It’s a new year, and a whole new SXSW, but some things don’t change. Thanks to an endless stream of parties with open bars, the (relatively) warm nights, and a large population of web-curious visitors descending on Austin, the tradition of the SXSW hookup lives on. And Down wants to help keep that tradition alive.
Twelve months ago, Down was just a little web app called “Bang With Friends” which sought to help users find out which of their friends also wanted to bang them.
And for a little while, it was basically all anyone would talk about.
That was due to a number of things: There were the secretive founders, who spent months trying to keep their identities under wraps. There was the fascination and utter fear and horror of marking a friend as “down to bang” only to find them return the favor… There was, frankly, the totally forward name “Bang With Friends.”
Anyway, the app rode that notoriety into SXSW last year and launched Bang With SXSW, a separate site for attendees to find non-friends to bang with.
An app store ban by Apple, a “…With Friends” lawsuit by Zynga, and a founder unmasking by the press, and the Down team seems to have mellowed out a little bit.
It’s still trying to get people hooked up at SXSW, but this year it’s doing it the old-fashioned way. Rather than asking them to say who they’d like to hook up with in town — that’s what Tinder is for, after all — it’s telling attendees which parties they should go to. And get drunk. And find someone to hook up with.
The latest update to Down now lists a bunch of parties. Once users arrive, they can use the app and see who else is there and objectify them via app, instead of objectifying them wholly in person.
And when two people mark each other as “down”? Well, you know what has to happen next.