The three young women who founded the dating app, Coffee Meets Bagel, created a bit of a stir when they denied Mark Cuban’s record breaking offer of $30 million on Shark Tank. After closing a $7.8 million Series A financing round in February, the sisters behind the application—Arum, Dawoon and Soo Kang—have reason to be confident.
The application has been referred to as the “anti-Tinder,” and even Dawoon Kang plans to promote it as “the opposite of Tinder,” the notoriously sex-focused application that has left many women vulnerable to an often predatory mindset of many male users.
There are similarities between Tinder and Coffee Meets Bagel, including a “like or pass” system that allows users to discreetly bypass unwanted matches. The main difference, though, is Coffee Meets Bagel’s one-match-a-day policy. Although this may seem like a frustration to some, this approach eliminates the overwhelming sea of options that leaves so many Tinder matches unpursued, and leads others to taking a purely sex-focused approach.
The application has been referred to as the “anti-Tinder, the notoriously sex-focused application that has left many women vulnerable to an often predatory mindset of many male users. The main difference is that the application gives you one optimized match per day.
The application thus gives you one optimized match a day, at 12:00pm—under the premise that young professionals are typically looking for a lunch-break companion—for which you have a window of 24 hours to accept or reject. After both parties accept, you’re taken to a private chat room that remains open for only 7 days. This structure also gives users something to look forward to each day.
Hailing from the sisters’ home base of San Francisco, Coffee Meets Bagel has been steadily expanding, and has even extended its reach overseas to Hong Kong. Most recently, Coffee Meets Bagel launched their mobile app in Sydney, hoping to capture a market where 50 per cent of residents over the age of 15 are single, many of whom fall between the age bracket of 21 to 35.
Though in some ways, Coffee Meets Bagel just seems like a restricted version of Tinder, the structure of an application has everything to do with the kinds of users it attracts, and the ecosystem it creates.
According the Forbes, the application has led to over 20 million user meet-ups and 80 marriages to date in the US alone.
The three young women who founded the dating app, Coffee Meets Bagel, created a bit of a stir when they denied Mark Cuban’s record breaking offer of $30 million on Shark Tank. After closing a $7.8 million Series A financing round in February, Coffee Meets Bagel has been steadily expanding, and has even extended its reach overseas.
Sources: forbes.com, inc.com
