Dating site OkCupid has launched Crazy Blind Date, a new mobile app that set singles up on blind dates with only a few hours notice.
The app lets users select their availability and pick a favourite bar or coffee shop. Once Crazy Blind Date has found a compatible date, it will send a confirmation to both parties.
One hour before the scheduled date, Crazy Blind Date will open up an anonymous IM window so the daters can easily find each other.
After the date ends, Crazy Blind Date prompts users to give feedback on the date. If the daters had a good time, they are offered the opportunity to vouch for their date’s awesomeness by purchasing Crazy Blind Date credits, called “Kudos,” on their date’s behalf, thus incentivizing everyone to be on his or her best behaviour.
The more Kudos daters collect from the people they’ve gone on dates with in the past, the higher priority they have in being assigned to future dates.
“If you ask women what they dislike most about online dating, it’s that it’s too much work,” said Sam Yagan, one of the founders of the company and its chief executive. “People want instant gratification. It’s the trajectory of the industry.”
To celebrate the launch of Crazy Blind Date, OkCupid, named yesterday, “LOVE IS BLIND” day. Every one of the ten million photos on OkCupid was been removed from the site; members logging into OkCupid had to make their dating decisions based on words and wits.
Users could share their Crazy Blind Date stories via Twitter using the hashtag, #CrazyBlindDate.
Crazy Blind Date was designed in collaboration with Huge, a design firm headquartered in Brooklyn New York.
