Mr. Right or Mr. Right Now?: How Technology is Changing the Playing Field
GIZMODO
June 20, 2021 — Natalie Wexel
New York, NY
Caviar at your doorstep in minutes, On-Demand Support Animal Shares, and Selfie Stylists, the Gig Economy is in its official heyday, and over the last decade, we’ve seen huge industry leaders really step up their game. In September of last year, we saw the CEO of Uber, Anita Marquez-Rio roll out health insurance benefits for all full-time drivers in their fleet, and just this week, Youtube rolled out its new Terms of Service for its monetized users, amidst a contentious intellectual property case with popular Vlogger, TrashBandicoot.
Now, with a broadening of post-Trump Era laws and sexual mores, one dating app decides to go above and beyond the call of duty when it comes to transparency and safety. An unexpected melange between AirBnB and Tinder, Seattle-based startup, Bedster wants to make it easy to make dating accountable. A tall order, some may say, but University of Syracuse professor of New Media, Ngebe Nchebe, thinks the key is in self-reporting.
“We’ve already seen the model work with companies like Yelp and Amazon. They cleaned up the Wild West by introducing reviews. At Bedster, we want to give a sense of buyer protection on both ends,” and caveat emptor indeed, Nchebe says that users on the app that are repeatedly flagged are banned from using the service. And in a world still trying to figure out what to do with itself after the #MeToo Movement, Nchebe wants to take some of the guesswork out of it for everyone.
“Women want to feel safe out there when they’re going about their dating lives, and men want to feel like they’re not going to be wrongfully accused. Feeling secure in the fact that a person has been vetted by a network of locals makes dating more enjoyable–without having to play detective, or send your BFF a photo of his State ID.”
Some critics have accused Bedster of serving as a conquest board, and to that, Nchebe says, “The users are free to use the app as they see fit, every dating style is different, but the key is in the choice. You can read the reviews and decide if this person’s for you, or you can pass. The choice is yours.”
As for jilted lovers leaving less-than-accurate reviews? Nchebe says Bedster is working on creating jobs by having human moderators oversee every review before it’s posted. If the story doesn’t add up, the offender’s profile rating will go down for false reporting.
Think you’re through playing detective in your dating life? Invite codes for the Beta of Bedster are available here.
