Luxy - New Dating App Weeds Out “Poor People”

Are you living a luxurious lifestyle? Do you only want to date other people with money – others in the top 1%? If so, there’s now an app for that.

New dating app Luxy is billing itself as “Tinder, minus the poor people” – or the other 99% of Americans apparently. If you think it’s some kind of joke, it’s not. The company sent out a press release, declaring the need for an income/trust-fund-based dating app with statements like: "With the rise of high-speed digital dating, it's about time somebody introduced a filter to weed out low-income prospects by neighborhood."

Dating apps have become immensely popular since the launch of Tinder, and so there are many developers trying to distinguish their technology not through functionality, but through marketing gimmicks. This seems like a PR stunt, but according to its spokesperson, it was definitely the company’s intention to create a dating space for the wealthy.

There is a hitch, though: people using the app can say they are rich, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s so. Darren Shuster, the company’s spokesperson, said in a recent interview with CNN that while the app doesn't have a salary verification function yet, it has “self-policing capabilities.”

“If you show up in a 20-year-old VW Bug and request to meet at McDonald's, you won't last very long on LUXY," Shuster said. "Look, these members drive the best cars, hang out at the fanciest hotels, live in the biggest houses, wear the best clothes. It doesn't take long to weed out those who belong on a different kind of dating site."

According to Shuster, the app has 3,000 members already and the average male user’s income is $200,000 a year – though they neglected to include the incomes or specific numbers of female users. Among the app's current users are "CEOs, professional athletes, doctors, lawyers, investors, entrepreneurs, beauty queens, fitness models and Hollywood celebrities," according to the company’s media release.

Matches are made according to taste preferences – users select their favorite expensive brands like Prada and Cartier so they can bond with potential dates over their mutual love of the finest products. They also share their favorite hobbies – suitable for rich people, of course – like sailing, golf and horseback riding.

The app is getting a lot of media attention because of its bold no-apologies target market – the wealthiest daters. But will it survive the near-universal criticism it’s getting? It doesn’t seem likely, at least according to Google Play where only about 50 downloads have happened. But iTunes doesn’t reveal the number of downloads for their apps, so perhaps the rich prefer Apple products to Android?