Unhinged, A Dating Series: Would You Pay to Talk to a Match?
“I already don’t think I’m going to like this app… Is it going to make me pay to have interactions?” texted my friend Megan (not her real name) after signing up for the GoGetter dating app.
Created by La Jolla resident Andrea Miller, the app was made to “bring together singles who share similar lifestyles by fostering an environment that prioritizes quality connections,” its website touts. Here’s how it works:
You sign up with your phone number, answer some questions about your dating preferences, and fill out your bio, similar to other popular dating apps. Then you’ll be asked to choose some of your favorite athletic activities, including extreme sports, fishing, golfing, hiking, indoor volleyball, or kickboxing. You’ll also need to choose your preferred first date from five options: coffee, working out together, drinks, dinner, or going for a walk.
GoGetter’s swiping interface is the most comparable to Tinder, with an “X” on the left side of a profile to pass and a heart in the center to say “yes.” You won’t have to guess if you share similar interests with your potential match—you can see their chosen activities under their profile. Once matched, you have 48 hours to chat with each other before the match disappears. However, you must pay a “coin,” which costs $1, to start a conversation.
While the app piqued my interest when I first heard about it, I wasn’t quite sure how its mission statement would translate into real-life dating scenarios. GoGetter’s focus on connecting people who love being outdoors, working up a sweat, and getting their bodies moving resonated with me—after all, I looked for these qualities in a potential partner while dating.
So, I called up its founder to get the scoop, and I enlisted a friend to try out the app.
“I left the corporate world to pursue this dating app. I was 35 and single and was basically saying, ‘Hey, this is what I would need to find love,’” says Miller, who was living in Australia at the time for work and to travel. “I knew that my number-one non-negotiable was that I wanted to meet someone who lived an active lifestyle. So I thought, ‘Let’s start there.’ It was just mind-boggling to me that nothing was really out there serving this niche.”
Miller, who is now 43, launched the app (then called Slindir) in Australia in 2016. A year later, she moved to San Diego and debuted a second iteration for the US market with updated tech and a full rebrand, including its name.
“And then Covid hit and I was in a time when I actually ended up having to go back to Australia, so that kind of slowed things down a little bit,” Miller recalls. “I couldn’t keep the momentum up.” She met her now-husband while working out on the beach and eventually had a baby during the pandemic.
In 2022, Miller decided it was time to re-launch in San Diego with the addition of a new feature that was important to her: pay-to-talk. As mentioned earlier, when you match with someone, you have to pay a “coin” (or, literally, one dollar), to initiate a conversation. If the other person wants to chat, too, they can pony up the $1 fee to do so; otherwise, if they decide they don’t want to talk, you’ll get your coin returned to your virtual bank.
“The whole idea is that … you both need to make a move; you’re go-getters,” Miller says. “Let’s take these ‘yeses’ that people have given to each other and let’s verify them a bit more. If you’re really interested in talking to this person, show some initiative. Put the effort in.”
On its head, this approach makes sense to me. Other apps have similar ways of coaxing conversations. Bumble gives pairs 24 hours to connect before the match expires and disappears. While talking to matches on Hinge is free, many of the app’s most popular filtering features (including height, religious views, and family preferences) are only available to users who pay in-app fees—meaning that you’re paying for the opportunity to speak with a more curated list of people, rather than casting a wide net for free.
However, if you’re a new GoGetter user, the coin feature may have you second-guessing using the app. My friend Megan, for her part, had mixed feelings about it. “Even a dollar is going to make me think twice about chatting with someone I’m lukewarm about,” she says. “But I would be thrilled to pay $5 if there were five guys I actually wanted to talk with.”
Miller argues that when somebody chooses to pay a coin to talk to you, they’re reaffirming they’re interest, which in turn adds value to the connection. “It’s not like, ‘Oh, I paid to be on this platform,’” she says. “It’s like, ‘I’ve paid to talk to you.’”
Currently, the app has under 100 users in San Diego and only 1,500 across the entire country. But, according to Miller, it’s growing—just maybe not fast enough.
“There were literally two men in SD on it. Then it started throwing me men and women from all over,” Megan says. “I was getting women almost immediately, even though my settings say, ‘Only men.’ And then, within a dozen swipes, I was onto Phoenix and SF. Interesting concept; [it] just needs to grow, I think.”
Megan deleted the app. Miller knows she must draw more users to GoGetter if it’s going to compete with the major players in this field.
“I need to take the focus away from trying to get as many people as possible and really serve each market at a time,” she says. “Because I am here in San Diego, I thought, Okay, I can be part of the marketing and the events and really just kind of find out what works, and then, that way, I can replicate that in each market.”
She plans to use in-person meetups to help grow the GoGetter community. Her goal is to host get-togethers for app users to ensure attendees are ready to date and share the values of the app.
“Once we start to build the audience a little bit more, we’re going to start holding events,” Miller says. “They might be social events; they might be active events—could be a running thing, a yoga thing, or a happy hour. I think it’s important to bring people together.”
What do you think? Are you willing to be a guinea pig and try out the new app? Or is the pay-to-talk feature a reason to skip it all together?
If you’re new to Unhinged, catch up on all the dating chats you’ve missed here and follow along at @monicles and @sandiegomag on Instagram to know when a new article drops each week.
Sign-up now for the Unhinged newsletter for exclusive content, Q&As with Nicolle, and subscriber-only meet-ups!
[sdm-newsletter-placement]
The post Unhinged, A Dating Series: Would You Pay to Talk to a Match? appeared first on San Diego Magazine.
Categories
Recent Posts
GET MORE INFORMATION
