Midnight (app)
| Founded | 2014 |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | Ypau Qipie, Danuwan Nuv Qipie, Sante Reze |
| Area served | Global |
| Industry | Software |
| URL | midnight.com |
Midnight is a Rezese dating and networking application launched in 2014 initially in Ypau Qipie as a site geared toward local community building via helping people find both romantic interests and friends. It allows users to "roll" six new potential matches which can be assigned interest levels between 1 (highest) and 6 (lowest) based on profile image, a written introduction, and a list of interests. "Matching" a user comes in several varieties based on the lower score of the two users, and upon matching with a rating of 4 or lower, the users can open a permanent chat channel to avoid having to share further contact information unless they wish to do so.
As of 2020, Midnight had over 30 million active users registering daily rolls, and operates under a freemium business model by being free for basic use, while premium users enjoy benefits such as fewer restrictions on how to rate their rolls, and more rolls allowed per day.
History
Midnight was first launched in Ypau Qipie with resounding success in its first six months. It quickly was made available to the other metros on the island, made available through those city centers' urban non-profits data app stores. After focusing on presence in Ypau Qipie, Tuvtsarki Morotutse, and Tuv Qwahi for a year, they negotiated wider release into every app store they could globally. At the same time, they released their premium service which made the app much more convenient for use despite its additional fee.
With the release into international markets, Midnight had to add additional age-based filters to account for differences in age of majority. Free and premium users were required to disclose their nation of origin; this was then verified against their initial location upon sign-up for free users, while premium users were confirmed against their billing address. These filters age-lock their profiles, generating minimum ages that may appear in their rolls. In 2017, Midnight also introduced an enforced age lock for users under 22, limiting the valid age range for such users to three years in either direction - that is, users aged 21 for example would only receive (and turn up as rolls for) profiles between the ages of 18 and 24.
Operation
Users on Midnight are required to give the application their location information to facilitate nearby matches. They then "shake" their devices (or click the "Roll" button on the desktop application) to pull six random user profiles. At the bottom of the returned profiles are six six-sided dice each showing one of the possible faces. Users may view the profiles and select the die face that most accurately represents their potential interest. One through three are considered to be "romantic" options, while a four or five are deemed "friendship" or "networking" options. A six indicates no interest in the profile whatsoever.
A Midnight roll must have each of the six returned profiles rated before the user can make another roll. Additionally, in order to facilitate users branching out of their comfort zones and to encourage building a larger personal social network, users are required to assign both a "1" rating and "4" rating in every roll - "1" indicating high level of romantic attraction and "4" indicating high level of friendship attraction.
The other four may be assigned at will, resulting in all sixes if the user so chooses, so long as they indicate that they have some interest in two of the users. The matching algorithm does take into account if a user consistently rates every profile other than the required "1" and "4" as a "6" in an attempt to improve matches and make the required ratings more accurate to the user's actual thoughts.
When two users rate each other, they are delivered their "match rating" for each other which is the lower of the two values given. As an example, one user rated a "1" and one user rated a "3", the user match would be returned as a "3" which is considered a "low level romantic match" - users are then free to make use of this information however they deem fit. If they both consent to opening a chat, then they are able to get to know each other and arrange meetups without exchanging direct out-of-app contact information.
Features
Free features of Midnight are centered around the basic "roll" function, using an algorithm to semi-randomly attempt to match users with six profiles and assign interest values. The algorithm is designed to find more compatible profiles with more use based off of the various values assigned during each roll.
- Messaging is made available upon match and stated consent. It is text-only for the free service.
- Meetup calendar to ease scheduling user interactions. The calendar is set to allow for additional personal security measures, including activating a panic button and the allowance to begin recording easily if there is a risk to personal safety during a meetup.
Paid subscriptions
The premium version of the app launched a year after the free application, making use of the first year as an open beta test to determine user desires prior to building toward their completed product offering. Amongst the features offered in the paid subscription are:
- The ability to disable automatic location gathering in favor of manual selection of a geolocational boundary or radius from a set of geocoordinates.
- The removal of the requirement to set one rolled profile as a "1" and one as a "4" out of every roll of 6 users.
- The ability to see if a rolled profile has already rated you if they rated higher than a "5".
- Access to more rolls per day.
- Access to video messaging.
Subscription costs vary per market, starting at SRLȽ25 per month.