Cafes and restaurants have been closing at 5pm for weeks, but that doesn’t mean there are no more parties. Through the popular mobile app Amigos, thousands of drinks and house parties are organized every week, with the number of guests usually exceeding four, the maximum recommended by the government.
There are more apps and sites for organizing parties, such as the Dutch startup BASH and of course Facebook. Amigos seems to have recently benefited from the ‘network effect’: large user growth leads to more new users. The app has been at the top of the most downloaded social apps lists for weeks. According to founder Johanan Fraanje, there are now 184,000 users; two weeks ago there were 109,000.
According to Fraanje, Amigos is “a kind of Tinder for social activities”: you can search your environment for people with whom you can do all kinds of social things, or organize an activity yourself. “Every week about 20,000 events are organized. Most of these, about 34 percent, are in the category ‘drinks or house party’.” In addition, he says, the app is used by people looking for a sports buddy, or people “who have a niche hobby, such as stargazing or playing the piano.”
‘Urgent advice, not a ban’
Fraanje does not see the fact that almost 7,000 drinks and house parties are organized via his app every week. “We already developed this app before the pandemic, because we noticed that loneliness is a major and growing problem. Not only among the elderly, but increasingly also among young people. And the corona problem has only increased.”
The app was finally launched last summer, when most of the measures were lifted. He doesn’t break the law with his app either, says Fraanje. “Like Facebook and WhatsApp, this is an open platform where users are responsible for what they organize themselves. If users invite more than four guests, they do not violate the law, as it is urgent advice. It’s not up to us to forbid it.” He doesn’t earn money from it, says Fraanje.
With 28 people in the living room
Mitch (25) from Utrecht is giving a house party tonight, in his own living room. Like all other users, he can only be found on the app by his first name. “I’ve been working on it for a month or two now,” he says. “I have a regular group of friends of about ten people and every party I get to know new people. Just like in the pub or at a normal party.” In his living room, 28 people are guests tonight, he says, “and there are also total strangers among them”.
Still, he doesn’t fear chaotic scenes, he says, because he has a way of finding reliable guests. “We always start by inviting women, because they are scarce. And then we supplement that with men, who have enough stars.” In Amigos, each user can rate other people with a star, a sign that that person is worth it. “We invite men to our parties when they have about 15 stars.” So far he has managed to keep unwanted guests out.
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