Another billionaire decided to try his hand in the ether world of right-wing dating. The co-founder of PayPal, Peter Thiel, launched a conservative dating app called The Right Stuff. Oh, the billionaire started off with a bang in the first month, October, with 40,000 downloads. But by December 20, the Washington, D.C. app’s numbers were underwhelming. The dating site had plummeted to just 11,000 downloads.
Thiel started off with Ryann McEnany, the little sister of the previous president’s White House Press Secretary, Kayleigh McEnany. The Thiel conservatives worried about the site attracting trolls or people being linked to their brothers, sisters, or “people they already knew.”
The trolls got even by writing sarcastic reviews, according to The Daily Beast:
‘I’ve found so many perfect women on here, and the best part [is] that they’re all white!’
Another sarcastic review read:
‘I found my current girlfriend on this app, and she is just perfect. We’ve been dating for 1 1/2 years now, but we’ve been related for 18.’
One powerful conservative staffer said that she thought The Right Stuff should have stayed away from Washington, D.C.:
‘I mean, I don’t know anyone on the app. Don’t think it’s going great, especially with a Democrat administration.’
The Right Stuff’s data was gleaned from the analytics firm Sensor Tower. A second firm was a bit more positive with an early download of about 44,000 in October and 17,000 from November to December.
Thiel’s cofounder was a Trump person, John McEntee, and he has been clueless about the crush of “negative reviews and criticism from its target demographic: young conservatives.”
It appears that the app has used an “intense verification process.” That was meant to give its users the feel of “exclusivity and weed out potential trolls. Such an approach has made it nearly impossible to use.”
One reviewer posted how difficult it was to even become accepted on Dec. 19:
‘I downloaded this app more than two months ago, even got sent a package from them to become an ambassador, and STILL have not been accepted onto the app. That’s ridiculous and unacceptable.’
Another young conservative woman wrote that a friend of hers had not yet been accepted. The conservative activist Michael Butler uses an Android phone, but he is still not accepted:
‘I understand that iPhone users are the priority because they’re a larger segment of the population. But he noted that the company was present at Turning Point USA’s most recent winter conference in Arizona in mid-December, where they “ran out of hats and hoodies.”’
Then, there was the Republican woman who blamed the party’s leadership for joining en masse one female:
‘It’s all of Mitch McConnell’s staffers.’
A different user doubted the by-invitation-only business model:
‘How can someone in a heavily liberal area get an invite… Most people around this area wouldn’t download this app, much less send an invite. Rather dumb.’
One conservative woman, a Republican staffer, joked about The Right Stuff:
‘Lol, someone I know who’s a liberal got on it…and [they] made a troll profile. Haven’t heard of anyone using [it].’
Currently, the app rated just 2.5 stars among others in the App Store. The Right Stuff has been deluged with 1,200 reviews. Granted some of the reviewers are liberals dressed up in their conservative clothing. Other reviewers complained about needing to provide access to his “phone contact lists. One wrote:
‘I don’t trust anything that wants to look through my phone and tries to invade MY privacy.’
And then there was the competition. A right-wing dating app kicked off last summer. Cuffed still remained in its “beta testing phase,” though.
If the co-founder of The Right Stuff had done his due diligence, Thiel, would have found a competitor named The Right Stuff already out there. Its founder Dawne Touchings said she would have her attorney contact Thiel about it.
Featured image is a screenshot via YouTube.
Gloria Christie is a political journalist for the liberal online newspaper The Bipartisan Report. Find her here on Facebook. Or at Three White Lions her book written in her own unique style with a twist of humor on Amazon Kindle Vella and the Gloria Christie Three White Lions podcast on Apple, Spotify, Amazon Music, etc. Christie’s Mueller Report Adventures In Bite-Sizes a real-life compelling spy mystery (in progress).
