Hayley Birkin

Match Group is partnering with World to introduce iris-scanning verification on Tinder. World has faced action in Spain, Kenya and Germany.

Machine Zone co-founder Mike Sherrill has backed SPARK, a Singapore dating app that aims to cut screen time, with an undisclosed sum.

Bumble has taken a $475 million senior secured term loan from STORY3 Capital Partners and lenders to retire its existing term loan in full.

Swiss dating startup noii dropped its matching algorithm for in-person events and drew 350 attendees to its first German event in Stuttgart.

EliteSingles shuts permanently on 30 April 2026 with 48 hours' notice, as parent Spark Networks faces insolvency proceedings in Germany.

Grindr is running a Madonna campaign for Confessions II in its app, testing ad revenue beyond subscriptions across 14 million monthly active users.

Psychiatrist Amir Levine argues Match Group's $9 billion app business exploits users' threat-detection systems, and 78% report emotional exhaustion.

Tinder's user base fell 23%, from 65.4 million in 2021 to 50.5 million, and men are roughly 75% of users, according to Match Group's latest figures.

84% of EU adults do not trust American tech firms with their data, per a Politico survey, a risk for Match Group and Bumble.

Eight, a Portuguese video-first dating app open only 8pm to 9pm, has raised €256,600 of a planned €3M seed round.

Chinese dating platform Yidui has refiled for a Hong Kong IPO, reporting 16.4% of users pay and 98.7% of revenue from virtual gifts.

Match Group has launched The League, its invite-only, LinkedIn-verified dating app, in Mumbai and Delhi, its first expansion into Asia.

Plus 1, a South Florida plans-based app, reached 10,000 downloads in six months and introduced premium tiers without disclosing retention data.

Tinder is repositioning as a 'connection platform' to address loneliness, citing a $125M annual trust and safety spend and in-person events.

Tinder downloads fell 21%, from 61 million in 2021 to 48 million in 2025, as Match Group CEO Spencer Rascoff restructures the app into smaller teams.

Friending has raised £5M in seed funding for a friendship app that deletes chats after 48 hours and pushes in-person meetups, a model the story questions.

Dining app 222 has raised $10.1M in Series A funding, taking its total to $13.7M, for AI-curated group dinners at $22 per month in four US cities.

Bumble's Q4 revenue of $273M beat expectations by 1.3% while paying users fell 20.5% to 3.1M after it cut performance marketing by over 80%.

Meta now charges advertisers 2-5% 'location fees' on campaigns in six countries, including the UK and France, raising user acquisition costs for dating apps.

13D Management sold its entire Match Group stake, 64,350 shares worth $4.69M, in Q4 2024, according to SEC filings.