Once has ten million users.
-
JOHN MOORE / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / AFP
Dating group bought Once, an online dating app, for $ 18 million.
The French company will now be owned by Russian entrepreneur Dmitry Volkov, reports
Capital
.
According to the CEO of the firm, Clémentine Lalande, this sale will have a positive impact on its reach and will allow "to accelerate its geographical expansion".
Launched in 2015, the Once application has been profitable since 2019 and has ten million users.
It works on a freemium model, notes
FrenchWeb
, which means that one part is free - access to the profile and sending the first message - and the other is paid.
The paying customer can thus see which person will be offered to them the next day or whether their message has been read.
He can also communicate with another person without waiting 24 hours.
Once offers "slow dating"
The particularity of Once is that it offers each person only one profile per day.
This is “slow dating”.
This is selected by an algorithm.
A way to allow users to take their time when other applications like Tinder offer endless profiles with which to "match" or on the contrary to discard.
“There is a Netflix effect of dating.
The more choices we have, the less time we spend analyzing and making a decision on a potential profile.
Finally, why bother since there are plenty of others?
», Clémentine Lalande explained to
FrenchWeb
.
Conquer new markets
The online dating market is "concentrated and competitive," said the CEO of the French start-up.
The arrival of Facebook Dating on the European market in 2020 also poses a new threat.
She is counting on this “major” partnership to ensure the future of Once.
Dating group, which acquired it, was founded in 2014. It has already acquired other sites such as Dating.com, Dil Mil, DateMyAge, Promise, ChinaLove and AnastasiaDate.
In total, 73 million people around the world use these platforms.
And the group does not intend to stop there: in 2020, it released $ 50 million to make new acquisitions, says
Capital
.
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