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“I paid $25 for an Invisible Boyfriend, and I think I might be in love”
- Kenji 12y agoWith some effort, you could get a visible boyfriend for 0$. But yeah, it's hard to overcome laziness.
- iopq 12y agoAre you crazy? That would be risking rejection.
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- p4bl0 12y agoReading the article would have provided you with a real-world use case: > Homann says the service has also seen a surge in interest from people in conservative countries, particularly in South America and Europe, where the stigmas against being single or LGBT remain pretty strong. It is very very sad but I can imagine that in some place it may be worth spending a few bucks a month to be able to show conservatives co-workers/parents/whatever that you have a regular boyfriend (for girls) or girlfriend (for guys), and live your private life as you wish.
- railsdude 12y agoFor some people that would be a lot of effort, since the only value they can bring into relationships is their genitalia.
- UrMomReadsHN 12y agoLaziness? If you just enter a relationship just for the sake of having a relationship thats not fair to the other person involved. (Source: been the "other person.")
- Kenji 12y agoA proper relationship needs effort. Even if all the feelings are involved. The hurdle to start one is especially high, you have to go out there, open yourself up and prepare to get hurt. Now, of course you can say this is a very cold and unromantic way to look at it. It is, yes, but I'm not on HN to romanticise. I'm sorry to hear what happened to you.
- UrMomReadsHN 12y agoDuh. Everyone knows relationships take time effort and sacrifice to be successful. The point is this service is being marketed for those who don't wish to be in a relationship for whatever reason but want to give the appearance of being in one to others. Perhaps they are semi closeted or asexual or don't have the time to devote to a significant other or simply just don't want to give up their autonomy yet (or ever). If someone starts a relationship for the wrong reason - because they only want to be in a relationship, not because they are in love with the other person - it is not fair. The other person doesn't matter, anyone will do, feelings won't there. That isn't very nice to the other party and just leads to hurt. This happens all the time. All the time. Especially with marriages. Not everyone wants to be in a relationship (for whatever reason) and that is fine. That also isn't a very socially acceptable choice. This service is marketing to that segment. It has nothing to do with laziness.
- inglesp 12y agoIs this a "Black Mirror moment"? http://www.theverge.com/2014/12/31/7471901/i-cant-stop-comparing-everything-to-black-mirror http://www.theverge.com/2014/12/31/7471901/i-cant-stop-compa...
- bigtunacan 12y agoYeah, this made me think of a first step towards "Be Right Back"
- nodata 12y agoI see an additional service waiting to be sold.
- smoyer 12y agoA virtual counsellor? Psychiatrist? Does this represent a messed up person or a messed up culture?
- MasterScrat 12y agoProbably he meant an actual "partner", meaning tricking yourself on purpose to a certain degree. Even if you are talking to multiple people you could imagine keeping tracks of your key facts and interests, maybe use data mining from actual conversations to auto-suggest answers, automatically check out your social medias etc.
- siscia 12y agoI found it so wrong... Sentiments are real, I don't think anybody should play with other person feeling... Of course the user signed up, and they think that this is what they want, but I honestly believe that nobody want to risk to fail in love for a nobody...
- pizza234 12y agoThe concepts involved in the article are confusing attraction with love. Independently of how arbitrary attraction and love are, there's certainly a difference between them, depth being the divider. With this in mind, the "falling in love" the author is talking about, which may also apply to the crowds using such service, is the equivalent of a teenager "falling in love" with, say, Tom Cruise. Although of course, services like this pose a "risk" of falling in such state, there's nothing really "wrong" (in the "damaging" sense of the term) with it.
- hobs 12y agoI don't even think it is attraction, just a person (like most) who craves additional acknowledgement and attention because it is a powerful feeling. I have seen people go out craving attention and not being satisfied until they have gotten a hit from someone. To me it is the same impulse that has people meticulously manage a facebook profile so they can get kudos from practical strangers.
- siscia 12y agoPeople are different, maybe provide a little bit of attention to somebody that have never been loved can go a looong way in my humble opinion. It is just extremely broad as argument. I personally feel a lot of attraction to people just because the click well with my thoughts, but I know from experience that this is extremely dangerous and difficult to manage.
- siscia 12y agoAre you sure about that ? How ? The author seems old enough to be able to distinguish love and attraction... I believe that different people have different emotion, keep texting with somebody can be extremely powerful can go a loooong way...
- xianshou 12y agoA perfect application of the Forer effect: humans have an amazing ability to interpret what can apply to anyone as having special significance for themselves. It's the same reason why horoscopes and fortune cookies work. Stepping back and thinking logically, it's easy to see why their messages might apply to a lot of people. But when you're reading one, you can't help but think, "Ah! It says that I would encounter adversity at work this week, but overcome it! I knew that presentation wasn't the end of the world." And if you're a little lonely or down and need emotional rapport, you can't help but feel a little spark of excitement and connection when that Mechanical Turker claims to like your favorite TV show - especially because the text messages from the fake partner look just like they would from a real one. No matter how deeply we trust our logical conclusions, our emotional response remains the same. We can't help but feel worthier when we're being praised (even by computers - see the Silicon Sycophants study: http://pdf.aminer.org/000/307/350/information_requirements_are_human_computers_only_machines_measur_s_rigorous.pdf http://pdf.aminer.org/000/307/350/information_requirements_a...), hurt when we're being insulted, and connected when we're being connected with.
- Pinn2 12y agoExcept for you, right? People like to feel better about themselves by declaring defects in everyone else but themselves. Even me.
- nodata 12y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forer_effect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forer_effect
- aidos 12y agoAs James Randi (the ultimate Skeptic) demonstrates here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Dp2Zqk8vHw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Dp2Zqk8vHw
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- krat0sprakhar 12y agoLearnt something new on HN today! Thanks a lot for your comment.
- comboy 12y agoReminded me of "The Entire History of You" from Black Mirror[1] tv series (I really don't feel like calling it that way, it's more like a separate movies). I highly recommend it. I wonder how long it takes before those lower(st) paid jobs for those that are not specialized in anything will be in something like mechanical turk. Especially in this example it's visible that those can sometimes require somewhat local workers, so they may spread outside countries with lowest cost of living.
- beaumartinez 12y agoFunny, it reminded me more of the episode "Be Right Back".
- comboy 12y agoOh, right! Sorry I didn't remember the title and checked wrong.
- smoyer 12y agoI find it sad that she needs an invisible boyfriend ... her friends and family shouldn't be pressuring her and if she's got someone harassing her, will showing him a text really stop it? Both these scenarios assume she's happy without a BF but the fact that she describes feeling that she might have fallen in love could also mean she actually wants a boyfriend but can't find one. Things are tougher on women these days (http://www.slate.com/articles/double_x/doublex/2011/02/sex_is_cheap.2.html http://www.slate.com/articles/double_x/doublex/2011/02/sex_i...).
- werid 12y agoShe doesn't need an invisible boyfriend. She's testing it for the article. In one of her texts to "Ryan" she writes: "Ha, you're better than my real bf".
- Kurtz79 12y agoIt's sad there are people for which having an invisible boyfriend/girlfriend is an appealing idea (which is the entire premise of the service), regardless if it's the case with the writer of the article. "On its Web site, Invisible Boyfriend calls itself “believable social proof”: When your mom won’t stop asking you when you’re going to settle down, or your weird male acquaintance keeps hitting on you, you can just whip out your phone and show them evidence that you’re not an unlovable loser, thank you very much. Homann says the service has also seen a surge in interest from people in conservative countries, particularly in South America and Europe, where the stigmas against being single or LGBT remain pretty strong." I find the whole premise depressing. Be proud of what you are or, if you are unhappy with your situation, take meaningful action to address the problem.
- Spearchucker 12y agoIt's also sad that people are saddened by others not like them. The world would be a lot nicer if we accepted, instead of being saddened.
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- brador 12y agoIt's surprising how many people are dateable once you remove looks from the equation.
- CapitalistCartr 12y agoFor most people, looks ARE part of the equation. It's like removing Pi from an equation. I wonder what's going to happen when science makes looks whatever we want, like hair color.
- gadders 12y agoTwo people that have had surgery to look beautiful are going to marry, fall in love and start a family. And then be really surprised when their baby comes out fugly.
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- jahnu 12y agoThere is a great urban legend based on that premise that regularly catches out the media. http://www.snopes.com/media/notnews/uglybaby.asp http://www.snopes.com/media/notnews/uglybaby.asp
- 001sky 12y agohttp://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2223718/Chinese-man-sues-wife-ugly-court-AGREES--awarding-120-000.html http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2223718/Chinese-man-... Chinese man sues his wife for being ugly, and the court AGREES... awarding him £75,000 - Jian Feng was confused after his wife gave birth to an 'incredibly ugly' baby - He accused her of cheating and she admitted to spending £62,000 on plastic surgery - He then claimed she got him to marry her under false pretenses (26 October 2012)
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- graup 12y agoReminds me of the movie "Her" about an invisible AI girlfriend. Worth watching!
- bshimmin 12y agoIt reminded me of that too, since I read the article to the end.
- drcomputer 12y agoPeople used to look at me weird when I explained how I was paranoid that someone was routing all of my conversations between multiple people, in an effort to cluster intelligence and intellectual contributions without any participant knowing what they were contributing to. Take that, therapy. Yes, the paranoia was somewhat imaginative, but it was an exaggeration of something that actually can be mechanized. The people I explained this to didn't believe me that you could create chat streams this way.
- MasterScrat 12y agoInteresting. I've always been interested in building such a system.
- kefka 12y agoUnfortunately, it was already built. And what came out of it was Anonymous. Ever hear of 4Chan?
- ionwake 12y agoThat is an interesting fear
- hluska 12y agoI hope this doesn't come across as rude, but I sure hope that you got to deal with that fear with a professional. That would be a difficult way to live... Sorry that you had to go through that!
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- technofiend 12y agoI think everyone has those thoughts to a certain degree: however I'm not dismissing yours as common or trying to minimize them in any way. You might enjoy this stack-exchange article on Robert A. Heinlien's "They" - http://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/49224/short-story-where-rain-only-on-one-side-of-the-house-gives-away-fake-world http://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/49224/short-story-w...
- taki 12y agoReading this all I can think of are the "ractors" in Stephenson's "The Diamond Age" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Diamond_Age https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Diamond_Age).
- Vaskivo 12y agoI'm reading and loving that book. Of all the technological wonders of the setting, "ractors" are what amazed me the most. It's the perfect interactive experience, a full-time "Wizard of Oz"[0]. Maybe we can see something of the kind in the following year with the advancement of VR thechnology.. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wizard_of_Oz_experiment https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wizard_of_Oz_experiment
- ashark 12y agoThe first third or so of the Diamond Age is one of my favorite things I've ever read. It's full of great ideas.
- saiya-jin 12y agoall I see is a fear (of being alone, whatever might be the reason) and weakness (to face reality, to stand to annoying people around etc.). You wanna be alone? So be, and be proud of it, no small lies all around you. Or way more realistically, you wanna partner? Well get the hell out of your stupid phone and meet real people. It ain't easy, but nothing really important in life is...
- andyhmltn 12y agoI would suggest reading the article instead of just the title before responding
- Ocamen 12y ago"The man on the other end isn’t imaginary. He’s a real human person" And a real hero? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DSVDcw6iW8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DSVDcw6iW8
- edpichler 12y agoThis article remembered me again that Psychology is something really interesting. No matter how strange all of this can appear to us looking from an outside view, this is how our brain works. If you know how psychology works you are able to create new business around of it. After reading it I wonder about how much, strange or not, psychology demands people have.
- Mawaai 12y agoLets call it BaaS. Boyfriend As A Service.
- mithras 12y agoFunny enough baas means boss in Dutch.
- kanamekun 12y agoLove it! Although GaaS doesn't quite have the same ring to it.
- brandnewlow 12y agoIaaS: Intimacy as a Service.
- flatline 12y agoRyan, or Susan? I like that Ryan is a composite of many Turkers, but don't see why he should be played only by men. In fact I bet women would be better overall at text-flirting with other women.
- lrei 12y agoI wonder why they have the silly 2 + 3 = ? thing in their form at the bottom of the homepage. It's text/html, so it can't be anti-bot and seems like pointless for a human... Does anyone else know the logic behind that?
- taejo 12y agoIt's anti-bot. It doesn't prevent bots targeting that page, but those don't exist.
- CyberShadow 12y agoI don't see the field you're referring to, but I'll try to answer with a best guess anyway. Most web spam bots fall into two categories: 1. They target a certain web software package (such as WordPress), for which they know the HTML layout and the range of possible CAPTCHA challenges. 2. They try to fill out every HTML form they find blindly, using heuristics based on the names of form input elements. To defeat both, all you need to do is to write a custom HTML form by hand (which defeats category 1), and add a simple CAPTCHA challenge (which defeats category 2).
- lrei 12y agoThanks. But that challenge is so trivial to defeat by simple pattern matching with zero cost that the cost of adding code to a bot to break this type of challenge seems negligible. PS: it's a the bottom of the landing page (not signup)
- recursive 12y agoIf a negligible cost is a high enough cost, then why do more?
- nissimk 12y agoThis article was great. I especially liked: “Oh my God,” I thought. “This total stranger, whoever he or she is, thinks I cry myself to sleep while watching public television and texting a paid fake boyfriend I named after an actor.” To all you folks saying this is really sad, or wrong, this is a novelty. It's like the digital equivalent of a gag gift. It's a great conversation starter and really very funny.
- falcolas 12y agoThis makes for an interesting thought experiment, particularly when you compare and contrast it with the concept of the "waifu" (loosely, an animated character from Anime or videogames people associate as being their significant other). One is a coping mechanism for handing external pressures, the other internal. I wonder how healthy either can be in the long run.
- return0 12y agoNot surprised that it works, it looks like something fun to do on both sides. In fact, i believe people who love romance would sign up for a free service like this on both ends. (Since their niche is people who dont want to have the actual relationships, they could easily pair up their users with each other as pure conversation partners). The sad thing is the reason that this app exists. Has it become so taboo to be single that you have to pay to hide it?
- dreamweapon 12y agoHas it become so taboo to be single that you have to pay to hide it? Apparently yes, sadly. Even so, I can't imagine this app could possible be worth the time (let alone the cost). Especially when simply lying to people (who aren't close friends anyway), as needed -- or in the case of a good chunk of my direct family, explicitly firewalling ("Look, over the years I've been having various relationships with various people. If any of them become important enough for you to know about, I'll let you know, eventually") to be easy enough, and to work perfectly fine for all concerned. The bottom line is that intimacy is a gift, and at no point are you obligated to provide it to anyone you don't really consider to be that important in your life -- or in situations that make you uncomfortable.
- tinkerrr 12y ago> Even so, I can't imagine this app could possible be worth the time I think that's why the founder is talking of expanding the service already, such as getting flowers on Valentine's, say. It might provide social worth to some, who see this extravaganza displayed on every other desk at their work.
- Vaskivo 12y agoI can see this evolving from "let others think I have a boyfriend" to "I'm going to feel like I have a boyfriend". People already pay for sex. People already pay for non-sexual escorts (which i believe is mostly for show-off[0]). I can totally see people paying for the "boyfriend experience". Some random texts, gifts in specific days. A compliment and a "how's your day". All in pure 21st century fashion - social-media centered. It's depressing but I can imagine a lot of people that, while having lots of friends, are emotionally lonely. Why not generate custom made, fully interactive, multi-media waifus[1] [0] I think it affirms a man's power if he shows up with a pretty lady. [1] http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/waifu http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/waifu
- Red_Tarsius 12y agoI think it's not as much about social proof as it is about feeling protected and cared for. The marketing strategy ("social proof" over "feeling lonely") let the users benefit from the service without feeling shame: loneliness is unfortunately still considered some kind of stigma. Invisible Boyfriend might be the polar opposite and complement of prostitution: the first simulating the love between a protector and his protégé, the second providing a sex partner. I'm not implying any moral fault, but it's fascinating nonetheless.
- SG- 12y agoBasically virtual escorting as a service (not all escorting is sex, some of it is just companionship). For now there's no sex involved but with how easy it is to connect people nearby you could easily see this type of service expand in markets where it's legal. I could see nude selfies being sent too down the road (again a different service, not exactly this one).
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- drzaiusapelord 12y ago>>“That rapport you feel with Ryan may actually be six or seven Ryans,” Homann explains. Or Rhondas. Women know what women want from a fake boyfriend service. What subterfuge is needed to fool the parents, what parents expect, etc. The text exchange about Downton Abbey makes me suspect that their staff are, at least partly, female.
- dsuth 12y agoWomen and men have distinctly different energies, even over text-based mediums. While this wouldn't necessarily stop them from doing this, it's not how I'd design the service.
- IgorPartola 12y agoThis really reminds of the 30 Rock episode about porn for women: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGcRz9jJJCU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGcRz9jJJCU Edit: before anyone questions it, I am not saying that in any derogatory manner. Just a similar concept in a way, though obviously this has very different value proposition.
- zaroth 12y ago5000 users signed up in a day and it's $25 for 100 text messages in a month. That's bank.
- shiftpgdn 12y agoUnderstatement of the century here. That's 1.5MM USD in annual reoccurring revenue made in a day. Currently companies are being valuated at as much as 10x ARR. That's a 15MM USD company risen from the ground in 24 hours.
- biot 12y agoDepends on the definition of "signed up". 99% of them may have signed up for the free 10 text message trial. Without knowing the conversion from signup to paid, retention rates, and so on it could be either wildly profitable or losing money.
- gambiter 12y ago$25/month for 100 texts? Talk about easy money... I need to start a company.
- chucksmart 12y agoAttached to a text message? WTF (Recursive).
- shirro 12y agoPity it is wasted on sham romance. If something like this took the form of a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer it might be interesting.
- Raphmedia 12y agoInvisible Girlfriend Monthly Subscription: $24.99/month 100 texts 10 voicemails 1 postcard ... I think 100 texts is a bit low for $24.99/month. The postcard option is very nice, so are the voice mails however. But how do the voice mails work? Will it be the same voice every time?
- kazagistar 12y ago25 cents for a "culturally and emotionally attuned" response seems fairly reasonable to me. It comes out to something like 100 seconds per response just to match minimum US wage.
- Raphmedia 12y agoIt's good for long messages. However, I could see someone go through the 100 SMS very quickly in a "conversation" where the imaginary person has to answer a bunch of short texts like "yes", "and you", etc. I've tried the free trial, which is 10 SMS and went through them in half an hour or so (and that's because they don't reply very quickly). Haven't even got to the parts that I customized, I was still at "Hello there, how are you!", "Did you have a great day?" "Oh, and your?". That's 4 SMS a day or so. At this point, I would simply use a chatbot, since they are fine with the basic conversations that I would manage to get to in 4 sms. I guess you could have two 50 SMS conversations a month, but even then, good luck fooling someone into thinking this is your real lover. The only plus I can see is that you can have someone tell you "Alright, if she is really your girlfriend, ask her something only your close friends know about you" and "she" would manage to answer. Not very convinced about the service.
- tpeo 12y ago'I could see someone go through the 100 SMS very quickly in a "conversation" where the imaginary person has to answer a bunch of short texts like "yes", "and you", etc.' Reminds me of the Argument Clinic sketch. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQFKtI6gn9Y#t=79 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQFKtI6gn9Y#t=79
- m4tthumphrey 12y agoWhat happens when mum want's to meet him/her?
- stephancoral 12y agoThat's where my new service, visibleboyfriend.io, comes in. We lease premium models, in both male and female forms, to accompany you to business meetings, family dinners, government functions et cetera. Our models have all been vetted as being 'significantly more attractive than anyone you could probably hope to date' by an independent council of data scientists and casting agency magnates. We also train our models to be conversant in various worldly topics, ranging from literature (Byron is especially popular these days) to art history to economics and politics. Email me for more details and to sign up for our beta: steve@visibleboyfriend.io
- CitizenKane 12y agoFunny to see this here. My business partner did the design and I'm friends with the team. I can't say that I feel much for the business, but I've been continually impressed by its ability to generate press. People _love_ talking about and debating this concept, and I can't say that I've been completely free from it. That being said, this is currently probably the most covered startup from Saint Louis. While it is nice to see a startup from this ecosystem getting this amount of press attention, it's disappointing at the same time. I know a lot of people working on very ambitious and difficult problems that would kill for a tenth of the amount of attention that Invisible Boyfriend and Invisible Girlfriend get.
- briholt 12y agoI just learned about this today. This is the greatest marketing concept since "million dollar homepage." My life is a failure for not having thought of this.
- justathrow2k 12y agoBy greatest marketing concept you mean a quick and easy way to make money, yeah? I wouldn't be so hard on yourself for not having thought of it. Personally, I believe humanity would be at a net gain had no one thought of or executed on this idea.
- TeMPOraL 12y agoI totally agree. I guess everything you could call "greatest marketing concept" is a net negative to humanity by the very definition.
- diminoten 12y agoYou realize this has real and tangible value to lots of folks, right? Despite spending the vast majority of my life on the Internet, every single day I am disappointed by how judgmental and incapable of empathy folks are who say things to other people online. Jesus, put yourself in someone else's shoes just this once. I wouldn't use this service, and I don't know anyone who would, but to say that Invisible Boyfriend is a net loss to humanity requires a level of hubris that, even today, is stunning to find on the Internet. This is a life/death thing to some LGBT folks, who if outed face physical harm from their own families and friends. Helping someone like that stay in the closet until they can get to safety is a service Invisible Boyfriend adds to this world. Who the fuck are you to say that's not a value-add?
- swamp40 12y agoThe thing that has been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun. ~ Ecclesiastes 1:9 George Glass: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2egRZia504 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2egRZia504
- mhomde 12y agoReminds me of the autistic kid whose only friend is Siri http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-j-cameron-phd-bcbad/an-individual-with-autism_b_5534741.html http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-j-cameron-phd-bcbad/an...
- LeoPanthera 12y agoI love that story. His friendship with Siri is more genuine than the relationship offered by this service - if one-sided.
- discardorama 12y agoFor $25/month, I wonder how the economics of this work out. Say they pay $0.05/text (to the MTurker). In about 500 texts, the budget will be used up. That's about 15 texts/day; that's not a lot for today.
- Jtsummers 12y agoThat plan included 100 texts per month (last paragraph of the article).
- discardorama 12y agoDammit, I somehow missed that.
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- dorfsmay 12y agoI try to explain this the first time I took a Myers-Briggs. "You're an INTG. Get together with other INTGs, read the descriptions... See, isn't this you?"
- wtbob 12y agoI will say, that as much as Myers-Briggs exploits the Forer Effect, that I did notice a few trends, e.g. that I cannot stand folks in one particular group (and no doubt they cannot stand me, either!). And it did seem fairly good at distinguishing extroverts from introverts (assuming arguendo that such a distinction is meaningful).
- dorfsmay 12y agoMost personality classifications have some bases and some value, but this particular exercise really turned me off. I'm ok with saying "this is an attempt at classification, it's an extra data point", but I'm not ok with resorting to scammy techniques, if anything it tells me that the classification can't stand on its own and has therefore very little value.
- mparramon 12y agoDiscussion on reddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/TrueReddit/comments/2teai9/i_paid_25_for_an_invisible_boyfriend_and_i_think/ http://www.reddit.com/r/TrueReddit/comments/2teai9/i_paid_25...
- captain_crabs 12y agoThis is so cool...I built a large part of this, and now it's everywhere!!
- ergl 12y agoI wonder what would happen if you signed up for a boyfriend and a girlfriend and had them talk to each other
- sciguy77 12y agoAh now that would be interesting. It seems like in the examples provided the virtual SO is reactive, responding to what the user says (ex "I like Downton Abby") whereas when they reach out the messages are generic. I wonder if the conversation would generate its own 'depth'. This seems to be a worthwhile experiment to me.
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- Torgo 12y agoSo uh, there are attractive girls on Fiverr that will pretend to be your girlfriend on Facebook for a month (friending, n posts/likes on your posts per month, etc) for five dollars. I paid two of them to "fight" over me just to troll my friends. It turns out this piques interest in other women :-P This is why I don't use my real name on HN.
- justathrow2k 12y ago>This is why I don't use my real name on HN. Because you don't want the people in your life knowing that you pay money to manipulate and deceive those around you? Seems smart to keep that a secret.
- Torgo 12y ago[edited because I was unnecessarily brusque.] It was a practical joke, pretty much at my own expense, and I told my friends afterwards. The "joke" is that two very attractive women fighting over me is very unbelievable.
- justathrow2k 12y ago
- stealthlogic 12y agoThis is quite possibly the dumbest thing I've ever read.
- jeena 12y ago> the service has also seen a surge in interest from people in conservative countries, particularly in South America and Europe, where the stigmas against being single or LGBT remain pretty strong. Uhm this is odd, I don't know about South America but Europe? Here in Sweden LGBT people are even allowed to marry in church before their god http://www.upi.com/Top_News/International/2009/10/22/Church-of-Sweden-to-conduct-gay-weddings/UPI-59671256256299/ http://www.upi.com/Top_News/International/2009/10/22/Church-...
- UrMomReadsHN 12y agoEurope is more diverse than people make it out to be. Plenty of European countries are very hostile to gays....
- meej 12y agoI think the key phrase in that sentence is "conservative countries". Much of Eastern Europe still doesn't permit gay marriage, for example. Here's a good map: http://www.freedomtomarry.org/landscape/entry/c/international http://www.freedomtomarry.org/landscape/entry/c/internationa...
- Bmneilson 12y agoPerfect example of ProductHunt traffic..
- oldgun 12y agoGee. Thought this might only happen in a 'Black Mirror' episode.
- Animats 12y agoVirtual girlfriends have been popular in Japan for years. Love Plus (2009) for the Nintendo DS was the first to catch on. There are now many others. Some text and send you pictures of what they're doing. You can send your virtual girlfriend presents on-line, which costs real money. Now in beta, an Oculus Rift virtual girlfriend.
- ChrisClark 12y ago> You can send your virtual girlfriend presents on-line, which costs real money. Pure profit. In App Payments for the lonely. Not sure how I'd feel if I was making money off that.
- justboxing 12y agoI don't understand how their business model could scale, i.e. how they would be profitable, if indeed, they have real person(s) responding to multiple women (or users who've designated themselves as a woman :). Let say 1 "real human" is responding to 10 women at the same time, the membership income from these 10 users (not accounting for software, hardware overheads even) = $25 / month X 10 paid users = $250. If this "real human" is located in US, even taking a minimum wage of $10 / hour and assuming he/she works 160 hours a month ( 8 hours per day x 5 days a week x 4 weeks a month), the cost of having this "real person" on the payroll = $1,600 per month! $250 - $1,600 = - $1,350. i.e. they would be losing over 1K per every few users if this is how they are doing it. Unless, of course, the "real human person(s)" responding to multiple women are located in India / China and work for $1 a day or something like that. Or maybe they are using Machine Learning or some sort of Artificial Intelligence, to come up with "Cute" Texts and responses based on the User's selected preferences and his/her past Texts to this "Invisible Boyfriend". Only in the last case does it makes sense. But then, they'd be guilty of "false advertizing" if they claim that a "real human person" is at the other end responding...
- ghshephard 12y agoYou are off by a couple orders of magnitude on the number of people that a real human responds to. They get paid a few (Say, 5) cents for each text, so, to earn around $10/hour, they would need to send 200 texts/hour (which is pretty easy/trivial if you are doing this full time). Each package includes up to 100 texts/month, so, that is 1 real person per two customers/hour, or 16/day, or 320 customers/month per customer representative. Looked at another way - one customer representative can support two customers/hour (in aggregate, obviously they don't send all their texts to one person in an hour). The customer representative gets paid $10/hour, the two customers pay $50/hour. Pretty good business model.
- ajays 12y ago> they would need to send 200 texts/hour (which is pretty easy/trivial if you are doing this full time). Context switching would take a while. You can't just reply with random phrases a-la Eliza[1] . In the article, the "boyfriend" responds to a specific question about Downton Abbey. Sure, in this instance the responder may be a fan of DA; but in the general case, it'll require more than 18 seconds (@200/hr) to just type up an intelligent, context-relevant response.
- novalis78 12y agoThere is a similar appeal to conversing with a self-learning chatbot (thinkingai.com, etc). Not as consistent at times, but similarly intriguing how "easy" it is to trick you into believing you had a "real" relationship.
- empressplay 12y agoThis sounds like the premise of a Black Mirror episode =)
- dprat0821 12y agoIt's inspiring but I have a question: People always think they can describe what they need (a perfect boyfriend?) But in fact not. "Perfect" things get boring very quickly, especially when you know it's designed.
- Shivetya 12y agoNo offense, it just creeps me out. Then again I do know people whose only friends are in MMOs and that provides visual stimulation as well.
- dirtflinger 12y agoOH YOU GOTTA BE KIDDING ME!!!!!!!!!!!!! I built something like this a long long time ago as a quirky project for my CS class at Columbia. When I pitched the idea to my buddies, they thought it was stupid and that my prof would have given me a shitty grade. So I scrapped it and submitted another project instead. I had 3 bots hooked up to the Facebook API on April 1st and it was so believable that my girlfriend thought I was cheating on her. One time she said "who the hell is this Rachel??" and would not let me leave the room until I told her who she was. I eventually confessed and she thought it was a hilarious idea. Too bad I got too busy with other shit that I put the project away on the side burner. Now I'm thinking about pulling it out again..........