NEW HOPE, Pa.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Meet Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: MEET), a leading provider of interactive dating solutions, announced the launch of DateNight, the Company’s latest interactive feature, which makes anyone the star of their own dating game. DateNight is the first-ever livestreaming dating game that offers rewards to virtually anyone who plays. The game provides daters of its popular NextDate and BlindDate games who match during a DateNight event the opportunity to receive a free $10 gift card to one of 18 different national chain restaurants, giving away up to $15,000 worth of first dates every day. DateNight events will occur on Thursdays from 9:00 - 11:00 p.m. EDT throughout July and August.
The Meet Group is one of the largest providers of livestreaming dating games in the world. Over 185,000 dating games are played each day across The Meet Group’s apps, an increase of 95% since the declaration of a global pandemic in March. During the same period, the total time spent on the Company’s livestreaming dating platform increased by 39% to 1.4 million hours a day, with each livestreaming streamer or viewer spending on average more than 20 minutes a day.
“Based on the success of NextDate and BlindDate, we are pleased to launch our latest dating game experiment DateNight — leveraging video as a filter for in-person interaction and allowing anyone to be the star of their very own dating show,” said Geoff Cook, Chief Executive Officer of The Meet Group. “Dating apps have been evolving toward ever-increasing authenticity for years now. Nothing is more authentic than live video. At the start of the pandemic, video was a replacement for real-life interaction. Now, it is a filter to screen potential dates for connection and compatibility before ever meeting in person. Daters no longer have the risk appetite for meeting many different people in person based on a shallow interaction like swiping. They are increasingly demanding a video chat first, to prequalify potential dates. DateNight enhances that experience with the excitement of a virtual dating game with the promise of a face-to-face first date on us.”
Given that health and safety concerns in this time of COVID-19 are critically important, The Meet Group’s Safer Dating Advisory Board continues to advise the Company and its community, providing the latest in health and safety guidelines. Beyond viral safety, The Meet Group offers enhanced physical safety to all its daters through an industry-leading relationship with UrSafe. The 18 chains where gift cards may be redeemed were chosen for their outdoor seating and delivery options, and daters have a year to redeem their gift cards, offering flexibility in timing, so that they may date when they are ready. DateNight will only be held in states where the new case rate is less than 15 per 10,000 for three consecutive days. To limit frequent interactions, each person may redeem only one gift card per week. DateNight is currently available in Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, New York, Connecticut, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Maine, with more expected to follow each week of the summer as applicable.
“Both internal and external surveys show people are resuming their dating activity,” said Cook. “In fact, a recent external survey of 1,500 US daters revealed that 81% would be willing to go on an in-person date tomorrow if they met someone interesting on a dating app today. What’s more, 25% said they had dated in person in the last 30 days. The only relevant question is how to keep them safe and minimize risk.”
“I believe video dating can be an important filter prior to an in-person interaction in this age of pandemic,” said Dr. Tali Elfassy, an epidemiologist and Research Assistant Professor of Epidemiology in the Department of Public Health Sciences at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. “Beyond assessing appearance and personality, video also provides an opportunity to assess if your potential date has any obvious signs of illness, coughing or sneezing. It also provides a forum to ask important questions, like: do you live in a multi-generational household or have contact with people at higher risk of COVID illness, will you wear a mask, or do you take mass transit?”
DateNight is available on the Company’s MeetMe and Skout apps today.
About The Meet Group
The Meet Group (NASDAQ: MEET) is a leading provider of interactive dating solutions designed to meet the universal need for human connection. Our ecosystem of live-streaming apps enables daters around the world to interact through one-to-many livestreaming broadcasts and text-based conversations. Our top apps, MeetMe®, LOVOO®, Skout®, Tagged® and GROWLr®, deliver live interactions and meaningful connections to millions of people daily. Headquartered in New Hope, PA, we have offices in Philadelphia, San Francisco, Dresden, and Berlin. The Meet Group is committed to safety. You can find a description of current safety practices here: https://www.themeetgroup.com/safety-practices/. For more information, visit themeetgroup.com, and follow us on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn.
Forward-Looking Statements
Certain statements in this press release are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including whether the number of games played and time spent on our platforms will continue to increase, whether DateNight is the future of dating, whether daters will increasingly demand video chat to prequalify potential dates, whether our Safer Dating Advisory Board will continue to advise us and our users as anticipated, whether we will limit DateNight availability to states where the new case rate is less than 15 per 10,000 for three consecutive days as anticipated, whether we will make DateNight available in additional states as anticipated, and whether video dating will be an important filter prior to in-person interaction. All statements other than statements of historical facts contained herein are forward-looking statements. The words “believe,” “may,” “estimate,” “continue,” “anticipate,” “intend,” “should,” “plan,” “could,” “target,” “potential,” “project,” “outlook,” “is likely,” “expect” and similar expressions, as they relate to us, are intended to identify forward-looking statements. We have based these forward-looking statements largely on our current expectations and projections about future events and financial trends that we believe may affect our financial condition, results of operations, business strategy and financial needs. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ from those in the forward-looking statements include the risk that our applications will not function easily or otherwise as anticipated, the risk that we will not launch additional features and upgrades as anticipated, the risk that unanticipated events affect the functionality of our applications with popular mobile operating systems, any changes in such operating systems that degrade our mobile applications’ functionality and other unexpected issues which could adversely affect usage on mobile devices. Further information on our risk factors is contained in our filings with the SEC, including the Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2019 filed with the SEC on March 12, 2020 and the Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2020 filed with the SEC on May 6, 2020. Any forward-looking statement made by us herein speaks only as of the date on which it is made. Factors or events that could cause our actual results to differ may emerge from time to time, and it is not possible for us to predict all of them. We undertake no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise, except as may be required by law.
