Lovoo

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Lovoo

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Basic data

developer LOVOO GmbH
Publishing year October 27, 2011
Current  version 64.1 ( Android -
Google Play Store)
(Version varies by device.)
January 10, 2020

71.0 ( iOS )
April 15, 2020

operating system Android , iOS
category Social network , flirt
German speaking Yes
www.lovoo.com

Lovoo ( spelling : LOVOO ) is a social network that allows people to get to know people from the area by sharing an app . Lovoo is based on location-related data and is operated by the company of the same name, Lovoo GmbH . The company's headquarters are in Dresden , Lovoo employs around 100 people.

The application is offered in the freemium model.

history

The global platform was developed by a group of eight people and was first published on October 27, 2011 as a mobile dating application under the name “Lovoo” . Originally the name "Kiss2go" was intended for the app, which had to be changed shortly after it was launched because the Berlin radio station Kiss FM had accused the creators of a brand name infringement. The founders of the app decided against a legal dispute and created the new brand "Lovoo" within 20 days.

The name is made up of "love" ( english love ) and two "O" that are supposedly thanks to a coincidence: a source of inspiration was a dog of a Web video , which have listened According to the listening as Lovoo. On February 2, 2012, Lovoo was awarded the audience award as the best German mobile app at the “Show your App Award” at the M-Days in Frankfurt am Main . The basis was an online vote.

The start-up company has been included as a participant in the "Silicon Valley Accelerator Program" on April 12, 2013. Since September 2013, Lovoo GmbH has been preparing its internationalization in this context, with a focus on the market in the United States . At the beginning of March 2014, Lovoo launched its “matching function” under the name “Voo” as an independent app. In terms of functions, Lovoo is very similar to the US dating application " Tinder ".

In September 2017, Lovoo was sold to the US competitor The Meet Group for around EUR 60 million (around EUR 4 million of which are performance-related) .

In spring 2020 it was announced that ProSiebenSat.1 Media SE would take over the US app developer The Meet Group. With this deal, the German group of companies was able to record its largest takeover to date. The case had to be approved by the Federal Cartel Office, as ProSiebenSat.1 already belongs to Parship and Elite Partners . The antitrust authorities approved the purchase in the summer. A total of around half a billion dollars went towards the purchase.

functionality

Lovoo's functions largely correspond to those of other social software . The central function is the live radar , which searches for others in the vicinity of the user in order to contact them if necessary. The search results are displayed with distance and direction.

In addition to the live radar, the so-called “feed” is another way of finding people in the area. Photos are listed in chronological order that have been published by people in the area or by their own contacts. Users receive feedback in the form of likes ("I like"), so-called "followings" (another person subscribes to contributions) or chat requests.

Users can also interact through so-called social tagging , where users can search for other users or for photos on specific topics.

The match is a playful function of the app, in which profile photos of other members are shown, which can be rated on the device with a swipe or a touch (“tap”). As soon as a new rating is available, members will be informed of this via push notification. If there is mutual interest, a match is created, direct contact via chat or messaging system is possible.

costs

As long as you limit yourself to the basic functions, the Lovoo app is initially free. The basic functions include: using the search function, displaying members and sending one message per day. However, so-called “in-app credits” and “premium subscriptions” are subject to a charge. B. to de-anonymize "matches", d. H. See the profile of the person with whom a match was found.

Fraud allegations

In September 2015, extensive articles on possible unfair practices by the operator of the platform were published in the magazine c't and the news website Heise online . More than 50 gigabytes of data from e-mail inboxes , screenshots and source code excerpts had been leaked to the publisher, which indicated that targeted and automated profiles were created with fictional female people, who then programmatically pretended to be interested in real users and encouraged them to oppose a fee to establish contact.

In a statement, the company describes the origin of the documents on which the article is based as dubious and points out that reported fake profiles would be deleted without contradicting the accusation of having created fake profiles themselves. The company has also not commented on the authenticity of the documents.

In October 2015, the c't published an extended analysis of the e-mail inboxes leaked to it. Thereafter, Lovoo operated under the name “Chat Banana” over 16,000 chatbots trained with the chat history of real users.

On June 8, 2016, the company premises were searched by the State Criminal Police Office of Saxony. There were pre-trial detention orders against the two company founders and businessmen Benjamin Bak and Alexander Friede from Dresden . The public prosecutor's office accused the accused of commercial fraud. A total of 16 private apartments and company rooms were searched.

The proceedings of the Dresden Public Prosecutor's Office were thereupon discontinued on September 30, 2016 against payment of monetary conditions, without any criminal offenses being established.

Vulnerabilities

In August 2019, journalists from Bayerischer Rundfunk succeeded in creating movement profiles of users that allow conclusions to be drawn about places of work or residence. The company responded to this criticism and reduced the accuracy of the location data. Users can no longer be precisely located to less than 1,000 meters, and triangulation should be prevented by suppressing repeated queries.

Web link

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Flirt app Kiss2go becomes Lovoo and brings exclusive functions for safe dating ( Memento from September 28, 2013 in the Internet Archive ), on: Inside LOVOO. Press release of October 27, 2011, accessed on September 23, 2013.
  2. ↑ The app at play.google.com , accessed on May 31, 2015.
  3. ↑ LOVOO - New free chat app for getting to know people, making friends and discovering dating and love. App Store (iOS) , accessed September 18, 2015 .
  4. ↑ a b It sparked: Dating platform Lovoo goes to US competitor with Morgan Lewis. Retrieved October 1, 2017 .
  5. ↑ Martin Weigert: Lovoo competes with Badoo , on: netzwertig.com. January 22, 2013, accessed September 20, 2013.
  6. ↑ Martin Weigert: LOVOO is growing rapidly ( Memento of the original from September 28, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , on: netzwertig.com. April 10, 2013, accessed September 20, 2013. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / netzwertig.com
  7. ↑ Christina Cassala: 15 questions to Alexander Friede von Lovoo. In: deutsche-startups.de. February 1, 2013, accessed October 29, 2015 .
  8. ↑ Flirt app Kiss2go becomes Lovoo and brings exclusive functions for safe dating , In: frisch-fische.com. September 27, 2011, accessed May 2, 2015.
  9. ↑ Interview with Tobias Börner - LOVOO App CMO & Co-Founder , January 16, 2014, accessed on March 31, 2014
  10. ↑ The market is ripe for flirting apps ( Memento of the original from September 27, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , from: gfm-nachrichten.de, January 14, 2013, accessed on September 23, 2013. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.gfm-nachrichten.de
  11. ↑ Yvonne Ortmann: German Silicon Valley Accelerator: These 12 German start-ups are soon to stir up Silicon Valley! , from: deutsche-startups.de, April 15, 2013, accessed on September 23, 2013.
  12. ↑ FLIRT APP VOO: Tinder gets competition from Germany , March 6, 2014, accessed on March 31, 2014.
  13. ↑ heise online: Cartel Office: ProSiebenSat1 is allowed to take over Lovoo. Retrieved July 14, 2020 .
  14. ↑ Flirting via smartphone: 'Lovoo' app brings singles together on the spot ( Memento from September 28, 2013 in the Internet Archive ), In: Inside LOVOO. Press release of August 2, 2011, accessed on September 23, 2013.
  15. ↑ http://praxistipps.chip.de/tinder-badoo-oder-lovoo-vergleich-der-dating-apps_35553
  16. ↑ http://date-guide.de/lovoo-test/
  17. ↑ https://www.heise.de/ct/ausgabe/2015-21-Dating-Plattform-Lovoo-im-Fake-Verdacht-2819596.html
  18. ↑ Holger Bleich, Ronald Eikenberg, Heiko Frenzel and Torsten Kleinz: Dating platform Lovoo suspected of being fake. In: c't. September 18, 2015, accessed October 20, 2015 .
  19. ↑ a b Holger Bleich: Suspected rip-offs at the dating platform Lovoo. In: Heise online . September 18, 2015, accessed October 20, 2015 .
  20. ↑ Holger Bleich: Suspicion of rip-off against flirting platform Lovoo is confirmed. In: Heise online. September 25, 2015, accessed October 20, 2015 .
  21. ↑ LOVOO commentary on c't article. (No longer available online.) In: Lovoo. September 18, 2015, archived from the original on October 22, 2015 ; accessed on October 20, 2015 .
  22. ↑ "Promote Bitches" - internal mails confirm suspicion of rip-offs against the dating platform Lovoo , c't 22/15, p. 26 (published on October 1, 2015)
  23. ↑ heise online: Raid and arrests at the Lovoo dating service. In: heise online. Retrieved June 8, 2016 .
  24. ↑ Holger Bleich: Raid and arrests at the Lovoo dating service. Heise online, June 8, 2016, accessed June 8, 2016 .
  25. ↑ Fraud allegations: raid on flirt portal Lovoo , Spiegel Online , June 8, 2016. Accessed June 9, 2016.
  26. ↑ Dating app: investigation against Lovoo stopped . In: The time . September 30, 2016, ISSN  0044-2070 ( zeit.de [accessed September 30, 2016]).
  27. ↑ Users of the dating app Lovoo can be located. Retrieved August 9, 2019 .
  28. ↑ https://inside.lovoo.com/pressestatement-zur-berichticherung-des-bayerischen-rundfunks-ueber-lovoo/