NEWSDIRECT - HyperSphere, the data protection company, partners with Planet Theta, a VR dating app that enables singles to safely connect and date from the comfort of their own homes, utilizing Meta VR headsets.
NEWSDIRECT - HyperSphere, the data protection company, partners with Planet Theta, a VR dating app that enables singles to safely connect and date from the comfort of their own homes, utilizing Meta VR headsets.
Oct 06, 2022 | Permalink | Comments (0)
OPW INTERVIEW - Planet Theta is the world's first Virtual Reality dating app. The app's founder and CMO, Aurora Townsend, believes metaverse is the future of dating because it addresses the top concerns that people have with traditional dating apps - privacy and security.
The metaverse is considered the next step in the evolution of the Internet, but how close are we to the real experience?
Real metaverse experiences are already here, and there are many things to do in VR, such as playing poker, going out to comedy clubs, playing tennis, or shopping. As the VR user base continues to double every year, we can expect the variety and quality of metaverse experiences to scale to that need, bringing endless opportunities. This November, Planet Theta will be open to the public.
What is Planet Theta's founding story? How did you come up with the app's name?
Planet Theta's origin was covid. Most of the people I know became lonely and depressed and began looking for ways to connect and date other than meeting in person. Many of us tried group phone and video calls, but they did not fill the void. One day I was playing a VR game with a couple of friends, and it dawned on us that we may have found the answer - using VR, technology's most immersive way to connect. Theta means rebirth, and we created Planet Theta to help foster a rebirth of dating culture. We push personal interaction and chemistry back to the forefront of dating. We call it Microdating. Instead of focusing first on profiles, on Planet Theta matchmaking is about testing chemistry.
How is the app funded?
Our CEO, Chris Crew, contributed ~$1M to start the development of Planet Theta. Since then, we have raised funds from a few seed investors and are currently looking for a larger investor to help us navigate our launch. If you are interested in investing in Planet Theta, please take a look at our investor's website: https://investplanettheta.com.
What are the biggest challenges you are facing right now?
VR is expanding so fast that our target audience is an ever-changing factor of demographics as it grows. This is a unique challenge for our marketing team.
How does Planet Theta stand out from other dating apps, and how does it work? Describe the experience.
Most dating apps are matchmaking apps - there is no dating within the apps, and there is no chemistry testing, which is an essential part of any relationship. On Planet Theta, we have replaced Swiping with Microdating. A user selects Microdating within the app, and the AI sets the user up with three consecutive 75s Microdates with three users the AI thinks they may like. After each microdate, users will be prompted to rate their date with a thumbs up or down. At the end of the three microdates, users will be notified of their new "matches" (where both users gave a thumbs up) and be encouraged to invite them to a Coffee Date. Matches can chat on our associated phone app (mainly to schedule a Coffee Date) but will not be able to share pics or see each other's profiles until after going on a Coffee Date. The Coffee Date is a 3-minute date in our cafe. This is a chance to find out if you can have a good conversation. We encourage couples to go on a few dates, like taking a walk in our Enchanted Forest together or watching a new movie at our allrites© theater.
Who do you consider your biggest competitor in the metaverse space?
To our knowledge, we are building the only VR app dedicated to dating. People have been dating in VR for years on VRChat, Altspace, and other social VR apps. We don't see Social VR apps as competitors. Their environments are almost entirely user-created, allow children, and most importantly, the apps are not focused on dating. Some really cool web 2.0 apps are matchmaking apps in the traditional sense, just focused on helping people make VR connections. We see these apps as partners rather than competitors.
How do you protect your users from abuse?
A lot of our vision is about prioritizing the comfort and safety of women. Planet Theta helps them filter out who they want to meet in the physical world. There is no way to look through a list of profiles or to message random people. Users can only see the profiles of other users after going on a short coffee date in Planet Theta. Some of the more apparent features include an ability to silence, block, or report other users, we'll be using human moderators in public spaces, and of course, a personal bubble that protects your space from being intrusively invaded. The personal bubble will not be an on/off switch but a decreasing setting relative to how much time other users have spent with you in Planet Theta. The longer a couple is dating, the smaller the bubble until it disappears altogether.
Where do you see Planet Theta a year from now?
We expect Planet Theta to be the fastest-growing dating app on the market. Word of mouth will propel Planet Theta into the mainstream as women explain to their friends how much safer and easier it is to date on Planet Theta than on traditional dating apps. By next year if you haven't yet been on a VR date, I expect you'll know someone who has.
Aug 16, 2022 | Permalink | Comments (0)
FORBES - VR dating is on the rise, but Match Group/Tinder pulled the plug on it's (10 month) attempt to build a metaverse dating space, and scrapped the creation of an in-app currency - as revenue growth slackened. Match previously acquired Hyperconnect, an AI & AR company that was developing a virtual romance destination called "Single Town." Now they will iterate but not invest heavily in metaverse. Meanwhile, Nevermet, Flirtual and Planet Theta are showing the different ways in which metaverse dating apps might work.
Nevermet connects VR enthusiasts, who build profiles including in-depth personal bios and avatars. Once two people match they leave Neremet to connect in a virtual world of their choosing. Flirtual sends users to VRChat after they've connected on the Flirtual app. Planet Theta launches November, and will connect matches via virtual speed dating. 1-min chats lead to 3-min coffee dates in a Planet Theta-designed cafe. After virtual coffee users see their dates' photos and can connect in Planet Theta's metaverse world, virtually sipping drinks at a bar or feeding squirrels in the enchanted forest.
by David Westenhaver
See full article at Forbes
Mark Brooks: The mind boggles. What's your thoughts on VR / AR and AI enabled Internet dating? I'd love to hear your thoughts on this Swell.
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Aug 08, 2022 | Permalink | Comments (0)
PHILADELPHIA WEEKLY - Aurora Townsend, the CMO and founder of VR dating app Planet Theta, responds on how to make VR dating safe for women. On Planet Theta, users don't swipe on profiles and then initiate contact. Instead, they are matched for mini dates based on interests and can only see each other's profiles or message after that. "A woman's voice in this industry is absolutely necessary," she says, adding that men often *think* they are addressing safety concerns but fail to do so effectively. "Personal space bubbles are built into Planet Theta, and only diminish with a certain amount of time around other users. Ours aren't just an on/off switch, but a reflection on how far your relationship has progressed." Planet Theta has an active Discord and is set to launch on Oculus and Steam in 2022, and will eventually be available in PC desktop version.
Jul 04, 2022 | Permalink | Comments (0)
PR NEWSWIRE - The partnership provides ~82K hours of ritestream licensed content for Planet Theta's virtual dating experience. The partnership enables couples to date and socialize from the comfort of their own home, utilizing Oculus and Steam VR headsets. The average movie theatre ticket cost in the U.S. has increased by 11% over the last 5 years. The price hike has compounded a Covid-hit industry, with ticket sales in the U.S. declining from 1.4B in 2009, to 498M in 2021. As movie theatres urgently rethink their offering, virtual dating cinemas provide a unique experience to connect with like minded members. ritestream is the platform for the creation and monetization of film and TV NFTs from allrites, the global marketplace. Planet Theta is the world's first virtual reality dating app, creating real connections in a virtual world.
Apr 08, 2022 | Permalink | Comments (0)
VICE - Metaverse is not just one virtual world, but lots of smaller free-roaming worlds made by different developers with different concepts. Google, Facebook, Amazon, Apple and Microsoft all have investments in some form or another in the metaverse. Still, we're very much in Nokia 3210 era just now. In December, Tinder CEO Renate Nyborg told Reuters that the company has "been talking about a Tinderverse internally, which is more about blurring the boundaries between offline and online". Ross Buchanan from Vice has recently tested Metaverse to see if he could find a date. He joined Planet Theta's Saturday night beta test. Planted Theta the world's first ever VR dating app. There will be four different types of places users will be able to visit: the micro-date, the coffee date, social areas (like a nightclub) and the dating areas (think: virtual apartments or "enchanted walks").
Mar 22, 2022 | Permalink | Comments (0)