My
first contact with Tinder’s swiping mechanics was with the queer
choose-your-own-adventure and resource management game, Reigns. It makes use of
the left and right swiping mechanics popularised for players to make decisions,
answer questions and do combat in the game. Neat little game for S$4 on mobile
and PC.
Anyway,
I knew the existence of Tinder prior to 2016 but never tried my hands at it,
mostly because there was no need to. Certain changes that took place over the
course of the year, however, created an opportunity for me to mess around with
dating apps again. So, while unwillingly stranded in China handling meaningless
bureaucratic paperwork, I downloaded both Tinder and Momo to try my hands on
them.
I
only write for this blog when a topic is inspiring enough for me to do so; and
in the case of Tinder and Momo, it is the world of difference between their
approach in engaging socialisation that warrants it a spot on this blog. Here I
am not simply talking about a difference in function and mechanics – i.e. how
and why these apps are used – but a deeper schism on a philosophical and
existential level. Tinder is easy to access and use, strike a match and light a
fire; while Momo probably has enough timber to burn an entire town down and to
call Momo ‘China’s Tinder’ is kind of a misnomer.
I’ll
explain the metaphor in a bit but I think it will become clear once we look at
the big picture. China gets a bad rep these days for imitating and replicating
both hardware and software products to facilitate the growth of infant industries
and local businesses. This is done via allowing legal violation of copyrights
and trademark laws (heh) and imposing protectionism measures via censorship
laws, under the guise of preventing ‘western’ ideas from disrupting China’s
‘harmonious society’. But the best of the best cultivated under strong
protectionism policies are more than mere tweaks and translated versions of
their overseas counterparts. Through cannibalisation of ideas from multiple
competitors, the local products grow into very different monsters that are
arguably better and more suitable for the local context. When I used Wechat 5
years ago, it was really nothing more than a Line clone (which is still banned
in China now probably because it is the only instant messenger that poses any
threat to Wechat). But, now with bank transfer and wireless payment functions
that can be used for almost any form of online payment, as well as at convenience
stores, on cabs, ubers and buses, Wechat is now the pioneer of the new
wallet-less generation that Apple Pay, Samsung Pay, UOB virtual bank card etc.
are heading towards. Baidu, China’s answer to Google, has their own maps and
news sections like google, and it also does food delivery. And while in China,
I’d recommend Ctrip more than Agoda or Expedia simply because there are more
selections of hotels, and it also tells you the short time rental rates for
rooms, which is somewhat related to our topic today. ;)
And
then there is Momo. This Frankenstein monster of an app fuses inspiration from
Tinder, Line, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Twitch, and whatever livestreaming
app that is popular now. Mo in Chinese alludes to unfamiliarity, but for me
there is neither unfamiliarity towards the app’s functions (because I’ve seen
everything it can do elsewhere just on different platforms), nor does it want
you to remember you are interacting with strangers. To begin the dissection of
Momo we must first disucss the streamlined and low barriers-to-entry approach
to socialisation used by Tinder.
Upon
launching the app for the first time, Tinder requests connection to one’s
Facebook account to verify the authenticity of one’s profile and extract
certain key information like name, age, photographs, interests so that the
other swipers (yes swiping) can decide whether they like you or not. It is a
very simple process to set-up, and it gets you into the matchmaking process
almost immediately. The swiping process is too, idiot-proof that needs no
explanation, despite the app’s insistence to do so once. The philosophy behind
this, is that this is an app created for people who are either not excellent at
socialising, or simply have no time to socialise, in real life. The
barriers-of-entry are set as low as possible for ease of use, and ease of
convincing the busy or shy individual to try it out. And once there is a match,
you start talking. Quite the no nonsense app to me if you ask me. Momo on the
other hand has no Facebook to connect to (because this is China), and this
firstly opens up opportunities for scams and prostitution due to lack of
verification (this also happens on Tinder, but unlike Momo I do not have to
report someone every day, literally every day). The app therefore also demands
a whole list of information that I took an hour to fill in; it isn’t necessary
but the app rewards you with rank points for doing so. If I were a shy person
trying to socialise this is neither user-friendly nor as self-contained and
comforting to use like Tinder. Even if we compare this to apps used primarily
for people to hook up, like Grindr (secondary experience, I don’t use it), it
does not depart from the central philosophy that people need the setting up
process to be as simple and quick as possible, so that there is lesser chance
for one to shy away from using the app. Tinder gets you into the swiping action
within the first minute, Momo does not. In fact, I had to spend time looking
for the swiping feature, tucked away at a random corner in the infinitely more
cluttered interface, and filled with thousands upon thousands of dead accounts
that the app does not filter, unlike Tinder. Finally, I realised this is
because neither the users nor the admins care about the swiping function. The
swipe is not the main point of the app at all. And that is where it gets weird.
A
friend told me that Momo functioned pretty much like Grindr back in the days
except it was mainly for heterosexuals. I assumed the name alluded to ‘hooking
up with strangers’, but it actually makes you do more things than just chatting
with and up strangers around you.
The
app is subdivided into five different tabs, titled ‘Nearby’, ‘Livestream’,
‘Messages’, ‘Contacts’ and ‘Personal’. Messages and contacts are quite
self-explanatory so I won’t be going into details, just note that the messages
tab is where you get most of your scammers because everyone on the app can
message you, and the contacts tab records every action taken by everyone you
follow, every group you are in (we will get to groups in a bit), and everyone
around you.
The
first tab is an amalgamation of Wechat’s nearby and moments functions, together
with features from Facebook, Twitter and Instagram all mashed into one. One can adjust the privacy level of whom to
display the information to, but so far, I’ve not seen many people do that
because it defeats the purpose of using this platform in the first place. One
can view the moments that are being shared on the app from all around China, as
well as look at the profile, photos and actions of the people in your area.
Imagine Facebook and Instagram but everything you post constantly get pushed to
people all around the nation and especially to people near you. So much for
conservative Eastern culture that fears of being corrupted by Western
open-mindedness. That’s not all, the picture of a pretty girl can also just be
an advertisement for petty traders, people selling phones, or a driver; so
there’s a bit of Carousell thrown in for good measure. Hidden at the bottom
right hand corner is a small button named ‘diandian’ (clicking) that functions
like the Tinder swipe feature, which I assume nobody really uses since
everyone’s profile is readily available for you to click on, view, send gifts,
like, follow and message to anyway.
The
second tab gives you livestreams. Here you can listen to good looking boys and
girls playing DJs, doing talk shows, eating food, singing and dancing on screen
(no I am not kidding, I have photos), but mostly just chatting with the
audiences that come to their streams. In these streams, viewers can donate
items to the streamers, virtual roses, cars, tiaras (which is probably the best
one because it actually appears on the head of the streamers and it can be
extremely adorable), so something like what some livestream apps are doing for
viewers to ‘cheer’ on the streamers. My suspicion is that some of these popular
streamers are hired by Momo to encourage purchase of virtual currencies that
are used to then purchase these virtual cheer items, so it works somewhat like
Twitch where the company pays the streamers to host shows on the site, through
revenue generated through cheering, advertisements, and subscription. Streamers
also have a separate rank called the Streamer Rank, which is placed on a
nationwide chart and I assume climbing to a higher rank nets you more bonus; or
perhaps I am wrong and people are just doing for the fame and attention, I will
get to this point at the end.
It is
quite insane what these people would do for these rubbish-talking and off-tune
singing streamers when you do the numbers. I walked into a stream the other day
where this cute girl was just chatting up an old guy via in-stream facetime and
he gave her 10 virtual sports cars which would have costed 1000RMB (about
S$210) while all she did was just smile and pretended to be interested in the
conversation. And the gifts didn’t stop there; every time she asked, more rolls
in. Momo understands that there are some really rich people in China who have
no time to spend their money, and are willing to blow thousands of dollars on a
girl who is willing to entertain them. And it is not like they are asking for
anything more than attention and sense of importance to the streamers in
return, at least not in public at least. Furthermore, buying virtual currency
increases your ‘wealth’ stats, which in turn increases your Momo rank and a
person viewing your profile will know you are rich when you are of a high Momo
rank with your Wealth stats being the highest. A streamer I follow constantly
gets thousands of dollars’ worth of gifts from her hardcore fans just showing
her face for a minute every day; and among these fans there are those who have
donated so much she adds them into a special group to make them feel important.
As far as I know, the person she calls her ‘group manager’ sends at least 10
tiaras her way every time he enters the stream, and immediately after the gifts
he leaves as though that few hundred dollars was nothing. Who knew the ‘spend a
few hundred dollars to make a cute girl smile for a second per day’ was a
viable money making market? We may actually need to export this idea from China
this time.
The
Personal tab has games to play, think Line and Facebook apps that allows
certain level of socialisation and interactivity. This is also where you can
purchase Momo coins, that reminds the user very much of free-to-play games,
where purchase of greater amounts of the currency allows for higher discounts.
If Tinder is like a subscription based RPG where a nominal fee unlocks all the
features, and further payment is only required to get otherwise unimportant
items that will not improve your appeal in anyway. Momo on the other,
constantly remind you that your appeal and attractiveness is very much tied to
how much money you are spending in the app. Not only can you show off your
wealth to other viewers through showering big streamers with gifts, displaying
one’s high Momo rank with high wealth stats, it can also be used as a measure
to grab the attention of a guy or girl that you like via waving wads of cash in
their face.
In addition,
the personal interface tab also allows you to search for groups nearby. Momo
again displays its understanding that most of its users are female-seeking
males by displaying the number and percentage of females in every group before
you choose to join in. There are more functions that allows one to join local
chat groups, and participate in other activities such as hanging out, going to
karaokes, going for a meal etc. I have yet to explore all the functions simply
because there are too many things to do, and frankly speaking, this is quite
scary. What Momo requests from the average user clearly requires more courage
than just swiping faces on an app that does not even coerce you into talking
even if you get a match.
I
hope 2000 words into this piece you can somewhat grasp the philosophical
difference between the two apps that I described earlier. Observing Tinder and
Momo is like watching the artistic vision of the two main characters in
Kaufman’s Synecdoche, New York play out. While Tinder focuses on simplicity to
be shy-proof and idiot-proof, Momo is a platform for already confident and
egoistic persons to further their egos by collecting fans and admirers of their
beauty or wealth. Earlier I said the streamers may just be doing the streams
for themselves, and somehow in our world that is an entirely plausible thing.
We are a generation that grew up being obsessed in customising avatars on
instant messengers and social media, to buying virtual cosmetic items for
online game characters, to show off to our friends and publicly display our
individuality and uniqueness. Those things are real to us because it is part of
a language that can be understood by others of the same generation. Momo is for
the prideful and extroverted, one who is not afraid to display their privacy in
the most public. One who will sing and dance in front of strangers in hope that
they will reciprocate with gifts and praises, because the attention is what
they yearn in joining this app in the first place. One who will click on random
profiles to chat up people in their area, who will actively seek out local
groups and parties to join, like how they will be doing in real life if they
had the time and opportunity. Momo is the modern ballroom, tea party, and even
like a quieter club or bar for people to hit up girls and sometimes do so by
showering them items that can be bought from said bar or club. The introvert
will shy away from Momo which requires them to speak to groups of strangers, to
initiate conversation with someone who do not even know you, and livestreams
are definitely an impossibility to them. Retreating to Tinder, there is at
least that certainty that the person that you are chatting with already saw
your face and are at least interested in you – and of course if you match with
me I’ll initiate the conversation so don’t worry. Tinder is an innovation for
the shy and less sociable, while Momo is simply a change in location for the
already socially capable. Conclusions? I think it is great both exists,
although I find Tinder way more useful for meeting people. Momo is still pretty
scary despite being me decently sociable and having performance experience. I
may try to start a singing stream on it simply because the ones that are on
there are so damn terrible. But seriously, if you think I’m sexist for saying
that I’ll probably get 0 views because I’m not a pretty girl, you need to get
the app downloaded.
I
have no idea how to end this monstrously longer article. Swipe right if you see
me on Tinder I suppose.
