Why
Patriarchy, representative democracy, the social market economy, and social media platforms are our reality. They are all deeply flawed, but they remain the best systems we currently know.
We can make things better, that’s why we need a Sovereign Social Media Application, instead of the centralized handful of platforms that dominate the internet. We need to return to the original decentralized ideal of the internet.
Can we fundamentally change these systems? I don’t know. But we must try, and we must start somewhere.
For us, that “somewhere” is dating. From there, we build.
The internet, originally planned as a federated network, is now dominated by a small oligopoly of primarily US-centric platforms. To make matters worse, some countries have created their own separate internets.
The internet and social media should have brought us closer together, helping us understand one another better. Instead, we are more divided than ever, unsure of what reality even is, or whether we still care about it.
The human brain, as miraculous as it is, remains an ape’s brain and it’s built for small communities of individuals, not for grasping everything or thinking strategically on a global scale.
We want to be good, but life already demands enough from us in our small, personal worlds. We cannot take care of everything. We are overwhelmed by information and the sheer complexity of the world, so we seek easy answers.
What we truly need is a different kind of internet and social media, one better suited to the limits and strengths of our minds.
How
Existing dating apps have one goal: to keep users on the platform as long as possible. Not to facilitate real dates, but to show ads and sell paid features. Engagement is more important than success. The happiness of users doesn’t matter, as long as they stay active. This is also true for any platform, be they social media, streaming, or games.
Our vision is to build the dating app that begins where others stop, with the date in real life. The first date is free; every additional date costs a small fee. After three dates we offer a subscription that includes dating and all other services.
The services will include other types of dates for meetups and hookups, a feed for news and social media, messaging, interest groups, search, classifieds, events, and utility apps such as a period tracker.
We realize this as an open-source application, leveraging best-of-class open-source projects. We will distribute our revenue entirely to creators and the open-source community, minus fixed costs (salaries, marketing, infrastructure). That way, we remain independent from ads and sponsorships.
What
We are building a dating app that rethinks online dating: no ads, no data sharing, strong encryption, and no endless swiping. Instead, users tell us who they are and who they are looking for, and we propose a match to both sides, with a clear explanation of why they fit. The first date is free, with subsequent dates available via micro-transactions or an optional subscription.
The total addressable market for dating apps is worth about USD 0.7–1.5B in Germany, around USD 5–15B in Europe, and USD 8.6–12B globally today, projected to reach USD 14–25B by 2030–2032.
Our short-term vision is to evolve this app into a relationship companion, adding services, content, and social features. Long-term, it has the potential to become an Everything-App: decentralized, ad-free, privacy-first, and designed to fulfill its purpose without exploiting user attention.