The Meet Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: MEET), a public market leader in the mobile meeting space, today announced it has begun the rollout of its new Battles feature on its MeetMe and Skout apps, and provided an update on its livestreaming video and advertising results.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181218005227/en/

The Meet Group launches Battles. (Graphic: Business Wire)

The Meet Group launches Battles. (Graphic: Business Wire)

“Battles brings an exciting competitive dynamic to Live, and we are thrilled to bring this new feature to our users,” said Geoff Cook, CEO of The Meet Group. “We believe that the addition of Battles will contribute to our growing video revenue run-rate, which exceeded $62 million annualized, based on the month of November, up from the $55 million number we reported in October. Momentum in video revenue has continued into December, and this past weekend we achieved the highest video revenue day in our history.”

Battles brings together two livestreamers and their audiences for a live competition, whether it be for best dancer, musician or comedian, among other categories. Each battle lasts just a few minutes, and the winner is the streamer who earns more diamonds by receiving gifts from viewers during the battle period.

“Our mission is to build the best place to meet new people,” continued Cook. “We are always seeking novel ways to deliver meaningful connections. We believe Battles will enable connection around talent. We believe it also has the potential to incent viewers to give more gifts to streamers, which is primarily how we monetize video today. We believe the competitive dynamic will strengthen the relationships between streamers and their fans. Battles, sometimes referred to as PK in Asian livestreaming apps such as MOMO and YY, appears to be a mainstay of monetization for those apps, contributing both to engagement and to monetization, and we believe it is a natural fit with our community as well.

“In addition to Battles, we have a pipeline of features and programs aimed at increasing video monetization. Just last week, we began our 12 Days of Gifting holiday campaign, which includes exclusive holiday-themed gifts, aimed at maximizing gifting in the peak of the holiday season. On a larger scale, we expect to bring Levels to the platform in the first half of 2019. We believe Levels adds a gamification element to Live by establishing aspirational ranks for users and exclusive benefits to unlock. We expect Levels to contribute to increasing user engagement, as streamers and gifters strive to reach higher levels while competing with their fellow users for top recognition. We look forward to the impact that we expect Battles and our future product initiatives to have on Live.

“Beyond video, the fourth quarter appears to be shaping up to be a strong advertising quarter as well, with significant gains compared to the third quarter as the return to normal seasonal trends continues,” added Cook.

About The Meet Group

The Meet Group (NASDAQ: MEET) is a portfolio of mobile social entertainment apps designed to meet the universal need for human connection. We leverage a powerful live-streaming video platform, empowering our global community to forge meaningful connections. Our primary apps, MeetMe®, LOVOO®, Skout®, and Tagged®, keep millions of mobile daily active users entertained and engaged and originate untold numbers of casual chats, friendships, dates, and marriages. Our apps, available on iPhone, iPad, and Android in multiple languages, use innovative products and sophisticated data science to let our users stream live video, send gifts, chat, and share photos. The Meet Group has a diversified revenue mix consisting of in-app purchases, subscription, and advertising, and we have offices in New Hope, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Dresden, and Berlin. For more information, visit themeetgroup.com, and follow us on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn.

Forward Looking Statements

Certain statements in this press release are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including whether the addition of Battles will contribute to engagement, monetization, or our growing video revenue run-rate, whether improvements in seasonal advertising trends will continue, whether we will complete the rollout of Battles on MeetMe and Skout as expected, whether our video run rate will achieve the levels expected, whether momentum in video revenue will continue, whether Battles will enable connection around talent, whether Battles will incent viewers to give more gifts to streamers, whether the competitive dynamic of Battles will strengthen the relationships between streamers and their fans, whether Battles will contribute to engagement and monetization, whether Battles will be a natural fit for our community, whether we will launch our pipeline of products as expect and whether it will increase video monetization, whether our 12 Days of Gifting campaign will maximize gifting in the peak of the holiday season, whether we will launch Levels as expected, whether Levels will add a gamification element to Live by establishing aspirational ranks for users and exclusive benefits to unlock, whether Levels will contribute to increasing user engagement, and whether Battles and our future product initiatives will have the expected impact on Live, whether our fourth quarter will be a strong advertising quarter with significant gains compared to our third quarter, and whether the return to normal seasonal trends in advertising will continue. All statements other than statements of historical facts contained herein are forward-looking statements. The words “believe,” “may,” “estimate,” “continue,” “anticipate,” “intend,” “should,” “plan,” “could,” “target,” “potential,” “project,” “is likely,” “expect” and similar expressions, as they relate to us, are intended to identify forward-looking statements. We have based these forward-looking statements largely on our current expectations and projections about future events and financial trends that we believe may affect our financial condition, results of operations, business strategy and financial needs. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ from those in the forward-looking statements include the risk that our applications will not function easily or otherwise as anticipated, the risk that we will not launch additional features and upgrades as anticipated, the risk that unanticipated events affect the functionality of our applications with popular mobile operating systems, any changes in such operating systems that degrade our mobile applications’ functionality and other unexpected issues which could adversely affect usage on mobile devices. Further information on our risk factors is contained in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”), including the Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2017 filed with the SEC on March 16, 2018 and our Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q for the quarters ended March 31, 2018 and June 30, 2018 filed with the SEC on May 7, 2018 and August 2, 2018, respectively. Any forward-looking statement made by us herein speaks only as of the date on which it is made. Factors or events that could cause our actual results to differ may emerge from time to time, and it is not possible for us to predict all of them. We undertake no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise, except as may be required by law.