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Dating app that matches you based on podcasts you listen to

Last week I joined a Twitter discussion about a dating app idea that helps you find your other half based on podcasts you listen to.

The idea is simple - the more podcasts you share, the more likely you're a match.

Of course, there are tons of OKCupid-like datings apps, but sometimes a generalist app comes with too much baggage, and the hit rate is very low.

Just like there are dedicated dating sites for farmers or for Christians, why not have one for "podcast people"?

I know podcast tastes might be very different, but it's all about opening up a new way for people to meet each other and break the ice ("What is the last podcast episode that blew your mind?")

I decided to give it a try

What do you of the idea? Would you use it?

  1. 9

    A few issues, based in relative order:

    1. Bad network effects- while "sometimes a generalist app comes with too much baggage", they win out at a providing you tons of people in a local area. I'd wager that it's not a majority of people who regularly listen to podcasts and even a smaller percentage who are actively in the available dating market. It's too niched down.
    2. Men and women differ (often greatly) in terms of what podcasts they like. Will not lead to fun results if there's nobody to match with (similar to the first problem)
    3. Niched dating apps usually have "do or die" criteria. For example, niche Christian dating apps work because for many Christians, it's a deal breaker if the person they want to date isn't also a Christian/or of their denomination. It's not the same way with podcasts.
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      Great feedback!

      FWIW, I like the idea, but I don't see it working. I think dating in general is a pretty difficult 2-way marketplace.

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        True it is a good idea and there's probably something there if it's not in the dating space but maybe as a community that matches people up based on this or something else

  2. 3

    The idea of creating a matching algo based on a niche of interest is not new. I've tried similar thing in the past.

    I recommend reading some basic two-sided economies books and articles before launching because, as @Cherubim already mentioned, women and men have different needs in dating arena.

    One really good book is Matchmakers [[ https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27277141-matchmakers ]], explains about opentable, credit cards, ... so many more.

    Men ➡️ : right swipe maniacs, which asks for restriction here
    Women ➡️: have too many requests, needs more filtering on the requests

    Adding a business model is whole another level of gamification.

    Hope, it helped. Thanks. I'm always up for a chat if you need any help. Just say hey 👋.

  3. 2

    TL;DR dating apps are hard and make sure you know what you get yourself into :)

    I wouldn't use this myself so take my points with a grain of salt, however I have worked on a couple dating apps myself so maybe I can be of help.

    Pros:

    • Being in a niche is good
    • Podcasts seems to be a hot area right now or audio in general

    Cons:

    • Too niche?
    • How to get to local saturation (this is usually the most important)

    Local saturation is usually a big topic and something we failed to establish at Hater and usually comes with a lot of marketing costs or you will only ever be popular in a small area, let's say in and around Silicon Valley because enough people there sign up and listen to podcasts.

    You can counter this depending on your matching algorithm but consider that you need enough people to give someone matches that they would truly meet, date or engage with this is ofc much more people for something like Tinder vs something that gives you one match per day but something to be very diligent about.

    Anyway just a thought but maybe this would be better to be a platform to make friends to just talk about the shared podcast interests or listen to other similar podcasts together for example as this will open up that you can match people all over the world with each other and you don't need a high concentration in for example one city but I'm not sure this doesn't already exist to some extent (doesn't mean you can't do it better but it will depend on how serious you are about this).

    Maybe it could even be some sort of live experience were people just listen to a podcast at the same time together and react or emphasize points than break off into chat rooms or something similar (just having some brain diarrhea)

    This obviously shifts the focus but I can see this could be a cool experience.

    If you wanna talk more about my experience with dating apps and or live apps, just reach out 🤙

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      I would like to discuss your experience with dating apps, as recently I have been contracted to develop one. The idea is roughly to build an app depicted in the Black Mirror dating episode, where AI systems do suitability evaluation.

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      OP this is the advice to listen to right here!! Dating apps are probably one of the hardest business ideas to pursuit. Everything said here is spot on.

      Also to add on to this thought. Customer Acquisition Cost is almost impossible to break even on. The landscape is competitive, and users expect dating apps to be free. From my knowledge most dating apps require about $25-$40 of ad spend to get someone to download the app. This is just not sustainable unless you have deep pockets, or some truely incredible viral magic.

    3. 1

      I'm not in this niche nor have a stake here whatsoever, but I would love to hear more about your experiences in this niche.

      Would you want to have a short chat? :) https://calendly.com/nabati/1o1

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        Haha interestingly enough I saw your post and thought about signing up then I forgot about it.

        Let me see if I can be better this time 😱

  4. 2

    I would like to test. Dating app in original way, why not ! :)

    1. 1

      Thanks for your feedback! Join the waitlist and be the first to know! :)

    2. 1

      This comment was deleted 3 years ago.

  5. 1

    My phone number has recently been spammed by so many advertisers that I will think twice, no...thrice! Before I will ever give my number to anyone. So I won't accept any app analyzing me.

  6. 1

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  7. 1

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  8. 1

    Hi, wonderful app! Will it work with iOS14? I will download it today and let you know what I think. But speaking of relationships, have you read this https://www.tendermeets.com/experts-talk/why-religious-compatibility-is-important-in-relationships.html blog about religious compatibility in relationships? Do you think it is important? I tried to date an Arabic girl once, but her relatives almost kicked me off.

  9. 1

    What if it was by search history, youtube subscriptions, music listening, and location data to see if people like the same restaurants and activities 😳

    Of course, lots of privacy questions involved there but matches would be insane. But sometimes its better if opposites attract so you never know.

  10. 1

    "Would you use it?" you should never ask this the answers are worthless.

    I think you need to niche down and target a smaller audience, but overall - matching based on podcasts is pretty cool.

    That said - my wife an I listen to diametrically opposed podcasts. 9 years and strong

  11. 1

    Agree with @Cherubim. It's a cool idea, but it may be better as a feature of an existing app than a gimmick for a new one. That said, I'd consider the value in less-direct podcast correlations as well. For example, "men who like this podcast and women who like that podcast tend to hit it off X percent of the time."

  12. 1

    Absolutely no feedback or advice as per your project but just wondering how the hell dating apps that have grown successful actually started from scratch?

    How do they get those first lot of users on board since by it's very nature it requires users in the first instance to attract more users!?

    Is it a case of faking profiles for a time until enough people sign up?
    One huge launch and advertising campaign and with that enough people actually signed up to give it life....?

  13. 1

    This might just be my own anecdotal evidence, but a glaring problem comes to mind immediately:

    Guys and gals listen to VERY different podcasts. Of course there is overlap, but most guys don't listen to Stuff Mom Never Told You, and most gals don't listen to The MeatEater Podcast.

    That could mean that when you finally find someone who actually listens to your podcast, it's that much more special...

    But in general, I think it's far from the best metric to use when creating a dating partnership. BUT I do think the idea is going in an interesting direction. Something like looking at: the kinds of books people read, the movies they enjoy, or the sports they play/watch....

    I bet there's something there!

  14. 1

    Fun idea. Like @nafetswirth says the local adoption is key to a good experience.

    I think I'd find some podcast in a big-ish local market and advertise in their podcast, and combine it with some launch event so that everyone pre-claims their account and at some moment in time the floodgates open for some area.

    There's always the Stack Exchange model where anyone can start an exchange in sorts of an incubation mode, and when it has gained enough momentum it "graduates" from the incubation into a real Stack Exchange site. So, that, but for locations.

    Maybe Los Angeles or New York is good? Both locations have tons of people, a bunch of local podcasts, and a culture of not settling down (at least in the LA area).

    Or, you know, it doesn't have to be dating. It could be for friendships.

  15. 1

    That´s brilliant! Already occupied here, but that sounds like next level tinder 😎

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    This comment was deleted 2 years ago.

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