Zoosk Launches Zoosk Live! Video to Emphasize Creativity, Connection, and Community

BERLIN, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Dating app Zoosk, a flagship brand of Spark Networks SE (NYSE:LOV), has announced the successful rollout of livestreaming video community Zoosk Live! to its core markets, giving members fresh ways to create meaningful social and romantic connections.

The livestreaming service, which is being offered via a partnership with ParshipMeet Group, is currently available for free to all Zoosk iOS and Android app users in the US, UK, Canada, and Australia. Members can stream, interact with, and create Zoosk Live! content using their existing Zoosk accounts.

Eric Eichmann, CEO of Spark Networks, says: "We're excited to bring livestreaming to Zoosk users, allowing them to connect with others in a fun social environment. Zoosk Live! provides dating, streaming, and entertainment, emphasizing Zoosk's status as a thriving community and social dating site for meaningful relationships."

Zoosk Live! offers a range of livestreaming options for creators to join, including challenges, events, and interactive features like NextDate™, a speed dating game where Zoosk members can take a starring role in front of a livestreaming audience. The audience rates the date in real time, while the participants have 90 seconds to decide if there is enough of a shared spark to move to a private video chat.

In addition to NextDate, Zoosk Live! members can forge connections with people all around the world by publicly commenting on videos and rewarding streamers with likes and follows. A soon-to-be-launched feature will also enable private messaging between Zoosk members who meet while streaming.

Zoosk Live! rewards content creators too: streamers are rewarded with virtual gifts by their followers which can be exchanged for virtual diamonds. Once they pass a certain threshold, streamers can redeem these diamonds for real-world cash.

Spark Network's VP of Product, Anika Mueller, says: "We're launching Zoosk Live! at a fascinating time for streaming technology. Events over the last year and a half have led to people exploring the social possibilities of live video like never before. We anticipate that people will continue embracing this tech even as they return to in-person meet ups."

Mueller adds "This was highlighted in a recent Zoosk singles' survey, where a majority of people said that they want to make video interactions a regular part of their post-pandemic dating routine. Zoosk Live! makes that wish a reality; offering our members new ways to find friendships and love connections without limitations."              

Press: Sophie Watson | [email protected]

About Zoosk

Launched in 2007, Zoosk is a global dating brand with a focus on data-based, real-time matchmaking. Zoosk is available in 80 countries and 25 languages. It offers members the chance to meet, date, and find online connection through a combination of messaging and video app livestreaming.

Zoosk is a flagship brand of Spark Networks SE, America's third largest public dating company, listed on the New York Stock Exchange American under the ticker symbol "LOV," with headquarters in Berlin, Germany, and offices in New York and Utah. Spark Networks has approximately one million monthly paying subscribers globally, with a widening portfolio of premium and freemium dating apps including Zoosk, EliteSingles, Christian Mingle, Jdate, JSwipe, SilverSingles and eDarling, among others. Spark Networks SE in its current form is the result of the merger between Affinitas GmbH and Spark Networks, Inc. in 2017 and the addition of Zoosk, Inc. in 2019

About ParshipMeet Group

ParshipMeet Group is an international market leader in online dating. With its uniquely diverse business approach, the company covers the whole spectrum of the online dating market, ranging from social dating with a strong entertainment component based on live video streaming, to serious matchmaking. ParshipMeet Group's brand portfolio consists of internationally successful and established brands with complementary strengths. Social dating and entertainment apps MeetMe, Skout, Tagged, GROWLr, and LOVOO focus on social connections, entertainment, and community. Matchmaking services such as eharmony or European-based Parship use scientific methods to help people find their partner for a compatible, happy long-term relationship. Headquartered in Hamburg, Germany, the company currently employs a workforce of more than 1,100 in eight offices worldwide.

Safe Harbor Statement:

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, statements involving known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors that may cause Spark Networks' performance or achievements to be materially different from those of any expected future results, performance, or achievements. These statements include statements regarding whether the availability of Live! will increase engagement on Zoosk, whether daters will increasingly demand video chat to prequalify potential dates and whether video dating will be an important filter prior to in-person interaction.  Any statements in this press release that are not statements of historical fact may be considered to be forward-looking statements. Written words, such as "believes," "hopes," "intends," "estimates," "expects," "projects," "plans," "anticipates," and variations thereof, or the use of future tense, identify forward-looking statements. By their nature, forward-looking statements and forecasts involve risks and uncertainties because they relate to events and depend on circumstances that will occur in the near future. There are a number of factors that could cause actual results and developments to differ materially, including, but not limited to, risks related to establishing and maintaining brand strength; attracting new members, converting members into paying subscribers and retaining existing subscribers; the risk that the benefits from the acquisition of Zoosk, Inc. may not be fully realized or may take longer to realize than expected; risks related to the degree of competition in the markets in which Spark Networks operates; maintaining Spark Networks' current number of paying subscribers to maintain or increase its current level of revenue; failure to keep pace with rapid technological change;  risks associated with intellectual property rights including protection and infringement claims;; ability to attract and retain users through cost-effective marketing; being subject to cybersecurity incidents in the past and potential for future attacks; Spark Networks' ability to comply with new and evolving regulations relating to data protection and data privacy; and general competition and price measures in the market place. Additional factors that could cause actual results to differ are discussed under the heading "Risk Factors" in Spark Networks' Annual Report on Form 20-F for the year ended December 31, 2019 and in other sections of Spark Networks' filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"), and in Spark Networks' other current and periodic reports filed or furnished from time to time with the SEC. All forward-looking statements in this press release are made as of the date hereof, based on information available to Spark Networks as of the date hereof, and Spark Networks assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statement except as required by law.

SOURCE Zoosk

Related Links

https://www.zoosk.com/