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Loneliness Sparks Boom in Paid Friend Apps
26 Oct
Summary
- Apps match personalities, organizing group meetups for a fee.
- Users pay hundreds of dollars for curated social experiences.
- Companies like Real Roots and Timeleft are generating millions annually.
A new wave of startups is capitalizing on widespread loneliness by offering paid services to help people forge offline friendships. These apps, including Real Roots, 222, and Timeleft, remove the traditional hurdles of online dating and social planning by directly organizing group meetups. Users pay a fee, sometimes in the hundreds of dollars, for curated social experiences designed to foster genuine connections.
Alexandra Pitzer, for example, spent $290 on the Real Roots app after relocating to Honolulu. The app organized a gathering of women based on personality surveys, leading to lasting friendships. This model is proving lucrative, with these friend-matching companies generating millions in annual revenue, highlighting a growing demand for facilitated social interaction in an increasingly isolated world.
