Created in 2017, Taimi has grown to be the largest LGBTQ platform worldwide. It offers social networking, dating, and streaming services on the same app. The service is available in 138 countries, and it has attracted over 15 million users to date.
Initially founded as a dating site for gay men, Taimi expanded its concept to accommodate the ever-rising need for a safe online space for the queer community. By the end of 2018, the platform had expanded extensively to become the most versatile and inclusive dating platform of our time.
LGBTQ Wiki
Taimi Wiki is a resource platform that acts as an extensive encyclopedia. It offers information on everything queer. It is an important resource that sheds light on topics such as definitions, explanations of gender and identity, history, health, ethnicity, culture, and history makers in LGBTQ history. This tab also acts as a glossary of terminology and popular terms. It is a helpful guide for those who aren’t sure about their identity or orientation.
A Rainbow Success Story
But how did Taimi become so successful? How does Taimi manage to stand out from hundreds of dating apps?
Since dating apps became socially acceptable, there has been a rise in demand for online matchmaking platforms. As a result, the internet was flooding with dating apps, all promising to find you the perfect partner.
So how did Taimi find success in the ever-swelling flood of dating apps? What does Taimi dating teach us about successful dating apps?
Success in the Dating App Scene
1. Understand Your Audience
This data is essential in scoping out your project and mapping out your promotion strategy. It is crucial to have a deep and broad understanding of your target audience. A target demographic is defined by several factors such as age, gender, location, religion, ethnicity, race, occupation, and marital status. This is the heaviest influencer of your app’s success.
Understanding the psychometrics of your future users might be an uphill task, but it allows you to create a better-suited product. To achieve this, you must have an answer to most, if not all, of the following questions;
- Does your target audience share any similarities in their personalities?
- What is a typical day in their life?
- Do they have core values, and if so, what are they?
- What are their interests?
- What is their perception and attitude towards online matchmaking platforms?
- What dating challenges do they face, both online and offline?
- Where does your app fit in their daily lives, and why should they have it?
As such, developing a niche dating app gives you a competitive advantage, and it becomes easier to attract a loyal audience. However, identifying your target does not mean you should exclude other groups that don’t meet your criteria.
While developing your app, it is crucial to create a marketing strategy that effectively conveys the message to its potential users.
Alex Pasykov is an ally who has always wanted to make a difference in the lives of LGBTQ people across the world. As his IT career was starting out, Alex saw a dire need for an online space where queer people could be safe. On this platform, individuals from the LGBTQ community could freely express themselves, connect and interact with each other without fear or judgment.
In addition, Alex wanted to create a space where queer people could find meaningful relationships. As such, Taimi was developed as both a dating site and a social network. Although the app was initially developed as a dating platform for gay men, it outgrew its purpose and became an all-inclusive site for the entire LGBTQ community.
On Taimi, individuals can be safe from societal prejudice, harassment, and discrimination. This way, people can openly discuss issues, share information, meet new people and actively participate in their respective subcultures.
2. Who is Your Competition?
There are hundreds of active dating platforms, all with different qualities. Although all of them are your competition, you can use them as a study case for your project.
What are the key selling features of the most popular apps? Look through reviews for the most and least popular platforms. Understand what people like and don’t like about them. This information helps you avoid similar pitfalls while building on their strengths.
While studying international apps, don’t ignore local apps. You cannot afford to ignore the influence a city’s residence has on a dating or social network.
There are numerous dating apps created for the queer community, but Taimi remains the most prominent one. How is this so?
Most of the apps dedicated to the LGBTQ community will often target a certain demographic of the spectrum. There are apps that cater to gays, lesbians, and bisexuals. There are very few platforms for the Trans subculture.
However, Taimi offers an all-inclusive platform for every gender and orientation across the spectrum. Unlike most hookup apps, people here can connect and interact, make friends and forge meaningful relationships.
The Taimi Talks feature allows queer athletes and celebrities to address important issues affecting the community. Most LGBTQ dating sites only offer a medium to hook up, but they never truly care about the individual or how being queer influences their life. On Taimi, individuals can connect, interact, and exchange ideas without the pressure of having to meet or hook up with anyone.
3. It’s Time to Match! Creating a Matching Algorithm
Once you’ve established what you want and who you are up against, it’s time to develop the matching algorithm.
Naturally, most of the existing dating apps use interests and looks. They are not at fault since this is what most people use to determine a perfect match. But before you can determine yours, you must know what your target audience wants. You can gather such information through simple questionnaires.
So far, there are several unique algorithms such as favorite restaurants, mutual friends, things you hate, and geo-location.
On the other hand, Taimi offers numerous matching techniques in their program. You can connect with people based on relationship needs, compatibility, core values and beliefs, political views, and social interests. In addition, the app applies AI technology to enhance and improve the site’s personalization and match suggestions.
Determining your algorithm technique allows you to fully cater to your user’s needs. Besides appealing designs and layouts, your app should allow the user to navigate and accomplish tasks quickly and without any difficulties.
Your algorithm also determines the privacy and safety protocols of the app. Before a user can make any matches, you should be able to guarantee their safety from creeps and dangerous people. For instance, users can only filter their match suggestions to include verified profiles.
Once you check these three boxes, ensure you provide extra functionalities that make it easier to use the app. such features include;
- Ability to sign up/log in with other social media profiles
- Swiping feature makes it easier to browse through match suggestions
- Diverse contact tools such as live streams, audio messages, and voice calls
- Geo-location features allow users to connect with people within their locality.
Conclusion
Of course, there are other building blocks of a successful dating app. However, there are certain foundational blocks that ensure your platform withstands the test of time and the market. Obviously, we could learn a thing or two from Taimi, the world’s largest queer platform.