The Billionaire’s Fake Marriage

Chapter 4

“It’s not going to work like this.” Kitty threw her iPad on the table. Frustrated, she was talking over the phone with the marketing head. “What changed in two weeks? We were like the Hercules at the launch. What happened to the figures?”

The marketing head was not able to provide a satisfactory answer to Kitty and so she disconnected the call after giving him a final ultimatum. “It’s your job to get us more members and to ensure they stay there, using our service. So I want you to get on it right away and get more members registered on our servers.”

Janet who was listening to this call was aware of the fact that the numbers of new registrations had significantly dipped since their launch. Where they achieved a max number of 11 members registering with them per minute, now it had gone to 1 member in 8 hours.

Though Janet did not say anything to her, Kitty could see how distressed she was.

“You, please stop worrying. This is just a temporary snag and we will be alright.”

Janet did not reply and it made Kitty more bothered.

“I am telling you, we will be fine.”

“I did not say anything,” Janet cried.

“That was the whole point. You always tell me what you are thinking but these days you are keeping things to yourself.”

“You really wanna know what I am thinking?”

And suddenly Kitty wanted to take her words back. But it was too late.

“I have been thinking that this whole idea was a big mistake, and I should not have even touched it.”

Kitty just stood there without saying a word. Janet was venting her frustration and she did not want to stop her.

“When we launched CookUp, we crossed 500,000 members in just a week. It’s been over a week since the launch and we still don’t have even 100,000 members. Our website and app are getting less and less traffic each day and so I am wondering what went wrong. Did something happened since the launch that is preventing people from joining us, or maybe it was just a marketing hype that got people interested in our idea. Because now I don’t see people coming to us like they did during the launch.”

Janet finally stopped. “So that is what I am thinking! Happy?”

Kitty was actually happy to see that Janet was finally letting it all out.

“Alright, with that out of our way, lets try to figure out what we can do to get this thing back on track.” Kitty said gaining her composure back. She knew that yelling at each other was not going to do any good to the numbers.

Janet was feeling a little better after venting her frustration out but she was also feeling bad for yelling at Kitty. Yet she did not say anything and decided to just let things go.

“We need to know what is making people not join us. All the other dating services are getting more and more members each day, then what is wrong with us?”

“Maybe they don’t like the way things are at High Seas?” Janet suggested. “Maybe they want to see the information about the people they like.”

“No! It’s not that. Even Tinder does not give out much information, but they are swiping it left and right six ways to Sunday. So what is wrong with us?”

After much thinking, none of them were able to put a finger on what could be the real cause. However, they did make a list of features that they think might be preventing users from joining them.

“Alright, I need some rest. I will think about it in the morning.” Kitty said packing the documents up. “You get some rest too and we will continue this in the morning.”

“Take care,” Janet said as Kitty walked out of the apartment.

After Kitty’s departure, Janet finally opened that link she had saved in her reading list. It was a review of High Seas by a reputed website and she did not want to open it in front of Kitty. All alone, Janet decided to finally read it despite Kitty’s stern instructions of not reading any reviews. “We are just over a week young and we should not worry about reviews yet,” were Kitty’s words to her.

But now she had opened the link and it was staring her right in the face.

High Seas: The Dating Service that Needs a Life Boat

Only a handful of events generated worldwide hype this year, and one of them was the global launch of an international dating service High Seas. From the creative mind of Janet Crane, the young African American billionaire whose last success CookUp; another dating app for foodies was sold for 9.8 Million Dollars (which today stands over 15 Million in shares) came another matchmaking service that aimed to bring people from different cultures and lands closer together. However, this latest brainchild of the CookUp founder is now seeming to be a flash in the pan after an explosive launch people are losing interest in the service. Neither the app nor the website is registering more than 5 members each day, and anybody in this business can tell you how horrifying these numbers are for a dating service. Though the marketing campaign of High Seas is still being fleshed out by its creators, it has started to lose its effect on people. The videos and billboards now do not attract as much attention as they did before the launch. Probably because people do not find the service interesting.

Though most of the industry is already calling High Seas a sinking ship, only a handful of analysts are reserving their judgment until the service gets at least a month old. Reviewers are citing many reasons behind the failure of the service but one major feature that has been prominently flogged by the critics and users alike is the privacy of its users. High Seas does not let its users see any information about their persons of interest until they spend some time interacting with each other and doing some activities. This feature, according to many people, has delivered a major blow to the service’s popularity. In today’s age of fast food, people do not like to wait, and High Seas’ forced privacy feature is making things difficult for itself. Maybe this is the way the service was designed, but it’s proving fatal for the business. The majority of users registered as of now on High Seas is above 35 years of age. While most of the internet businesses and apps (especially dating) rely on young users, High Seas attracts seasoned people to its website, which could also create a problem in the long run.

Though it’s still too early to determine the real cause behind the tremendously low turnout for the service, it’s pretty clear that popularity of High Seas before and around its launch was nothing but just a hype, created by its marketing machinery. However it’s still surprising to see that the same marketing team is failing to deliver and the speculations suggest a major change in the management. Whether you like High Seas or not, the following weeks are very crucial for the company’s fate. Any further dip in the numbers would not only take the company down but also the reputation of Janet Crane. Whatever the cause, it’s high time for high seas to come up with a rescue plan.