Meet7, a dating app launched in December 2022 with the tagline ‘Meet People, Not Profiles’, is trying to revolutionise the space by making it a safer space with its AI-driven behaviour scoring system.
“Meet7’s commitment to leveraging technology for improved user experiences and safety sets it apart in the world of online dating. Within nine months of the launch the app’s number of users has crossed 1,25,000 across Android and App Store. Over 40,000 matches have got to interact, or at least attempted to interact. There are over 1,000 matches that have interacted mutually,” said Saurabh Awasthi, Co-founder, Meet7, in a virtual conversation with Medianews4u.com.
“Whenever I tell people that it’s a non-swipe app, people think that it is just another feature. I believe the ‘swipe’ feature is one of the disadvantages or a flaw of today’s dating apps, it means we are going through hundreds or thousands of profiles while using the app. Swiping to match them to a potential interest – where the user either swipes through profiles or clicks on a tick or a cross and their potential interest must also swipe or tick them to return a match. This makes users feel like a part of a catalogue of profiles for other users to browse, leading to feelings of anxiety, depression and ‘swipe-fatigue’. Meet7 has completely eliminated any form of swiping, and employs cutting edge AI driven tools such as CompQ, which enables Meet7 to provide more accurate match recommendations which assess user traits for precise matching. This behavioural analysis continually refines the matching algorithms, ensuring users are presented with personalised recommendations more likely to result in meaningful connections,” added Awasthi, on the factors that distinguish Meet7 from other contemporary dating apps.
Meet7 claims that its identity verification process allows users assurance that every profile they see on the app has been verified for identity through a selfie by AI tools, and also verified for liveliness of a person by asking them to smile or blink.
“For example, a user (or a bot) cannot trick our verification by taking a selfie of a picture. Men can join the app only through a referral code from the women on the app. This ensures authenticity and gender balance, and an extremely high-quality community on the app,” noted Awasthi.
The app follows a behavior monitoring process – an AI-driven scoring system, which is based on general feedback about rude, obscene and unwelcome communication online.
“The profiles of male users will carry their scores, allowing women to make better decisions. While female profiles will not display such scores, any suspicious or false activity or reporting by women, will be monitored, discouraged and dealt with promptly,” he said.
Interaction-based UI/UX is another feature of Meet7 that it prides itself on. The app’s data engine allows it to offer interactive features such as ice-breaking sessions and games, that help users to get to know each other better. A ‘KnowQ’ feature poses a set of questions with options, by which an individual can understand the person by building a conversation. Its AI-powered engine will also support daters as they move forward through timed prompts of conversation hints, compliments and date ideas.
Subscription Play
“At the moment all these features are free for all users. Even when we go on paid subscription mode, we will still provide these features for free. We have not gone the subscription way not because the app doesn’t have a (large) user base. We have a good chunk of people in our user base and have more of them concentrated in cities like Delhi, Mumbai and Pune. By the end of Q1 of FY 2024, we will opt for a subscription model. On the pricing part, we will be doing competitive analysis, we have almost completed it, we are still analysing the consumer preferences,” said the Co-founder.
On the target audience, Awasthi said, “I wont say that our target audiences are metropolitan population, but at the moment we are targeting the metropolitan audience as we needn’t to educate them about dating apps. But there is no restriction and we don’t want to stop people from any part of India from joining the app, even people from tier 3. People from tier 2 and 3 who are migrants in metro cities are signing up on the app, but there are people who are bothered about privacy. We will be able to handle that as at the moment, users are getting exposed to only seven people, not to a thousand people. The user image will be blurred till the time you start interacting, it will be unblurred when the conversation proceeds. Dating, especially for females, is a private space.”
On whether Meet7 ‘s ‘Invite Only’ feature where men can join the app only through a referral code from the women on the app will affect the male user base, Awasthi said, “We are easing out that process through another option. What we have done is created an option to connect their LinkedIn account with the app. Then condition of having a referral code is wiped off.”
A few weeks ago, the brand launched a campaign titled #NoComprimise featuring Sayani Gupta and Amol Parashar.
Awasthi said, “The campaign received a good response. We were doing a lot of influencer marketing, which we reduced a month back. Currently we are focused on content marketing. Digital will always remain in focus through several channels. We use performance marketing for acquisition. We are also trying to resort to offline marketing options. In this mode we get more ideas while communicating with the people. Branding and acquisition process also happens there. We are contemplating the process currently. We have plans to onboard a celebrity face for the brand, which is also a work in progress.”
The Co-founder believes that the more the number of users on the app, the better the experience will be for users. Hence, there is a focus on acquisitions.
“We will be able to give a good set of matches to everyone. Another growth plan is to inculcate more features to the app (with keeping subscription in mind),” he concluded.
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