SNAP Interactive plan to take AYI.com into non-English speaking markets, as they announce a new round of funding.
The public company, which also owns new app The Grade, plan to expand their flagship product into new international markets over the next few years.
SNAP said the revenue generated from AYI was currently split evenly between the US and other international, English-speaking, markets.
Their COO, Alex Harrington, said they currently “haven’t been effective in building non-English speaking language communities abroad. We are now prepared to make a multi-year investment in local adaptations to unlock these large foreign markets.
“We estimate the international dating market to be more than twice as large as the U.S. market, so the long-term revenue potential is large.”
Last week, the company also announced a $3m senior secured convertible note financing from Sigma Opportunity Fund II, LLC.
The funds will be used to drive user acquisition on AYI.com and The Grade, and for general corporate purposes.
The Grade is a mobile app released last November, which ranks singles by grades, from A+ to F, and bans anyone who gets an F.
Grades are calculated on criteria including user popularity, the quality of their profile, how they respond to messages, and the quality of their message content.
Regarding The Grade, SNAP said the app hit 4m swipes on 15th February, with average swipes in February up 55% compared to January, and 126% compared to December 2014.
SNAP CEO , Cliff Lerner said: “Specifically, women respond 57% of the time to messages initiated by men, while the percentage of inappropriate messages originated by men is now significantly below 1%.”
Download The Grade here.