The world of modern dating can be scary and overwhelming. With endless apps to choose from, seemingly never-ending swiping and surface-level conversations that end in being ghosted, it can feel as though dating has never been as difficult or confusing as it is now.
Sugju Choi, CS 23’ graduate, had a similar perspective on dating a couple of years ago. Being an international student from Korea, she was even more unfamiliar and dissatisfied with the American dating scene.
“I’ve tried a lot of dating apps, but as a female, I have had issues. Safety was my biggest concern, and dating apps nowadays only care about superficial interactions, and they are really unhealthy in prioritizing hookup culture and not genuine connections,” Choi said.
Many students at the Institute and young people overall have similar concerns and worries about dating apps as Choi, sharing her dissatisfaction. This dissatisfaction inspired Choi to co-found Bubble Date, a dating app start-up grown from the Institute.
Choi was inspired by the dating culture in her home country, South Korea. In contrast to America, where one-on-one interactions are prioritized, Korean dating culture has a different perspective on how best to introduce potential couples to one another. Michael Klikushin, third-year CS and Bubble Date COO and co-founder, explained the concept.
“In Korea, there is a different style of dating where two groups come together,” Klikushin said. “A group of guys will approach a group of girls.”
Choi prefers the Korean model, and after meeting her husband through the method of two friend groups coming together, she decided she should share the method with the broader student body. Choi and the entire Bubble Date team wanted to solve the issues many young people say they have with the larger dating apps on the market.
“Our mission is to bring back organic relationships through an organic way,” Choi said. “We want people to have a more fun and exciting way to meet people.”
In contrast to traditional dating apps, Bubble Date asks users to form a friend group when they sign up, and instead of pairing individuals one-on-one, the dating algorithm matches whole friend groups with other friend groups. Most people are familiar with the concept of double dates; Bubble Date takes this concept and expands it to triple dates, quadruple dates, and even larger group dates. The application leaves the specific matchups to the volition of the group members.
The creation and development of a start-up is rarely a smooth process. The Bubble Date team faced a lot of surprises on the way from conceptualization to creation and eventual launch. Harsha Gaddipati, third-year CS and Bubble Date CTO, explained how the team faced several issues faced exclusively by dating apps.
“In my experience, the most surprising thing a lot of the time is just that people worry more about the negative stigma and fear of what their friends think about the use of dating apps,” Gaddipati said.
Klikushin also weighed in on the issue of perceptions of dating apps.
“The most surprising thing is that there are a lot of negative stereotypes around dating apps at Tech,” Klikushin said.
Negative stereotypes surrounding dating apps are not the only obstacle the Bubble Date team has had to work through.
“One of the hardest parts is not necessarily the matching algorithm. It is hard to get people to actually meet up,” Gaddipati said.
This is not an issue unique to Bubble Date. Anyone with experience or knowledge of the dating app scene understands the difficulty of getting people to follow through with matches. Bubble Date successfully made 1637 matches within the first month of operation.
“It’s not just about how to get a match. Sometimes, you will get a match, but you will not end up talking to them or meeting up. We have about 40% of people meeting with their matches, and we want to shoot for as close to one hundred as possible,” Gaddipati said.
Not all the surprises the Bubble Date team encountered were negative. Bubble Date acquired a shocking amount of signups and users in a very short time.
“Getting people to the app has been way easier than we thought,” Choi said. “We haven’t spent much on marketing so it has been shocking.”
Bubble Date has sported over 1000 users in under a month with 900 signups coming from flyers. Students may have recently noticed those colorful flyers popping up on lamp posts, cork boards, and doors around campus.
The Bubble Date team is not finished working on the start-up. They are looking to continuously improve and expand. For those with friends who might not attend the Institute, Bubble Date hopes to expand to other schools soon..
“Next, we are launching our official app for seven different schools. We want to expand to different cities too,” Choi said. “We have a plan to expand to older generations. College students who have graduated and have moved to a different city.”
The team also wants to hear from current students and users here at the Institute.
“If [students] have any questions or they want to talk more and anything they are expecting from a dating app we want to hear from them they should reach out and talk to us,” Choi said. “People are not used to giving feedback to companies and supplying advice so we are trying to figure out the best way to receive feedback. Users can reach out to us on Instagram if they have any feedback.”
If you are interested in trying out Bubble Date for yourself, you should visit bubble-date.com. Maybe you will find the love of your life for both you and your friends.