Cerca Dating: For Mutuals

Cerca is a dating app designed to discreetly connect people within their existing social circles, offering a safe, intimate, and “initially anonymous” dating environment. Unlike traditional dating apps that match Users with strangers, Cerca leverages your existing connections to facilitate meaningful relationships with people you already know or have a mutual connection with. Cerca’s anonymity is key - names will only be revealed when you match. All matches drop daily at 8 PM. The idea for Cerca emerged from a conversation with friends about how dating has evolved over the years. Reflecting on stories about many of our parents meeting spontaneously as strangers, it became clear that today's world is different. Factors like the internet and Covid have played a massive role. People are more cautious about meeting strangers. 34% of women are deleting dating apps for safety reasons alone. The average person no longer believes their next significant other will be a random person; they believe it is someone in one of their social circles - a “friend of a friend,” per se. While there will always be the market for the person who wants to meet a random person at a bar, or nonchalantly swipe their way through a dating app, we would argue the market for the exact opposite is growing by the day. Cerca isn’t the typical dating app that focuses on strangers. It targets the exact opposite: mutuals.

The Cerca profile is intentionally discrete and minimalistic, with fewer prompts and pictures, except for one uncommon feature: a list of all mutuals shared. The list of mutuals only adds to the enhanced safety and trust embedded in the Cerca concept in case a female or male wants to ask a friend about a potential Match. Cerca, through its social network, adds a layer of protection, confidence, and social accountability. While likes are anonymous at first, the app leverages mutual connections to hold Users accountable for their behavior. Inappropriate actions or harassment are discouraged by the social repercussions they might face in their wider network.

Secondly, today’s dating apps have a large hookup culture, especially turning off many women. While there will always be an audience for that, Cerca intentionally limits likes to focus on intimacy and quality over quantity. On Cerca, likes and matches hold more value and significance than standard dating apps.

Lastly, and most unique, is Cerca’s initial anonymity approach. For some dating app Users, the act of getting caught Liking a mutual’s profile pushes them away from pursuit. Aside from disabling screenshots to discourage profile sharing, no subscription level on Cerca allows a User to see who liked their profile. Users only get notified that a mutual friend has shown interest in them, creating feelings of curiosity and intrigue. The allure of the unknown is always more enticing than the known. If flowers showed up at one’s doorstep with no name on them, they would be inquiring with their friends, thinking about who it could be all day. Only when Users match will they see who the person is. This low-risk, high-reward approach to Liking profiles is a clear matchmaking facilitator.

Cerca’s approach is the antithesis of typical dating apps. Many dating apps have a filter where Users can even turn off all mutual contacts. This is where Cerca will thrive. As safety becomes paramount, Cerca is an entrance into a nuanced world of dating apps, where the User intentionally opens up their phone looking to bond with someone they can trust, someone they can relate to, someone in one of their circles.

This app uses Apple's standard EULA: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/