Tokyo, Japan – Ten months since the official release of Ginkan Inc.’s chat and dating app Festar, the app has seen high successful match rates with 53% of pairs from over 17,000 matches mutually liking each other and choosing to continue to talk after a 10 minute chat. Festar has ditched the dating app standard of picking based on appearances, and is proving just how important mutual interests and meaningful conversation are with thousands of users finding love and friendship through a live 10 minute chat. Festar is now available in 13 countries in English, Korean, and Japanese for both iOS and Android smartphones.

How Festar Works:
Unlike many dating apps that make users search for a partner, Festar starts by automatically connecting people for a 10 minute real time chat. Users are matched based on mutual interests and hobbies, instead of swiping and searching by looks or social status. Users pick “party rooms” to join based on their hobbies and are instantly matched with other users currently online for 10 minutes of real time chatting! At the end of the 10 minute chat, users are then given the option to continue chatting if they mutually like each other.

Interests over Looks:
Over the past ten months, Festar users have been matched over 17,000 times for a 10 minute chat, spending over 2,800 hours chatting with new people. While many online dating services encourage users to pick partners they are attracted to based on physical appearances, this often leaves users struggling to hold any meaningful conversation. Festar helps users connect quickly by matching them automatically based on hobbies and getting them to focus their conversation on what they have in common. Each 10 minute chat is based on a specific hobby or interest and related icebreaker questions are provided to help get the conversation going. As a result, 53% of 10 minute chats in Festar have resulted in users mutually liking each other and choosing to continue talking even after their initial short chat.

Stop Swiping and Start Talking:
Instead of sending out pick up lines and waiting hours for a reply, Festar aims to mimic the focused and fun conversations you would have meeting someone for the first time in real life. The time limit encourages both people being matched to stay engaged and responsive during the conversation, and allows users to get to know each other without distractions. “Our users say that even after just 10 minutes they can feel a real connection and friendship already growing,” says Tomochika Kamiya, president of Ginkan, Inc. “That over 53% of users choose to continue to keep talking after that shows that even in the age of multitasking, nothing beats a committed one-on-one conversation.”

In 2017, Festar hopes to provide users with even better matches by using artificial intelligence to analyze each user’s messaging habits so users can be paired based on their communication tendencies. Festar is aiming for even higher successful matching rates and hopes to help people around the world find meaningful matches, new friends, and maybe even that special someone.

Supported Languages:
* English, Korean, and Japanese

Device Requirements:
* iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch
* Registration: Facebook is required
* iOS 7.1 or later
* Android 4.0 or later
* 40.1 MB

Pricing and Availability:
Festar 1.2.0 is Free (Premium Plan: Men 9.99 USD a month, Women 4.99 USD a month). It is available in Japan, South Korea, India, Indonesia, Singapore, Philippines, Hong Kong, United States, Vietnam, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, through the App Store in the Social Networking category. There is also an Android version available on Google Play. For more information, please contact Laura Symborski.

Festar 1.2.0
Download from iTunes
Screenshot
App Icon

Based in Tokyo, Japan, Ginkan, Inc. is a Japanese startup developing artificial intelligence and services to help people around the world share and enrich their interests and hobbies. Ginkan currently has two apps released for both iOS and Android: 10 minute chat dating app Festar and the smart food app SynchroLife. All Material and Software (C) Copyright 2016 Ginkan, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Apple, the Apple logo, iPhone, iPod and iPad are registered trademarks of Apple Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries. Other trademarks and registered trademarks may be the property of their respective owners.