A dating app just for people who went to private school is launching on Android
- The dating app Toffee, which caters exclusively to the privately educated, is coming to Android in September.
- It is also branching out from the UK to Australia in November, and says it has plans to roll out more in other countries over the next 12 months.
- Toffee has been widely criticised as elitist, but its leadership argues that it simply fulfils a niche.
The dating app Toffee, which was widely criticised as eltist as it connects only those who went to private school, is expanding.
The app launched in the UK on Apple in April, and will be coming to Android in September. A Toffee press release stated that it now has 10,000 monthly active users in the UK.
Toffee is also coming to Australia in November, which offers a big market at 35% of Australians are privately educated, compared to 8% of Brits. It also stated that it plans a wider roll-out to other English-speaking countries over the next 12 months.
Many have criticised the app for what is seen as blatant classism and elitism, although Toffee argues it is simply filling a niche, comparing itself to the way that J-Swipe caters for the Jewish market.
"It's disgustingly elitist," said one of a number of millennials The Independent spoke to last year. "I feel like private school kids have their own closed social circle of private school friends and acquaintances in real life anyway (those who would be the type to use such an app that is) so what would they need an app for?"
It is part of a trend of self-consciously elite dating apps, such as The Inner Circle which limits its usership to "successful, attractive people," and is seen as the European equivalent to the US app The League.
The app itself a waiting list, and it is not yet clear how people are vetted on whether they attended private school. When we looked at the app there was nowhere to input any card details, so the fee which was touted when it launched in April seems yet to appear. Business Insider has contacted Toffee for clarification.