Startup Model – Dating with People Around You

The Model: A platform for users to discover people around them. A user can see profiles of people within a 250 metres radius. Also the number of times a person is around you can be seen on that person’s profile. If you want to show interest in someone, you can like their profile without that person knowing. Only if the other person also likes your profile will both of you get to know. Also if a user really does want to get noticed, he/she can charm a user to send a notification and if the other person shows interest as well, both can start a conversation.  

Startup Doing It: Happn (French startup)

What I Like:

Core Idea – Finding someone you like is a lot about seeing that person physically or knowing that you can very easily. To achieve this, showing profiles of people around makes sense.

Mutual Interest – Only when both users show interest in each other are they connected. Users need not be embarrassed about liking someone’s profile and hence will tend to engage better with the platform.

My Concerns:

Not Exhaustive – Since in this app users are limited to people around them, their requirement of finding someone may not be met. They move have to move to other dating apps, resulting in user retention issues for the platform.