Β©August 1st, 2023
Re-Edited August 19th, 2023
By Starburst8865
Any and all characters are made up fictional characters even if they are based on real people with permission.
All characters are 18+
Work Text:
The DayFlirt Dating App
By Starburst8865
Β©July 30th, 2023
Chapter One: Keeping DayFlirt Alive
The ability to compete. It's a skill you need to survive in business when there are other companies out there with a similar service like your own. Iris Deguzman, the creator of "DayFlirt" dating app knew this. Of course when she first started the DayFlirt dating app it was pretty easy. Just create an app that allows people to sign up, create a profile, and let the users search other profiles in their area. Then from there, the users do all the work. They'd just have to look at profiles and if they liked a person's profile, they can put a like on his or her profile, and if they both put a like on each other's profile, they "match" with each other and then can send the person a message.
"Boss, we're reaching the bottom of the pay list in our app. A lot of other dating apps have passed us. Our company is making very little. At this point, we can be losing money by just keeping the app up." Iris's assistant Sam said.
"What about the ads? Aren't we getting money from the ads we make them watch?"
"Sorry to tell you this, boss, but a lot of people have uninstalled our app and moved on to other apps. A lot of people don't click the ads from us anymore since they don't use our app anymore."
"Well our main important product in the app are the girls, right? Without the girls on the app, it's just a worthless profile maker. So what are their complaints? What do they say in the negative reviews?"
"The number one complaint is that they feel overwhelmed getting messages from one thousand guys per day."
"Don't give me exaggerations, Sam. Give me accurate estimated numbers."
"That's not an exaggeration, boss. They literally get a thousand different guys messaging them per day. I even checked the app myself. It really is around a thousand different guys messaging them per day."
"I see. I have an idea, Sam. Let's start charging guys to message girls on our app. Charge $20 a month for guys. We can make money off the guys. Our app consists of mostly men just like all the other dating apps."
"Um.. with all due respect, boss, is that really a good idea?" Sam said. "By charging only guys to message any girl at all will most likely result in them just leaving our app completely." Sam said. Iris thought about Sam's opinion for a bit.
"Yeah, I think you have a good point there, Sam." Iris admitted.
"Sam, starting today after each girl on the app reaches 100 messages, put a paywall on them. We'll call those girls the "popular users." The 100 count will reset after each Sunday. Make anyone who wants to message one of the popular users pay either $2 to message that person or $10 to message up to 100 different girls per month. Oh and to give our app some more spice, let's make a premium service to our site where people can pay $20 a month to send unlimited messages."
"OK, boss. I'm on it."
Two weeks later had passed and Iris asked Sam about the numbers of the app.
"Well, it looks pretty good for now, boss. So.. for now... our app went from the bottom to the middle of our competition." Sam responded.
"The middle? That's it? Not towards the top?" Iris asked frustrated.
"Sorry, boss, but a bunch of other companies had the exact same idea we did."
"Geeze!" Iris said as she face palmed herself. "Wait, what did you mean by 'for now?'" Iris asked suspiciously.
"Well, a lot of the girls felt less overwhelmed with the new messaging limits. The girls are pretty happy with our app."
"So what's the problem then, Sam?"
"The men gave harsher reviews. Even harsher than last time. They are complaining that it feels like they paid money just to TALK to girls and barely any of the girls responded to them. Some didn't even get a response at all. They feel like they are paying for nothing. And they are going to cancel at the end of the month. Then we will be back at the bottom of the dating apps, boss."
"How are the girls happy if all of our paying male members are not getting responses?'
"Well, boss, you put it so that if two people put a 'like' on each other's profile, they "Match," and then they can chat with each other for free. And well, all those girls put a like on the same guys' profiles and they don't pay even a single dime to our app."
"But we have so many happy female members?"
"Well, the first week we got really good reviews from them. But then after the end of the week, they all complained that they were pumped and dumped."
"Pumped and dumped? Say that to me in English, Sam."
"Well, they got a match on our app, they had sex with the guy, and the guy left her the next day and blocked her number. They are complaining about how guys just want sex and fuck them and leave them."
"But, Sam, you said that most of the guys don't even get a response, so how could there be so many women on our app getting pumped and dumped the next day if over 99% of our male members aren't getting so much as a reply from a woman?"
"That's the thing, boss. All the women on our app are all having sex with the same few guys."
"How many is a few?"
"Four, ma'am."
Iris had to pause for a moment because she was in such shock at the numbers her assistant was giving her.
".... FOUR?" she asked in shock. "Just four guys are fucking over one thousand of our members?"
"Yes. Ma'am." Sam said. "These are the male members who are deciding to stay."
"What about our tutorial on how to make a better profile? Do our male members ever read it?"
"Yes. Ma'am. All the male members who do not have responses all have very good lighting in their pictures, plenty of non-selfies, as well as they have been messaging the girls with witty messages with something relating to their profile to prove to them that they have read their profile. Still, it doesn't help, ma'am." Iris then asked Sam to give her about fifteen minutes to think. Sam left the room as Iris thought long and hard about all the possibilities she could do to get money rolling back in her app as well as keep the money going in a consistent basis. After she almost got a big headache from thinking so hard, a good idea finally came to her.
"Sam. I finally thought up a good idea. I'm going to need to increase the price of premium service though. Change the price from $20 a month to $40 a month and offer a 3-month premium membership of $90. That way they will want to pay the higher price from the start to save themselves money." Iris started to say. "My idea requires us to spend money, so I had to raise the price of our membership for this to work. First of all, suspend the accounts of the four guys who have been fucking all the girls on our app."
"Boss, are you sure you want to suspend some of our users? We'll have less users."
"Yes. I'm sure. They already had their fun and they don't get us money anyways. They have been using our site for free while we have to pay just to keep it up. When you suspend their account, have their screen say, "Due to technical issues, this account has been temporarily suspended." Then offer a one month free trial to all the men who have not had a single response. Suspend the accounts of all the good looking men on the app, including the new ones. Offer all new average and ugly men a free 2 week trial."
"Yes, boss. Anything else?"
"Yes, Sam. I'll need you to go undercover posing as one of our male members and go on dates with some of our female members."
"But, ma'am, I --" Sam started to say, but was swiftly interrupted.
"BUT NOTHING!" Iris interrupted coldly. "I tell you to do something and you do it it. That's what I pay you to do. *I* am the boss!"
About 15 minutes later passed and Iris called Lucie into her office.
"You wanted to see me, Iris?" Lucie asked.
"Yes. Have a seat, Lucie."
"Is there a problem, boss?" Lucie asked when she sat down on the seat across from Iris.
"Actually, yes there is." Iris said as Lucie instantly looked worried. "However, I believe we can fix this. After all, I was initially glad I hired you to be a 'secret dater' for our app. I'd hate to lose you."
"What's the problem, boss?" Lucie asked her.
"According to our statistics on you, your online chat activity is high, which is good. However, your average rating score is quite low. And you haven't racked in a lot of virtual gifts from the matches we gave you either. Remember the virtual gifts are purchased gifts from the members of our app through coins they buy from us. The more and better virtual gifts you get, the more your income for the month is."
"I'm sorry, boss."
"I like you, Lucie.... but I have a business to run. And I can't keep paying an employee if she is losing me money. After all, I do give you a little bit of pocket change, so that you can half the bill with your date.... so let me get to the point now."
"OK.'
"Stephanie is my employee of my secret daters program and she is my number one girl right now. She racks in the most virtual gifts AND has the highest rating on the rating system. I did have my tech team create the rating system for a reason. It was a way to measure the happiness of the men on our app. The women were pretty easy to keep happy. With the women, we just had to slow down how many messages they get."
"The point?"
"Oh.. right. Stephanie's match wants to go on a double date with his friend, so of course he needs a date. Stephanie, like the superstar she is, convinced his friend to join our premium version of our dating app, so I will put him as a match for you. And I want you to accept it when he offers the double date. As a premium member he's been given 2,000 free coins, so he'll have enough to give you a virtual gift if he wants to without having to pay for more coins. Now obviously Stephanie is our number one girl, so I want you to pay attention to what she does. Maybe she can give you some ideas on how you can increase your rating."