– ‘Hard to meet people’ –
“When I came to Asia, I realised it was hard to meet people,” explains Colombian-born CEO Camilo Paredes.
“I also realised that most of the Asians were somewhat shy, they’re not confrontational, they don’t put themselves out there.”
His solution was to mimic American Grouper, which matches two people according to the information on their Facebook profiles, then asks them to bring two friends with them to a bar for a six-person meet up.
While the majority of pairings are men meeting women, there is also the option of all-male or all-female dates.
“One-on-one can be super awkward. Two-on-two is still slightly awkward, but three-on-three is the magic number,” says Paredes.
Alongside expats, Hong Kongers now make up 50 percent of Grouvly’s users. In Singapore, most users are locals and there are plans to roll out the service to Japan, South Korea, Australia and China.
“For me, if somebody else likes the guy, they can have them,” says Aly, a 24-year-old blogger from the UK and Grouvly regular.
“Ok, they’re nice, but I’ve met them for what, two hours? I’m not going to cry about it.”
Aly finds these apps can be as much about making friends as looking for love, with Peekawoo’s founder saying this change of focus also allows women to take back control.
“There was one Peekawoo event where a Filipino-American guy offended a Filipina girl by asking her to go home with him,” Balace remembered.
“I told her, ‘I’m proud of you’. We told the guy what he did was wrong, and we never invited him again.”
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