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“The one question that Mr. Woo could not answer is how to develop a version of Grindr that works for straight people and women. The company tried to release an

“The one question that Mr. Woo could not answer is how to develop a version of Grindr that works for straight people and women. The company tried to release an app called Blendr, but it has been far less successful that its predecessor. It could simply be that “gay men are early adopters,” he said. “I joke that the wheel was invented by a gay man so he could get to his hookup faster.”” Is this really such a mystery? Women are not nearly as interested in meeting strangers online -- especially for random hookups -- as men are.

Aloisius 14y ago
Plenty of women are interested in meeting strangers and some even in hookups, but only in a safe setting where there is no physical risk and they can leave anytime. It is hard for a hookup service to provide that.
- jiggy2011 14y ago
  Yes, and in my experience women like to be wooed to some extent even for a "casual encounter" whereas guys just want to get on with it. "What is the minimum number of metres I need to walk to get laid" is a solution looking for a problem here.
  - TillE 14y ago
    While there are certainly some gay men who want literally nothing but sex, many want some kind of connection, at least to verify that the other person is minimally sane and practices good hygiene. It's really not so different. The "wooing" process for casual sex generally involves little more than giving signals that you're a normal person, and not a weirdo, creep, or bore.
officemonkey 14y ago
I could see an app like this being a tremendous asset for female sex workers. You're able to find clients who are interested in you, close, and willing to meet when you're available.
- culturestate 14y ago
  This is (in my experience) overwhelmingly the use case for the location-based features of WeChat in China. If you have 'allow me to be found based on my location' enabled, you are guaranteed at least one unsolicited proposition per night.
carbocation 14y ago
I think Tinder [1] is the counterexample: a blendr-esque app that actually achieved a female userbase. [1] = http://www.gotinder.com/index.html http://www.gotinder.com/index.html
return0 14y ago
I doubt he doesn't know that, but for some reason he chose to lie about it. It's not that gay men are "early adopters", it's the very different attitudes towards casual encounters.
alaskamiller 14y ago
Straight, young, hip women are just as likely as men to want to meet and do stuff. Spend some time in the OKCupid community and there's plenty of action. But to take it to Grindr level of connection matching money needs to be involved. The colloquial saying for prostitution is that the money is so that after they leave. That's what makes it a business transactions, you remove the emotional capital. The inverse then of creating a connection, hypothetically, is to have money to show that you're a serious candidate about meeting someone. The money could be put into escrow for disbursement to do something at a later point, but at least you get bought in enough to see the flop. Anything thereafter is up to you. That's how Grindr for straight people could work.
- charlieok 14y ago
  So... 1. Match on proximity/intrest 2. Man puts $X in escrow associated with woman's profile (and not any other profile at the same time) 3. Woman sees that guy put $X in escrow 4. Woman agrees to meet 5. They go have a nice dinner 6. The check arrives. 7. [Man or woman or both together] uses online service to release escrow funds and pay for the dinner. or alternatively 4. Woman rejects invitation or ignores it for Y amount of time 5. Funds returned for possible use on another invitation to somebody else Is this what you're suggesting? Do I have it right? Basically making the commitment to pay for dinner (or something) explicit in the service?

Aloisius 14y ago

Plenty of women are interested in meeting strangers and some even in hookups, but only in a safe setting where there is no physical risk and they can leave anytime. It is hard for a hookup service to provide that.

jiggy2011 14y ago
Yes, and in my experience women like to be wooed to some extent even for a "casual encounter" whereas guys just want to get on with it. "What is the minimum number of metres I need to walk to get laid" is a solution looking for a problem here.
- TillE 14y ago
  While there are certainly some gay men who want literally nothing but sex, many want some kind of connection, at least to verify that the other person is minimally sane and practices good hygiene. It's really not so different. The "wooing" process for casual sex generally involves little more than giving signals that you're a normal person, and not a weirdo, creep, or bore.

officemonkey 14y ago

I could see an app like this being a tremendous asset for female sex workers. You're able to find clients who are interested in you, close, and willing to meet when you're available.

culturestate 14y ago
This is (in my experience) overwhelmingly the use case for the location-based features of WeChat in China. If you have 'allow me to be found based on my location' enabled, you are guaranteed at least one unsolicited proposition per night.

carbocation 14y ago

I think Tinder [1] is the counterexample: a blendr-esque app that actually achieved a female userbase. [1] = http://www.gotinder.com/index.html http://www.gotinder.com/index.html

return0 14y ago

I doubt he doesn't know that, but for some reason he chose to lie about it. It's not that gay men are "early adopters", it's the very different attitudes towards casual encounters.

alaskamiller 14y ago

Straight, young, hip women are just as likely as men to want to meet and do stuff. Spend some time in the OKCupid community and there's plenty of action. But to take it to Grindr level of connection matching money needs to be involved. The colloquial saying for prostitution is that the money is so that after they leave. That's what makes it a business transactions, you remove the emotional capital. The inverse then of creating a connection, hypothetically, is to have money to show that you're a serious candidate about meeting someone. The money could be put into escrow for disbursement to do something at a later point, but at least you get bought in enough to see the flop. Anything thereafter is up to you. That's how Grindr for straight people could work.

charlieok 14y ago
So... 1. Match on proximity/intrest 2. Man puts $X in escrow associated with woman's profile (and not any other profile at the same time) 3. Woman sees that guy put $X in escrow 4. Woman agrees to meet 5. They go have a nice dinner 6. The check arrives. 7. [Man or woman or both together] uses online service to release escrow funds and pay for the dinner. or alternatively 4. Woman rejects invitation or ignores it for Y amount of time 5. Funds returned for possible use on another invitation to somebody else Is this what you're suggesting? Do I have it right? Basically making the commitment to pay for dinner (or something) explicit in the service?