Any time you try to bridge the real world and the Internet, it’s going to be tough work. When you mix in a questionable business idea and a really poorly designed site, you’re probably heading for the Deadpool.
Enter UK based First Move, which just emailed us. It’s a dating site where you create a private profile. You then buy black or hot pink credit-card type cards that have your First Move user code on them – they cost about $2 each. When you see someone you want to date in the real world, you hand the a card and hope they log in, view your profile and contact you. “You Caught My Eye!” is printed on the back of each card.
If someone has the guts to approach a person they are attracted to but can only muster up the courage to shove a plastic card in their hand and then run away, they should probably stick to purely virtual meetups where they can be more comfortable before meeting in person. Also, the fact that users have to make a minimum up front payment of $50 to get started with the service is a hurdle so large that I expect very few users to actually try it out.
First Move is only superficially a web startup, and anyone who has even a basic understanding of social networking and online dating knows this won’t work. Compare it, for example, with German based Aka-Aki, a mobile service we covered last week that broadcasts information about yourself (picture, dating status, etc.) to the mobile phones of other users around you via bluetooth. The site is three weeks old but has thousands of users in the Berlin area. What would you rather do, hand out plastic cards to people you want to date, or look down at your mobile phone and see a picture of everyone around you that wants you to know they are single?