QuizUp is now a social network, by every stretch of the imagination.
Following a massive update today, the trivia game that trail-blazed through the App Store in 2013, is now introducing true social functionality on a core level.
QuizUp originally hit the scene after forging a deal with Lionsgate to offer Twilight-based trivia to users. It blew up, and the team slowly started adding out more and more topics.
The company now boasts more than 33 million users worldwide, who play approximately 7 million games per day, with the average user spending about half an hour each day playing the game. In terms of interests, the QuizUp database now has more than 12,000 different topics, some with a few dozen die-hard fans and some with thousands of participants who want to be tested on their knowledge of that category.
“We found that people were making friends through QuizUp,” said Thor Fridriksson, founder and CEO. “When you are able to choose your topic, you are really describing one of your interests and interacting with someone who has that in common with you. So it makes sense for that to develop into a friendship or in some cases even marriage.”
That said, the team has been heads down for the past year developing QuizUp into a social network that has a built-in trivia game. The company has added people search, user profiles, comment threads, forums, and even its own chat/DM system.
The new UI features a main category store, with various interests and topics getting their very own icon. Clicking into one of those interests will show you a forum around it with comment threading, likes, and photo-sharing.
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Users can view any user’s profile (unless they’ve marked their privacy settings to undiscoverable) and check out their interests, follow them, play against them at a trivia game, or send them a direct message. The profile comprises a picture, a wheel representing that user’s various interests, and comments that user has made on interests.
Users can also search for a specific type of user through the people search, which lets you filter by location, age, and gender to find other user’s to play, follow, or chat with.
“Facebook isn’t really for meeting new people,” said Fridriksson. “We want to compliment Facebook as the network where you can meet new friends.”
QuizUp has faced dense competition in the past few months, not least of which comes from Trivia Crack. Trivia Crack’s main differentiator is that it doesn’t let you choose your category but rather operates squarely around competition, throwing users into one of six broad categories.
In many ways, the QuizUp revamp doubles down on what made Plain Vanilla Games originally successful, which was the wide range of interests and topics to choose from.
Alongside the update, QuizUp is also launching QuizUp for desktop, letting users have all the same functionality across both mobile and within their browser.
You can check out the new QuizUp here.