SNAP Interactive is re-launching its Facebook-synced dating site AreYouInterested.com as a social discovery website. AreYouInterested (both the site and the app) lets you sync your Facebook information to your profile and meet other people with similar interests — no friending required.
“Several months ago we saw a much bigger opportunity to redesign our product,” Clifford Lerner, CEO of SNAP Interactive, tells Mashable.com. “For us, what the redesign means is meeting people based on your interests.”
And while the dating niche was a popular one (the app has more than 6 million monthly active users, according to AppData), Lerner said they wanted to expand to include all sorts of sharing for various reasons. Now you can meet people who share your interests, whether you’re looking for friendship or dating.
Rather than asking another user if they’re interested in you romantically, members of the website could ask, “Do you like the new Lady Gaga song?” for instance, and maybe make a friend. AreYouInterested can plug into many third party APIs, in order to make online sharing and relationships more dynamic. Currently it is integrated with StubHub and YouTube, so users can share content from those sites.
For the millions of active users already on the site for dating purposes, they can continue trying to meet someone special, but now other users might have different objectives.
AreYouInterested has slowly been transitioning current users over to the new site concept. This new site, Lerner said, will appeal to a broader audience.
The online dating space in general needs lot of work, he said. AreYouInterested addressed one of the big problems in that space — which is the fact that many dating sites are basically an appearance contest, Lerner added. With AreYouInterested, users sync the site to their Facebook profiles, where their personal information, such as favorite movies and music are used to find dating interests, and now friends.
The site will operate on a freemium model. You can sync your Facebook account to the site and see what users you have things in common with for free. You can send one free message, but for any more you’ll need to subscribe.
