is part of the US-based Match Group of social apps whose parent firm is InterActiveCorp. 

The Roskomnadzor watchdog said that Tinder was added to its register "after it presented the necessary information".

Roskomnadzor -- together with Russia's law enforcement authorities and security agencies including the feared FSB, the successor to the KGB -- keeps a register of so-called "organizers of information distribution". 

The register lists 175 sites and services including Russia's biggest bank Sberbank and the country's popular social media network VK.

By law, the companies on the register must store user data in Russia for 6 months -- including the content of messages exchanged -- and hand over any of the information to law enforcement authorities if requested to do so.

If the company refuses to comply, the authorities can act to block sites, as was the case last year with the embattled Telegram messaging app, created by maverick Russian Internet guru Pavel Durov.

In a statement, a Tinder spokesperson said the company had "received a request to register with the Russian authorities, and, as of now, we have registered to be compliant".

"However, this registration in no way shares any user or personal data with any Russian regulatory bodies and we have not handed over any data to their government," the spokesperson added.

Some Russian internet users made fun of the move, warning that FSB officers will now have access to any steamy correspondence or unrequited pickup attempts.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Tinder founders sue parent alleging cheating on stock options

SAN FRANCISCO - Tinder founders and early employees filed a lawsuit Tuesday accusing parent firm InterActiveCorp of cheating them out of billions of dollars by manipulating the value of stock options for the popular dating app.

The suit filed in New York contends that IAC and its spinoff Match Group, which owns Tinder, schemed to dramatically drive down the value of stock options and then eliminate them altogether.

The companies "made contractual promises to recruit and retain the men and women who built Tinder" but then "lied, bullied, and violated their contractual duties, stealing billions of dollars,"said attorney Orin Snyder, who filed the suit on behalf of Tinder co-founders Jonathan Badeen, Justin Mateen, Sean Rad and others from its startup days.

The suit names IAC and Match as defendants, accusing the companies of breach of contract and called for at least $2 billion in compensation along with punitive damages.

Tinder, created in 2012, uses geolocation to propose nearby romantic matches for users to quickly scroll through, then "swipe" left or right to signal interest.

It was launched as a project from IAC-owned Hatch Labs, and the holding company eventually acquired a majority stake.

According to the lawsuit, IAC last year "manufactured a fake Tinder valuation of $3 billion" which was unchanged from two years earlier, despite its revenues having grown 600 percent and user base grown 50 percent.

By "lowballing" the value of Tinder and then merging it into Match, the companies "robbed the Tinder plaintiffs of billions of dollars," the suit alleges.

IAC and Match said the allegations were "meritless" and pledged to contest the lawsuit.

"Mr. Rad (who was dismissed from the company a year ago) and Mr. Mateen (who has not been with the company in years) may not like the fact that Tinder has experienced enormous success following their respective departures, but sour grapes alone do not a lawsuit make," the companies said.

Match Group has paid out more than a billion dollars in equity compensation to Tinder founders and employees, according to IAC.

Plaintiffs in the case identified themselves as the team that built Los Angeles-based Tinder.

The lawsuit also claims the company sought to cover up allegations of sexual harassment against former Match Group chief Greg Blatt.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Tinder for shy types earns millions for millennial developer

MANILA - Valenice Balace quit her job in a telecommunications company to build a dating app for conservative Filipinas like her and the gamble has so far paid off by $100,000 (P5 million).

Peekawoo allows users to strike up conversations within the app on a variety of topics, unlike US-made Tinder, which matches users based solely on whether or not they like each other.

With Peekawoo as its flagship product, Honest Worldwide has earned $100,000 and grew its workforce to 50 from 4 in 5 years, Balace said.


"If the customers are happy, they will be willing to pay for it," she said in a recent forum of app developers for Google's Android platform.

Peekawoo charges P749 a month for users to access its full features. Tinder charges up to P999 per month.

"I think what made me do it was I really wanted to do something different with my life and like I was young. If ever I fail it's okay because you have the license to fail," she said.

At 29, Balace is CEO and managing partner of Honest Worldwide, which operates Peekawoo.

The millennial technology entrepreneur said it was intimidating starting a business at 23, but she believed Peekawoo is a "product that works."

"You have to be kind of confident and try to do baby steps, I think what makes it scary is if you think of the ending right away," she said.

"But if you think like task per task its actually quiet easy. Before you know it you're in the middle already," she said.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Dating app Tinder adds STD testing locator

NEW YORK - A feud between the operator of popular "hook-up" software and a leading sexual health advocacy group was settled on Thursday after the dating site agreed to add links to sexually transmitted disease testing locations.

The battle between dating site Tinder and the AIDS Healthcare Foundation stretches back to last fall when the Los Angeles based non-profit group put up billboards and advertisements in Los Angeles and New York associating Tinder with sexually transmitted diseases such as Chlamydia and gonorrhea.

Tinder, which is part of Match Group Inc, owned by IAC/InterActiveCorp, sent a "cease and desist" letter to the group after the billboards were erected.

Now that Tinder is adding the STD testing locator to its application, the group is removing its billboards and advertisements mentioning the software.

In a statement, the foundation noted the reasons for its campaign, citing a report on a dramatic rise in STDs in 2014 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"We are unfortunately now waging an uphill battle on this front," said Whitney Engeran Cordova, a senior director at the foundation. "The CDC also noted the majority of these infections are affecting young people - the demographic that is on their mobile phones all day long.”

Tinder on Thursday declined to comment on the cease and desist letter, but said in a statement, "An important aspect of any healthy relationship - whether formed on Tinder or otherwise - is ensuring sexual health and safety. While the CDC, who conducted the largest and most credible study on the topic, has never identified any connection that supports the idea that Tinder usage correlates with, let alone causes, an increase in STDs, we’re of course in favor of organizations that provide public education resources on the topic."

A free STD locator from the company Healthvana is available on Tinder's website under the health and safety section and under the frequently asked questions on the mobile application.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Group date? There are apps for that

Move over Tinder -- a crop of dating apps in smartphone-addicted Asia is offering to recruit friends for group dates or send along a chaperone to steer the course of romance.

While dating apps developed in the West encourage one-on-one, often no-strings-attached meetings, many in Asia are as much about old-school courtship or friendship in a region where meeting a stranger in a bar can still be a taboo.

"My upbringing was very close to my parents, religious, traditional and old-fashioned. You couldn't go on dates if your parents didn't know the guy," said Valenice Balace, who developed the Peekawoo service in the Philippines two years ago.

"I grew up with chaperoned dates and even when I was in college my kid sister was always with me on dates."

Too shy to make eye contact in bars as a singleton, the 26-year-old turned to apps similar to Tinder, which boasts tens of millions of active users, where photos of potential matches are instantly liked or rejected.

But after one man suggested he come to her house after their first online conversation, Balace realized the set-up was not for her.

And so the Filipina entrepreneur created an app which not only discouraged users from meeting one-on-one but also offered a chaperone service for those who requested it.

As Peekawoo expanded -– it now has around 7,000 members -– it was no longer practical for the small company to provide a chaperone for every couple who asked for one, and so Balace's team started organizing meetups instead.

It is a model shared by Hong Kong-based app Grouvly, which sets up groups of six people for dates.

'Hard to meet people'

"When I came to Asia, I realised it was hard to meet people," explains Colombian-born CEO Camilo Paredes.

"I also realized that most of the Asians were somewhat shy, they're not confrontational, they don't put themselves out there."

His solution was to mimic American Grouper, which matches two people according to the information on their Facebook profiles, then asks them to bring two friends with them to a bar for a six-person meet up.

While the majority of pairings are men meeting women, there is also the option of all-male or all-female dates.

"One-on-one can be super awkward. Two-on-two is still slightly awkward, but three-on-three is the magic number," says Paredes.

Alongside expats, Hong Kongers now make up 50 percent of Grouvly's users. In Singapore, most users are locals and there are plans to roll out the service to Japan, South Korea, Australia and China.

"For me, if somebody else likes the guy, they can have them," says Aly, a 24-year-old blogger from the UK and Grouvly regular.

"Ok, they're nice, but I've met them for what, two hours? I'm not going to cry about it."

Aly finds these apps can be as much about making friends as looking for love, with Peekawoo's founder saying this change of focus also allows women to take back control.

"There was one Peekawoo event where a Filipino-American guy offended a Filipina girl by asking her to go home with him," Balace remembered.

"I told her, 'I'm proud of you'. We told the guy what he did was wrong, and we never invited him again."

'Sign of promiscuity'
Even if the Singapore-based Paktor -- which claims 3.5 million registered users -- is less averse to hook ups, it has recently also added functions such as group chats.

"People either organise a group meeting or they reach out to one person in that chat to have a conversation with them," explains Joseph Phua, 31, co-founder of the app.

"It's true that people here tend to be more reserved, less direct," he added. "Asian society feels failure or rejection more strongly, it's just part of the fabric of society. That carries on into the dating space as well."

While apps are being created or tweaked to adapt to tamer local sensibilities, others like China's WeChat can lead to casual trysts with a location-based "Shake" function.

But meeting a partner online in a global hub like Hong Kong still remains less common than in the West -- despite 62.80 percent of people owning a smartphone, according to Google figures.

A 2011 survey led by Emil Ng Man-Lun of Hong Kong University's Family Institute found that just five percent of locals had met a partner online or via an app, compared to 22 percent of Americans, according to Stanford University research published that year.

"Our impression is that this is rising. But by how much it is rising, we are not sure yet," Ng says.

"People think they are a sign of promiscuity. They worry that they get into intimacy too early, without sufficient time for knowing each other. It seems, however, that these theories have not stopped people from using them."

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com