14 DAY TRIAL // This is every regular person's dream: a celebrity posting their profile on a dating app that ensures you'll have direct access to your idol. Without such an app, your preferred celebrity wouldn't even know you exist, but now, there's even a chance they they'll go on a date with you!
Some of the celebrities that are using Tinder, the phenomenon of dating apps, include Calum Best, Lindsay Lohan, Ordinary Boys frontman Preston Samuel, and Lily Allen. The latter, upon discovering the life-changing app, tweeted to her friends, fans and family, “Just Discovered tinder. waves goodbye to life.”
She certainly isn't the only one that was surprised by the success of Tinder. Lindsay Lohan apparently was shocked to discover during a simple browsing of the site that her brother Michael actually had an active profile posted there.
Lindsay saw this as the perfect opportunity for a little brotherly prod and posted a screenshot of his profile on her Instagram, adding, “Look who I just found on @tinderapp... hey bro.”
But the main issue with such dating sites remains the validity of a celebrity's profile, since anyone can post under the name of Lindsay Lohan. This is no longer going to be an issue on Tinder, as CEO Sean Rad spoke of plans to verify celebrity profiles, much like they are on Twitter, although he did not indicate how this would be achieved.
“We’ve had celebrities reach out to us frequently throughout the last year, sort of calling out various frustrations convincing users that they were actually who they are,” Rad told Time in an interview last week.
He revealed that “One impediment is that sometimes their Facebook accounts, which we pull information from, includes different names than their actual likeness… So [celebrities] were asking for the ability to modify their Tinder name and maybe have a verified badge.”
Though suspicious at first, Rad realized that celebrities too are human, and they inevitably flirt, “It was awesome because it sort of validated our theories that everyone, even people of influence, need help forming relationships. It’s important to us that our users know we are committed to authenticity on every level.”
It's been speculated that the new verification system will probably emulate Twitter's checkmark system, thus making it possible for regular Joes to fight for the interest of their favorite celebrity. It will be very interesting to see how coveted women from showbiz are going to cope with what could be millions upon millions of requests, once their profiles are verified.