happn CEO Talks Real World Connections in New Interview

happn CEO Didier Rappaport has been speaking to European CEO about his success in the technology industry.

His hyper-location dating app currently has 6.5 million monthly active users and a total of 60 million worldwide. According to App Annie, it is one of the top ten grossing lifestyle apps in several European countries, including France, Italy and the UK.

Rappaport says that happn is a popular platform for serious online daters because it maintains the magic of chance meetings while acting as a crossover between real life and the digital world.

He explained to European CEO: “If you live in the same location you will probably have similar life habits; working in a similar workplace will possibly mean your jobs are quite similar as well.

“Time and space together are a double filter which very often proves you have something in common – a connection.”

Each time happn launches in a new region the marketing approach needs to be localised, and it’s crucial that the number of active users remains high to provide a positive user experience. The CEO said his team are glad when someone finds a partner and stops using the app, but it’s important to always be attracting new singles to the service.

Safety is always a concern for dating apps, especially one so heavily focused on live tracking. Members of happn need to sign up for a premium subscription to turn off their location around areas that they don’t want to be seen.

happn Maps was launched at the end of last year, a feature allowing users to users to tap on a place they’d visited in the last seven days to see a list of potential matches in that area.

Read the full interview here.