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Couchers is officially out of beta

couchers.org

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Re: Couchers is officially out of beta

#31

Post by Dowwie »

The Summer after graduating high school is sometimes used to travel, taking extended backpacking trips or other. Couching could be a big hit for this demographic that takes a cultural immersion.

I see 900+ Couchers registered among a few of the New York City boroughs. My impression is that this means someone can live in NYC for an entire Summer, couch-surfing the big city and establishing a real connection with at least 60 hosts. That would be quite an experience, with many stories to share.

Re: Couchers is officially out of beta

#32

Post by kingnothing »

wewewedxfgdf wrote: post #20

Note to all founders: Tell the reader what your product is - first. And you can't manage to do that, then your logo link should go to your product, not back to the blog. I gave this TWO attempts to find out =what the product is - that's the biggest opportunity most startups will get - and this company failed twice to tell me conveniently what it is and I am not trying a third time.

It's in bold in the 3rd paragraph, but that requires you to know what couch surfing is in the first place.

Re: Couchers is officially out of beta

#36

Post by aapeli »

deadbabe wrote: post #34

Are Couchsurfing type apps inevitably doomed to just becoming low-key hookup apps?

Couchers founder and wrote the article.

I don't think so: it just takes thoughtful moderation, setting clear rules, and then enforcing them. When you make it socially unacceptable on the platform, people do a good job reporting inappropriate behavior.

I think the reason that CouchSurfing.com turned into a low-key hookup app is that it was actually a profitable strat for them. They used to monetize verification (something like $60 per verification), and my hypothesis is that a large proportion of people who ever verified paid for verification soon after signing up. By being a hookup site, it actually increased the perceived value to a certain subset of people signing up, which increased signups, verification numbers, and revenue. Of course this made the experience worse on the platform itself once people tried to use it, but they could milk that "easy way to hook up" concept for a long time (basically until the pandemic killed it).

Re: Couchers is officially out of beta

#37

Post by lawlessone »

Dowwie wrote: post #31

The Summer after graduating high school is sometimes used to travel, taking extended backpacking trips or other. Couching could be a big hit for this demographic that takes a cultural immersion. I see 900+ Couchers registered among a few of the New York City boroughs. My impression is that this means someone can live in NYC for an entire Summer, couch-surfing the big city and establishing a real connection with at le…

>, couch-surfing the big city and establishing a real connection with at least 60 hosts. That would be quite an experience, with many stories to share.

Sounds like my idea of Hell, but i'm introverted.

Re: Couchers is officially out of beta

#40

Post by -mlv »

Dowwie wrote: post #31

The Summer after graduating high school is sometimes used to travel, taking extended backpacking trips or other. Couching could be a big hit for this demographic that takes a cultural immersion. I see 900+ Couchers registered among a few of the New York City boroughs. My impression is that this means someone can live in NYC for an entire Summer, couch-surfing the big city and establishing a real connection with at le…

Top locations have way more people interested in couchsurfing than there are people hosting, so probably not feasible.
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