The Guardian is closing its online dating service Guardian Soulmates because it is "no longer viable". The service, which has about 35,000 free members and paid subscribers, will close at the end of June, it said. The "online dating landscape has changed dramatically" since it launched in 2004, it added - making it a "very little fish in a very big pool". The 15 years since its launch has seen the growth of global dating apps such as Tinder, Hinge and Bumble. Guardian Soulmates said on its website: "There are so many dating apps now, so many ways to meet people, which are often free and very quick.

Users of the dating website Guardian Soulmates have received explicit emails following a data breach. The email addresses and Soulmates usernames were exposed by a third-party service provider, according to Guardian News and Media (GNM), which has run the online dating service since 2004. GNM said: "We can confirm we have received 27 inquiries from our members which show evidence of their email addresses used for their Soulmates account having been exposed. Our ongoing investigations point to a human error by one of our third-party technology providers, which led to an exposure of an extract of data." The problem, which has now been fixed, made it possible to find Soulmates members' publicly available online dating profiles via the leaked data.