Pretending to be someone else online is nothing new. For as long as we've been plugged into the world wide web, people have been obscuring their true identities for a variety of purposes; from hacking and scamming to trolling and pranking. But using the internet to try and get close to a section of society who aren't romantically or sexually interested in not just you, but your entire gender, is a decidedly strange pursuit.
This is something that Robyn Exton and Emily Moulder deal with every day. They're part of the three woman team, including front-end developer Vesna Planko, behind Her, a dating app designed to cater for lesbian, bisexual and bi-curious women. CEO Robyn founded Her in 2012 after working for several years at a branding agency, where one of her clients was one of the largest dating businesses. Inspired by the plight of a friend who'd dumped her girlfriend and was depressed at the notion of finding a new partner in a club, Robyn came to the conclusion dating sites in their current form were "pretty shit for women". "Dating is a very male-led space, and tech is a very male-led space. When the two come together, it's not intentional, it's just inherent" she says. "Something we realised very early on, when we were testing the app in private beta, was that women aren't interested in being alerted to the nearest person nearby also using the app. It's just the differences in how men and women behave; for guys it's great because they're happy to take that risk a lot quicker and say 'Fine, let's meet up'. Women just don't ever do it that way."
The app features Pinterest-style image boards to indicate the user's hobbies and interests. Community manager Emily says Her chose a visual-heavy approach to inspire more creative, engaging female-friendly profiles. "On traditional sites, people will always put the same things - going out clubbing, going to the cinema, reading books - if you put a picture of a book you're reading, it's much easier to click instantly whether you'll get along."