We end the year with a message of reflection and 2022 predictions from HubStars business owner, Michael O’Sullivan.
2021 Reflection
“We are a platform powering thousands of partner dating brands. The platform is grounded in the social interaction of people with a range of interests across the world.
For all of 2021 each country has actively encouraged or legislated the population to stay home, not to socialise and to keep to themselves as much as possible. I’m not arguing against pandemic measures -they have sound logic in slowing the spread- to allow time to treat the illness and deploy countermeasures. This however is bound to have a huge impact on how we socialise as a species.
Concurrently there has been a significant shift towards tighter control in the world of advertising, payments and content. What amazes me is that we can swim upstream against such a current.
Our in house acquisition team has seen significant growth in volume and profitability with new Advertising strategies and we look forward to sharing more with our partners on this.
We introduced voluntary identity verification in October and it has proven much more popular than we anticipated. The feedback has been good from users who see it as a positive move to combat catfishing as well as an age verification measure. Having said that, much like vaccines there is a world of difference in good adoption rates of a well designed voluntary scheme and mandatory controls.
The only constant is change and I feel we have a great team that has demonstrated great agility in 2021 as well as growing in scale. We’ve had 29 new hires since the first lockdown. We are investing for growth and have just moved HQ to a new larger modern office in Douglas.”
2022 Predictions
“I see 2022 as a strong growth year for both our business and our Partners. Our Next-Gen platform continues to roll out across our Partner base and contains a mass of untapped potential. Having seen first hand the order of magnitude conversion improvements attainable, our new product team will be out to harvest niche and brand level improvements all through 2022.
I expect that the first half of 2022 will see the passing of the pandemic phase and the slow and steady return of human interaction and dating is a significant element to this. Users will rely more on dating platforms for the first date/screening elements of relationships as it adds convenience and safety. This allows us to boost our value proposition to users and further entrench in the dating cycle..
Not everyone will be rushing outside as soon as they can to date and a significant portion of the population will find fun, companionship and solace in the niche communities we have developed. By offering an experience that works with a hybrid of dating styles, niche communities will cater for both the fearless and fearful in this new world.
I would like to wish all our partners a safe and enjoyable break over the festive period. I look forward to seeing you all in a prosperous 2022!”