Dating App Festar Connects Users Based on Mutual Interests, Not Looks

After its initial release in Japanese, dating app Festar has launched in beta on Android in 13 countries in English and Korean. From AI Pacific, Festar connects users based on mutual interests, and allows users to chat in real-time with matches.

With Festar, users pick a ‘party room’ to join based on their interests, and are matched with another user who shares their interests and is currently online. When a match is found, the app connects two users for a 10-minute chat. For the app’s free members, men can chat with one user for free each day, while women can chat with three.

At the end of a chat, users have the option to continue chatting via unlimited private messaging. While women on the app's free plan have free access to unlimited private messaging, the feature is part of the app's premium plan for men. To be specific, this premium plan costs $9.99 per month for men, and also includes access to unlimited 10-minute chats. Women, meanwhile, can pay $4.99 per month for access to unlimited 10-minute chats.

In a statement, Tomochika Kamiya, president of AI Pacific, commented:

Most dating apps are based on looks and social status, and users can waste hours over-analyzing selfies and concocting the perfect pick up line. With Festar we wanted to give users a more natural way of meeting people—just talk for 10 minutes and see if you get along.

During our beta release in Japan, Japanese users really enjoyed getting to meet new people based on their hobbies, and we saw a lot of successful matches. We decided to do a multilingual and worldwide release so people from all around the world can enjoy Festar and meet new people. I hope to see new friendships and relationships popping up across the world thanks to Festar.

During the Japanese beta release, 75 percent of active users reportedly chatted with a match, and 29 percent of those users mutually chose to talk more after an initial chat. AI Pacific hopes Festar will reach 100,000 users worldwide in 2016, and aims to increase the app's matching rate to 90 percent.

Festar is available to download for free on Google Play, and is coming soon to iOS.