Pro-Israeli Dating Company Quietly Buys Out Popular Muslim Marriage App

The quiet acquisition of popular Muslim dating app Salams by a pro-Israel company is sending shockwaves across the digital world.

The deal — which closed in late 2023 and was only recently made public in an earnings report — is igniting calls to boycott the app, which has well over six million users. The original app — which was originally customized for the Muslim market — was also replaced with a generic dating app that is similar to the company’s platforms for Black and Latino communities.

Match Group, a Dallas-based company with a huge portfolio of data app services like Hinge, OkCupid, and Tinder, is led by Spencer Rascoff, a former board member of Palantir, a surveillance firm that has strong ties to Israeli intelligence and the US military surveillance industry. In a LinkedIn post that has since been deleted, Rascoff publicly proclaimed his support for Israeli soldiers fighting in Gaza in 2023. He wrote he was proud to support a “campaign to help cover rent bills for Israeli soldiers fighting overseas.”

Last year, Elliot Management, an investing firm led by pro-Israel billionaire Paul Singer, took a $1 billion stake in the online dating company. Singer is a major Israeli donor who has helped fund the Philos Project, a pro-Israeli lobbying group, Startup National Central, a Tel Aviv-based NGO that counters the BDS movement and supports Israeli military technology, among other donation streams.

In a recent earnings call, Gary Swidler, the company’s President and Chief Financial Officer, said that the company’s acquisition of companies that cater to smaller demographics has helped offset the company’s decline from its evergreen brands.

“We’ve seen really good growth in that business,” Swidler said. “We’ve expanded its revenues by about 50 percent since we made the acquisition.”

Salams plans to integrate its user data to Match’s shared technology platform by the end of the year, according to a recent earnings report by Match Group. It’s unclear what will happen to user data with the acquisition. Technology entrepreneurs Adeel Raza and Haroon Mokhtarzada first launched the app as Minder in 2015.

Not the First Time

This is not the first time Match Group has attempted to poach the Muslim market.

Shahzad Younas, founder and CEO of Muzz, another popular matchmaking app, said that Match Group attempted to buy Muzz four times, offering up to $35 million.

“I’ve said publicly on record numerous times – there is NO sum at all that I would accept from MG for Muzz – on principle I cannot allow us to be sold to a company which in my opinion acts in a highly unethical fashion,” Younas wrote in a statement to MuslimMatters.

Younas said that Match Group sued Muzz four times in the United States and the United Kingdom.

“This was all an attempt to intimidate us.  They asked us to sign a coexistence agreement with terms stating they would leave us alone as long as we never sold to a competitor of MG. We said no,” Younas said.

Muzz — formerly known as Muzmatch — rebranded itself after losing a trademark infringement lawsuit in UK patent courts in 2022.

However, Younas noted that Match Group effectively holds a monopoly over dating apps, making the company the only “real buyer” in town, he said.

Users in the Dark

Salams does plan to integrate user data with other platforms owned by Match by the end of the year. It’s unclear if users will have the chance to opt out of data migration services.

After using the app for almost three years, Amro Abdulwahid, a DC-area resident, said she’s deeply shocked and disappointed by the news.

“This isn’t just a business decision, it’s a violation of trust. Our data, our intentions for marriage, our conversations, and our hopes for halal love should never have become a commodity for someone who stands against the very people the app was meant to uplift,” Abdulwahid told MuslimMatters.

Like others, she has deleted her Salams account and wants the company to come clean on where user data will go.

In recent years, investigations have found that the US military bought location data from popular muslim apps like Muslim Pro. Last year, Tinder was used by the U.S. military to target Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Since news broke of the acquisition, the company’s web platforms have also gone dark. Questions about user data still remain unanswered.

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Salams has not returned the multiple requests for comment from MuslimMatters. This article will be updated if we hear back from the company.

Related:

– 3 Steps To Safely Prepare For Your Halal Marriage – As Simple As ABC

– Getting to Know A Potential Husband/Wife? 3 Questions To Ask Yourself First.