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
The story is proof, Park says, that the bonds formed while gaming together should not be dismissed when compared to IRL meetups.
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 “the power users of the internet.”
“They’re the best people to build for,” he said. “They’re the ones that understand the intricacies and culture of the internet more.”
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 “female,” “male” and “nonbinary” 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.
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
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. Lees verder