FirstMet is Down and Looks to be Closed
Contributed by: Editor on Thursday, September 16 2021 @ 09:19 am
Last modified on Thursday, September 16 2021 @ 11:02 am
We first notice that we could not access the FirstMet website at the beginning of September (the last time we accessed FirstMet was on August 31, 2021). Figuring it was just under maintenance we didn't think to much of it. We then checked again a few days later and it was still down. A quick search online did not find any mention of the problem. The FirstMet dating apps where also still available on the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store to be downloaded and installed.
Fast forward 2 weeks and the website is still down and the apps are no where to be found on the phone app stores. Further searches online did not reveal any additional information. The company which currently owns FirstMet, "The Dating Company LLC", does not have a website so we have no way to reach out to someone to find out any more information.
Since it has been over 2 weeks and everything related to FirstMet is inaccessible the only thing we can deduce is that the service has gone out of business and closed for good. Therefore we will update our FirstMet review indicating its closed status.
For those who are interested here is a little history of FirstMet. It actually launched back in 2007 as AreYouInterested (AYI) by Snap Interactive as a Facebook app. By 2009 they launched the AirYouInterested.com website and it quickly gained popularity. In 2013, parent company Snap Interactive announced their IPO which launched with success. In 2014, AYI became the #1 Top Grossing Application in US Lifestyle category in the Apple iTunes Store. By 2016 the dating service had reached 30 million members, but for some unknown reason it was decided to change the name to FirstMet. In 2017 Snap Interactive was acquired by LiveXLive Media (a livestreaming music company) for around $34 million. At this time Snap Interactive main services was called FirstMet, Paltalk and Camfrog. They had revenues of about $10 million for 2016 and 179,000 subscribers across all platforms. In the next year Snap Interactive changed their name to PeerStream as part of a rebrand and the direction the company was taking which was video streaming (and also a lawsuit by SnapChat). Then on February 4, 2019 PeerStream sold FirstMet to The Dating Company LLC for an undisclosed sum. After this there was not much news to report about the dating service.
The first indication to us of trouble with FirstMet was that their social media pages on Facebook and Twitter have not been updated since late in 2018. Soon after in 2019 it was sold to an unknown company with no press. Since then the dating website and apps received few updates. If you look closely at the quarterly statements of PeerStream you will also notice that their dating platform was mentioned less and less. This was also the rise of the second generation of popular dating apps like Tinder. Since FirstMet saw very little inovation it could not compete and slowly became less and less popular with singles.