It’s always exciting when we get a chance to hear from the great minds behind the scene of a major dating app. Today, our very own Matt Seymour sat down with Yana Andyol, the Head of Brands and Communications with Taimi. Taimi is a LGBTQ+ dating app that is “free from hetero limits” with an impressive 16 million+ users on the platform through 138 different countries.
In today’s interview, Matt and Yana discuss Taimi, the future of the brand, the use of AI technology in online dating, and how Taimi keeps users safe from the rise of romance scams.
Let’s dive in!
Full Taimi Dating App Interview Transcript
Matt Seymour:
Hi everyone, this is Matt from Healthy Framework. Today I’m excited to be joined by Yana, the head of brand and communications board at Taimi. Yana, thank you so much for joining today. Really appreciate you taking the time.
Yana Andyol:
Thanks for having me, let’s hit it.
Matt Seymour:
Excellent. Well first up, can you tell me what separates Taimi from the rest of the dating apps that are out there?
Yana Andyol:
That’s a great question and I love to answer it whenever I am asked. It’s a very easy question, actually. There is no other dedicated LGBTQ+ dating app that is so totally dedicated to this community – as a whole and in all of its diverse parts. Taimi evolves and thrives because it is all-inclusive and embraces all of the diversity within the LGBTQ+ community.
At the same time, being all inclusive means just this: although we have a niche audience, it is not a unified one. Within this community, people date differently. And our job is to give all of the various components of the LGBTQ+ community the amazing user experience they want and need.
One of the things that all of our users have in common is they want a space just for themselves – one that is not hetero-dominated. And this is kind of what we offer. We are proud that we have 18+ million people registered and downloading our app. We are a fully accepting place for them and date.
The second part of the answer to this question is our commitment to fluidity in the way our community dates. Our members can feel comfortable changing their sexual identities and enter dating as those identities change. Taimi offers a unique space in this regard, and from what I see in the marketplace, we are the only dating space honoring full fluidity.
Matt Seymour:
Yeah, no, that’s excellent. We’ve definitely seen how you guys stand out a bit with that and that’s part of what we love about you guys. How would you describe the ideal customer for Taimi that it’s designed for then? And I think you just touched on it there, but I guess we just want to clarify that.
Yana Andyol:
Yeah, so I can broadly say that everyone on the LGBTQ+ spectrum is welcome. That’s the first and most important thing. But it is also important for everyone to know that, especially because the LGBTQ+ community is so unique with everyone having their unique requests for dating and dating behaviors, we must all be open-minded and non-judgmental.
When people download our app, they will find very, very different people who do not look and behave the way they do. So, people will have to be accepting; people will have to be open-minded; people will have to be non-judgmental. These values, let’s say liberal values, will allow everyone to feel comfortable navigating the app and have a great user experience. So, it’s important that everyone sticks to, let’s say, that vibe. Matt Seymour:
Excellent, excellent. Obviously, inclusivity is important to your brand like you’ve mentioned here, so what are some unique ways that Taimi approaches this differently from some other brands?
Yana Andyol:
Yeah, great question again because that’s kind of what we were thinking with the product and we are thinking about the product all the time. Taimi doesn’t look very alien on the dating market, it’s an app where a user can like someone or skip someone – nothing very, very special.
But the whole approach hides in the details basically because if you have a closer look at our profiles, they’re different. We introduced “Vibes” feature that is very oriented and very specific towards the community itself. So you will find specific terminology that defines users in the community because there is a community within that community and then another community within that community. So it’s very important for everyone to identify themselves. That’s the first thing.
And then again, sexuality is a whole lot of maybe… This might come as a surprise for some hetero dating apps, but sexuality is the way people date on our app. It’s not gender. While gender is very important, it’s also crucial for the LGBTQ+ community to have their specific sexuality pointed out so that we understand how they want to navigate this app. So if you’re lesbian, you will definitely be shown to people who actually identify themselves as you are. But again, if you’re polyamorous, let’s say, or if you’re pansexual, you must identify as that. If you’re non-binary and pansexual, that’s probably going to be a totally different approach in matching. So, that’s kind of a different approach.
Matt Seymour:
Right, yeah.
Yana Andyol:
So in that case, it’s very important for us to have those unique approaches to matching…to get this community within community representatives, this approach. And that’s what makes it really challenging. But we try really hard to have it so that everyone has an experience they cannot find anywhere else. So these details are actually very, very important. Although as I say, we did not create something alien, it’s just the details that matter.
Matt Seymour:
Yeah, no, perfect. Excellent. Tell me what is one area that you feel that Taimi could be doing a better job on?
Yana Andyol:
Well, lots of stuff. Basically, I think we are doing a great job with the product in terms of what I just told you. I think that usually when I come across people in the United States, let’s say, who do not know about Taimi, that’s a surprise for them because they never knew there is an app that digs into those details for them. So I guess brand awareness is something we would be working on harder in the next year. We are working already and we have big plans for launching brand campaigns in the future. So this is something that I would want – to spread our brand so that more people know about us. That’s part of our team’s responsibility to get this done.
Matt Seymour:
Yeah, no, that makes sense. All the buzz today or really recently has been about AI and AI technology. Is Taimi using AI technology at all yet or do you have plans to use it in the future?
Yana Andyol:
Yeah, so in terms of AI, there is a lot of dispute. There is a lot of discussion, and one of the discussions is in terms of the legal part and in terms of legislation, and navigation, and control of it. Like navigation in terms of how you are going to use AI in order not to make it worse but for the better. So that’s the whole general buzz around AI. There’s a lot of work related to actual legislation and what’s related to the laws that are going to probably be launched … Usually, let’s say, when technology evolves, legislation like lags behind. So it’s something that we will have to wait on until we will be able to navigate it correctly.
So I cannot say that we have any big plans because that’s something that we would want to be very specific and very careful about. Given that this is the LGBT community, which is vulnerable still to this day. We’re using AI so far in moderation where the technology can help us identify some unwanted behavior or whatever it is that is happening on a dating app. But so far we are really hesitant and careful about introducing it on a large scale compared to the big players on the market … And our legal team is quite active in this area and is working closely with us on that. So I would say we’re careful about it and not really jumping into all this buzz and all this hype around it – not yet at least.
Matt Seymour:
Yeah, no, that makes perfect sense. And I think you touched on a little bit there, but just to dive in a little deeper, are there any concerns for the dating industry as a whole? So not just Taimi specifically when it comes to AI technology. And I think you talked a little bit about this, but what do you see as the concerns that might impact the entire dating industry as a whole?
Yana Andyol:
Well the first concern is that dating is all about human emotions, not about the rational part of human behavior. It’s all about human connection and that’s something that I don’t believe AI can actually navigate in the near future. We would want to have a person be a decision maker for themselves. So that’s why I wouldn’t feel like, even with all of the hype about AI, it is the best way for people to make choices about dating and relationships. Having technology make those choices is very artificial.
So the overall concern is basically not to make it too artificial and to kill all this emotional vibe. It’s enough for us to be very technologically oriented in terms of the app itself, there is tech that helps you build an algorithm that helps you to choose the person that fits you best. But again, it’s always the communication between them that actually helps two people make a decision to meet, to connect, and then build plans together or whatever. So AI is something that, I think, we have to be careful about in dating. It can help in certain areas where human error is very high. Let’s say, moderation, let’s say, some algorithms that will help a product team navigate large data, if you have millions of users daily. So that’s going to be a huge help. But it’s important not to kill that human vibe because there is no point in dating at all, if technology is going to make relationship decisions.
Matt Seymour:
Yeah. That makes perfect sense. Changing topics a little bit, I know at least in the United States romance scams are on the rise. How does Taimi combat this growing problem that we’re seeing?
Yana Andyol:
Well I think that those scams… And it’s important to understand that there will be people who are mean and there will be people who are, I don’t know, who are assholes, let’s say, who will be treating you badly. That’s something that in this imperfect world has to be accepted. That’s the first thing. But it doesn’t mean that we have to take responsibility for navigating it all on our own.
So, first of all, our support team and our customer support team are doing a great job here because they are communicating caution to users daily. If you have this unlawful behavior or unwanted behavior, you can actually report it. And there are also guidelines that help our users in detecting possible scams. There are certain questions that they will be asked. Let’s say, if a person who you trust asks you for money or whatever. This is a red flag that you have to be able to actually identify for yourself.
Scams happen and work because people know how to manipulate and gain your trust. That’s probably the most challenging part to battle. But there are red flags that can be identified early. Once a person identifies any of these, it is important that they stop communication and take the time to actually report that person.
I don’t have any overall perfect solution for scams that will erase them from humanity, let alone our app. What we can do is educate our users about those red flags and urge them to report anything that doesn’t seem right.
But this is something that we ask users not to neglect those guidelines. And we are communicating with them on our social media and on our website. There are policies, there are those educational moments that we encourage people not to miss. And in that way probably, we do see progress and we see people reporting the stuff that makes them uncomfortable. But it’s really, really important for everyone to be careful anywhere when you navigate something with people you don’t know or you just met. Just do not give them a hundred percent of your trust. And it’s easier to prevent scams in the early stages. So that’s kind of how we work. And since the LGBTQ+ community is very responsive, it is a bit better, I guess, in terms of a feedback and in terms of what we see in users’ responses maybe compared to those bigger apps on the market. So I do believe that this is something that we will be navigating successfully in a great rate. But for now it’s really, really like we are all on one team here.
Matt Seymour:
That makes sense. And thank you for the color there. It’s definitely a challenging problem. I’m glad to hear that you guys are looking to try and stay ahead of it. So the last question that I had for you, are there any misconceptions about Taimi that you’d like to clear up while we’re here today?
Yana Andyol:
Well, I honestly thought about this question a lot, and I actually couldn’t find anything specific that I wouldn’t want people not to think about us because we’ve been great about our work. My team and the marketing team have been great about communicating who we are and what we are and what we are about. We just want people to understand that what is written on the website, it’s just not written on the website. What’s written on our social media, it’s not just something, some words on the wall. We are committed to practicing what we say and even if it’s sometimes not perfect or we make mistakes, it doesn’t mean that we do not pay attention to them and make every effort to correct them.
So honestly, we took that challenge because we understood that navigating this community was going to be a big challenge and we understood that there are maybe a lot of things we could have said in the past that probably hurt someone. But this is something that I personally as a head of brand and the whole team are trying to build a culture around practicing what we say. So when we say it, we try to really, and we do a lot of work to stick to that with our initiatives with whatever it is in the product or anywhere. I want our users and everyone who is looking into Taimi, to give us a try and give us a chance to prove it to you. And if there is something that you find that is not matching, you can always tell us and be sure that we’ll respond to it. So these are the things I came up with when I was thinking about your question.
Matt Seymour:
Yeah. Excellent. Well thank you so much for taking the time to sit down with us today. It was really a pleasure getting to meet you and to learn more about Taimi. Super excited to see what you guys do in the future, but it seems like you’ve got a lot of amazing stuff going on already. So we’ll definitely be keeping an eye on it and maybe in the future we’ll do another interview when you have some other updates and things then.
Yana Andyol:
Oh yeah, yeah, sure. It was a good talk and questions. Super great. I usually love to take this helicopter view. I hope everyone enjoyed it. And again, yeah, I will be in touch where to find us and if there is some news we’ll definitely share. Give us just a shot and yeah, thank you. Thanks for having me. Great conversation.
Matt Seymour:
Sure thing. All right, well thank you so much for joining. Take care and we’ll definitely talk soon.
Yana Andyol:
Thank you. Thank you. Bye.
Matt Seymour:
Bye, bye.