Fairytrail is often described as Tinder for travelers. However, after 5 years of experimenting in dating and becoming the number one dating app for remote workers, we found that the current dating app concept doesn’t work well because of market dynamics and business incentives (see original thesis).
In this article, we’ll share our findings and our new approach.
Gender imbalance
Despite our focus on remote dating which evens out gender imbalance compared to intra-city dating, there’s still a lot of overall gender imbalance which makes it difficult to match.
Let’s take a look at Monthly Active User gender split on Fairytrail as of Jan 1, 2024
Gender Split For Fairytrail: Friends & Dating For Travelers
Compare this to when we were a travel matching and booking app in 2019 and 2020. The concept was we’d help you find a romantic partner to go on a fun adventure with, then you’d safely book the activity on our platform. Read a review of how it worked. This was our gender ratio.
Gender Split For Fairytrail: Adventure Matching
Note: We pivoted to a traditional dating app for travelers because we couldn’t earn revenue selling adventures during Covid in 2020.
Losing users too quickly
Some users would find their romantic partner in a week, while others would feel demoralized and leave in a week. Businesses are hard with extreme churn. We’d need crazy incoming traffic to support this.
Revenue is tied to keeping users
We didn’t want to offer 3 month, 6 month, or 1 year plans to keep our users on our platform when our purpose was to help people find love quickly. There is a dating app paradox here.
Unhealthy behaviors
When it comes to love, people become a bit crazy. There’s a lot of emotions, hurt feelings, and burnout. This went against our philosophy to improve health and relationships.
The larger trend is dating apps are suffering declines, struggling for direction, and people are looking for alternatives. Demand is there, it’s just the solution sucks. This could be a great opportunity to build a dating app alternative.
No room for friends
When Fairytrail was a friends and dating app, it was hard for people to make friends because there was a dating feel. People couldn’t just connect because they found each other interesting. Even with clear labels it was confusing as people often didn’t even know themselves if they wanted to date or be friends with the other person.
The trail ahead
Our solution is to avoid dating. Instead, just get people connected and out on adventures. Relationships are built through experiences, and our job is to make it safer and more exciting. We’ll realize our mission to improve health by getting people out in the sun, getting fresh air, walking, and deepening connections.
The new version of Fairytrail is all about discovering fun activities and finding people to do it with. Get inspired with fun activities, build your bucket list, and connect with travelers to make your dreams come true. Read about our redesigned adventure matching app here.
Click here to discuss on HN or comment below.
Written by Taige Zhang
Photo courtesy of Jason Wang (@jwang815)
