The privacy paradox: How we got trapped in a data dystopia February 18, 2020 One of the less encouraging reports to come out of the tech world this month was that Facebook, everyone’s favourite villainous corporation, knew very well about the colossal security flaw that let hackers rob personal data from millions of users long before the breach itself. Facebook employees have said that they felt “guilt” and “hurt” [...]
Badoo founder backs London startup with a new dating app for over 50s September 7, 2018 Badoo founder Andrey Andreev has invested £3.5m into a new dating app for singles over 50, built by a London startup with former Guardian dating editor Charly Lester and app developer Antoine Argouges at the helm. Launching today in the UK, Lumen has put security at the centre of its operation by requiring all users to [...]
Billionaire Anders Povlsen to back p2p lender Funding Circle IPO September 1, 2018 One of Britain's biggest landowners is set to buy a shareholding in peer-to-peer lending platform Funding Circle when it floats this Autumn. Danish billionaire Anders Povlsen who also owns stakes in fashion retailers ASOS and Zalando, will buy at least 10 per cent of the company up to a value of £1.65bn, Sky News reported. Read more: The [...]
Dating app Grindr is planning an overseas IPO August 30, 2018 The Chinese owner of gay dating app Grindr has revealed plans to spin off the company and list it on an overseas bourse. Kunlun Technology, which bought a 61.5 per cent stake in Grindr in 2016 before acquiring the remainder in January this year, published news of Grindr's upcoming initial public offering (IPO) overnight on [...]
Meet the founder of Happn – the dating app putting love on the map October 17, 2016 Nearly one in 10 Londoners use dating app Happn. A colleague who’s more in the know than I am tells me it’s “recently become enormous on Instagram” – users can upload pictures direct from one to the other, with 30 of your most recent appearing automatically on your Happn profile. And once you’ve liked someone, [...]
Dalian Wanda signs exclusive deal with badminton’s global governing body to take the sport to the next level September 30, 2016 Badminton could be the next sport to get a global corporate makeover after it was announced that China's richest man had agreed a deal worth hundreds of millions of dollars with the sport's international governing body. Wang Jianlin's Dalian Wanda Group has signed an eight-year exclusive partnership with the Badminton World Federation (BWF) that gives exclusive global sponsorship and media rights to its subsidiary Infront Sports [...]
Peter Stringfellow on closing Angels, Theresa May, virtual reality clubs and setting up a lingerie range September 5, 2016 The floor of Peter Stringfellow’s office at Angels, his legendary Soho club, was strewn with packing boxes last week. In case anyone imagined his office to be an extension of the club – all leopard print, velvet and disco balls – it isn’t. It’s just a normal office. I visited him on Thursday; on Saturday, [...]
Canary Wharfers’ favourite dating app is taking a leaf out of Grindr’s book May 17, 2016 Keep your eyes peeled for covert meet-ups in Canary Wharf this week. Dating app Happn, hugely popular with suited workers in the Docklands, has unveiled a new feature called "See You There". The app, which lets singletons connect with people they’ve crossed paths with in real life, has launched the feature to actively encourage more meet-ups [...]
Grindr snapped up by Beijing Kunlun Tech and Dalian Wanda buys a slice of Hollywood with Legendary Entertainment studios in Chinese shopping spree January 12, 2016 It takes the January sales to a new level. Today two Chinese giants went shopping: Beijing Kunlun Tech bought a controlling stake in Grindr, and Dalian Wanda bought Hollywood film studio Legendary Entertainment. Dalian Wanda Group announced today it had bought a stake in the studio, which produced the Batman trilogy, Inception, The Hangover and Jurassic World, for $3.5bn (£2.43bn). The [...]
New social app from Grindr makers September 8, 2011 YOUR gay friends are probably all glued to it. Well as of today, Grindr – the hookup app that changed the whole way the gay community finds love, sex and quite often friendship – has a social, non-sexual counterpart, called Blendr. Joel Simkhai, the diminutive, Israeli-born founder of Grindr, insisted to me over coffee at [...]