With many adults admitting they feel lonely, meetup platforms offer the chance to make new connections

Would you pay £20 a month for the chance of making a friend, on the understanding that an algorithm – not you – gets to decide who you’ll meet?

Driven by the decline of “third spaces” such as youth centres and pubs, an increase in remote working and rising loneliness – 40% of adults aged 16 to 29 feel lonely “always, often or some of the time”, according to the Office for National Statistics – paid social events are now in vogue.

“There hasn’t been anything that feels authentic to helping people meet people,” says Nicola Gunby, a co-founder of Cliq, an online platform and app that aims “to bring people together through shared interests and real-world experiences”.

“The first place people in their 20s and 30s turn to when trying to make friends is Facebook groups,” she says. “But they’ve ended up becoming a noticeboard for people who’ve, say, lost their dog or want to sell their bed.” For Gunby, these groups are “far too big and broad to be a genuine community”.

Into this gap has stepped a new wave of what are effectively paid social clubs.

The mechanics are fairly simple: platforms such as PLY (it stands for People Like You) and Agora match people using information such as their interests, lifestyle habits and profession. Then, typically, an algorithm decides which events a user should attend, as opposed to free alternatives, such as the Meetup platform, that leave that choice with members.

Source link