{"id":24248,"date":"2022-11-21T14:43:13","date_gmt":"2022-11-21T14:43:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/khumbuphotography.com\/?p=24248"},"modified":"2022-11-21T14:53:59","modified_gmt":"2022-11-21T14:53:59","slug":"gamer-dating-app-kippo-raises-2m-in-seed-funding-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/khumbuphotography.com\/?p=24248","title":{"rendered":"Gamer Dating App Kippo Raises $2M in Seed Funding"},"content":{"rendered":"Gamer Dating App Kippo Raises $2M in Seed Funding<\/title><\/p>\n<h2>He lives in San Francisco and she’s in Canada, but before long they clicked, flew to meet each other and a relationship was born<\/h2>\n<p>The story is proof, Park says, that the bonds formed while gaming together should not be dismissed when compared to IRL meetups.<\/p>\n<p>Now, the idea is taking off. The startup announced it raised $2 million in seed funding on Thursday. Next, the three-person company plans to use it to hire on engineers and build out features for its 25,000 active gamer users, who Park refers to as \u201cthe power users of the internet.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey’re the best people to build for,\u201d he said. \u201cThey’re the ones that understand the intricacies and culture of the internet more.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Park is setting his sights on building out Kippo’s user profiles, which he described as a design mashup between Myspace and Pinterest. Profiles ask users to list their favorite games – more than 6,000 games are so far highlighted, Park said – their personality type, horoscope, favorite Animal Crossing character and more. Users specify their gender, with \u201cfemale,\u201d \u201cmale\u201d and \u201cnonbinary\u201d as options and note who they’re interested in. Finally, they have the option to match and message with up to 25 other users daily.<\/p>\n<h2>In 2019, Park invested in this insight and, along with the aforementioned Sean Suyeda, founded Kippo, an LA-based dating and social app for gamers<\/h2>\n<p>Right now, most Kippos bond by playing video games with one another – 93 percent of users go on a virtual date (true romantics turn to Zombie Driver) before ever meeting in-person, Park said. The app intentionally takes design cues from video games, with features inspired by Fortnite’s Battle Pass, for example, that allow users to unlock customized badges and achievements and advance to the next level. Park said gamification helps people feel engaged with the app, and that he plans to use the funds to introduce more video game-style features.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe like to say, \u2018Dating is a game where you only need to win once, right?’ But that’s something that we’re not used to,\u201d Park said.<!--more--> \u201cSo we’d like to give you positive reinforcement, positive feedback that you’re on the right track to that final goal.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Before Kippo launched, Park brought in more than 100 women gamers to help inform the app’s design, asking questions like what their favorite games were, what artwork they like and what makes them uncomfortable. A team of six social media influencers have also signed on to promote the app and are partial owners of the company. Kippo leaned heavily on Twitch star Kimi Park (better known as AngelsKimi) for advice on how to structure the user interface to protect women, who comprise 40 percent of users, Park said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf you feel uncomfortable at any time, turn off notifications, turn off direct messages,\u201d Park said. \u201cYou have complete control over all privacy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He added that Kippo has a zero tolerance policy in terms of sending inappropriate photos and <a href=\"https:\/\/datingranking.net\/sailor-dating\/\">datingranking.net\/sailor-dating<\/a> messages, and that the app will kick users off the platform if they are reported for such behavior.<\/p>\n<p>Really, the most misunderstood part of his project is the point of the platform, he said. But the stigma of gamers as \u201closers that are in their mom’s basement, that don’t have jobs, don’t have relationships and friends\u201d is changing, he added. Today, he said kids are asking their parents for Fortnite coaches so they can be better at the video game, and thus cooler at school. In the professional realm, Park said gamers usually operate in one of the highest-earning income brackets. He wants the world to know that gamers are a catch. And he hopes to grab the market as quickly as he can.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Gamer Dating App Kippo Raises $2M in Seed Funding He lives in San Francisco and she’s in Canada, but before long they clicked, flew to… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9145],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24248","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sailor-dating-review"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/khumbuphotography.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24248"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/khumbuphotography.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/khumbuphotography.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/khumbuphotography.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/khumbuphotography.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24248"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/khumbuphotography.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24248\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24249,"href":"https:\/\/khumbuphotography.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24248\/revisions\/24249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/khumbuphotography.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/khumbuphotography.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/khumbuphotography.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}