Young people looking for no-strings-attached sex who don’t want to go through the rigmarole of chit-chat online are looking forward to the launch of a new app next week.
Pure, which has been described as ‘bringing Seamless to the bedroom’, offers sex on-demand by simply asking users their gender and the gender of their preference, whether they can host and then shows them potential partners who answer ‘Okay’ or ‘No Way’.
Pending approval by Apple’s App Store, Pure’s intentionally soul-less and potentially dangerous approach to hook-ups has no profiles, no chat sessions before-hand and deletes unfulfilled requests after an hour.
All these apps and sites require some kind of profile and online conversation to get to know the potential date better.
However, Pure, created by Roman Sidorenko and Alexander Kukhtenko removes all of that and simply provides two people who want to have sex based on their image online the ability to arrange a meet-up.
‘People are becoming comfortable with a format of online dating that once sounded scary,’ said Dan Slater, author of Love in the Time of Algorithms.
‘If these new location-based, on-the-fly apps are largely for hooking up … perhaps more people out there are looking for quick sex than had been originally thought.’
Of course, online apps to arrange no-strings-attached sex are nothing new.
Grindr has become a staple of the gay community since its launch in 2009 and became so successful that it directly influenced Tinder and Bang With Friends for heterosexual people.
Indeed, Tinder is currently at the center of take-over rumors in Silicon Valley and Pure managed to raise $200,000 in investment funds for its launch.
‘We wanted an easy way to find sex, basically,’ said Sidorenko to New York Magazine.
‘It’s very interesting to see what Fifty Shades of Gray did for the pleasure-products industry,’ said Sidorenko.
‘When that book became a monster hit, it became okay to talk about BDSM stuff. It became okay to buy sex toys. This is the way the dating industry will be changed.’
Appealing to all genders and orientations, the appeal of Pure will be to cut down the basics of sex to the essential ingredients, such as gender, age, appearance, location and availability.
However, the art of seduction does not seem to have died a complete death.
Traditional online dating site Match.com raked in profits of $205 million last year – showing that people don’t necessarily want to skip the ‘getting to know you’ part of a sexual relationship.
While Pure is focusing its efforts initially on the gay market, it hopes to eventually open up the bi, straight and polyamorous markets very soon afterwards.
They will church $9.99 for a day pass – allowing users unlimited requests for 24 hours.
Eventually, Pure want to tap into the female demographic and are planning a series of marketing events in New York bars in the coming weeks.
However, Harry Reis, professor of clinical psychology at the University of Rochester says that the online dating market is presumptuous about no-strings-attached sex.
‘Just because a person isn’t interested in monogamy doesn’t mean they’re interested in having sex with anyone and anything,’ he said to theNew York Magazine.
Leave a Comment