Crush or Flush, a mobile social network that draws comparisons to Hot or Not for its users’ focus on identifying the attractiveness of strangers, has shared some statistics that suggest it is doing quite well. This, despite the fact that I’ve never heard anyone mention Crush or Flush before, and the service is strikingly simple (perhaps very intentionally given the current state of mobile in the US).
Members of Crush or Flush use their cell phones to cycle through photos of other members and indicate whether to “crush” or “flush” them. If two members mutually crush each other, they are able to text message each other. Profiles provide not only photos but basic information and descriptive tags. You can refer people to friends and view a list of people who have crushed you.
The service launched in January 2007 and over the past 11 months has signed up 500,000 members and achieved a rate of 40M monthly mobile page views. The company is comparing its success to that of MySpace, which claims 150M monthly mobile page views but with a much larger user base.
Crush or Flush is trying to entrench itself by signing with carriers and going international. It has partnered with six North American carriers – AT&T, Suncom, Alltel, Cricket, Virgin, and Boost – and one international carrier, Jiangsu Unicom. It has also launched a Chinese version called Lagou, which translates to “pinky promise”.
While Crush or Flush started off as more of a “dating” site, the company has been working to build a more traditional social network around the brand. Members can now add more photos, view their messaging history, create a homepage, and search for members according to interests.